The MasterCard Foundation in partnership with Hybrid Designs and its consortium partners- ICog, R& D Group and Qua Qua Capitals as well as D & T Ethiopia Management Consulting PLC are launching a five- year program entitled ‘Entrepreneurship in the Digital and Gig Economy (EDGE)’ with the aim of unlocking over 300,000 dignified and fulfilling employment opportunities for economically disadvantaged young people across Ethiopia through an innovative digitally enabled and mediated domestic outsourcing market and enabling a thriving offshore outsourcing ecosystem. This program will be scaling five outsourcing platform (digital) enabled products for both the offshore and onshore market that will empower young women and vulnerable groups.
The program will also support 1,041 MSEs across Ethiopia to streamline their internal processes and organizational excellence to expand and grow their business, which will contribute to the development of a pipeline of competitive outsourcing enterprises that will serve and take advantage of the outsourcing market, both locally and globally. Through the ecosystem level collaboration with key strategic partners such as the IT park and the Ethiopian Outsourcing Association, the program anticipates contributing to the development of a strong outsourcing ecosystem, which will enable system level changes and position Ethiopia as an attractive outsourcing destination. The program will work to transform the outsourcing ecosystem to better serve the needs of financially disadvantaged young women and men.
The program anticipates achieving its goals through its three interconnected program components which include:

1. Enhancing youth awareness in outsourcing and skill development;
2. Enterprise development and
3. Improving enabling environment through ecosystem Support. Through these interventions, the program will contribute to the achievement of the goals of the MasterCard Foundation’s Young Africa Works strategy, Ethiopia’s country road-map and country success story by the end of the program period and beyond.

OBJECTIVE OF THE REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP)
To select a qualified agency partner to develop and execute a comprehensive awareness campaign for Hybrid Designs’s EDGE initiative. This campaign aims to achieve the following overarching goal:

• To raise awareness of outsourcing industry career opportunities among 1,000,000 young people (15-35) nationwide, motivating them to explore and pursue careers in the sector.

The selected agency will be responsible for creating and implementing innovative and engaging strategies to reach and inspire young people (ages 15-35) across the nation, showcasing the diverse and rewarding career opportunities within the outsourcing industry