Term of Reference (ToR)

To Conduct Youth Entrepreneurship Research in Liberia

1. Introduction / Background:

Youth in Liberia makes up 74.6% of the Liberian population according to the National Census of 2022[1]. Although reliable and consistent employment statistics are scarce, the 2022 National Census revealed that 26.4 percent of Liberians aged 15 years or older were engaged in economic activity, as permitted by the Labour Law. Economic participation appears concentrated in four counties, with one-third of the working population located in Montserrado County. Bong, Lofa, and Nimba counties collectively account for another third of economic activity participation.

Entrepreneurship drives employment growth in Liberia, primarily led by the private sector. Small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) serve as vital entry points into the labor market for youth and other marginalized groups. However, the private sector faces significant challenges. Many Liberian SMEs struggle to maximize revenues, profits, or effectively bring innovations to market. Various factors contribute to these constraints, including risk-averse capital markets, prohibitively high capital costs, inadequate internal controls, and a lack of essential business expertise. In one survey, seventy percent of Liberian SMEs cite lack of access to credit as a critical barrier to business expansion. Moreover, rudimentary business systems and structures hinder overall business growth.

As part of our efforts to deepen youth programming and build evidence and to support ongoing youth projects particularly in entrepreneurship and employment creation, Catholic Relief Services (CDC) Liberia has acquired funding to conduct research around youth entrepreneurship in Liberia. Findings from the research are expected to inform and guide the design and/or implementation of existing and future youth programs in Liberia.

1. Purpose:

This term of reference serves to engage the service of an experienced consultancy firm or individual research consultant to conduct research to understand successes and challenges related to youth entrepreneurship in Liberia. The research will assess key drivers of youth entrepreneurship’ success as well as factors impeding the growth of youth entrepreneurs in Liberia. Such factors/drivers could be either external or internal to the businesses, relating to access to finance, access to market, lack of business management skills, marketing, product/service development etc. The research will assess current and past youth entrepreneurship interventions in Liberia, documenting interventions strategies, success and failure factors. The outcome of this research will help inform the roadmap for CRS youth programming in Liberia.

Table 1: Summary of Research Techniques and Methods

III. Key Activities

• Inception meeting with CRS team.
• Conduct desk review of existing projects and data on Youth Entrepreneurship in Liberia.
• Design adoptive entrepreneurship research tools, questionnaire, etc in participatory manner including the participation of CRS staff and consideration for the research questions.
• Conduct meeting with CRS staff to identify gaps and finalize research tools.
• Train CRS’ youth enumerators to support data collection exercise.
• Pilot test data collection tools with selected sample.
• Conduct Entrepreneurship research (data collection, entry and analysis)
• Compile, present findings and validate report.
• Finalize Research Report.

1. Key Outputs/Deliverables

• Desk Review Report
• Design/adopt Research Tools
• Data set/collection
• Research Report (analyzed report)
• Presentation of results during validation workshop
• Work with communities and entrepreneurs to field test, optimize, and institutionalize approaches and tools.

1. Timeframe

The entire process of designing, conducting the research, submitting the final report and co-facilitating validation workshop will last for 8 weeks (actual timeline will be discussed and finalized along with CRS team).

1. Methodology and Sampling

This is a mixed method study involving qualitative and quantitative approaches. The study will be conducted in Montserrado county: Administrative Districts (Commonwealth, Bushrod and Somalia), Communities (New Kru Town, West Point, ELWA, Parker Paint, Caldwell New Georgia); Bong county: Administrative Districts (Kpaai, Suakoko, Salala, Boinsen Admin, Yellequelleh), Communities ( Totota, Palala, SKT, Gbarnga, Gbartala); and Nimba County: Administrative District (Sanniquellie Mahr, Saclepea and Gbehley-Geh), Communities (Ganta, Sanniquellie, Saclepea).

VII. Sampling Size and Sampling Technique

A multistage sampling approach will be adopted comprising purposeful (KII, FDGs, etc) and simple random sampling techniques (in the selection of study communities, individual businesses and institutions survey, etc) at the various levels of the study. A representative sample size should be estimated at 95% confidence intervals and 5% margin of error. The purposive sampling approach will be considered at first level to include different variables (such as geography/settlements, type of entrepreneurship activities, etc) and once those criteria are defined and met, the simple random sampling methodology will be used to select the specific businesses and institutions.

VIII. Stakeholders Involvement

The key stakeholders are youth entrepreneurs (young men, women, PWDs (age 15 – 29 years), International Non-governmental Organizations, Civil Society Organizations, International Organizations, local and national Government authorities, Business Associations, and Entrepreneur Groups.

1. Key Working Relationships

Internal: MEAL Technical Associate, Peacebuilding Manager / Officer, Business Development Specialist, Livelihood Program Manager, Head of Programming, CRS Global Youth Team.

1. Proposed Budget Breakdown

The consulting firm or individual consultant will provide an estimated, realistic and itemized budget to produce the expected outputs. The payment will be made in trenches based on key deliverables.

XI. Requirements

For Individual

• Master’s degree in Social Sciences, Economics, Entrepreneurship, Business Administration. A PhD holder will be highly considered.
• Previous experience in conducting similar research and serving as research team leader in Liberia. References must be provided.
• Basic training and senior level experience in conducting research using qualitative and quantitative research methods.
• Experience in designing various research protocols in youth livelihoods and entrepreneurship development.
• Excellent communication and good report writing skills and ability to write very well in English.
• Knowledge and experience in using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software for data analysis, and data collection tools such as Commcare.
• Ability to deliver expected outputs on time.

For Consultancy Firm

• At least two lead researchers with Master’s degree in Social Sciences, Economics, Entrepreneurship, Business Administration or at least ten years of relevant experience including serving as lead researcher on a youth entrepreneurship research project.
• Knowledge and experience in using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software for data analysis.
• Ability to use data collection tools such as Commcare for data collection and analysis and Power BI for data visualization.
• Ability to deliver expected outputs on time.
• Registered firm with at least five years of operation in Liberia
• Possess experience in implementing at least three similar research projects for other INGOs in Liberia. References must be provided.
• Possess valid business registration and tax clearance.

XII. Application Submission Procedure

Interested individuals or consultancy firms are required to submit the following documentations:

• Technical and financial proposals with focus on addressing the assignment’s purpose and objectives, methodology to be used, key selection criteria, sample size from the study population and targeted age groups and draft data collection tools and interview guides.
• Initial work plan based on methodology outlined.
• Company or individual profile or CV including a minimum of 3 references from previous INGOs.
• Detailed budget breakdown.
• Business registration and tax clearance for company.
• Report on similar research work conducted in the past.

The deadline for submission of both technical and financial proposals is 1st, June 2024. Proposals should be submitted to liberiaprocurement@crs.org with subject: FY2424 Please note that application will be reviewed on a rolling basis.