Background | |
The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) is the UN organization dedicated to gender equality and was established in 2011 to accelerate the attainment of the rights of women globally. UN Women stands behind women’s equal participation in all aspects of life and is mandated to support UN Member States to apply global standards for achieving gender equality, and works with governments and the civil society to design and develop laws, policies, programmes and services needed to implement these standards. UN Women is further expected to provide leadership in enhancing and coordinating the accountability of the United Nations system in its work on gender equality and women empowerment. It is in this spirit that UN Women, and the Rome-based UN agencies (FAO, IFAD and WFP) are mandated to spearhead a comprehensive UN system approach and response through joint actions to support rural women’s economic empowerment in the region, and indeed globally. The priority areas of focus for UN Women include: enhancing women’s leadership and participation; ending violence against women; and to champion women’s economic empowerment.
Furthermore, longstanding and persistent gender inequalities in accessing economic resources and services by the majority of women in Africa has directly resulted in poorer human development outcomes and productivity, particularly for women in agriculture, where up to 86 percent of rural women and men are engaged. Various studies have shown that improving the entrepreneurial capacity of women and providing women farmers with the same quantity and quality of inputs that men receive typically has the potential to increase national agricultural output and incomes by an estimated 20% (World Bank, 2005).
It is in this context that the UN Women Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO) has designed a Women Economic Empowerment (WEE) programme, to advance solutions aimed at significantly elevating women’s rights and contribution to the national economic priorities of wealth creation, employment and growth. Accordingly, the Women’s Economic Empowerment programme for ESARO region is premised on a strategy to develop the entrepreneurial and leadership capacities of women and youth; and to link them to innovative business models (value chains and innovative technology) and formal services (mainly financial), in collaboration with strategic partners, and as a pathway for them to effectively participate in gainful economic activities and opportunities. In view of the agrarian nature and rural structure of the most African economies, and the central role agriculture plays in determining human development outcomes in the region, UN Women expects that this strategy will also bring women and youth to the forefront in the process of agricultural transformation and commercialization, across specific agro-processing, industry and trade value chains.
UN Women considers strategic partnerships as key enabler in the implementation of its WEE programme. UN Women has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Equity Group Foundation to strengthen collaboration in the areas of capacity development and training for women entrepreneurs, development of appropriate financial products and support to the implementation of the Women Economic Empowerment programme.
Equity Group Foundation [EGF] was established in 2006 in recognition of the need to scale up the existing corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives by the Equity Bank Group. The Foundation acts as the institutional home for the Group’s social initiatives and interventions. Since its inception, the Foundation has significantly enhanced the coordination of CSR interventions for Equity Group. The Foundation’s aim is to catalyze the socio-economic prosperity of the people of Africa by giving opportunity to the millions at the bottom of the pyramid to be incorporated into the modern economy.
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Duties and Responsibilities | |
In this context, UN Women’s and Equity Group Foundation (EGF) seek to hire an expert to map out the landscape of women businesses in Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan which will include assessing the needs of these businesses and outlining potential intervention strategies that will help transform them into profitable ventures. In addition, the consultant will map out partners, institutions and agencies that are currently engaged in supporting women businesses and potential partners and the opportunities to engage and leverage on on-going enterprise development and entrepreneurship programs. It is expected that the selected consultant will prepare a scoping report that will meet the standards and expectations of both UN Women and EGF in terms of structure and content.
Specific tasks and responsibility:
Under the overall supervision of the WEE Program Manager andworking in close consultation with the EGF Managing Director, the Consultant will be expected to undertake the following:
Deliverables:
Methodology
The assignment will be conducted through:
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Competencies | |
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UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.
http://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_job.cfm?cur_job_id=39493
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NATIONAL CONSULTANT: ASSESMENT OF WOMEN BUSINESS LANDSCAPE
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