REQUEST FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST

NATIONAL COMPETITIVE TENDERING

PROJECT COORDINATION AND TRAINING IN SOFT SKILLS & SOCIAL COMPLIANCE FOR GARMENT PRODUCTION UNDER THE TRAINEX

CONSULTANCY FIRMS REQUIRED

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH has been commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development to implement the Special Initiative Decent Work for Just Transition under the Invest for Jobs brand in Ghana. The development objective is to team up with companies to create good jobs and improve working conditions in Ghana and seven other African partner countries.

Invest for Jobs has been active in Ghana's textile and apparel (T&A) sector since 2021, notably through its Africa Fashion and Textile Accelerator Network (Africa FAN) Through Africa FAN, Invest for Jobs has supported the development of the capacities of some local T&A companies to meet varied sourcing requirements of international apparel buyers/retailers/brands/sourcing agents (buyers). Additionally, Invest for Jobs has facilitated market access for local garment producers by organizing: international buyers to visit local factories to assess sourcing opportunities, as well as by supporting the participation of local garment producers in international fairs.

Invest for Jobs, together with the participating local garment companies, recognizes that the ability of these local companies to sustain the gains made so far will significantly depend on the availability of skilled local experts. These experts will support the workforce, insist on production quality, manage and maintain varied equipment/tools, and will essentially enhance efficiency and the commercial viability of the factories.

SCOPE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

After diverse interventions in the T&A sector in Ghana since 2019, Invest for Jobs now seeks to focus on training some expert local staff who will support the growing local garment manufacturing industry. Only a few local companies currently have the capacity to employ the services of expatriates who have solid expertise in key areas of the garment production process. This also means that only a few companies with sufficient financial muscle can readily take advantage of the international market.

Additionally, in recent years, a good number of international buyers have started prospecting for local manufacturers as they seek to diversify their sourcing locations. Some local manufacturing companies have equally landed repeated international orders, highlighting the need for long-term local expertise to ensure the sustainability of such commercial relationships. These achievements have been largely possible through the support of GIZ's interventions, providing international expert Support in the factories to produce samples, respond to orders, obtain international social compliance certifications, among others. Other development partners working collaboratively with GIZ have equally provided other forms of support to the industry. All these interventions are however not likely to be sustained in the long term.

By focusing on training and grooming local experts, the TRAINEx project will ensure that local factories can have access to these experts readily and at a relatively lower cost. These experts, who will be employed as middle managers/supervisors in the local factories, will also train and groom other local factory staff, contributing thus to enhancing the general production quality and efficiency of the factories. The strong middie management or supervisory level staff is expected to have a considerable positive effect on the commercial activities of these factories and thus, impact their capacity to create new decent jobs.

In this light, the TRAINEx project seeks to train and groom (both existing factory staff and trainees new to the industry) 20 persons in the following technical areas: