Terms of Reference (ToRs) for a short-term Market Assessment Study

Type of expertise

Registered firms with expertise in quantitative and qualitative surveys and private sector development.

Mission

Assessment – Women entrepreneurs/SMEs/start-ups

Component

Component 1

Purpose of the Assignment

Conduct a market assessment of women-led businesses needs and prepare the Terms of Reference for an accelerator programme and the management of a fund

Beneficiaries

Women in businesses

Country

Lebanon

Duration

Three months

I. Overall project description and context

1.1. Description

The EU-funded project EU for Women Empowerment (EU4WE) (referred as “the main project”) is a 36 months projects (October 2019 - October 2022) aiming at promoting full and unconditional equality between men and women in Lebanon.

The specific purpose of EU4WE is to:

1. Reduce gender-based violence through women empowerment

2. Enhance existing institutional mechanisms working towards gender equality.

The following results are foreseen in order to reach the abovementioned purposes:

· Result 1.1: Lebanese women are empowered economically and have better access to finance (component of activities n°1)

· Result 1.2: The legal mechanisms to fight gender-based violence’s are enhanced (component of activities n°2)

· Result 2.1: Strengthening NGEM's and relevant partner’s existing capacities and coordination towards fulfilment of their mandate through the exchange of best practices (component of activities n°3).

This project is implemented and managed by Expertise France (EF). Expertise France is the French public agency for international technical assistance. The agency provides partner countries with knowledge, skills and management expertise in:

· Democratic, economic, and financial governance,

· Stability, international security and peace,

· Sustainable development, climate and agriculture,

· Health and human development.

1.2. Context

The economy of Lebanon is classified as a developing upper-middle income economy. The Lebanese economy is expected to slow down in a situation aggravated by the recent political protests and demonstrations with citizens demanding reforms and the change in the government. The recent protests in Lebanon have paralyzed the country keeping the banks, schools and institutions closed for several weeks. Moody’s Investors has downgraded the three largest banks showing the confidence in the Lebanese economy is declining. Banks have tightened limits on foreign currency withdrawals, one among other unofficial capital controls implemented during last November’s protest. These controls continue causing a dollar liquidity crunch that is having a huge negative impact on local traders. Fitch downgraded sovereign risk by two notches, from B- to CCC.[footnoteRef:1] [footnoteRef:2]The economy, which was already in recession before the demonstrations, with a projected 0.2 percent negative growth, is now forecast to contract to 1 percent of GDP.[footnoteRef:3] Lebanon, which suffers from widespread corruption, has one of the highest debts in the world, standing at USD 86 billion or 150 percent of its GDP.[footnoteRef:4] While already in 2019 many businesses shutdown the trend has only increased in 2020. [footnoteRef:5] [1: Fitch ratings are credit ratings that express risk in relative rank order, which is to say they are ordinal measures of credit risk, where AAA represents the Highest credit quality, BBB represents Good credit quality and CCC, Substantial credit risk. ] [2: The World Bank, Lebanon Economic Monitor, Washington, DC; The World Bank. (http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/349901579899850508/pdf/Lebanon-Economic-Monitor-So-When-Gravity-Beckons-the-Poor-Dont-Fall.pdf)] [3: Ibid. n.2.] [4: Ibid n.2.] [5: https://stepfeed.com/nearly-800-businesses-have-closed-in-lebanon-in-cry-of-desperation-6527]

Gender inequalities in Lebanon are very pronounced, with low political and economic participation of women. Regarding women’s political participation, women received their right to vote in 1952 although no woman has been head of state in Lebanon in a country without voluntary political party quotas. In the IPU index Lebanon ranks 179 among 190 countries with 4.69 percent women parliamentarians in the election of 2018 (6 parliamentarian out of 128 parliamentarians).[footnoteRef:6]Regarding women’s economic participation, Women in Lebanon’s work force are largely limited to wage-employment. Even in the wage employment sector, women are far behind men in terms since women’s labor force participation is around 26 percent, according to World Bank estimates and 29.3 percent according to CAS and ILO estimates (2018-2019). [6: http://archive.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm consulted January 2020]

In Lebanon, access to financial services remains lower for women compared to men. According to International Finance Cooperation (IFC)[footnoteRef:7], the main barrier to increasing the participation of women in business in Lebanon remains access to finance. It affects small- to medium-enterprise (SMEs) in general but it tends to disproportionally affect women-owned businesses. In Lebanon, only 3 percent of bank loans go to female entrepreneurs.[footnoteRef:8] [7: IFC, 2013] [8: IFC, 2019. https://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/news_ext_content/ifc_external_corporate_site/news+and+events/ifc+helps+expand+access+to+finance+for+women+entrepreneurs+in+lebanon (last accessed 7 January 2020).]

