Business Development Support Activity Lesotho Health and Horticulture Compact - Business Environment and Technical Assistance (BETA) Project - Business Development Support Activity; This Pipeline Development Activity will identify, build, and connect existing and new high-growth potential firms to direct technical assistance and business development services (BDS) to support increased firm level profits and business maturation. Additionally, the Activity will provide grants to select women and youth-owned businesses to facilitate business plan implementation.

Firms selected to receive technical assistance and BDS support are expected to be investment ready or near investment ready firms with high potential to scale and drive labor-intensive growth. The technical assistance will cover topics such as core business operations (e.g., financial literacy, accounting, marketing, market research, and legal compliance), soft skills, and fundraising. Additionally, technical assistance could include pre-investment support such as feasibility studies, including studies related to bridging information gaps and strengthening priority sector value chains. The technical assistance may be provided on a one-to-one basis for growth and mature stage firms or through a one-to-many training model or other instructional model for early-stage firms. The programming will be prioritized by business life-stage and tailored offerings reserved for larger firms prioritizing agri-business, high potential growth oriented horticulture value chain (HVC) firms (e.g., post-harvest handling and cold chain), and entrenching gender and social inclusion components across the programming. The BETA Project aims to support up to approximately 50 mature stage and 500 early-stage firms.

Select early-stage firms and start-ups will receive assistance through an incubator and accelerator program. The incubator will provide training on core business operations, access to workspaces and other operating resources (e.g., computer labs), entrepreneurship skills, and personal initiative training. The incubator and accelerator program will be sector neutral and delivered to cohorts of firms by an established incubator with demonstrated experience successfully developing MSMEs. A grant will be provided to incentivize an incubator and accelerator with a demonstrable track record to expand into Lesotho. The grant funding may partially subsidize the cost of incubating MSMEs. Local BDS providers will receive training to build their capacity to improve the quality and effectiveness of services provided in Lesotho and sustainability of the BDS provider business model.

The Pipeline Development Activity also includes interventions for advancing opportunity to women- and youth-owned MSMEs and businesses from and serving remote rural communities. These include: (a) a needs assessment to determine factors that will constrain women, youth and those from rural, disadvantaged communities from applying and successfully accessing business support resources, including those provided under the BETA Project; (b) capacity building of BDS service providers to foster increased participation of women and youth, provide tailored services, and entrench gender and inclusion targets and metrics in their practices; (c) technical assistance to women- and youth-owned business that address the unique and specific needs of these businesses, including gender smart business models of technical assistance service delivery, and personal initiative training; (d) mentorship, incubation and acceleration interventions with a high target for and designed to serve women- and youth-owned SMEs, employing a portfolio of best practices; (e) market access and supplier development programs to access formal supply chains through e.g. formalization, cooperative schemes, compliance with quality standards, and potentially a �gender-smart' label'; (f) promotion of gender empowerment policies and practices that adopt improved working conditions, skills, productivity, and satisfaction of women employees; and (g) grants to approximately 100-125 early-stage women and youth-owned MSMEs, accompanied by technical assistance offered under the BETA Project.

Furthermore, the Activity will enhance the competitiveness of local producers by working with government institutions such as Lesotho Standards Institute (LSI) and National University of Lesotho (NUL) to build their capacity to facilitate compliance of local produce with the requirements of the local and export markets.