Libyan Private Sector Development Institutions (LSPDI)

19 December 2013

Upper Quartile in association with WYG International and Altai Consulting have been contracted to provide technical assistance for the implementation of the Libyan Private Sector Development Institutions (LSPDI) programme, tendered though DFID’s Fragile and Conflict Affected States Framework Agreement (FCAS).

 

LSPDI is a three-year DFID funded programme focused on strengthening the capacity of the key Libyan institutions that can support the development of a competitive private sector. Three institutions have been identified as suitable for technical assistance based on their legitimacy, appetite for reform, and potential to contribute to sustainable private sector development. These are:

1. Libya Enterprise - Libya’s national SME agency and its network of Incubators and Enterprise Centres;
2. Libya Chambers of Commerce;
3. The Libyan Ministry of Labour’s Job Centres.

 

The programme is based on delivering the following three workstreams:

• Designing a new portfolio of business support services to be delivered by eight Incubators and Enterprise Centres led by Libya Enterprise. Training to international standards of at least 50 advisors from Libya Enterprise institutions, enabling them to support SME development throughout Libya;
• Functional reviews for the Tripoli, Misurata, Benghazi and Sebha Chambers of Commerce, with technical assistance provided to follow up on recommendations;
• Technical assistance, on a pilot basis, to three Job Centres to overhaul their job matching databases and capacity to find unemployed people jobs within six months of registering.

The inception phase has been completed and the inception report submitted which sets out the technical assistance team’s main findings and recommendations. The key substantive findings derived from the inception phase include:

• Libya Enterprise requires technical assistance to help build the capacity of both the Incubators and Business Centres that it is responsible for providing assistance to;
• The Chambers of Commerce possess low capacity to deliver services to the private sector, however it does have adequate financial resources to invest in supporting the necessary reforms;
• Job Centres are characterised by low capacity levels and currently only serve to register jobseekers as opposed to actively assisting them to find work.

These findings form the basis of a detailed implementation plan which delineates programme activities for the three work streams over the next six months, beginning in early 2014.