Request for Proposal: Terms of Reference for the review and design of AECF’s Strategy 2026 and beyond

1. Background

The AECF, LLC (Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund) is a leading non-profit development organization that supports innovative enterprises in the agribusiness and renewable energy sectors with the aim of reducing rural poverty, promoting climate resilient communities, and creating jobs.

We catalyze the private sector by surfacing and commercializing new ideas, business models and technologies designed to increase agricultural productivity, improve farmer incomes, expand clean energy access, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and improve resilience to the effects of climate change. We finance high risk businesses that struggle to access commercial funding; we are committed to working in frontier markets, fragile contexts, and high-risk economies where few mainstream financing institutions dare to go.

To date, we have supported over 510 businesses in 26 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, impacted more than 33million lives and created over 35,000 direct jobs.

AECF is headquartered in Kenya and has offices in Côte d’Ivoire, Tanzania, Nigeria, South Sudan, Benin, and Somalia.

Find more about AECF on www.aecfafrica.org

2. Objective of consultancy

The primary objectives of this assignment are:

1. To build on insights from the review of the current strategy, assessing its relevance, effectiveness, and impact in achieving AECF’s mission.
2. To define a forward-looking vision for 2026–2030 that addresses emerging trends, challenges, and opportunities.
3. To co-create a strategy that provides a clear direction, inspires commitment, and energizes implementation efforts.
4. To align AECF’s priorities, services, and operational framework with the needs of rural and marginalized communities and the broader funding landscape.

• Principles Guiding strategy design

The process will adhere to the following principles:

• Building on Insights from Current Strategy Review: Begin by reviewing the current strategy to assess its relevance, effectiveness, and impact, ensuring a strong foundation for the new strategy.
• Ownership, Challenge, and Fresh Perspectives: AECF will maintain ownership of the design process to ensure internal buy-in and accountability, while the consultant will provide neutral perspectives, constructive challenges, and fresh ideas. This approach will leverage AECF’s expertise while addressing biases from legacy work or prior commitments.
• Co-production: The strategy design process will be collaborative, emphasizing joint ownership and shared responsibility between AECF and the consultant. We seek iterative engagement to reflect collective insights and align with AECF’s mission and vision.
• Hypothesis-Driven Approach: The process will be guided by working hypotheses, providing a clear starting point for exploration and analysis. These hypotheses will be tested, refined, or challenged using data, insights, and stakeholder engagement, ensuring the final strategy is evidence-based and responsive to real-world conditions.
• Outside-In Approach with Deep People Insights: The strategy design journey will prioritize an outside-in perspective, deeply rooted in understanding the people and communities AECF seeks to serve. Insights into their needs, aspirations, and challenges will be central to shaping an impactful and relevant strategy.
• Structured Framework for Strategy Design: The design process will follow a cascading choices methodology, where insights from each step inform and shape subsequent phases. This structured approach ensures coherence, alignment, and a comprehensive, actionable strategy

3. Scope of work:

The consultant/team will engage and support AECF in designing a strategy based on the following structured framework. While this framework is proposed as a foundation, the consultant is encouraged to suggest alternative or improved approaches if they can enhance the process or outcomes.

1. Review the Current Strategy: Assess achievements, gaps, impact, lessons learned, and best practices to lay the foundation for the strategy design process.
2. Define the Vision: Establish the strategic direction and long-term aspirations for AECF, informed by actionable priorities and overarching goals.
3. Review and optimize model for making an impact all our key stakeholders:
   • Funders
   • Ecosystem partners (such as investees)
   • Beneficiaries (such as marginalised communities)

Evaluate and optimize strategic focus areas and scale AECF’s aspiration.

4. Clarify Mission and Ambition: Confirm the fixed mission and set actionable ambitions for the 2026–2030 period.

5. Conduct Further External Analysis: Examine broader trends, opportunities, challenges, and shifts in the funding landscape (“omniversum of funders”).

6. Select Key Services: Determine which services best fulfill the vision and meet the needs of priority communities.

7. Determine How to Achieve Impact Through Enterprise: Explore how AECF can make the best impact by leveraging enterprise, including strategic use of grants and other financial services.

8. Delivery Mechanisms and Operational Framework: Define processes, partnerships, and systems for effective service delivery.