In Lebanon, 33 percent of women have a bank account compared to 57 percent of men and only 26 percent have a debit card versus a 44 percent of men.[footnoteRef:9] Due to cultural and legislation variables, women are worst placed when asking for credits due to their lack of collateral.[footnoteRef:10] Only 4 percent of firms have a women as top manager compared to 5 percent in the MENA region and 19 percent worldwide. And only 17 percent of women are self-employed vs a 43 percent of men. [footnoteRef:11] [9: World Bank, 2019. https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/infographic/2019/01/17/infographic-women-in-lebanon. Inheritance laws discriminate women, which impacts negatively their capacity to provide assets that can back up loan requests.] [10: Ibid n.9.] [11: Ibid n.9.]

Self-employment among women is 17 percent, which represents less than half the rate of male entrepreneurship, at 43 percent.[footnoteRef:12] The ration of female to men occupying positions as Legislators, Senior Officials and managers is 0.09.[footnoteRef:13] Only 0.05 percent of firms have female top managers. These rations get worse in lagging regions. [footnoteRef:14]Women entrepreneurs in Lebanon also face a variety of constraints including the ones originating from social norms, family care responsibilities, transportation issues, and access to finance. [12: ibid n.9] [13: Ibid. n.9] [14: Closing the gender gap in labor force participation rates by 25 percent could boost GDP (PPP terms) by 9 percent in Lebanon (ILO, 2018). ]

Lebanon’s Human Development Index (HDI)[footnoteRef:15] value for 2017 is 0.757— which put the country in the high human development category—positioning it at 80 out of 189 countries and territories. The rank is shared with Azerbaijan and the Republic of Macedonia. Between 2005 and 2017, Lebanon’s HDI value increased from 0.732 to 0.757, which represents an increase of 3.4 percent. [15: The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistic composite index of life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators, which are used to rank countries into four tiers of human development]

The 2017 female HDI value for Lebanon is 0.701 in contrast with 0.788 for males, resulting in a GDI value of 0.889, placing it into Group 5. In comparison, GDI values for Jordan and Kuwait are 0.857 and 0.990 respectively.

Lebanon has a Gender Inequality Index[footnoteRef:16] value of 0.381, ranking it 85 out of 160 countries in the 2017 index. In Lebanon, women hold 3.1 percent of parliamentary seats, and 53.0 percent of adult women have reached at least a secondary level of education compared to 55.4 percent of their male counterparts. For every 100,000 live births, 15 women die from pregnancy related causes; and the adolescent birth rate is 11.8 births per 1,000 women of ages 15-19. Female participation in the labour market is 23.2 percent compared to 71.1 for men.[footnoteRef:17]. The World Economic Forum (WEF) elaborates every year the Global Gender Gap Report that measures gender-based gaps in access to resources and opportunities. The country’s gap is the result of four sub-indexes: i) Economic Participation and Opportunity: ii) Educational attainment; iii) Health and survival, and iv) Political empowerment. On educational attainment and health and survival the country has not eliminated the gender gap but it is not far with a score of 0.964 on educational attainment and 0.967 on health and survival. The score on Economic Participation and Opportunity is 0.442 indicating that significant changes have to occur to reach gender equality. The worst result is on Political Empowerment, with a score of 0.024 that result from a small share of women in parliament, ministerial positions, of years with women/male head of state (score 0.000). Women in Lebanon’s work force are largely limited to wage-employment, and even there are far behind men with 26 percent labor participation rate (see Table 2 for different reported data).[footnoteRef:18] [16: It measures the human development costs of gender inequality] [17: http://hdr.undp.org/sites/all/themes/hdr_theme/country-notes/LBN.pdf] [18: WEF, 2018. Global Gender Gap Report, 2020. World Economic Forum. http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2018/data-explorer/?doing_wp_cron=1569430600.7448470592498779296875#economy=LBN(Last retrieved 26 November 2019).]

