After internal consultations and based on an SDC project identification mission in Aswan, SDC's decision was to issue the present tender with the aim of identifying an organization which will elaborate and implement the ‘Youth Employment in Aswan Governorate' Project over the period of 1 September 2013 to 31 December 2016. In 2012, SDC decided to focus its activities on Upper Egypt, in particular Aswan. For one, there is, in general, less donor support channeled to Aswan. Also, it is relatively small in terms of population which allows Switzerland to put its financial contribution to optimal use and seek synergies with ongoing activities. An exploratory SDC mission to Aswan in March 2012 observed that fostering youth employment through private sector-led initiatives that adopt participatory community-based development approaches in a geographically focused area (in mostly rural Aswan) could present a niche for Switzerland to promote economic development. The project's aniticipated overall goal is to promote youth employment and create employment opportunities in Aswan. It also aims to focus on local partners' capacity building for sustainability purposes. During the elaboration of the project document, concrete support activities will be identified as well as the optimal delivery mode. Possible support areas include but are not limited to: vocational and personal skills development, entrepreneurship promotion, and micro and small enterprises development within high growth value chains. The project encourages applicants to consider the possiblity of partnership with other organizations for the purpose of maximizing impact and sustainability prospects by building on the existing capacities of the various organizations. The project will seek synergies with other projects including those funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) as well as those funded by other donors. SDC plans to hold a "dialogue" in order to gain a better understanding of the technical concepts and to ensure compliance with SDC's requirements of the project document submitted as the final bid. The three bidders selected to submit a full bid will participate in the dialogue. They will be notified about their participation in the dialogue, the exact date and time of the dialogue and the content of the dialogue.