DEVELOPMENT OF A POLICY BRIEF ON WOMEN AND YOUTH ENHANCED PARTICIPATION IN THE LABOUR MARKET IN IRAQ

BACKGROUND

Iraq faces significant challenges in unlocking its entrepreneurial potential due to heavy reliance on the oil sector and extensive government involvement in state-owned enterprises, hindering private-sector growth and diversification. This results in a small private sector struggling to compete against cheap imports and limited investments, compounded by a challenging business environment with complex registration processes, inadequate tax systems, and weak contract enforcement. Access to credit, especially for SMEs, is problematic, contributing to a prevalence of informal businesses. High unemployment rates, particularly among women and youth, worsen the situation. Iraq requires comprehensive structural reforms to address these issues, and the International Labour Organization (ILO) can play a vital role in supporting evidence-based policies, strengthening business and finance capacities, promoting formalization, and providing essential support to startups, ultimately aiming to boost job quantity and quality while diversifying the Iraqi economy.

In response to these challenges, the International Labour Organization (ILO), with support from the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS), is implementing a project in Southern Iraq. The project focuses on enhancing private sector development and creating decent jobs, emphasising sustainable green businesses and support for startups. The project operates on three levels: at the macro level, it supports evidence-based policy options for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) through business environment assessments. At the meso level, it builds the capacities of financial institutions to better serve their clients’ needs and provides training to intermediary organizations. At the micro level, it offers training to youth, small business owners, and startups, focusing on business management and financial literacy, while facilitating their access to financial services. The project collaborates with various ministries, employers’ and workers’ organizations, and financial institutions, ultimately benefiting vulnerable workers in Iraq. This initiative aligns with the Iraq Decent Work Country Programme and the government’s Riyada’ initiative for development and employment, with a focus on the green economy, improving MSME capacities, enhancing financial inclusion, and providing essential support to startups. It includes enterprise assessments, identification of constraints in green business development, and training and support for trainers, financial institutions, and businesses.

The ILO had also started in July 2023, an evidence-based gender-sensitive assessment of the enabling environment for sustainable enterprises in Iraq, with the objective of promoting MSME productivity and development, gender equality, and growth of the formal economy in a context of fragility. The framework and methodology draw primarily from the ILO’s Enabling Environment for Sustainable enterprises (EESE) while building on the “Guidance note on how to conduct EESE assessments in fragile contexts” and incorporating dimensions from the “Assessment of the Framework Conditions for Women’s Entrepreneurship Development”. A draft was finalized in August 2024. It provides an overview of the enabling business environment in Iraq, initially based on existing data and surveys which point to priority areas for structural change and diversification.

In line with these efforts, the ILO has organised in July 2024 in collaboration with the Ministry of Planning (MOP), a conference to national MSMEs policy in federal Iraq with wide participation from different ministries, Central Bank of Iraq (CBI), workers and employers organizations, UN Agencies and international agencies, financial institutions, business services providers, and local related NGOs. The objective of this conference was

• Presenting the efforts of the Ministry of Planning, Ministry of Labor, and the Central Bank of Iraq to support micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), including the Central Bank’s recent launch of the national banking loan strategy in May 2024.
• Showcasing the experiences of international organizations in Iraq in supporting MSMEs and green businesses.
• Providing an overview of women’s participation in the Iraqi labor market, with a focus on entrepreneurship.
• Developing practical, actionable recommendations to unify national efforts in MSME development, including creating a national MSME development policy and setting a meeting date for the committee formed to develop this policy.

One of the main conference’s outcomes is developing the national MSMEs development policy. To that end, The ILO needs to hire this consultant to develop a comprehensive MSME policy that aligns with Iraq’s national strategies and international best practices. The consultant’s expertise in policy formulation, stakeholder engagement, and data analysis is crucial for creating an actionable and effective policy. Their experience in Iraq and similar contexts ensures that the policy will address the specific challenges and opportunities of the MSME sector, contributing to economic growth, job creation, and decent work in IraqTop of FormBottom of Form