9. Configure Internal Organization: Align structure, resources, and processes with the strategy.

10. Plan Implementation: Develop detailed programs, workflows, and organizational plans.

3.1. Methodology

The consultant is expected to propose a detailed approach and methodology for conducting the review, ensuring alignment with the objectives outlined. Considering that:

• The proposed methodology should prioritize an outside-in perspective, deeply rooted in understanding the people and communities AECF seeks to serve. Insights into their needs, aspirations, and challenges will be central to shaping an impactful and relevant strategy.
• The methodology should also demonstrate a clear strategy for gathering, analysing, and synthesizing data to address the strategy’s objectives effectively, in line with design principle 3.D Hypothesis Driven Approach.

4. Deliverable outputs and target dates:

The consultant/team will deliver:

• Inception Report: Outlining methodology, work plan, and timelines.
• Vision and Strategic Framework Document: Outlining the vision, mission, and ambition for 2026 & beyond, ensuring alignment with emerging trends and strategic objectives.
• Preliminary Strategy Document: Highlighting key findings, hypotheses, and proposed strategic shifts.
• Final Strategy Document: Providing a comprehensive and actionable roadmap for 2026 and beyond, including implementation plans.

5. Duration

Timeline to be proposed by consultant based on his work plan, addressing the phases

• Inception phase and stakeholder mapping.
• Data collection, analysis, and co-creation workshops.
• Validation of findings and drafting of the strategy.
• Finalization and presentation of the strategy document.

6. Qualifications/experience required

The ideal consultant/team should have:

• Proven experience in strategy design and planning.
• Expertise in development aid and development finance (impact investing) in Africa.
• Strong analytical, research, and facilitation skills; able to process substantial amounts of multi-source data.
• Familiarity with organizational assessments and change management.
• Experience with co-creation processes and hypothesis-driven approaches.

Please indicate these qualifications in your team’s short profiles.

7. Reporting

The consultant/firm will report to the  CEO .

8. Proposal submission

Interested and qualified consultants or firms are invited to submit their proposals comprising of the following:

1. A brief background of the firm/Consultant highlighting experience, capabilities, processes and resources. Profile of the lead consultant(s) (max 1 page per consultant) explaining why they are the most suitable for the work.
2. Relevant experience (max 4 pages).
3. An understanding of the scope of work.
4. Workplan detailing execution of key activities.
5. Detailed reference list and signed letters indicating the scope and magnitude of similar assignments.
6. Registration and other relevant statutory documents required.
7. Financial proposal in USD clearly showing the budgeted cost for the work to be conducted (to be submitted in a separate document from the technical proposal).
8. The preferred format for the submission is PDF.
9. All documents related to the technical proposal must be compiled into a single PDF file, organized with a clear Table of Contents
10. Technical and Financial proposals will need to be submitted as separate documents. Financial proposals will not be opened until the conclusion of the technical evaluation and then only for those proposals that are deemed qualified and responsive.

N/B: SUBMITTING THE FINANCIAL AND TECHNICAL DOCUMENT AS ONE DOCUMENT WILL AUTOMATICALLY LEAD TO DISQUALIFICATION OF THE APPLICANT.

9. Evaluation Criteria

MANADATORY EVALUATION CRITERIA.

a) 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 (Applicable to firms).
4. Passport/National Identification of the lead consultant and key personnel

b) The AECF will form an evaluation committee that includes employees. All members will be bound by the same standards of confidentiality. The trainer/training provider should ensure they fully respond to all criteria to be comprehensively evaluated.

The AECF may request and receive clarification from any consultant when evaluating a proposal. The evaluation committee may invite some or all the consultants to appear before it to clarify their proposals. In such an event, the committee may consider such clarifications in evaluating proposals. In deciding the final selection of a qualified bidder, the technical quality of the proposal will be given a weighting of 70% based on the evaluation criteria. Only the financial proposal of those bidders who qualify technically will be opened. The financial proposal will be allocated a weighting of 30% and the proposals will be ranked in terms of total points scored.

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

10. Pricing

The AECF is obliged by the Kenyan tax authorities to withhold taxes on service contract fees and ensure 16% VAT is charged where applicable. Applicants are advised to ensure that they clearly understand their tax position regarding provisions of Kenyan tax legislation when developing their proposals.

11. Application details

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

1. Interested firms are requested to submit their proposal to aecfprocurement@aecfafrica.org by 18^th June 2025, 5pm (EAT).
2. All questions should be directed at the procurement email by 11^th June 2025, 5pm (EAT).
3. The Subject of the email should read “REVIEW AND DESIGN OF AECF’S STRATEGY 2026-2030”. The AECF shall not be liable for not opening proposals that are submitted with a different subject.
4. 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 the right to withdraw this tender at any time, without prior notice and without liability to compensate and/or reimburse any party.

NB: 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 reach out directly to the AECF PROCUREMENT DEPARTMENT.