Financial Sector Deepening Africa

Forecasting Green Jobs in Africa: Strategies for Workforce Development

Last update: Jun 19, 2025 Last update: Jun 19, 2025

Details

Application deadline: Jun 25, 2025 Deadline has passed and no more applications are accepted
Location:Kenya
Kenya
Category:Consulting services
Status:Closed
Sectors:Education, Gender, Labour Market & Employment, SME & Private Sector
Languages:English
Eligibility:Organisation
Budget:N/A
Date posted: Jun 3, 2025

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Project cycle timeline

STAGES
EARLY INTELLIGENCE
PROCUREMENT
IMPLEMENTATION
Cancelled
Status
Programming
Formulation
Approval
Forecast
Open
Closed
Shortlisted
Awarded
Evaluation

Quick summary

AI generated
Objectives: This project aims to address knowledge gaps regarding the green labor market in Africa to support economic growth, combat climate change, and enhance job opportunities. It focuses on detailed workforce analysis, identifying specific green job roles, and addressing skills mismatches. The study also emphasizes increasing women's participation in green sectors and offers policy recommendations to build a skilled and inclusive workforce. The research intends to provide actionable insights and data-driven recommendations to support economic transformation in Africa towards a green economy.
Eligibility criteria: Eligible consulting firms must have completed at least three comparable projects in the last five years with documented reference letters from clients. Experience in Sub-Saharan Africa or comparable markets is required. Consultants should have at least a Master's degree or equivalent in project management or related fields. Proposals must show a clear understanding of the assignment with a detailed methodology and implementation plan. Bidders that prioritize gender and represent underrepresented groups, utilize local African consultants, and demonstrate sustainability considerations will be scored favorably. Proposals must include a detailed timeline with key deliverables and an itemized budget, submitted in 10 pages or less by June 22, 2025. The tender will be awarded based on economic advantage, considering experience, qualifications, and sustainability contributions.

Description

1. Introduction

 

Africa’s transition to a green economy presents a major opportunity to drive sustainable economic growth, combat climate change, and create millions of jobs across diverse sectors. By leveraging its vast natural resources, growing workforce, and emerging green industries, Africa is well-positioned to develop a robust green labour market that supports both economic and environmental resilience.

 

While “Forecasting Green Jobs in Africa” (2024) and “Assessment of Women Livelihoods within the ClimateSmart Sector” (2025) provided a macro-level estimate of green job and livelihood growth across key sectors, and particularly for women, there remains a critical gap in understanding the specific job roles, workforce supply, and skills requirements needed to meet this demand. Furthermore, although women make up nearly half of Africa’s workforce, they are underrepresented in green industries—missing out on the economic benefits of this transition. 

This study builds upon the “Forecasting Green Jobs in Africa” and “Assessment of Women Livelihoods within the Climate-Smart Sector” reports by:

1. Enhancing the granularity of job forecasts—identifying specific job roles within priority sectors, such as solar installation, e-mobility, regenerative agriculture, and circular economy industries.

2. Analysing workforce supply and demand mismatches—examining whether current training programs are equipping workers with the necessary skills.

3. Exploring opportunities for all Africans, with a focus on women—outlining pathways for greater inclusion, particularly in technical and leadership roles.

4. Identify what ‘inflection points’ we must watch for to keep abreast of whether we are on or off track to meet project job forecasts.

5. Providing action-oriented recommendations—offering sector-specific insights tailored for policymakers, funders, businesses, and workforce development institutions.

By addressing these knowledge gaps, this research will offer a practical roadmap for building a skilled, inclusive green workforce that can drive Africa’s economic transformation .

Project goals

 

This contract aims to quantify and analyze the workforce needed to support Africa’s green transition, answering key labour market questions that remain unaddressed in previous studies, especially for those populations from low-income backgrounds who are under-employed or unemployed. While our previous “Forecasting Green Jobs in Africa” (2024) and “Assessment of Women Livelihoods within the Climate-Smart Sector” (2025) projected broad job and livelihood growth across major sectors, it did not detail the specific roles, skills, and labour market dynamics required to fill these jobs, nor the job opportunities for those from low-income backgrounds—this study will provide that missing detail.

 

Key research questions:

1. Role forecasting & employment volumes

o What are the most in-demand green roles, based on our initial forecasting of jobs research, by 2030 and 2050?

o How many workers will be needed across priority value chains (e.g., renewable energy, emobility, regenerative agriculture, circular economy)?

o What will be the split between formal and informal jobs - which types/scale of organizations (corporates, SMEs, gig work etc) will create employment?

o What income ranges across and value chains can be expected?