ASSIGNMENT OBJECTIVES

The objective of this assignment is to develop a comprehensive and well-informed MSME policy for Iraq that aligns with national priorities and international best practices, building on the findings of the EESE reports as well as other documents including research documents, surveys, and policy papers produced by key actors and development partners. The consultant will build upon the existing work done under the EESE report, focusing specifically on aspects related to MSME support and BDS programs. This will involve organizing and facilitating targeted consultative meetings and workshops with key stakeholders, including government bodies, MSMEs, youth workers, employers, workers’ representatives, UN agencies, and other relevant parties, to address any remaining gaps and opportunities. The consultant will then draft, present, and refine the MSME policy through a series of validation processes, ensuring that the final policy is practical and aligned with stakeholder needs. The final deliverables will include the finalized policy document and a PowerPoint presentation for the policy’s official launch.

SCOPE OF WORK

The scope of work to develop the policy might be based on the three following phases:

Phase 1– Setting up steering and technical committees to ensure political and technical buy-in

In close coordination with the ILO team support in setting up steering and technical committee (interministerial and tripartite). The steering committee will help ensuring political and technical buy-in which would have the mandate to oversee to MSME policy design process, (or ideally use existing relevant committee (s) while ensuring the inclusion of social partners). In addition the working group or technical committee will work on the drafting the policy – with the consultants’ support. More precisely, the technical group would be responsible for the organizational process necessary for the development of the MSME policy (communication, consultations, workshops etc) as well as organizing and overseeing the technical work.

Phase 2– Development of a situational analysis and preliminary recommendations.

• The consultant in close coordination with the technical committee and the ILO would be in charge of reviewing existing policy documents and background studies, engaging in further desk literature review, analysing available quantitative data/statistics, national frameworks & policies and evaluations, and undertaking qualitative primary research as well as consultative meetings (including key informant interviews and focus group discussions with stakeholders at national and sub-national levels) aims to develop a comprehensive and evidence-based situational analysis of Iraq’s MSME sector, focusing on country-specific inequalities, structural challenges, and constraints. This will involve a thorough review of Iraq’s existing policies, programs, and plans, including those of development partners, to identify any gaps in implementation and to draw lessons from current and past initiatives. A critical aspect of this work is to engage with key stakeholders to understand their needs and priorities, and to gather their input on potential policy solutions that can achieve substantial impact despite limited resources. Understanding and documentation of tripartite constituents needs and priority areas and their suggested approaches to address them will be key. Additionally, the project will analyze the political and institutional landscape, identifying capacity gaps that need to be addressed to create a robust framework for policy implementation. Furthermore, the project will explore relevant good practices from other countries to incorporate effective strategies into Iraq’s MSME policy, ensuring successful coordination, implementation, and monitoring.
• The consultant in close coordination with the committee will develop a situational analysis that fulfils the above criteria and that clearly builds on the research and consultations’ findings. The situational analysis should feature a clear and coherent rationale as well as an analytical narrative/approach that clearly identifies problems and challenges. On this basis, it will identify what is the strategic path and orientation for short-, medium- and long-term SME development and the main priorities to support the strategic direction.
• At the end of this consultative process, the technical committee with the support of the consultant and ILO project team will organize a priority-setting workshop with national stakeholders. Based on the situation analysis, participants will jointly identify the core problems faced by MSME in Iraq and impeding decent work and reach a consensus on key priorities and governance arrangements for implementation and monitoring. On this basis, the technical committee will submit and present the first element of the future MSME policy (the policy diagnostic, vision, objectives, goals/quantifiable targets and principles) to the Steering Committee for comments and validation.

Phase 3 Drafting of the MSME policy

Based on the findings and comments provided in phase 1, the technical committee with the support of the consultant will develop a fully-fledged policy draft, for formal validation by the Steering committee and subsequent forwarding through to the formal policy adoption process following national policy development requirements/procedures. This phase will involve further consultations and group discussions to identify the comprehensive and coherent set of policy instruments, outcomes and implementation framework, including institutional roles and responsibilities, coordination mechanisms and concrete measures to ensure effective policy implementation and monitoring. Amongst other, the final draft will ( i) define how corruption and illegal charges affect the cost of business operation and define a strategic approach to confront their high costs, (ii) identify a new package of supportive measures to accompany female entrepreneurs in their business operations, (iii) identify an updated reform programme of a priority set of urgent set of measures to improve the business environment, (iv) identify the main areas to expand business investment according to potential for sector growth, (v) identify main policy instruments to confront the high uncertainty and risk faced by entrepreneurs and investment decisions , (vi) a simple, practical and focused mechanism to gather a few and essential data on key business variables to guide SME policy formulation, implementation and fine tuning.