II. Objectives and results

2.1. Specific objective of the assignment

As described in section 1, the EU4WE works towards enhancing the economic empowerment of Lebanese women. In order to achieve this result, the project will provide technical support to MSMEs and startups women-led and/or women-owned businesses in Lebanon by providing them with the necessary technical and financial support (a grant programme for selected women-led and/or women-owned enterprises) to scale up their business.

Therefore, the objective of the market assessment study is to conduct an assessment of the gaps and needs of women entrepreneurs in order to instruct the design of the future technical assistance and the grant programme that the EU4WE project will deliver in order to support women-led/owned businesses in three regions of Lebanon.

2.2. Expected outputs of the assignment

The following results are expected from the market assessment study:

Output 1: Complete overview of existing mechanisms and programs supporting women-led and/or women-owned business

The selected candidate will undertake a desk review summarizing the ongoing initiatives (national or from international donors) and key past (recently closed) projects and studies related to supporting women-led and/or women-owned business across a wide array of areas, such as (the following list provides examples of topics that may be covered):

· Business management;

· Sector-specific training for women entrepreneurs and women-led and/or women-owned business (e.g. value chain, market intelligence, financial management)[footnoteRef:19]; [19: Value chain refers to the activities a company executes to produce a product or deliver a service. (see https://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/research/dstools/value-chain). Market intelligence refers to all the information relevant to a company's market such as trends, competitors, prices, demand, and customers. It also refers to how it is gathered and use to determine the company’s viability, strategy, market opportunities, etc. ]

Financing (access to loans and grants, existence of specific products for women-led and/or women-owned business)

· Business regulations

· Digital economy

· Market intelligence and public-private sector dialogue;

· Other relevant.

The assessment should also propose different modalities of support (e.g. accelerators, in-house trainings, etc.) and map the key providers.[footnoteRef:20] [20: An initial list of projects has been compiled for the Inception Report of the project and will be shared with the consultant to complete the mapping. ]

Output 2: Identification of the gaps and technical assistance needs of the women-led and/or women-owned business in three regions

Quantitative and qualitative surveys will be the basis to identify the existing gaps. The surveys will be conducted in three regions (Beirut, Byblos-Metn, and Tyr -South). The overview of ongoing projects should pay special attention to projects being implemented in those regions and draw lessons for the design of the EU4WE Fund component.

Output 3: Following the gaps/needs assessment, provide recommendations on: i) Type of sectors and segments that could be supported by the EU4WE project, and ii) Guidance on the type and modalities of the technical support needed (i.e. Training modalities, financing modalities, coaching, and other…).

III. Planed activities

3.

3.1. Methodological note

The selected firm will elaborate a methodological note on the type, number, and sample of women-led and/or women-owned business to be surveyed (and the relevant selection criteria). This note will describe in details, the methodological approach and the work plan to conduct the market assessment. The note will propose different solutions and scenarios to reach out to women-led and/or women-owned businesses taking into account the current situation with regard to the COVID19 epidemic or any other situation that may arise. The methodological note/approach should be approved by the EU4WE project team Leader.

3.2. Desk review

The selected firm will conduct a desk review on on-going support to women-led and women-owned businesses. This assessment will: i) Review existing business development service providers tools, mechanisms and funds available, and ii) Assess the quality, availability and access to: coaching, training, mentoring, networking, information on market intelligence and export markets, business regulations, and access to finance. It will include a mapping of main providers (e.g. financial services, business support services, etc).

This mapping will lead to a set of recommendations in order to define the segment and sectors to be targeted and the “support package” to be provided (capacity building, grant provision and coaching). The desk review will include relevant and recent studies and will highlight the experience of available providers proposing online/virtual services/supports to entrepreneurs.

3.3. Qualitative data collection.

The selected firm is expected to develop protocols and conduct a qualitative data collection.

