Funding Call to support Implementation of Youth Startup Support Program

Deadline: 14-Dec-21

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is kindly request you to submit your Proposal for the services for Support the Implementation of Youth Startup Support Program in Asia-Pacific.

The Regional Youth Project on Leadership, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Youth Co:Lab) is UNDP’s multidimensional and multi-level response to tackle the challenges of young people, including the most marginalized, face today in the Asia-Pacific region. Its main objective is to “establish a common agenda for Asia-Pacific countries to invest and empower youth to accelerate implementation of the Global Goals through social innovation and entrepreneurship”.

Specifically, the project focuses on establishing a network to foster youth-led social entrepreneurship, supporting youth leadership initiatives, and providing implementation support for incubation financial mechanisms to fund youth-led programmes aimed at achieving the SDGs.

Youth Social Innovation Fund is the financing solution that aims to support youth-led social enterprises under the Youth Co:Lab initiative. Co-created by UNDP and Citi Foundation in 2017, Youth Co:Lab is the largest youth-led movement for social entrepreneurship in Asia-Pacific. Building on the existing mechanism of Adaptation Fund – UNDP Innovation Small Grant Aggregator Platform, the GEF Small Grants Programme, and leveraging UNCDF’s expertise on disbursing concessional debt, reimbursable grants, YISF collaborates with partners to de-risk and prepare social enterprises for impact investors and formal financial institutions.

Objectives

The project seeks to support young social entrepreneurs in Asia-Pacific by providing technical and financial assistance. The objectives of proposed activities include:

Bridge the funding gap, especially for early-growth stage entrepreneurs.
Connect social enterprises with potential investors and other opportunities

Scope of Work

The proposed activities will focus on building the capacity of social entrepreneurs. The contractor is also expected to provide financial resources (80,000 Euro, approx. 93,024 USD based on UN conversion rate as of October 2021, including applicable fees and tax) to four selected startups (2 startups in Japan and 2 startups in Singapore) by disbursing the Youth Social Innovation Implementation Support.
The grant and implementation support will be managed by the UNDP BRH Youth unit.
The aim of these activities will ultimately be to expand the impact of social enterprises and enhance the youth social innovation and entrepreneurship agenda in this region.
The contractor is expected to work towards the work plan, to achieve the stated outputs.

Duration

The overall duration of work should be seven months. The assignment is expected to begin on 1 st January 2022 and the final deliverable should be completed by 31 st July 2022, however they will keep UNDP informed of any delays during the process.

Outputs

Output 1
- Prepare a detailed work plan including fund disbursement timeline
- Prepare the Letter of Agreement (LoA) for implementation support disbursement in consultation with UNDP
- Submit the work plan and LoA to UNDP for approval
Output 2
- Disburse implementation support received from UNDP to two selected startups in Japan (20,000 Euro or USD or local currency equivalent for each team)
- Share the bank transfer slip with UNDP
- Showcase and connect startups with investor communities across APAC
Output 3
- Disburse implementation support received from UNDP to two selected startups in Singapore (20,000 Euro or USD or local currency equivalent for each team)
- Share the bank transfer slip with UNDP
- Provide the startup output reports to UNDP

Criteria

Qualifications of the Service Provider
- The Service Provider must describe and explain how and why they are the best entity that can deliver the requirements of UNDP by indicating the following:
  - Profile – describing the nature of business, field of expertise, licenses, certifications, accreditations;
  - Business Licenses – Registration Papers, Tax Payment Certification, etc.
  - Latest Audited Financial Statement – income statement and balance sheet to indicate Its financial stability, liquidity, credit standing, and market reputation, etc. In the case of organizations are exempted from audited statements by the national government, relevant accounts and relevant links to government policies need to be provided;
  - Track Record – list of clients for similar services as those required by UNDP, indicating description of contract scope, contract duration, contract value, contact references;
    - List of similar projects successfully completed within the last 5 years (the list should include: Project Title, Contract amount, Start and end Date, Client/Organization name and contact details who may be contacted for further information/reference check on those contracts);
    - List and value of ongoing Projects with contact details of clients and current completion ratio of each ongoing project;
- Certificates and Accreditation – including Quality Certificates, Patent Registrations, Environmental Sustainability Certificates, etc. (if available)
- Written Self-Declaration that the company is not in the UN Security Council 1267/1989 List, UN Procurement Division List or Other UN Ineligibility List
Proposed Methodology for the Completion of Services
- The Service Provider must describe how it will address/deliver the demands of the RFP; providing a detailed description of the essential performance characteristics, reporting conditions and quality assurance mechanisms that will be put in place, while demonstrating that the proposed methodology will be appropriate to the local conditions and context of the work.
Qualifications of Key Personnel
- If required by the RFP, the Service Provider must provide:
- Names and qualifications of the key personnel that will perform the services indicating who is Team Leader, who are supporting, etc.;
- CVs demonstrating qualifications must be submitted if required by the RFP; and
- Written confirmation from each personnel that they are available for the entire duration of the contract.