1.0 About the Investing in Women Program – Investing in Women Benin and Burkina Faso

The Investing in Women in Benin and Burkina Faso (IIW-B&BF) is a six-year gender transformation and economic inclusion programme implemented by AECF with funding from Global Affairs Canada. The programme aims to economically empower women as entrepreneurs in sectors of activity with a high positive impact on the climate in the fields of technological innovation, digital technology, agriculture, production, processing, crafts and trade to remove the obstacles preventing them from contributing to the development of their activities.

The programme aims to improve the participation and economic resilience of women entrepreneurs in a greener economy in Benin and Burkina Faso. These include access to finance for women-owned SMEs, women’s cooperatives, and emerging women entrepreneurs; improving the capacity of women owners and managers of SMEs and women’s cooperatives to sustainably develop the value chains in which they primarily work, using climate-smart approaches; and overcoming entrenched social and cultural resistance to women’s empowerment at national, sectoral and community levels.

2.0 About the assignment

This assignment is intended to support the delivery of practical, demand-driven support to women entrepreneurs operating in the informal sector in Benin and Burkina Faso, with two integrated objectives:

1. To support these women to formalize their businesses so they can participate effectively in a greener economy. The assignment will provide tailored handholding support to women entrepreneurs through the administrative, fiscal, and legal steps required to register and formalize their enterprises, including guidance on the most appropriate legal form (sole proprietorship, cooperative, GIE, SARL, or equivalent), tax identification, social security registration, sector-specific licensing, and post-registration compliance.
2. To deliver financial education and entrepreneurship training that strengthens their business management capacity. The assignment will design and deliver a structured curriculum in financial literacy, business management, and entrepreneurship adapted to the literacy levels, languages, and time constraints of women in the informal sector.

Against this backdrop, AECF seeks to engage a highly experienced Service Provider to support business formalization and to design and deliver financial education and entrepreneurship training to women informal entrepreneurs in Benin and Burkina Faso under the IIW-B&BF programme.

3.0 Objective of the assignment

Overall Objective: To support women entrepreneurs in the informal sector in Benin and Burkina Faso to formalize their businesses and to strengthen their financial and entrepreneurial capacity so that they can participate effectively and sustainably in a greener economy.

Specific Objectives (Expected Outcomes):

1. Support at least 200 women in the informal sector (at least 100 in Benin and at least 100 in Burkina Faso) to formalize their businesses through guidance, handholding, and accompaniment through administrative, fiscal, and legal registration processes by the end of Year 5.
2. Design and deliver a contextualized, gender-responsive curriculum in financial education and entrepreneurship for women informal entrepreneurs, adapted to literacy levels, local languages, and the realities of the informal sector.
3. Reach a cumulative total of at least 7,000 women informal entrepreneurs (with at least 3,500 in Benin and at least 3,500 in Burkina Faso) with financial education and entrepreneurship training.
4. Strengthen the practical capability of women trained to apply financial education and business management skills in their day-to-day operations and to access formal financial services.
5. Identify and document the principal barriers women face to formalization and to participation in the formal economy, and generate practical lessons to inform programme adaptation and policy engagement.
6. Promote linkages between newly formalized women-led businesses and relevant ecosystem actors, including financial institutions, business development services, public registration authorities, and value chain buyers.

4.0 Scope of work

The assignment shall be implemented as a two-phase process comprising curriculum design, beneficiary identification, and country-level set-up, followed by delivery of formalization support and financial education and entrepreneurship training, with continuous monitoring and post-training follow-up.

4.1 Phase 1: Curriculum Design, Beneficiary Identification, and Country Set-Up

Under this phase, the Service Provider will set up the assignment in both countries and prepare the tools, partnerships, and curricula required to deliver against the targets. The Service Provider shall:

• Review relevant programme documents, prior training materials, and existing AECF cohort data on women informal entrepreneurs in Benin and Burkina Faso to identify gaps and entry points.
• Map the administrative, fiscal, and legal pathways for business formalization in Benin and Burkina Faso, including the relevant authorities (registration centres, tax authorities, social security bodies, sector regulators), associated costs, timelines, and post-registration obligations.
• Identify and partner with grassroots structures (women’s associations, cooperatives, community networks, microfinance institutions, local business development service providers) for beneficiary identification and outreach in both countries.
• Profile and segment the target population of women informal entrepreneurs by sector, location, literacy, language, business maturity, and stated barriers to formalization.
• Design a modular financial education and entrepreneurship curriculum covering, at minimum: basic numeracy and bookkeeping, savings and credit, costing and pricing, business planning, market access and customer engagement, digital and mobile financial services, and rights and obligations associated with formalization.
• Develop participant materials in English, French, and in relevant local languages, with visual aids and simplified content for low-literacy participants.
• Develop a training of trainers (ToT) curriculum and a pool of local trainers to enable scale across both countries.
• Develop the monitoring and reporting tools required to track participants reached, businesses formalized, training completion, and post-training application of skills, aligned with IIW-B&BF Programme Monitoring Framework requirements.

