Deadline: 16-Feb-22
Application are now open for the Challenge Fund for Youth Employment (CFYE) that aims to create a prosperous future for young women and men in the Middle East, North Africa, Sahel & West Africa and Horn of Africa by supporting youth employment initiatives in these regions.
CFYE provides financial and technical support to primarily private sector enterprises that work in collaboration with other development and local organisations. The financial support is in form of co-investment in the initiatives, which can be up to 50% of the total investment needed to deliver the initiative.
The Challenge
- Senegal’s job creation challenge is in many ways typical of the Sub-Saharan African region. It has a very young population, with over 80% under 35. The median age is 19.
- According to official figures, the unemployment rate is estimated at 16.9%. The unemployment rate for youth under 35 is even higher. This rate rose sharply from 12.2% in 2011 to 20.6% in 2016.
- While youth unemployment is lower in rural areas, a large part of the employed youth is underemployed due to the precariousness of the agricultural sector, which is dominated by informality and seasonality, and the lack of formal jobs in other sectors.
Call for Solutions
- Based on the scoping study conducted from September to December 2021, this first call for solutions in Senegal is sector-agnostic, and proposals from all sectors will be considered. However, they specifically invite proposals covering the following sub-sectors based on their perceived high opportunities for the youth: Horticulture, food and beverage processing (agro-industry), ICT/digital services, construction, transport & logistics, and tourism. The main issue is not the sector, but the kind of jobs created, the quality of those jobs, and whether they are attractive to youth.
- CFYE wants to co-invest in innovative private sector-led initiatives that enable businesses to create, match, or improve youth employment. All projects should result in decent employment for at least 250 young people (aged 18 to 35), especially young women.
- CFYE will work through private sector firms in high potential sectors, implementing sustainable solutions for the creation of jobs for women and youth, and embedding decency of work, aspirations of the youth, empowerment of women, sensitivity to gender and other inclusion requirements, and compliance with the labor laws of Senegal.
Outcomes
- Matching Jobs
- Creating Jobs
- Improving Jobs
What are looking for?
CFYE takes a holistic approach to assessing the concept notes and business cases received. They evaluate the proposals based on a detailed criteria that considers the technical design, delivery feasibility and associated commercial proposal. Key elements of evaluation and selection criteria are given below:
- Additionality: Will your project be able to reach the same goals, within the same timeframe and with the same quality without CFYE’s funding?
- Business Model: Can your idea demonstrate commercial viability in a competitive market environment, to create the highest value of returns to its stakeholders?
- Targets & Impact: Are you proposing ambitious and realistic job targets which are clearly aligned with CFYE employment outcomes?
- Scope & Pathways to Employment: Is your project able to layout a defensible and logical theory of change addressing the key challenges identified and leads to employment outcomes?
- Social Impact Aspects: To what extent do you understand and center your initiative around the true needs, challenges and aspirations of the young women and men you intend to work with?
- Sustainability, Scale & Resilience: Is your project likely to create scalable positive impact beyond CFYE’s contribution?
- Value for Money: Are you proposing reasonable and justifiable cost drivers and cost per job?
- Leverage: To what extent are Third Party Contributions exhibiting credible value addition to the proposed project delivery?
Eligibility Criteria
- CFYE takes a tailored approach to identifying the entities that have the highest potential to address the youth employment challenges in each country.
- Each country and challenge call defines a specific eligibility criteria, that is accessible on website.
- Proposed initiatives and solutions to employment challenges should ideally be led by private sector entities.
- These entities can form a consortium of two or more organisation with other local and international organisations considered critical to delivering the initiative.
- All concept notes and business cases will be assessed based on an objective criteria with a clear preference for those entities and consortia that have the ability to deliver sustainable, business-model driven solutions.
For more information, visit https://fundforyouthemployment.nl/call-for-solutions-senegal/