Preparation and Management of Workshops in Africa on competitiveness

PREPARATION AND MANAGEMENT OF WORKSHOPS IN AFRICA ON COMPETITIVENESS The Africa Commission was launched by the Danish Prime Minister in 2008 to help Africa benefit morefrom globalisation. The Commission consisted of Heads of State and governments, politicians, experts,representatives from international and regional organisations as well as the business community, civil societyand the academic world, mainly from Africa. The Commission addressed ways to create employment for young people through private sector-led growth andimproved competitiveness of African economies. One of the Africa Commission’s international initiatives is termed Benchmarking African Competitiveness. Few African businesses are internationally competitive. They are stymied by the conditions of the domesticmarket, where the costs of doing business are too high and the incentives for enterprises to flourish too low.Productivity and competitiveness are hampered by limited access to finance, energy and technology; scarcity ofrelevant skills, logistical limitations caused by poor infrastructure for transportation; communication and energy;costly interaction between business and government; poor governance; and marginalisation of women. The Government of Denmark has decided to finance activities under this initiative in a preliminary periodfrom 2009 to 2014. The initiative is carried out in collaboration with the World Economic Forum. It provides support to the WEF’s Global Competitiveness Report and supports the execution of four to five national one-day workshops per year in selected African countries. The workshops will target leaders from the businesssector, government and civil society, with the aim to initiate a process of review and policy reform for improved competitiveness. The contract holder will in collaboration with the Secretariat of the Africa Commission (Ministry of Foreign Affairsof Denmark) and the WEF be responsible for all practical aspects in connection with the planning, preparationand management of these national workshops, including drawing up invitee lists with relevant participants fromgovernments, political circles, decision makers from private business and organizations etc. A solid Africannetwork including these target groups will therefore be of essence. The responsibilities of the contract holder can be summarized under the following headings: Workshop development (programme, identification of participants, speakers, coordination); workshop logistics(contracting of venue, set-up, facilities, services, media, on-the-spot trouble shooting); workshop follow-up(thank-you letters, reports and accounts to partners). Click on link below to download/open pre-qualification material. For further information please contact danidacontracts@um.dk or phone 33 92 02 55 Deadline for application 20. December 2010 at 15:45

UPDATE: Invited Companies

COWI A/S

NCG A/S

International Organisation Development, (IOD PARC), Ltd

Africa Pratice Ltd.