Data must be collected through consultations to a sample of rural and urban entrepreneurs and through interviews with private companies, regional job placement agencies, key stakeholders and providers in three regions, Byblos-Metn, and Tyr-South. The study will identify women enterprises including best practices (in the three regions)

Data will be collected through on-site meetings, focus groups consultations…etc. In case these methods cannot be used, data should be collected by other means such as telephone interviews and online data collection solutions that could be used in case movements and meetings are restricted within the country as a consequence of the COVID-19 epidemic or any other unforeseen circumstance (political, economic, etc).

While this survey is not meant to be statistically representative, the selection of women-led and/or women-owned business must be approximatively representative of the segments of companies targeted. Therefore, the selected firm will conduct a survey through face-to-face interviews (when possible) with selected respondent (women-led and/or women-owned business). The selection of women-led and/or women-owned business should be drawn from specific sectors (e.g. services, manufacturing, agriculture) and possible sub-sectors (e.g. in finance tourism, hospitality, finance, etc), sizes, and, if possible, period of existence since the business was opened (in order to ensure the maximum level of representativeness). If not possible to access all businesses in the three regions, the replacements should be done according to the selection criteria.

The questionnaires designed to collect data will target the company’s senior manager. If needed, the human resources manager and/ or the accountant (depending on the size of the company) could answer certain modules of the questionnaire. The main body of the questionnaire should be designed to solicit managers/owners information to respond on different aspects of the businesses operations, link to value chains, growth perspectives (considering or not the current political and economic context) and investigate the main bottlenecks for survival, maintenance and growth (e.g. institutional, labour, market access, market intelligence, regulatory, skills, etc.). The questionnaires will also gather information on the willingness, capacities, knowledge and access to digital training/coaching and equipment available (access to internet, what sort of digital tools the SMEs/start-ups know and manage, equipment they use and so on). The questionnaire will also seek information regarding the type of support received from other project’s or donors initiatives and information about the evaluation of the support received. The selected firm is expected to adjust the questionnaire to the local context and will take into account the current economic crisis and the COVID 19 situation. The questionnaire should not take more than 45 minutes to be filled and should be structured in modules to skip questions if needed.

The selected firm should conduct back checks of 20 percent of the conducted surveys. The backchecker will be someone different from the main survey administrator. The selected firm will also be responsible for the training of supervisors and enumerators as well as the development of a questionnaire manual. The selected firm will pilot the questionnaire if needed (to be discussed).

Expertise France’s team will validate the questionnaires as well as the protocols. The project’s team may also participate in some of the trainings and (online) focus groups.

Given the uncertainty resulting from the current COVID-19 situation or any force majeure, the surveys can be implemented via phone (Computer Aided Telephone Interview or CATI) but still using standard survey software that could be used for face-to face (such as SurveyCTO or similar) if the survey is implemented online, an online survey tool should be used .

3.4. Market assessment report

Following the data collection and based on the main findings of the market assessment, the selected firm will draft a complete report analyzing the main challenges and main support for the needs identified. This report should confirm the relevance of the sectors under consideration for the project, such as agriculture/agribusinesses, industry, tourism, knowledge/digital economy, digital financial services (fintech), solid waste management (circular economy), energy, fashion, beauty etc. In case these sectors are found not relevant, the report must provide recommendation on alternative business sectors to be supported by the project.

Finally, the report should provide a mapping of the existing Lebanese actors (service providers, NGOs…) who have the capacity to implement the capacity building programme (training, coaching, accelerator, BDS…) and the management of the grant programme.

The report of maximum 30 pages plus annexes will be in English, with a summary in Arabic (maximum 10-15 pages).

3.5. Developing a concept note for the capacity building and grant programme

Based on the findings of the market assessment and the specific need for support identified, the selected firm will provide a short orientation/recommendation note to serve as guideline for the EU4WE team to draft the terms of reference (ToRs) of the capacity building and grants programme for women-led and/or women-owned business

This note must provide recommendations on at least the scope and modalities of the capacity building programme, modalities of the grant programme (financial envelope to be provided to MSMEs and startups led or owned by women), and the outreach plan to access potential beneficiaries.

