Guinea-Bissau has the highest proportion of natural wealth per capita in West Africa. In addition, the country also has a youth population that accounts to more than 50 percent, an undeniable potential to drive economic growth. The country’s economic revival requires the inclusion of women and youth in business activities. The promotion of entrepreneurship among the youth can be a promising path for providing professional opportunities for this large - and growing - population group.

To promote private sector growth through youth entrepreneurship skills development and support to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) for job creation in Guinea Bissau, through:

• Fostering  an enabling environment for SMEs, investors, and  financial  institutions
• Strengthening  SMEs  and  SME  support  partners  and  facilitating investments to unlock value-chains
• Establishing facilities and financing to provide quality and affordable access to finance for SMEs

• Provide a financial contribution to conduct the assessment of “adaptation jobs” opportunities in the project
• Run the procurement process to contract a sub-grantee to carry out the assessment
• Participate the appraisal missions and review the appraisal report of the project with regards to “adaptation jobs”
• Support project team to provide clarity on climate change adaptation and resilience in the appraisal report and define the target for “adaptation jobs” in the result framework of each project
• Define adaptation measures for testing during the assessment and further be recommended to the project implementation teams

• Enhance youth entrepreneurship skills and Enterprise Support Organizations operational capacities for sustainability
• Establish a facility for the development of SMEs and access to finance
• Promote linkages between SMEs and large size enterprises to ease access to markets
• Develop a digital platform to connect SMEs between themselves, with customers and large enterprises.
• Building the capacity of SMEs in growing their businesses and their readiness for financing, including women and youth-led SMEs

• Strengthened financial sector including the type of innovative financial instruments to help SMEs access quality and affordable financing for SMEs
• Improved linkages between SMEs and large-scale enterprises to enhance ease of access to markets 
• Unlocked key value chain efficiency and quality constraints