Business and management consultancy and related services

Tender description

Algeria faces the major challenge of having to reduce a high unemployment rate, especially among young people. The Algerian government has set the objective of advancing the process of reforming economic policies to allow sustainable and large-scale growth. Very Small Enterprises (VSEs) and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that represent 99 % of Algerian companies, mostly micro-enterprises with less than 10 employees, play a key role. They unsatisfactorily use their resources, are rarely able to conquer new national or international markets and are not very innovative. This leads to low competitiveness and a high mortality rate. The expected result of the project ‘Innovation and Development for SME’ (InnoDev) is the improvement of public and private support services for a green and large-scale increase in the competitiveness of Algerian SMEs. Increased competitiveness is the essential condition for job-creating growth, diversification of the Algerian private sector and a transformation towards an economic model less dependent on fossil fuels. InnoDev is funded by BMZ, implemented by GIZ with the Ministry of Industry (MI) of Algeria for a period of three years (10/2019-31 December 2022) and includes four fields of activity: green economy/resource efficiency, conquering new markets, management of innovation (green) and digitisation, reduction of company mortality. This consultation concerns the field of activity ‘green economy/resource efficiency’. For its implementation, the project seeks support by a consulting firm working in this special technical field. The target companies in Algeria are industrial VSEs (less than 10 employees) and SMEs (10 to 250 employees). They are characterised by a manufacturing process and belong for example to the following sectors: packaging manufacturing, plastics manufacturing, mechanics, beverages, pharmacy, etc. They have in common the consumption of a lot of water, energy, raw materials (e.g. beverage sector) and/or produce waste (e.g. packaging) that have a significant environmental impact. The component ‘green economy/resource efficiency’ of the project InnoDev aims to increase their resource efficiency. This includes more efficient use of inputs (e.g energy, water, raw materials) as well as more efficient use of outputs (e.g such as heat that results from production processes). Thus VSEs/SMEs will be able to lower their variable production costs with positive effects on competitiveness (both on international and national markets) and on the environment. In order to guarantee the sustainability and the scaling-up of the project, the contractor will first train a pool of experts and trainers of trainers. Successful approaches will be transferred through vertical and horizontal scaling-up strategies. Secondly, the contractor will train the staff of VSEs/SMEs, mainly in production and quality departments in the rationalisation of resources and will support the implementation of audits. Thirdly, the contractor will also support the development of private and public expertise in resource rationalisation and train state as well as private institutions, such as professional associations. The contractor will deliver the activities between April 2021 and October 2022.