ASSIGNMENT BACKGROUND PROSPECTS Phase 1 Efforts During PROSPECTS Phase 1 (2019–2023), the ILO implemented interventions in Greater Cairo, Alexandria, and Damietta, targeting refugees, asylum-seekers, and vulnerable local populations. Key strategies included expanding socio-economic opportunities, promoting dignified employment, and providing entrepreneurship support. As part of Pillar 2 on employment, the programme utilized the ILO’s Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) training toolkit and piloted a new Digitalize Your Business (DYB) module to enhance entrepreneurs' digital skills, increase market access, and improve management efficiency.  Expanding impact in Phase 2 Building on these efforts and on the information gathered in Phase 1, PROSPECTS ILO is seeking to identify concrete entry points to expand and accelerate impact on the livelihoods of both refugees and Egyptians. In particular, under pillar 2, the programme aims to scale business development services and adopt a systemic approach to foster entrepreneurship ecosystems while continuing to roll out business development services. The focus will be placed on young entrepreneurs—particularly refugees and Egyptians (male and female)—addressing the unique challenges they face in sustaining and growing businesses. Egypt's youth face disproportionately high unemployment rates, with 90 per cent of people unemployed being under the age of 30[1]. Moreover, young entrepreneurs experience elevated business mortality rates due to inexperience, limited access to capital, business development services, and market opportunities. Female and refugee young entrepreneurs encounter additional barriers such as cultural biases, restricted networks, and insufficiently tailored support systems Current entrepreneurship promotion initiatives implemented by development and humanitarian actors in Egypt, often target specific and isolated parts of the entrepreneurship ecosystem (e.g access to finance or vocational training) and looked at generalized entrepreneurs’ needs, neglecting the interdependent components of an inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem that works differently for different segments of entrepreneurs. The ILO proposes using its Inclusive Entrepreneurship Ecosystems approach to analyse the dynamic but exclusionary entrepreneurship environment in Greater Cairo, where most of the young entrepreneurs (refugees and Egyptians) currently operate. This includes mapping key stakeholders, identifying gaps, and designing interventions for PROSPECTS to enhance young entrepreneurs' ability to sustain and grow businesses. As such, the ILO is seeking for a local consultancy firm with solid knowledge and network in the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Greater Cairo to support the research and to help identify actionable and feasible interventions.  These terms of reference details out the activities, tasks and objectives related to the delivery of this assignment.               ASSIGNMENT OBJECTIVES & DELIVERABLES ASSIGNMENT’S OBJECTIVES The national consultancy firm will support the ILO team in conducting an action-oriented mapping of the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem in Greater Cairo through the specific lens of the needs, challenges and opportunities of young Egyptians and young Refugees (female and male) that seek to start and or sustain a new or existing business. The mapping will include: Preliminary desk review on previous analysis and available data on young entrepreneurs’ challenges and opportunities in the target area Socio-economic profiling and need assessment of young entrepreneurs in Greater Cairo, including growth-oriented enterprises Inclusive Entrepreneurship Ecosystem overview and analysis of selected pillars based on first hand data collected in Greater Cairo Mapping and profiling (including “will-skills”) of potential entrepreneurship ecosystem partners Development of concrete and feasible areas of intervention for PROSPECTS to collaborate with local actors in the ecosystem to improve and accelerate sustainable and high-growth entrepreneurship among young refugees and young Egyptians in Greater Cairo. To achieve the above-mentioned objectives, the consultancy firm and the ILO team will apply the ILO’s Inclusive Entrepreneurship Ecosystems methodology and systemic approaches to conduct the research and develop a set of actionable interventions and potential partnerships. ACTIVITIES and deliverables Step 1: preparations and preliminary data Kick-off: The consultancy firm will participate in a kick-off call with the ILO research team, which will include onboarding training on the ILO Inclusive Entrepreneurship Ecosystem methodology. The timeline for the assignment will be defined and the terms of collaboration between the national consultancy firm and the ILO team in carrying out the research will be clarified (see also section IV. Management and Supervision). Preliminary desk review on existing evidence and initiatives: The consultancy firm should conduct a desk review with a few strategic interviews to gather existing analysis and evidence on the challenges, needs and opportunities of supporting young entrepreneurs (refugees and Egyptians, male and female) in Greater Cairo.  The mapping will include an overview of ongoing initiatives on this subject promoted by government, humanitarian and development actors. This desk review and key strategic interviews will help to provide preliminary insights on the existing evidence and data gaps to avoid any duplication during the analysis phase as well as in the identification of feasible interventions for PROPSPECTS.  Socio-economic profiling and need assessment of young entrepreneurs in Greater Cairo: Based on the preliminary mapping, desk review and key informant interviews and survey, the consultancy firm will be able to draw an up-to-date profile of the specific segment of young entrepreneurs (refugees and Egyptians, males and females) in Greater Cairo. This initial assessment will give an overview of age, gender, educational background, capacities, skills, professional experience, sector of engagement, type of business, previous experience, legal status, current income-generating activities, financial services access and usage, financial literacy level as well as key challenges and constraint that they face in creating and growing their businesses. Preliminary Ecosystem mapping: Based on a desk review of available data and information, including previous ecosystem mapping exercises, combined with few interviews with key informants, the initial ecosystem mapping should identify key actors, services, challenges and opportunities under each ecosystem pillar (Policy, Culture, Human Resources, Finance, Support Services, and Markets, see image 1 below) as well as an analysis of two cross-cutting dimensions: 1. How well or poorly are the pillars and theoretical frameworks tailored to meet the unique needs and constraints of young entrepreneurs, including refugees and Egyptians, both male and female? and 2.  