4.2 Phase 2: Delivery of Formalization Support, Financial Education and Entrepreneurship Training
Under this phase, the Service Provider will deliver formalization support and training at scale across Benin and Burkina Faso. The Service Provider shall:

• Identify, screen, and onboard women informal entrepreneurs to participate in either or both of the formalization and training workstreams, using transparent eligibility criteria agreed with AECF.
• Provide handholding support to at least 200 women across Benin and Burkina Faso through the steps required to formalize their businesses, including (a) choice of legal form, (b) preparation of registration documents, (c) accompaniment to registration authorities, (d) tax identification and social security enrolment where applicable, (e) sector-specific licensing, and (f) post-registration compliance and recordkeeping.
• Deliver climate-smart technologies, approaches and practices, financial education and entrepreneurship training to up to 7,000 women informal entrepreneurs across the assignment period.
• Deliver the agreed ToT programme to a network of local trainers and mentors in both countries to enable scale and sustainability beyond the assignment.
• Use a blended delivery model combining in-person training, peer learning, and (where appropriate) low-bandwidth digital channels, with sessions scheduled to accommodate the time and mobility constraints faced by women in the informal sector.
• Provide post-training coaching and mentoring to a representative sub-sample of trained women to support practical application of skills, including bookkeeping, savings discipline, and uptake of formal financial products.
• Track and document, on a rolling basis, participants reached, training completion rates, businesses successfully formalized, drop-off points in the formalization process, and observed changes in business practice.
• Flag to AECF, in writing, any material implementation risks, regulatory blockages, or context-specific issues that may affect delivery against targets.

5.3 Cross-Cutting Delivery Requirements
Across both workstreams, the Service Provider shall:

• Apply gender-responsive delivery approaches that recognize the time, mobility, literacy, and access constraints faced by women in the informal sector.
• Ensure that delivery is sensitive to the distinct country contexts of Benin and Burkina Faso, including the security situation in Burkina Faso, and adapt outreach and delivery accordingly.
• Deliver content in French and in relevant local languages such as Dioula and Mooré in Burkina Faso and Fon and Bariba in Benin, and ensure trainers can communicate fluently with low-literacy participants.
• Integrate green economy messaging and climate-smart business practices into both the formalization guidance and the training curriculum, in line with the broader IIW-B&BF objective of supporting women’s participation in a greener economy.
• Apply safeguarding standards, including prevention of and response to sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment (PSEAH) and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) sensitivity in all training and field activities.
• Coordinate closely with AECF country teams and other IIW-B&BF partners to avoid duplication and to align beneficiary lists with other programme workstreams.
• Document key lessons, success factors, and recurring barriers to inform programme learning, adaptive management, and AECF’s policy engagement on women’s economic empowerment.

5.0 Deliverables

The successful firm will be expected to deliver, at a minimum:

• Inception deliverables — an inception report setting out methodology, work plan, country-level staffing, partnership arrangements, training schedule, beneficiary engagement approach, and monitoring framework, accompanied by a profiling note that segments the target population of women informal entrepreneurs in Benin and Burkina Faso.
• Formalization deliverables (Specific Objective 1) – a formalization pathway map for each country; individual formalization dossiers for each woman supported; a register of women formalized (disaggregated by country, sector, and legal form); and a final report on at least 200 women supported to formalize their businesses, with a breakdown of barriers encountered and lessons learned.
• Curriculum deliverables (Specific Objective 2) – a modular financial education and entrepreneurship curriculum, facilitator guides, and participant materials in French and in relevant local languages, validated with AECF prior to roll-out, and a ToT package for local trainers.
• Training delivery deliverables (Specific Objective 3) – periodic training delivery reports listing women trained per country, location, and module, including attendance sheets, training completion rates, and contribution to the cumulative 7,000-woman target.
• Capacity-application deliverables (Specific Objective 4) – post-training follow-up notes/report documenting application of financial and entrepreneurship skills, uptake of formal financial products, and observed changes in business practice for a representative sub-sample of trained participants.
• Learning and barriers deliverables (Specific Objective 5) – a barriers-to-formalization study and a lessons-learned brief documenting the principal obstacles women face to formalization and participation in the formal economy, with practical recommendations for AECF and policy stakeholders.
• Ecosystem linkages deliverables (Specific Objective 6) – documentation of linkages established between newly formalized women-led businesses and financial institutions, business development services, registration authorities, and value chain buyers.
• Final assignment report – a consolidated final report summarizing activities delivered, women formalized, women trained, results against the targets, unresolved risks, lessons learned, and recommendations for AECF.

