Expressions of Interest (EOI): Local Partner Organizations- Pathways to Scale (P2S), Rwanda

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Expressions of Interest (EOI): Local Partner Organizations- Pathways to Scale (P2S), Rwanda

Release Date: Wednesday, 1st April2026

Submission Deadline: Thursday 30th April

Location: Rwanda, rural and peri-urban areas across all regions

Contract Term: One-year partnership with potential extension (aligned with P2S program duration and performance)

Deadline for Submission: Thursday 30th April 2026

Background

Pathways to Scale (P2S) is a young women-focused, 5-year program, delivered by World University Service of Canada (WUSC) as the prime implementer, in collaboration with Seedstars and funded by the Mastercard Foundation. P2S seeks to improve the well-being and resilience of young rural women in Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ghana, and Rwanda through increased access to dignified and fulfilling work resulting from impact-driven enterprise support growth. The program seeks to unlock 93,000 work opportunities for young women through supporting up to 8,605 women-led/owned enterprises with business development services, technical assistance, and access to finance. To ensure effective last-mile delivery, WUSC is currently seeking expressions of interest from qualified local entrepreneur support organizations (ESOs) in Rwanda that are well-positioned to provide outreach, capacity building, and ongoing support to selected program participants, which will be a minimum of 215 women-led/women-owned enterprises in Rwanda and 12 high-growth potential businesses in West and East Africa.

Definition of Local Partner Organizations

For the purposes of P2S, local ESOs are entities that are locally registered in Rwanda and have the capacity to support micro, small, and medium enterprises in Rwanda and high-growth enterprises across East and West Africa, more specifically in Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria and Rwanda. These organizations primarily deliver capacity-building services to entrepreneurs, including but not limited to incubators, accelerators, venture studios, development organizations, training providers, or associations. The core focus of local partners in this program in Rwanda is to deliver business development services to young rural women entrepreneurs in agriculture, as well as to businesses that generate employment and value chain opportunities to young rural women. Refugee and displaced young women (RDPs) will also be among those supported through this initiative. We are therefore seeking organizations with a demonstrated track record of scaling businesses, increasing revenue, and creating meaningful employment opportunities for young rural women through their business development services. Ideally, we aim to engage local partners offering both technical and financial readiness support to young rural women entrepreneurs. For high-growth companies, we are looking for partners with experience providing advanced and tailored business coaching and consulting, investment readiness training, and access to capital across East and West Africa. This support aims to enable the companies to scale through targeted business development support and access to Finance, and consequently, supporting the creation of jobs for young women across the region to promote their wellbeing and economic resilience.

Scope of Work

The selected local partner organizations will be expected to implement specific activities in the following areas:

a) Outreach and selection of program participants

The selected local partners will primarily collaborate with previous Mastercard Foundation programs in Rwanda to identify young women entrepreneurs to receive additional business development and financial support to scale their businesses. In addition, local partners will leverage their own networks and engage in on-ground mobilization and outreach to women-led and women-owned enterprises in rural and peri-urban areas and support the screening of potential new and pre-selected program participants. The selected partners will further engage in outreach and sourcing of high-growth-potential women entrepreneurs from East and West Africa who have not previously worked with the Mastercard Foundation.

b) Data collection and MERL

The selected partners will be required to use the P2S data platform to track their interactions with the program participants, use the platform for data collection and reporting while ensuring data quality and completeness, as well as support the program participants to use the platform for their business coaching and development activities.

c) Provision of business development services

The local partners selected will be the primary business development partners for the women entrepreneurs. The local partners will do this via the P2S platform, bi-weekly coaching to the entrepreneurs and providing tailored support to the enterprises.

d) Access to Finance support

The selected local partners will also support the women entrepreneurs to access the concessional loans provided by P2S. This involves assisting the women participants from the initial loan application process to post-loan BDS, monitoring and reporting.

Note: On a need-basis, the local partners will engage in community buy-in activities to support norms change, so as to improve young rural women’s participation in P2S programs. These could include engaging and sensitizing community leaders, working with male advocates and holding dialogues with parents.

Minimum Qualifications
• Registered in Rwanda and operational in Rwanda and across Africa.
• At least 5 years of experience supporting MSMEs and high-growth businesses with a focus on young women in rural and peri-urban areas.
• Proven track record of mobilization, business development support, and technical assistance. Experience in financial readiness and investment readiness support for entrepreneurs is an added advantage.
• Ability to mobilize in underserved areas and work with diverse stakeholders and gatekeepers (e.g., local leaders, male champions).
• Familiarity with digital reporting and willingness to adopt and use the P2S digital platform for data collection, reporting, and enterprise support.

Expected timeline

Expression of Interest opens

1st April 2026

Expression of Interest application closes

30 April 2026

Shortlisting

1st May- 6th May2026

Due Diligence

May 2026

Selection and contracting

June 2026

Onboarding of selected partners

June 2026

Application Instructions

Interested organizations should submit the following:
• Complete the EOI survey and submit financial proposal by following link
• A valid certificate of registration (Attached on the link)
• A financial proposal using attached budget guidance, following a budget range of 100,000-120,000 USD per year.

Submission Deadline: Thursday 30th April

For any queries about the application, please email p2s@wusc.ca, and dmutoni@wusc.ca. We welcome and encourage applications from all qualified organizations that meet the minimum criteria. Only shortlisted organizations will be contacted. P2S and its partners will not bear the cost of application or any other costs incurred by the Applicant in putting together their response to the EOI.

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