 

2. Workforce supply & skills gaps

o What is the current pipeline of skilled workers for these jobs?

o Where are the biggest skills mismatches between training programs and industry needs?

o How can vocational and higher education institutions better align with labor market demand?

 

3. Opportunities for women in Green Jobs

o What specific green job roles and value chains present high-growth opportunities for women?

o What successful programs and policies have enabled women’s participation in these sectors?

o How can training, mentorship, and financing mechanisms increase women’s access to greencareers?

4. Actionable strategies for policymakers & stakeholders

o What policy interventions can accelerate green job creation and workforce development?

o How can public and private actors bridge the labour market gap to ensure Africa has a skilled, jobready workforce for the green economy?

o What financing and investment strategies are needed to scale training and skilling, job creation and income increase efforts across the continent? How much investment is required by different stakeholders to achieve this goal?

o What key inflection points and/or triggers do we need to watch for to be able to evaluate whether we are on or off track to create projected jobs?

By providing granular job forecasts, workforce analysis, and practical recommendations, this study will equip policymakers, employers, and training institutions with the tools needed to prepare Africans—especially women—for the future of work in a sustainable, inclusive economy .

By providing granular job forecasts, workforce analysis, and practical recommendations, this study will equip policymakers, employers, and training institutions with the tools needed to prepare Africans—especially women—for the future of work in a sustainable, inclusive economy.

 

2.2. FSD Africa

 

FSD Africa is incorporated as a non-profit company limited by guarantee in Kenya. It is funded by UK aid from the UK government. It provides tools and resources to drive large-scale change in financial markets and support sustainable economic development. It addresses financial market failures to bring about growth and opportunity. Their business is to help create a sustainable future for Africa’s people and its natural environment. FSD Africa's programming is designed to address systemic challenges within Africa’s financial markets, with the aim of sparking large-scale and long-term change. Interventions are designed from the ground up, to ensure that Africa’s financial markets better serve those most in need – today, and long after our programmes end. A team of 35 financial sector experts works to strengthen, expand and deepen Africa’s financial sector.

 

FSD Africa partners with all the critical branches of Africa’s financial markets, to develop effective financial sector development programs. Their programs are designed to address the most pressing challenges facing Africa’s financial sector, from long-term finance to climate change to affordable housing.

 

2.3. Shell Foundation

 

Shell Foundation is an endowed UK registered charity that catalyzes clean energy innovation and unlocks inclusive investments in Africa and India, empowering millions of underserved customers – of which half are women – to increase incomes while lowering emissions.

To achieve its charitable mission, Shell Foundation, supports early-stage innovation and then partners with organizations to scale solutions that increase incomes for three customer groups: smallholder farmers, microentrepreneurs and urban transporters.

2.4. Shortlist

Shortlist is one of Africa’s leading talent advisory firms. Through Shortlist Search and Shortlist Futures, Shortlist has worked with hundreds of climate-related employers on the continent. In addition, Shortlist has designed and executed large-scale workforce development programs, co-created with funders like UK’s DFID/FCDO, the Netherlands’ Challenge Fund for Youth Employment, Mastercard Foundation, and GEAPP, to build a workforce for the clean energy sector and provide career on-ramps to 8,000+ young people across 26 African countries (with 50% of placements being women).

 

3. Scope of work

GivEn the partners desire to share this data as a public good, several public outputs will be necessary to share and disseminate findings with the sector and policy makers. These outputs will likely be shared in various formats, including a publicly accessible report and/or website, and include an in-market dissemination and knowledge sharing strategy.

 

Desired outputs include:

o Sectoral skills mapping: Identifying critical green job roles and the skills needed for success.

o Employer demand forecasting: Analyzing talent needs across green sectors to inform workforce Development.

o Gender inclusion research: Investigating barriers and solutions for increasing women’s representation in green jobs.

o SME job creation models: Assessing how small businesses can scale employment in high-growth Industries like solar, e-mobility, and waste management.

o Innovative hiring strategies: Exploring new models such as fractional leadership, apprenticeships, and digital job-matching to expand workforce participation.

 

Deliverables

The consulting firm will be responsible for producing the following outputs:

o Inception Report: Outlining research methodology, data sources, and project plan.

o Sector stakeholder engagement / consortium strategy: Develop an engagement and strategy plan forstakeholders which we can use even beyond this report.

o Monthly Progress Reports: Updates on research findings, challenges, and next steps.

o Green Jobs Sector Report: A comprehensive analysis of employment trends, skills gaps, an workforce challenges in Africa’s green economy 

o Gender Inclusion Report: Focused research on women’s participation and career advancement in green sectors.

o Green SME Employment Playbook: Practical recommendations for scaling job creation in small and growing businesses.

o Public Summary Report: A non-technical version of the findings for policymakers, investors, and training institutions.

o Raw Data File: To enable data visualization and open access for further sectoral research.

o Dissemination & Stakeholder Engagement Strategy: Plan for sharing insights with government, industry, and funders.

