Result of Service

The main objectives of completing the pilot implementation of the Policymakers Toolkit:
1. Assess barriers and challenges that women entrepreneurs face in the Philippines.
2. Facilitate in-country workshops and self-assessment exercise
3. Identify concrete, specific recommendations on how to advance women’s entrepreneurship in the Philippines
4. Provide lessons learnt from the pilot implementation of the Policymaker’s Toolkit for national stakeholders and for other countries to apply when completing their own implementations of the Toolkit.

Work Location

Remotely

Expected duration

07/09/23-28/02/24

Duties and Responsibilities

In Asia and the Pacific, entrepreneurship is one of the main pathways for women’s economic empowerment and equality, which can in turn have a ‘multiplier effect’ on family well-being, poverty reduction and sustainable economic growth. Thus, creating an enabling entrepreneurial ecosystem where women can freely participate to their full capacity, can yield expansive socio-economic gains stretching from households to communities and economies.

United Nations ESCAP’s Catalyzing Women’s Entrepreneurship (CWE) programme is a regional initiative that aims to strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystems that foster women’s entrepreneurship, enhance women entrepreneurs’ access to capital through innovative financing mechanisms, and increase women entrepreneurs’ use of ICT through relevant training and tools. The project implementation countries include Samoa, Bangladesh, Nepal, Cambodia, Viet Nam and Fiji; overall the project aims to directly support 20,000 women entrepreneurs in starting-up and expanding their businesses by 2023. The CWE project is supported by the Government of Canada.

Under the policy and advocacy stream of the programme, ESCAP has partnered with the ASEAN coordinating committee on MSMEs (ACCMSME) to advocate for women entrepreneur-centric policies and initiatives in the ASEAN region. In the context of this partnership, the Policymakers Toolkit on “Strengthening Women’s Entrepreneurship in National MSME Policies and Action Plans” was developed to provide a framework and methodology for integrating women-responsive policies and provisions in national MSME policies and action plans. The Toolkit assists policymakers, particularly from the ministries and agencies responsible for MSME development, to self-assess the development of women’s entrepreneurship at the national level, identify gaps and opportunities for improvements and develop action plans, with the end goal to create enabling environments for women’s entrepreneurship. The toolkit is a Priority Economic Deliverable under Cambodia’s ASEAN Chairmanship in 2022 and was endorsed by the ASEAN Economic Ministers at their 54th meeting in September 2022. Its implementation has been included as a priority in the ACCMSME workplan for 2023.

Amongst the ASEAN member States, the Philippines has been chosen for the pilot implementation of the Policymakers Toolkit. ESCAP is seeking a MSME and Gender Expert(s) to support the pilot implementation. The consultant is expected to analyze the effectiveness of Toolkit and facilitate the diagnostic/self-assessment process in the Philippines. This will be done under the leadership of the Philippines’ Department of Trade and Industry. The Consultant will organize and hold in-person self-assessment workshops with key stakeholders in the Philippines. These consultations will inform the writing of an in-depth report and summary presentation of recommendations and lessons learnt from the self-assessment workshops. The report should identify concrete Philippines-specific recommendations on how to advance women’s entrepreneurship that will serve as the basis for an action plan of short-and medium-term priority measures by policymakers and other stakeholders.

ESCAP is seeking a consultant(s) to complete a pilot implementation of the Policymakers’ Toolkit in the Philippines.

The responsibilities of the consultant(s) include:
1. To engage with the International Consultant who will be providing technical assistance to the national consultant and task team identified to carry out the self-assessment
2. To review the current situation of women’s entrepreneurship in the Philippines, including relevant laws, policies and their implementation.
3. To facilitate an understanding amongst national stakeholders of the Policymakers Toolkit and assessment framework ahead of and during the workshop.
4. To provide technical inputs into the organization of the workshops and facilitate the self-assessment exercises.
5. To analyse the outcomes of the self-assessment exercise and produce a report on the recommendations for consideration of national stakeholders. The report should also include lessons learnt from implementing the Policymaker’s Toolkit.
6. To create a PowerPoint presentation that can be used to facilitate the communication and dissemination of outcomes to the national stakeholders.

Qualifications/special skills

Advance degree in business, economics, public administration, entrepreneurship, gender or related development field.
At least 5 years of experience of working in gender research and MSME development, is required.
Extensive experience working on developing capacity assessments, self-assessments in the context of informing policymaking.
Extensive experience and knowledge of working on MSME issues in the Philippines.
Strong communication and facilitation skills.
Proven experience in research and report writing.

Languages

Excellent writing and editing skills in English language.

Additional Information

This consultancy is homebased, however the consultant is expected to conduct assessment workshops with key stakeholders in-person in the Philippines.

The consultant will work under the supervision and guidance of the Department of Trade and Industry in the Philippines and Programme Management Team at UNESCAP Bangkok.

No Fee

THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.