MSME Access to Finance Assessment and Approach Consultant

Description
Background
Barely enough is not enough for anyone. Prosper Global is a humanitarian organization working alongside communities facing conflict, climate change, and economic hardship to meet urgent needs and create the conditions for lasting progress. Today's challenges demand new solutions, so we pair local knowledge with global resources to help communities build what's needed, test what's possible, and scale what's proven so that people everywhere can pursue a full life on their own terms. In 2026, we changed our name from Mercy Corps to Prosper Global, to reflect our belief that when every community can prosper, all of humanity moves forward.
The Strengthening Caribbean Economic Growth (SCEG) program responds to persistent barriers to employment, entrepreneurship and livelihood security in 12 jurisdictions across the Caribbean (see Annex 1). Prosper Global’s research highlights challenges such as high import dependency, costly logistics, youth unemployment and Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEET) status, skills mismatches, limited business support, weak access to finance and constraints on small business growth. In response, the program aims to build the economic strength and job skills of women, men, girls and boys aged 16 and older by supporting market-aligned workforce training, entrepreneurship and business development, digital capability, access to finance, small grants for locally led solutions, and stronger technical capacity among CSOs and local stakeholders.
To achieve this, SCEG is partnering with six CSOs who are expected to directly reach more than 1,250 individuals and enterprises across six jurisdictions, with interventions tailored to local economic opportunities in agriculture, construction, entrepreneurship, digital services, and informal trade. Collectively, the projects provide practical skills training, business development support, market linkages, access to finance, mentorship, and digital tools to help participants improve their incomes, secure employment, grow enterprises, and build long-term economic resilience. The six CSOs are:
ATEN Export, Dominican Republic. Reaching 910 participants – 800 coffee farmers, 100 beekeepers and 10 rural MSMEs. By providing technical and business training, digital access, access to credit, strengthening cooperatives, and expanding commercial links with national, regional, and tourist buyers, the project will enable small farmers to adopt innovative practices, capture higher-value opportunities, and strengthen their livelihoods.
Belmont Foundation, Grenada. Reaching 24 participants - rural youth aged 16-35. The project will equip young people with agricultural, digital, entrepreneurship, and workforce skills while providing practical business experience and access to mentorship and financing opportunities, enabling them to secure employment or start durable businesses.
Dominica State College, Dominica. Reaching 50 participants - 30 joinery students, 10 joinery community trainees, 10 MSMEs. The project aims to empower joinery students through a structured 12-week training course and apprenticeship placements with MSMEs while simultaneously strengthening the operational capacity of 10 joinery[1]focused MSMEs.
WindBlow Inc., St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Reaching 150 participants - Farmers, youth, and rural micro[1]entrepreneurs. The initiative will equip participant MSMEs with practical, employment-ready competencies in agriculture, digital literacy, business management, soft skills, and market linkage strategies to strengthen their businesses.
Barbados Youth Business Trust (BYBT), Barbados. Reaching 40 MSMEs - growth-oriented MSMEs. The programme will strengthen business management, digital adoption, export readiness, access to finance, and market linkages through training, mentorship and grants.
Harmoney Fintech Solutions, Jamaica. Reaching 60 participants -informal market vendors operating at Kingston Night Market. The project will help vendors adopt digital payments, improve bookkeeping and business management, and gain access to formal financial services and credit through a partnership with National Commercial Bank.
Although the Caribbean has made substantial progress in financial inclusion, with account ownership now around 70% of adults and digital finance expanding rapidly, access to credit, particularly for MSMEs, remains a significant constraint. This was confirmed by a Caribbean-wide Assessment conducted by Prosper Global in 2025 which evaluated both market constraints and knowledge, attitude and practices of sample participants. Access to finance was the top constraint faced by businesses, with 69% of businesses citing this challenge in a 2020 survey, and 85% of respondents in the 2025 survey citing ‘lack of startup capital or funding’ as the main barrier to starting a business. While reasons varied between jurisdictions, the most commonly cited reasons were high interest rates and collateral requirements, inappropriate loan terms (e.g. not matched to agriculture), and complex application procedures. On the supply side, banks tend to be risk averse and favour investments in less risky sectors like construction and are hindered by a lack of credit bureaus and useful credit histories, and increasingly frequent and severe climate shocks that impact their loan portfolio and balance sheets.
Purpose / Project Description
To address the constraints that MSME participants face in accessing and using appropriate financial services, particularly credit, to start, sustain and grow their businesses, Prosper Global is seeking a consultant to conduct a regional assessment of MSME finance and financial inclusion in the Caribbean, with particular focus on the target jurisdictions, and to develop a Responsive MSME Finance Approach Paper to guide programme design and future engagement. Together, the assessment and approach paper should provide an analysis of the state of financial inclusion for MSMEs in the sectors targeted by SCEG, the constraints and opportunities on both the supply and demand side, the key financial actors currently engaged in the sector, and recommendations on the design of future partnerships, interventions and funding proposals to improve access to financial services for MSMEs. Prosper Global plans to hold a workshop in February 2027 with partner CSOs, select financial institutions, and other key stakeholders to review progress to date under the SCEG programme and identify opportunities for future programming. The workshop will be used to review and validate the findings of the MSME finance assessment and the proposed approach, identify priority partnerships, and support the development of future concepts.
Consultant Activities
The consultant will conduct an assessment of and develop an approach paper for expanding and improving MSME financing in the Caribbean. The assessment will include:
An overview of the current provision of financial services to MSMEs in the Caribbean, and an in-depth analysis on the seven jurisdictions (and neighbouring jurisdiction in the case of regional providers), including: financial service providers (FSPs), including both regulated financial and non-financial institutions and national and regional financial institutions (e.g. Commercial banks, Credit unions, Development banks, MFIs, Fintech providers); the main financial products and their characteristics, collateral requirements, terms, conditions and fees; market segmentation; distribution channels, including digital channels. Focus should be placed on specific institutions who might be willing and able to extend services to current SCEG program participants as well as any financial product innovations (such as fintech) appropriate for MSMEs.
An overview of the financing needs, opportunities and constraints of the SCEG participant MSMEs gathered through interviews with the CSOs and selected MSMEs, including business characteristics, financing needs and opportunities, and specific gaps that need to be addressed to increase their financial access, including opportunities to enable them to increase regional and international trade.
An assessment of existing risk-sharing, guarantee and blended finance mechanisms, including regional and national credit guarantee schemes, development finance institutions, donor-supported facilities and impact investment mechanisms. Identify opportunities to expand or strengthen these mechanisms.
A review of key ecosystem and regulatory factors affecting MSME finance, including credit information systems, collateral frameworks, financial regulations, digital finance regulations, and barriers to serving priority MSME sectors and segments.
From this, the consultant will develop a Responsive MSME Finance Approach Paper that describes how Mercy Corps can ensure that participant SMEs can access and use quality financial product, particularly credit. This paper will be used to organise and facilitate the design workshop and then develop future activities for the target populations. The approach paper should make recommendations on:
Priority MSME sectors (including, agriculture, fisheries and services) to serve based on financing need, opportunity, viability and achievement of programme and wider MC objectives.
Priority partnerships for Mercy Corps and SCEG partners with named FSPs, including assessment of strategic fit, capacity, willingness to partner and potential partnership models, and other key stakeholders to provide access to risk-sharing, guarantee and blended finance mechanisms
How CSOs will engage with the FSPs (and others) to enable their MSMEs to access and use financial services to strengthen their programming and support to the MSMEs, and any

Work arrangement
Yes