The note will be discussed in due time between the EU4WE project’s team and the selected firm.

The note will be in English and Arabic.

3.6. Communicating about the market assessment’s outputs

The selected firm will develop short note explaining the conclusions of the market assessment study and prepare a PowerPoint presentation. It will also organize jointly with the EU4WE project team, a small event (that could be online due to the situation) to make the findings public to the audience, upon clearance by the Expertise France and in line with EU communication requirements.

IV. Deliverables

The main deliverables are (see timeline in section VI):

1. A market assessment report (max. 30 pages plus annexes) providing a detailed analysis (based on evidences from the data collection) of the gaps faced by women owned or women led businesses, their specific support needs and recommending actions and modalities of intervention.

2. Concept note for the capacity building and grant programme (max. 5 pages).

3. A short note explaining the conclusions of the project and a PowerPoint presentation.

4. Organization of a presentation event of the market assessment’s results (in the EU4WE’s office or other venue. The event could also be online).

V. Required qualifications

4.

5.

5.1. For the candidate firm

· At least 7 years’ experience in implementing complex quantitative and qualitative surveys in Lebanon or coordinating this work.

· Registered firm/social enterprise/NGO with legal entity in Lebanon

· Consortiums can apply provided one of the members has physical presence in Lebanon for the last five years.

· At least one project or similar assignment implemented in Mount Lebanon, Tyr and Saida (south) (at least in two of the three selected places)

· Previous experience having implemented similar business surveys in Lebanon is a plus.

· At least 5 years’ experience in private sector and gender issues (women’s economic empowerment).

· Experience and flexibility to work in a challenging environment and experience managing and implementing projects using online platforms and communications.

· At least one previous experience implementing electronic surveys (with tablets) and phone interviews.

· At least one previous with SurveyCTO or similar survey softwares

· Demonstrated capacity to train and monitor teams online (precautionary in light of COVID-19 evolution).

· Knowledge of the business environment in Lebanon.

· In the proposal, the selected firm should propose the staffing for the data collection teams (CVs) and provide information on the technical and managerial capabilities of the firm including the qualifications of key staff available for the project in Lebanon.

5.2. For the expertise

Below is a suggestion for the team composition, but candidates are encouraged to adapt their proposal with their proposed team composition. Moreover, the candidate firm must show evidence (CVs) of staff possessing the required qualifications or demonstrate their capacity to recruit staff with the required qualifications.

Expertise profile: Mid to Senior Experts

Project Manager/Coordinator

The project coordinator will oversee the fieldwork. The responsibilities of the project coordinator are the following: to supervise all activities of supervisors and enumerators; to coordinate the selection of women-led and/or women-owned business and the screening process to ensure that the selected businesses meet the requirements of the study; to assign the selected businesses to be surveyed to supervisors and enumerators; to assist the team to ensure maximum participation and minimize non response; to coordinate with supervisors the quality control of the data collection process; and to ensure that the data entry is carried out efficiently and in an environment that minimizes human error.

· Master’s degree – Statistics, sociology or economy, or equivalent*.

· High familiarity with the business environment of Lebanon and quantitative and qualitative research, as demonstrated by previous experience with such work.

· Demonstrated capacity and experience with large-scale survey management, planning for field operations.

· At least 7 years of experience with data quality assurance mechanisms (field work management, data entry programming, etc.)

· At least one previous experience with survey softwares

· Demonstrated managerial skills, accountability, and responsibility.

· Fluency in Arabic and English

*If the project manager does not have the necessary data analysis/statistic background but complies to the rest of requirements, the proposed team should include a statistician part-time.

Field Enumerators & Supervisors

The responsibility of the enumerator will be: to visit/contact the selected women-led and/or women-owned business and ensure their participation; to conduct interviews with the selected respondents; to accurately record respondents’ answers; to ensure completeness and accuracy of answers; to ensure security and confidentiality of the completed questionnaires; to deliver completed questionnaires to supervisors (submit to server); to respond to other needs related to the field work as assigned from time to time; and to safeguard the confidentiality and privacy of the collected information.