The partners believe that the research methodology to allow for this work to be done in a comprehensive and expedient manner, will deploy a mix of top-down and bottom-up approaches. To ensure that the methodology

 

is sound and reflective of the broader public who will consume this data, the partners the selected contractor should engage the expected users of this data (the sector, governments, funders, etc.) as a consultative step before embarking on the research, and on a frequent basis during the research, to ensure that the outputs are fit for their purpose(s). Through the research process, regular updates would also be shared with stakeholders in the form of email communications and/or wider stakeholder group calls to share insights and take on feedback. The work will likely be concluded with a training workshop where the stakeholders interact with and learn in-depth about the model developed.

 

4. Timelines

 

The project shall be implemented under a consultancy contract not more than 6 months with anticipated contract start date of July 2025. The consulting firm shall provide periodic update reports on the progress of implementation of the project as per the deliverables.

 

Item Timeline
Inception report and implementation plan Within three weeks of contract signing
Initial report on research methodology Within five weeks of contract sighning
Monthly progress reports End of each month
Draft final report Within four months of contract signing
Final report and dissemination plan By end of consultancy period

5. Invitation to Tender FSD Africa, Shell Foundation and Shortlist are inviting proposals from a suitably qualified consulting firm. Your proposal should contain:

a. A description of the Consulting firm’s understanding of the objective of the assignment as outlined in these terms of reference and their role in fulfilling this objective.

b. A description of the Consulting firm’s proposed approach to undertaking the work.

c. A profile of the team leader and other key team members that will undertake the work, including explanation of their specific roles and responsibilities in relation to the assignment and their relevant experience designing for inclusion. This description should be supported by tailored CVs (in an annex, no more than 3 pages per CV).

d. A short summary of relevant experience (tailored to the assignment) and referrals for similar work done in the last three years.

e. A detailed timeline, including submission of key deliverables.

f. An itemized activity-based budget for both professional fees and reimbursable expenses. The budget should include all applicable taxes.

Submitted proposals should not exceed 10 pages (excluding annexures). This should be sent to FSD Africa by email bids@fsdafrica.org by noon (EAT) on 17th June 2025 under a subject line reading ‘Invitation to tender: Forecasting Green Jobs in Africa: Strategies for Workforce Development’. Applications received after the deadline will not be considered.

 

6. Basis of award A contract will be awarded to the most economically advantageous tender based on the following criteria:

 

Mandatory requirements
Undertaken at least 3 comparable assignments in the last 5 years. This should be submitted with reference letters from the respective clients

 

Demonstrable experience in similar work in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Understanding/interpretation of the task set out in the TORs including detailed implementation plan

Assessment Criteria

 

Item Timeline Weighting (%)
Experience Undertaken at least 3 comparable assignments in the last 5 years 15%
Experience in similar work in Sub-Saharan Africa or other emerging economies or comparable markets 15%
Skills and qualification At least a master’s degree or equivalent post- graduate and/or professional qualifications in Project management, or any other related field. 5%
Methodology Provide your understanding of the task set out in the TORs including a detailed approach, methodology and implementation plan 25%
Sustainability considerations Supplier’s demonstration of sustainability value add:Bidders that demonstrate localisation, gender, environmental and ethical considerations will be assigned merit points/scored favourably compared to their competitors ;Localisation: demonstrated use of African based consultants - 5% Gender – prioritisation of women & underrepresented groups -5% 10%
Fee basis and total costs Most economically advantageous, where the computation will be based using the formula belowFS = 30% x LB/BP where: FS = is the financial score LB = is the lowest bid quotedBP= is the bid of the proposal under consideration. The lowest bid quoted will be allocated themaximum score of 30%. Fee quoted must be inclusive of applicable withholding tax 30
TOTAL 100%

7. Contact

 

Questions or comments in respect of these terms of reference should be directed by email to: bids@fsdafrica.org on or before 12 noon (EAT) 25th June 2025.

 

8. Applicable Taxes

 

As per Kenya’s tax law, FSD Africa will pay the Consulting firm after withholding the appropriate taxes at the applicable rate between Kenya and the Consulting firm’s country of tax residence, considering any tax

 

treaties in force. It is the responsibility of the Consulting firm to keep themselves apprised of these applicable taxes. The table below however provides guidance on the applicable rates as per tax regimes.

 

Country WHT Rate
Kenya 5%
United Kingdom 12.5%
Canada 15%
Germany 15%
India 10%
Non-resident rate for citizens of EAC member countries 15%
All other countries 20%

 

Link to original source: https://fsdafrica.org/

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