AECF reserves the right to refine the final list, format, and frequency of deliverables during contracting.

6.0 Duration and institutional arrangements

The assignment is expected to be implemented over 18 months. The Service Provider shall propose a realistic level of effort, country-level staffing, and sequencing aligned to the scale of beneficiaries to be reached in Benin and Burkina Faso.

The Service Provider will work alongside AECF programme staff, who retain responsibility for beneficiary selection, administrative checks, and overall programme management. AECF staff will brief the Service Provider on the programme, eligibility criteria, and reporting requirements, and will coordinate field-level activities to ensure alignment with broader programme delivery.

7.0 Reporting

The Service Provider will be accountable and report to the Programme Managers, IIW-B&BF, and the Senior Advisory Specialist.

8.0 Reporting

The consultant will report to the Program Manager KKCF and the AECF Impact and Communications teams.

9.0 Qualifications and experience from the Firm and Team

9.1 Firm-Level Experience
The Service Provider should demonstrate:

• Over 5 years proven experience supporting business formalization and/or delivering financial education and entrepreneurship training to women in the informal sector, micro-entrepreneurs, or community-based enterprises.
• Strong working knowledge of the legal, fiscal, and administrative pathways for business formalization in Benin and Burkina Faso (sole proprietorship, GIE, cooperative, SARL, or equivalent), including registration, tax, social security, and licensing procedures.
• Demonstrated capability in designing and delivering financial literacy and entrepreneurship curricula at scale, in French and in relevant local languages, including ToT models.
• Demonstrated understanding of women’s economic empowerment and gender-responsive programming, including outreach to women with limited literacy and limited mobility.
• Experience working in West Africa, with a clear track record of delivery in Benin and/or Burkina Faso.
• Strong French language capability across the team, with sufficient English capability to engage with AECF reporting requirements and at least one fluent English speaker on the team.
• Ability to deploy a multidisciplinary team covering formalization advisory, adult training and curriculum design, financial literacy, entrepreneurship support, and monitoring and reporting.

9.2 Team-Level Experience
The proposal must include CVs for the following key experts:

• Team Lead / Assignment Coordinator: At least 10 years of experience leading multi-country technical assistance or training assignments targeting women entrepreneurs, with proven ability to coordinate delivery across Benin and Burkina Faso and manage AECF reporting requirements.
• Business Formalization Expert (Benin): Demonstrated expertise in the legal, fiscal, and administrative procedures for registering and formalizing micro and small businesses in Benin, including knowledge of relevant registration centres, tax administration, and sector licensing.
• Business Formalization Expert (Burkina Faso): Demonstrated expertise in the legal, fiscal, and administrative procedures for registering and formalizing micro and small businesses in Burkina Faso, including knowledge of relevant registration centres, tax administration, and sector licensing.
• Financial Education Curriculum Lead: Experience designing and delivering financial literacy curricula for low-literacy adult learners, including savings, credit, bookkeeping, costing, and digital and mobile financial services.
• Entrepreneurship and Business Development Expert: Experience designing and delivering entrepreneurship training to women micro-entrepreneurs, including business planning, costing and pricing, market access, and customer engagement.
• Gender and Safeguarding Expert: Experience in women’s economic empowerment, gender-responsive training design, and PSEAH/SGBV safeguarding in community settings.
• Monitoring and Reporting Lead: Experience in tracking beneficiary-level results against donor-funded programme monitoring frameworks, including disaggregated reporting by country, sector, and demographic.

10.0 Proposal submission

Qualified consultants are invited to submit a proposal that includes the following:

• An understanding of the consultancy requirements.
• Methodology and work plan for performing the assignment, including country-level deployment in Benin and Burkina Faso.
• Detailed reference list indicating the scope and magnitude of similar assignments.
• Signed letters of reference from 3 previous institutions/programmes.
• Registration and other relevant statutory documents.
• The technical and financial proposals are to be submitted separately in PDF format.
• The financial (USD) proposal must clearly show the budgeted cost for the work to be conducted by the Service Provider under the scope of the work above.
• The technical and financial proposals must be submitted as separate documents. NO LINKS.
  N/B: SUBMITTING THE FINANCIAL AND TECHNICAL DOCUMENT AS ONE DOCUMENT WILL AUTOMATICALLY LEAD TO DISQUALIFICATION OF THE APPLICANT.