The responsibilities of the supervisors will be: to supervise all activities of their assigned enumerators in his/her region and to monitor their activities during the data collection process (through spot checks and call backs); to assess the quality of the work of the enumerators; to explain clearly to each enumerator his/her duties and responsibilities; to assist enumerators in securing women-led and/or women-owned business participation if necessary; to provide all logistical support and material to enumerators; to provide feedback to enumerators on quality assurance and methodology requirements.

· Completed undergraduate university degree (Bachelor or equivalent).

· Familiarity with quantitative and qualitative research, preferably as demonstrated by previous experience with such work.

· At least 2 years’ experience with survey administration, as demonstrated by previous enumeration work, including field experience and data entry.

· At least 1 year experience with business surveys

· Ability/ previous experience working with tablets/ electronic surveys (at least one experience)

· Demonstrated ability to work independently and as part of a team.

· High degree of knowledge about, and ability to travel freely throughout Lebanon

· Fluency in Arabic and English

· High attention to detail.

· Demonstrated interpersonal skills.

All members of the team must be familiar with online and digital data collection solutions in order to be able to operate despite meetings restrictions due to the COVID19 situation.

Supervisors could also act, as backcheckers if these are not hired separately.

VI. Coordination and Work organization

The selected firm will work closely with the EU4WE project team. Weekly meetings will take place to assess the progress of the project, to contribute to methodological aspects, and to oversee the selected firm on strategic and implementation issues. The EU4WE team will also join the selected firm during the survey implementation phase when relevant and if possible due to the current situation. The EU4WE team is composed of a Team Leader, a project officer and short-term expert economist (for follow-up and quality assurance purposes).

Indicative work calendar:

· Start of the assignment: 1st October 2020

· Draft report: 15 December 2021 with TORs

· Final report: 1st February 2021 with presentation.

· Small event to be organized end of February 2021.

VII. Contractual information

6.

7.

7.1. Duration, location and budget

Location: Lebanon

Type of contract: Service contract

Duration of the contract: 16 weeks from the signature of the service contract.

Start date: As soon as possible given the current health situation. The selected firm´s experts shall be working from their home or office and abiding by the restrictions and directives of the Government of Lebanon on health and safety measures. The selected firm is responsible for arranging all logistical aspects of the mission (i.e. visits to public institutions, business associations… ) in coordination with the EU4WE project’s team

Maximum budget available for the services: 49 500 EUR

7.2. Future use of the data

The completed datasets will be the property of Expertise France. The selected firm/service provider may not use the data for its own research purposes, nor license the data to be used by others, without the expressed written consent of Expertise France. All data and information collected or received for the purposes of this study will be kept strictly confidential and will be used exclusively to execute the assignment. Expertise France solely and exclusively, owns all rights in and to any work created in connection with this assignment, including all data, documents, information, copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets or other proprietary rights in and to the work. The selected firm/service provider is not allowed to post or publish (electronically or in print) any project-related information without the explicit permission of Expertise France.

7.3. Sub-contracting

The selected firm will be responsible for contracting with individual consultants and other vendors/service providers who may be hired to provide services as required, to complete the project-related activities in Lebanon.

Bidders intending to sub-contract to local firms must present the names and references of all the proposed sub-Consultants. Expertise France reserves the right of approving each sub-Consultant. Any change of the sub-Consultants must be approved by the EU4WE project’s team. Bidders are encouraged to include sufficient information on the sub-consultants for the selection committee to decide on their ability to carry out the survey in each region. Bidders must be able to accommodate alternative sub-Consultants whenever Expertise France and the conditions of the country determine it to be necessary.

Annex 1. Tentative content for the Semi-structured interviews

1. Business Background

2. Products, markets, and strategies: overview of key products/services, strategic positioning, markets.

3. Production structure

4. Skills and workforce development:

5. Business environment (local/global): What are the main constraints in the local/national environment (business climate, structural issues, labor force, etc); what could the industry or the government do to address these constraints? How effective is the dialogue with the government? What support is the industry providing (alone or with institutional partners)? What is missing?

6. Digital capacity for Online learning/coaching. Type of equipment, skills etc

7. Analyze impact and lessons learnt from the COVID-19.

12