Foreign economic-aid-related services

Tender description

Invest Salone will help Sierra Leone to realise the benefits of international trade by unlocking growth in export sectors – agriculture, tourism, fisheries and manufacturing. This will be achieved by: 1) Business environment reform, reducing the cost of doing business and the risk of foreign direct investment and 2) Market development, using a spectrum of tools including brokering links between producers and buyers and technical assistance to develop innovative business models that benefit the poor. Sierra Leone is one of the poorest countries in Africa. Only 10 % of people are engaged in formal employment while the majority remain reliant on subsistence agriculture. A small tax base (10 % of GDP, half the African average) means heavy reliance on International Aid to provide basic services to its citizens. Higher government revenues are needed and this requires a thriving, job-creating private sector. Developing the Private Sector will help create more jobs, make Sierra Leone more competitive in global markets and increase taxation revenues, enabling a more effective response to humanitarian emergencies and reducing reliance on UK support in future. Invest Salone will be DFID Sierra Leone’s flagship private sector development programme. By helping unlock growth in export sectors the programme will help Sierra Leone realise the benefits of international trade raising the incomes of 370 000 people by 2025. This will be achieved by: 1) Business environment reform, reducing the cost of doing business and the risk of foreign direct investment and 2) Market development, using a spectrum of tools including brokering links between producers and buyers and technical assistance to develop innovative business models that benefit the poor. Invest Salone’s intended impact is that: 370 000 people will have higher incomes or new jobs due to increased private investment in Sierra Leone’s non-extractive tradable sector. The intended outcome is that firms are better able to trade, compete and grow due to a fairer business environment and more efficient market systems. The supplier will deliver two high-level outputs: Output 1: business environment reform. Invest Salone will reduce the risk of doing business, levelling the playing field for all firms. Invest Salone will identify institutions with the political will and capacity to tackle the barriers holding back firms, and support them to reform and simplify their processes. Invest Salone will equip firms with the knowledge and tools to follow these processes effectively and hold institutions to account where needed. Output 2: market system development. In line with DFID’s Economic Development Strategy, Invest Salone will mobilise the capabilities and resources of the private sector to achieve development outcomes. Invest Salone will use a market system development approach, building on DFID’s extensive experience using this methodology in Sierra Leone and other countries including Nigeria, Uganda and Malawi. Invest Salone will use a spectrum of tools to develop markets, underpinned by strict adherence to DFID’s Policy on Subsidy to the Private Sector.