Request for Quotation for Final Independent Project Evaluation service, for the Italian project

الوصف

**Request for Quotation for Final Independent Project Evaluation service, for the project titled “Towards More and Better Employment through Enhanced Support to Private Sectors in Southern Iraq – with a Focus on Green Business”** **2. Background information** **Private sector development in Iraq is challenged by several factors, as the economy is largely dominated by the oil sector, and state-owned enterprises further impede incentives for private sector growth and diversification in the wider economy. Moreover, local firms struggle to become competitive within national and international markets, and an abundance of cheap imports combined with low levels of investment has hindered the development of nascent domestic activities1. Iraq is also known for a challenging business environment, which makes it difficult for “start-ups” and/or MSMEs to flourish and expand their business in the formal economy and green businesses. According to the World Bank report in 2020, Iraq is ranked 172 out of 190 countries for “ease of doing business”2. This relates in particular to the financial and time-related costs of setting up businesses, which the report estimated take 26.5 days on average and cost about 14.6% of income per capita.** **Another factor that halts private sector development is access to credit, where Iraq is ranked 186 out of 190 countries in the world. ILO research on financial inclusion from 2019 highlights several challenges to accessing credit and formal financing services3. The banking sector in Iraq is considered relatively small with limited capacity, leading to strong competition from informal financial service providers. The previous illiquidity of banks has also resulted in low levels of trust among the population in the banking sector, while private-sector banks consider many SMEs to be very high risk, thus reducing the likelihood of lending to what effectively represents most enterprises in Iraq. A survey conducted in 2020 by UNDP on MSMEs, covering