The Opportunity Salone requests for private sector players to submit business proposals that create jobs for women, youths and persons with disabilities in four districts

Opportunity Salone is an EU-funded project implemented by the International Labour Organization (ILO) that aims to support Sierra Leone in its quest to develop a vibrant and resilient economy delivering Decent Work opportunities to Sierra Leoneans. The project is fully aligned with the government’s vision for national development as expressed in the Medium-Term National Development Plan 2019-23 (MTNDP). It emphasises human capital development, in particular investment in capacity building, and establishment of a diversified, competitive economy with well-developed infrastructure.

Opportunity Salone is financed by the European Union as part of the 11th European Development Fund (EDF). The project aims to contribute to large scale job creation and job quality improvements for women, youth and persons with disabilities mainly in rural areas in Sierra Leone through inclusive value chain development focused on SMEs and cooperatives, and feeder road maintenance to improve access to markets. The project will be implemented in 4 districts (Port Loko, Bombali, Bo and Kenema), over a 48 month period (Oct. 2021 – Oct. 2025) with a budget of 8 million Euros and have three interrelated outcomes:

1. Enhanced, conflict-sensitive, agricultural value chain and entrepreneurship development for SMEs, youth, women and persons with disabilities
2. Improved feeder road maintenance contributing to resolve infrastructure bottlenecks to immediate job creation
3. Improved business environment for entrepreneurship development and feeder road maintenance

A market systems analysis (MSA) conducted for Palm Oil, Vegetables, Cocoa and Cassava value chains in 4 districts identified the underlying causes of market system failure to produce adequate employment opportunities for the target group (women, youths and people with disabilities).

Underlying causes of market system failure

The MSA carried out yielded the following as the major underlying causes of market failure:

• Mismatch and inadequacy of financial services provided to small scale cocoa and palm oil farmers, and palm oil processors along the cocoa and oil palm value chains.
• Small scale palm oil processors are mostly using rudimentary and hazardous processing equipment that do not always comply with food safety and worker protection norms.
• Lack of access to improved quality planting materials (cassava stems/ cuttings) by smallholder cassava farmers limiting productivity and profitability.
• Wastage and poor value addition to cassava due to limited access to good, mechanized processing equipment.
• Lack of access to quality vegetable seeds for smallholder vegetable farmers limiting productivity and profitability.
• Pests and diseases are one of the biggest challenges for smallholder vegetable farmers.
• Wastage and lack of tomatoes and other vegetables during off-season for end-consumers resulting from lack of appropriate storage and processing facilities.

Vision for the four value chains

Following Opportunity Salone Programme interventions, market actors including youths, women and persons with disabilities will have increased incomes and generated extra work through higher productivity, lower production costs, use of more efficient technologies, safer food products and sales of those products on both the domestic and export markets.
Market actors will be provided with the information and skills they need to increase productivity through a variety of sustainable channels: suppliers of inputs, digital voice-based agricultural information, weather and markets platforms that can be accessed through mobile phones, inputs suppliers, buyers, local media and government extension agents. This information will draw on Good Agricultural Practices which MAF will have developed and made available widely, in the target districts and beyond. All entrepreneurship and business management skills will be availed through a network of market-based BDS providers.
All market actors will be able to access financial services to build resilient businesses through a network of digital financial services, conventional banking services, village savings and loan schemes (VSL), supply chain financing by off takers and inputs suppliers and any other innovative financing models which the private sector may have developed during the programme.

Tentative planned Interventions

The project identified the following as possible interventions to address underlying causes of underperformance and exclusion in the four value chains. All are subject to further assessment and initial discussions with market players, and the number of interventions the project will proceed with will be smaller.

• Public private partners (buyers, farmers, extension providers and research institutions) co-create systems that enhance reliable dissemination of knowledge and technologies which in turn positively impact crop yields, improve overall incomes, create more jobs and contribute to sustainable management of forest and other related natural resources.
• TVET skills upgrading and investment in productivity improvement technologies including industry-wide standards.
• Sustainable funding vehicles, lending schemes and relevant financial services for agricultural markets for the four VCs productivity enhancement are availed and delivered. Digital information for value chain actors to enhance linkages, raw materials sourcing and marketing.
• Link financial service providers to palm oil processing cooperatives/ associations to establish and implement risk sharing mechanism for long term adoption and funding of processing equipment.
• Cassava researchers and anchor farmers collaborate to enhance the provision of market-based improved cassava stems to smallholder farmers in a coordinated manner.
• Cassava processors and dealers collaborate and develop mechanized cassava processing equipment that enhance productivity and increase the quality of processed cassava products.

Based on the above, the Opportunity Salone project is inviting private sector players with Innovative Business Models to submit proper business proposals to address any of the above stated issues. The Project is providing opportunities for the companies to co-invest, contribute in creating jobs for women, youth and persons with disabilities and for companies to open up and diversify their supply chains to include smallholder farmers for cost effective and profitable production.

Please address all proposals to [email protected] . Proposals will be reviewed as they are received.

Kindly download template for the business proposal below.