Based on the above, the consultant will lead the following tasks to ensure the development of a well-informed and actionable MSME policy, ultimately resulting in a final document and presentation for official validation and launch, including but not limited to:

1. Desk Review: Rapid Desk Review and Data Analysis

• Conduct a review of existing literature, including national policies, strategies, frameworks, statistics, studies, forecasts, and reports related to MSMEs in Iraq, building on the ILO EESE report and other references, extracting key and validated directions from said report, while focusing on information gaps, especially those related to MSMEs support programmes and detailed data analysis.
• Examine statistics and data sources of economic, business and employment trends, including data on investment and competitive sectors and their potential for domestic value addition, business development and job creation
• Examine recommended policy papers, briefs, and research conducted by the ILO and other international organizations, as well as regional benchmarks for similar policies.
• Identify and document gaps, challenges, and opportunities within the existing MSME framework.

1. Stakeholder Engagement:

• Conduct KIIs with relevant stakeholders including not limited (related ministries, workers and employers’ organizations, CBI, financial institutions, private sector development council, UN Agencies, Business incubators, etc.
• Facilitate a series of consultative meetings and workshops with relevant stakeholders. These stakeholders will include, but are not limited to, government authorities, MSMEs, employers, workers’ representatives, UN agencies, and other key parties.
• Use these consultations to gather insights on major gaps, challenges, opportunities, and to identify the core pillars of the MSME policy. Gather suggestions on how above stakeholders would be involved in the process of development, validation and promulgation, for greater ownership.

1. Drafting the MSME Policy

• Based on the findings from the desk review and stakeholder consultations, propose an annotated outline of the MSME policy and the process by which it is to be developed to strengthen national ownership.
• Draft the initial version of the MSME policy.
• Ensure the draft policy includes not limited strategic goals, policy pillars, action plans, implementation frameworks, and monitoring mechanisms.

1. Validation Workshop:

• Propose a programme for the validation workshop to include presentation and list of constituent agencies that would provide comments on the content and areas of their support.
• Present the draft MSME policy in a validation workshop involving constituents, national stakeholders, and the ILO team.
• Facilitate discussions to gather feedback, comments, and recommendations on the draft policy.

1. Finalization of the Policy

• Incorporate feedback from the validation workshop into the draft policy.
• Together with the relevant agencies, especially the Ministry of Planning, Finalize the MSME policy, ensuring it is actionable, measurable, and aligned with the national development goals.

1. Launch the policy

• Develop a PowerPoint presentation summarizing the key elements of the MSME policy.
• The presentation will be used for the official launching event of the MSME policy.
• Present it in the launching event.

DELIVERABLES

The consultant is expected to submit the following deliverables :

Deliverable (1): Inception Report

• Present the findings from 1. Desk Review and Data Analysis
• Propose possible directions and thrusts of the MSME policy based on findings; this provides the following:
  • background and frame for the ensuing consultations.
  • common understanding of the ToRs and direction of the inquiries by the involved parties by proposing the purpose, detailed scope, suggested pillars, list of stakeholders, tools for data collection (including guide questions), specific deliverables, and detailed work plan.
  • ensure that the lead ministries are involved from the beginning of the policy framing and validate some directions for the consultations

Deliverable (2): Summary Report

• A summary report of 2. Stakeholder Engagement, in particular, the data collected from the KIIs and workshops , including key insights, challenges, and proposed pillars for the MSME policy, and the roadmap for developing the MSMEs development policy.
• Deliverables (1) and (2) may be consolidated into one report eventually as background documentation of the MSME policy.
• Proposed annotated outline of the MSME policy document

Deliverable (3): The first draft of the MSME policy document In Arabic and English

