Youth Entrepreneurship Technical Advisor

                                                                          The Youth Grow Activity (YGA)

                                                                                         Scope of work

• PROJECT BACKGROUND

About Youth Grow Activity

Launched in 2023, Youth Grow Activity (YGA) is a five-year US Government (USG)-funded initiative that aims to transform the economic trajectory of Jordan’s youth while strengthening resilient, opportunity-rich local systems to promote long-term stability and security. YGA’s reflects a growing strategic consensus: youth economic empowerment is no longer just a development objective; it is a tool for socioeconomic prosperity. YGA tackles the root causes of economic exclusion and youth unemployment—key drivers of social unrest, destabilized vulnerable communities, and brain drain and migration. By aligning local and national economic opportunities with shared regional and global strategic interests, YGA leverages economic empowerment as a force to foster resilient partnerships that help co-create future-ready systems.

YGA focuses on three core objectives:

1. Increased youth access to income-generating opportunities. YGA prepares, inspires, and links youth with opportunities and career pathways that allow them to generate income in growing arenas, including technology-enabled work, remote employment, and enhancing youth-led and youth-serving enterprises growth opportunities.
2. Enhanced youth economic leadership through targeted support of youth-led, youth-serving organizations, and youth groups through integrating sustainable practices and procedures for youth economic integration into the local and national ecosystem and enhancing youth's meaningful involvement in decision-making by creating avenues where their voices are heard to shape their support activities that affect their economic progress. This approach allows YGA to support inclusive economic growth that fosters innovation and long-term value creation.
3. Strengthened Jordan's youth development system in partnership with youth through enhanced coordination among stakeholders within youth-relevant services and policies and strengthened youth centers' capacity to serve as a connection hub between youth and youth support ecosystems to develop a lasting environment for youth empowerment and engagement.

About Q2IMPACT (QED Group, LLC DBA Q2 Impact)

Q2IMPACT, a QED Group company, brings over 25 years of expertise in data-driven, impact-focused solutions at the intersection of development, diplomacy, and defense. Rooted in this dynamic history, Q2IMPACT leverages cutting-edge technology, data-driven insight, and strategic expertise to tackle today’s most pressing challenges. Evolving with global priorities, Q2IMPACT blends its rich legacy in Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL), Collaboration, Learning, and Adaptation (CLA); data analytics; systems strengthening, and adaptive programming with a renewed focus on strategic relevance, economic growth, and national security. Q2IMPACT is the Prime Subrecipient under the USG-funded Youth Grow Activity (YGA) under Agreement No. 72027823CA00003.

• ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROGRAMS BACKGROUND

The Youth Entrepreneurship Program is a key initiative under the Youth Grow Activity (YGA), implemented by Q2 Impact in partnership with SPARK Jordan, the Royal Scientific Society (RSS) – Ipark, among other local actors in the market. Designed to address youth economic exclusion in Jordan, the program targets young people aged 18–29. The program aims to strengthen youth entrepreneurial readiness and enhance access to income-generating opportunities. Through a structured series of interventions, including online and face to face ideation sessions and bootcamps, a competitive incubation cycle for youth-led business ideas, personalized mentorship, and access to co-working spaces, grants’ financing, and acceleration, the program provides youth with the tools, skills, and ecosystem support needed to transform their ideas into viable, sustainable ventures. Different partners like SPARK and RSS co-leads the program’s implementation, drawing on their technical expertise, their incubator arms, and it’s their national reach through to deliver capacity-building, mentorship, and business development services, culminating in Demo Days and post-graduation support to ensure continuity and impact.

Additionally, YGA has launched a program for video game development, providing youth with opportunities to engage in digital creative industries and explore new freelance and self-employment pathways, through publishing and monetizing the games they were trained to develop.

Through its Catalytic Investment Fund (CIF), YGA aims to mobilize private capital, facilitate investment readiness services and acceleration services, and issue growth grants, in order to scale youth-led and youth-labor-intensive MSMEs that can generate meaningful employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for youth. These interventions are embedded within YGA’s broader ecosystem strategy, fostering inclusive economic participation, promoting innovation, and building sustainable, future-ready systems led by and for youth.

• SCOPE OF WORK:

The consultant will support the YGA team in managing and strengthening entrepreneurship and acceleration components, including technical input to program implementation, ecosystem coordination, startup support, and youth-centered innovation.

1. Entrepreneurship Program Delivery

• Support the implementation of the entrepreneurship mindset and readiness program, implemented by iPARK, which aims to help aspiring youth entrepreneurs through a full cycle of awareness, ideation bootcamps, incubation, and acceleration, with tailored technical and financial support to help them build sustainable ventures. 
• Review and Provide technical feedback on curriculum design, participant selection and filtration. different stages of assessments, and capacity building mechanisms.
• Support the development of materials and resources to help youth participants during post-bootcamp and incubation phases.

2. Acceleration and investment readiness for youth labor intensive MSMEs

• Advice on the design of the acceleration program for youth labor intensive MSMEs, including tools, financing mechanisms, and tailored support packages.
• Review and provide written feedback advice, recommendations, and innovative ideas on the draft scope of work for the Acceleration Program implementing partner.
• Co-lead a brainstorming session with market actors and stakeholders to gather input and identify innovative approaches for structuring the acceleration program.
• Support the initiation of and the early stages of the Catalytic Investment Fund, including selection of service providers, contracting and onboarding, and drafting of requirements and workplans for service providers. mobilize capital and accelerate the growth of youth-led and youth-labor-intensive MSMEs that generate large-scale income opportunities.

3. Gaming Development and Monetization Program

• Lead the coordination and technical oversight of the “video game development, publishing, and monetization” program for youth participants.
• Collaborate with service providers to ensure youth are trained in industry-relevant tools and models.
• Ensure inclusive youth access to game development tracks and pathways for monetized publishing.
• Assess the proposed program design’s impact and youth monetization outcomes.

4. Startup Ecosystem and Mentorship Engagement

• Identify and engage relevant partners, mentors, and ecosystem actors to support program delivery and provide youth access to services, networks, and platforms.
• Facilitate collaboration with partners such as iPARK, SPARK, Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship (MODEE), Ministry of Youth (MOY), among others.

5. Strategic and Operational Support

• Contribute to startup scouting, selection, and due diligence processes.
• Document recommendations for scaling and institutionalizing youth entrepreneurship pathways.
• Provide technical guidance on grant structuring and performance-based milestones for accelerated enterprises.
• Collaborate with the MEL team to ensure program outputs are tracked and reported accurately, including enterprise progress and income-generation outcomes.

6. Reporting and Communication

• Prepare technical briefs, implementation updates, and youth success stories.
• Participate in periodic learning sessions with YGA and partners to identify innovations and adaptations.

• LEVEL OF EFFORTS. LOCATION, AND TIMEFRAME:

• The designated level of effort for this consultation is up to 24 working days (192 working hours), delivered over up to 60 calendar days (a max of 12 working days monthly), starting from the date of signing the contract. 
• This assignment/consultancy needs to be implemented at and delivered from Q2Impact offices in Amman, Jordan. 

• REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Minimum 6 years of relevant experience in youth entrepreneurship, startup support, or economic development programming, preferably with donor-funded projects.
• Demonstrated experience in startup acceleration, venture development, or business incubation, particularly in the MENA region.
• Knowledge of the Jordanian entrepreneurship ecosystem and digital economy sectors.
• Experience in designing or implementing gaming, e-commerce, or creative economy programs is strongly preferred.
• Fluency in English and Arabic, with excellent communication and reporting skills.
• Bachelor’s degree in business, entrepreneurship, economics, or related fields.