11.0 Pricing

The AECF is obliged by the Kenyan tax authorities to withhold taxes on service contract fees and to ensure that VAT is charged where applicable. Applicants are advised to ensure that they have a clear understanding of their tax position with regard to provisions of Kenya tax legislation when developing their proposals.

12.0 Evaluation criteria

Mandatory Requirements for firms: –

1. Company profile.
2. Trading license or Certificate of incorporation or Certificate of Registration and other statutory documents.
3. Valid Tax Compliance certificate or an Equivalent document. (Applicable to firms).
4. Passport/National Identification of the lead consultant.
   N/B: FAILURE TO ATTACH AND ADHERE TO THE ABOVE REQUIREMENTS WILL RESULT IN AUTOMATIC DISQUALIFICATION

An evaluation committee will be formed by the AECF and may include employees of the businesses to be supported. All members will be bound by the same standards of confidentiality. The Service Provider should ensure that it fully meets all criteria for comprehensive evaluation.

The AECF may request and receive clarification from any consultant when evaluating a proposal. The evaluation committee may invite some or all of the consultants to appear before it to clarify their proposals. In such an event, the evaluation committee may consider such clarifications in evaluating proposals.

In making the final selection of a qualified bidder, the technical quality of the proposal will be weighted at 70% based on the evaluation criteria. Only the financial proposal of those bidders who qualify technically will be opened. The financial proposal will be weighted at 30%, and the proposals will be ranked by total points scored.

The mandatory and desirable criteria against which proposals will be evaluated are identified in the table below.

Key Areas for Evaluation/ Assessment	Weighted Award
(i) TECHNICAL PROPOSAL	70
a) An understanding of the consultancy requirements;	10
b) Methodology and detailed work-plan that will deliver the best value on the assignment (including country-level deployment in Benin and Burkina Faso, beneficiary outreach approach, and pathway to delivering at least 200 women formalized and at least 7,000 women trained)	25
c) Relevant services undertaken by the bidder in past engagements:
• Proven experience of 7+ years supporting business formalization and/or financial education and entrepreneurship training to women in the informal sector. • Demonstrated working knowledge of the formalization pathways in Benin and Burkina Faso. • Experience designing and delivering financial literacy and entrepreneurship curricula at scale in French and relevant local languages. • Experience deploying ToT models to scale training delivery. • Experience in gender-responsive programming and PSEAH/SGBV safeguarding. • Demonstrated capacity to operate in fragile or insecure contexts (Burkina Faso). • Strong monitoring, reporting, facilitation, and stakeholder engagement capability.	30
d) Detailed reference list indicating the scope and magnitude of similar assignments and at least 2 signed letters of reference from past customers or associates to the consulting firm/consultant:	5
ii) FINANCIAL PROPOSAL	30
– Clarity, relevance, reality to market value/ value for money of cost for the assignment (inclusive of any applicable tax)

13.0 Application

The AECF is an Equal Opportunity Employer. The AECF considers all interested candidates based on merit without regard to race, gender, colour, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

• Interested firms/consultants or consortia are requested to submit their technical and financial proposal via the procurement portal https://procurement.aecfafrica.org/ by 20 July 2026, 5pm (EAT).
• All questions should be directed to the procurement email aecfprocurement@aecfafrica.org by 10 July 2026, 5pm (EAT).
• The subject of the email should be “TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR CONSULTANCY SERVICES FOR SUPPORTING BUSINESS FORMALIZATION AND DELIVERY OF FINANCIAL EDUCATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRAINING TO WOMEN INFORMAL ENTREPRENEURS IN BENIN AND BURKINA FASO”. The AECF shall not be liable for failing to open proposals submitted with a different subject or for failing to respond to questions that did not meet the indicated deadline.

14.0 Disclaimer

AECF reserves the right to determine the structure of the process, the number of short-listed participants, the right to withdraw from the proposal process, the right to change this timetable at any time without notice, and reserves the right to withdraw this tender at any time, without prior notice and without liability to compensate and/or reimburse any party.

The AECF does not charge an application fee for participation in the tender process and has not appointed any agents or intermediaries to facilitate applications. Applicants are advised to contact the AECF directly.