Deliverable (4): Final MSME policy document after a Validation Workshop in Arabic and English

Deliverable (5): PowerPoint Presentation in Arabic and English

SELECTION CRITERIA: Qualifications and Expertise:

The consultant should meet the following qualifications and possess the necessary expertise:

• Master’s degree or higher in Sustainable Development, Business Administration, Economics, Public Policy, or a related field.
• 7-10 years of significant experience in the development and implementation of national policies and strategies, with a focus on the private sector, MSMEs, or related sectors. This includes a proven track record in economic growth, enterprise development, and sustainable business practices.
• Extensive experience working with international organizations, government agencies, and development partners, particularly within Iraq or similar socio-economic contexts. Familiarity with the challenges and opportunities within the Iraqi MSME sector is highly desirable.
• Demonstrated expertise in conducting comprehensive desk reviews, situational analyses, data analysis and other research methodologies, with the ability to synthesize complex data into actionable policy recommendations.
• Proven experience in organizing and facilitating high-level consultative meetings and workshops with diverse stakeholders, including government officials, private sector representatives, and international agencies. Strong skills in consensus-building and collaborative initiatives.
• Strong proficiency in data collection, statistical analysis, and the use of analytical tools for policy development. Experience with economic modeling, impact assessment, and policy simulation techniques is a plus.
• Exceptional ability to produce clear, structured, and actionable reports, policy briefs, and strategic plans, with a knack for communicating complex concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Experience working with the International Labour Organization (ILO) on similar assignments will be considered an added value.
• Proficiency in both Arabic and English

SUPERVISION

The consultant will conduct the assignment under the overall supervision of the PSD-GREEN project manager, with overall supervision from the ILO country coordinator in Iraq and technical backstopping of of the regional enterprise development specialist in collaboration with ACT/EMP and ACTRAV specialists for consultations with employers and workers respectively, as well with the EESE team of the ENTERPRISES department in ILO Geneva .

Technical Proposal

The External Collaborator shall describe in the Technical Proposal how it intends to meet the requirements described in the Terms of Reference.

In preparing the Proposal, the External Collaborator shall review all requirements and will reflect its understanding of and approach to meeting these requirements in the Proposal.

In preparing the Technical Proposal, the Excol shall provide details of the proposed project methodology and implementation and management plan as well as CVs which will deliver the works specified in this TOR.

The External Collaborator may also add any other document and information to demonstrate its technical and professional capacities and competencies to fulfil the requirements as specified in the Terms of Reference

Evaluation Process and Criteria

Proposals will be reviewed and evaluated by an Evaluation Panel, to determine compliance with the requirements specified in the RFP.

A two-stage procedure will be utilized in evaluating the Proposals, with evaluation of each Technical Proposal constituting 70% of the total grade being completed prior to any Financial Offer which constitute 30% of the total grade being opened and compared.

Each Technical Proposal is evaluated on the basis of its responsiveness to the Terms of Reference (TOR).

The technical proposals will be evaluated according to the criteria described below:

1. 20% The proposal should demonstrate thorough compliance with the Terms of Reference (ToR), showcasing a well-structured and feasible implementation plan.
2. 5% Consultant Qualifications include: a relevant educational background in social studies, development studies, economics (at least master’s degree) or related areas.
3. Sound knowledge and proven experience in:
4. 20% the development and implementation of national policies and strategies, with a focus on the private sector, MSMEs, or related sectors.
5. 10% working with government counterparts, social partners, and development organizations. Additionally, consultant should possess strong capabilities in quantitative and qualitative research and the facilitation of high-level workshops, ensuring effective stakeholder engagement and collaboration.
6. 10% Familiarity with Iraq context or similar socio-economic contexts.
7. 5% Excellent analytical, report writing and communication skills in English and Arabic.

During the second stage of the evaluation, the Financial Offers (30% grading) of all Bidders which have attained at least the minimum score during the technical evaluation will be compared.

The process of evaluating the proposals will be based on the percentage combination of Technical and Financial elements.

ILO Weblink:

https://www.ilo.org/resource/vacancy-notice/consultant-support-developing-msmes-development-policy-iraq