To what extent the pillars are helping put young entrepreneurs and their micro businesses on a pathway to growth and Decent Work creation. In addition to mapping the services and actors available under each ecosystem components, the mapping should also provide insight into the coherence (or lack of) of the entrepreneurship ecosystem as a whole, i.e. identify communication flows and partnerships between the individual ecosystem components as well as shortcomings such as parallel systems or absent communication. Image 1: The ILO’s Inclusive Entrepreneurship Framework     Deliverables Step 1: Three (3) power point documents and presentations to deliver the preliminary results of the desk review, the socio-economic profiling and the preliminary ecosystem mapping during three working sessions with the ILO research team. Short draft report in English of maximum 20 pages detailing the results of the three preliminary researches Step 2: Prioritization and further analysis Based on the preliminary evidence and existing data on the target group, their needs and constraints and the overall performance of the entrepreneurship ecosystem of Greater Cairo, the national consultancy firm will help the ILO research team to move to the next step of the process, including: Prioritize 2-3 high potential pillars for further analysis and action: as part of a joint work session and based on preliminary results, the ILO research team will prioritize 2 to 3 pillars that presents high relevance, opportunity and feasibility for action in the framework of the PROSPECTS programme. The consultancy firm will contribute to the session through a presentation with concrete recommendations for pillar’s selection and with insider’s insights on specific research questions, actors, challenges and opportunities to be further researched in the next stage of the research. Organize and accompany fieldwork for the analysis of the prioritized pillars: based on the results of the prioritization with the ILO team, the consultancy firm will identify key stakeholders to be interviewed during an in-depth fieldwork to further analyse and unpack the 2-3 selected pillars. The objective is to collect first hand data on how these pillars works, how they influence positively and negatively young entrepreneurs’ ability to start and sustain their business and why. The analysis will provide in-depth information on the underlying constrains, emerging opportunities, structuring rules and key ecosystem actors that govern these pillars in Greater Cairo. The consultancy firm will organize the schedule of semi-structured interviews for approximately a one-week fieldwork that will be include one staff from the ILO HQ, the national consultancy firm and a staff member from the ILO PROSPECTS team. During this fieldwork, the consultancy firm will mobilize his/her insider’s knowledge to help the ILO team in making sense of the data collected, identify gaps, opportunities or additional actors and organizations to be interviewed. The results of the fieldwork will be discussed jointly with the ILO team as part of at least one brainstorming session after the fieldwork. Deliverable Step 2: PowerPoint document and presentation to share recommendations for the selection of 2-3 pillars the results and for specific topics and actors to be further researched in the next stage of the analysis. Interview schedule for fieldwork on the 2-3 selected pillars, which includes the stakeholder names and contact information 1 working session with the ILO team to unpack the results of the fieldwork  Step 3: Development of areas of intervention and partners’ profiling Contribute to the drafting and review of the research report: while the ILO team will lead the drafting of the research report, the consultancy firm should be able to contribute to the drafting by providing strategic inputs and review based on the fieldwork and by sourcing any additional documentation or complementary data needed. In case of need, the consultancy firm should be able to organize up to 5 complementary interviews to fill any information gap identified by the ILO team. Advise on intervention design: the final research report will include a section providing concrete recommendations on strategic interventions that project could implement to reinforce the inclusivity and performance of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Greater Cairo, specifically for young entrepreneurs. Far from being a general recommendations chapter, this section will provide action-oriented models of interventions in the selected pillars including proposals of concrete partnership models with high-potential ecosystem actors based on their skills and incentives to improve the ecosystem (see following activity).   Support profiling of potential partners: the final report and the intervention section will include a practical and up-to-date profiling and/or inventory of potential actors to which PROSPECTS could partner with to implement the intervention areas identified in the research. The consultancy firm will play an active role in developing a profiling of potential partners based on the ILO “Will/Skills” framework[2]. This will include a short annex with contact information (including focal point to be contacted) for each of the partners identified. This work may require up to 5 follow up interviews with the suggested partners to complete any missing information.  Support the facilitation of the validation workshop: the preliminary version of the research report, including the intervention section, will be presented by the ILO team and the consultancy firm during a validation workshop with PROSPECTS partners and key stakeholders. The consultancy firm will contribute to the presentations and will support any facilitation of activities and discussion during the workshop.  Deliverable Step 3: Written inputs and technical review of the research report (including intervention section) drafted by the ILO team In case of information gaps during the drafting process, support with sourcing of additional documentation and data and up to 10 complementary interviews. Written inputs on the will/skills profiling of potential partners and drafting of short annex with contact information At least 1 brainstorming session with the ILO team partners on intervention design Support presentations and facilitation of the validation workshop   [1] « Employment for Youth in Egypt (EYE): Working Together in Qalyoubia and Menoufia”, ILO. [2] This framework is explained in chapter 4 of the “Value Chain Development for Decent Work” guide and on page 15 of the “Designing and implementing market-led interventions in forced displacement settings”.