UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.
The UN Women MCO-Caribbean covers 22 countries and territories in the English and Dutch speaking Caribbean. Strides towards gender equality in the countries covered by the MCO have resulted in gains for women and girls in the Caribbean, relating primarily to high education rates and increases in employment rates. However critical gaps and inequalities remain which are further exploited during hazards like COVID-19 and other environmental hazards.
As part of its strategic focus, UN Women MCO-Caribbean is working towards supporting a more resilient and competitive business ecosystems, particularly among MSMEs owned by women and marginalized groups. Women’s entrepreneurism remains disproportionately low in the region with evidence suggesting only 8% (approximately 228,000 persons) of the total employed Caribbean population are self-employed women. Women entrepreneurs are also disproportionately operating micro enterprises with no, or few, employees, in low growth sectors, utilising little technology and innovation. This is a result of underlying factors such as gender norms and disproportionate unpaid care burdens resting on women, which leads to women’s limited access to capital, barriers to accessing business support services and training as well as business networks. This cumulatively can create obstacles and disincentives to entrepreneurism particular to women entrepreneurs. As a result, Latin America and the Caribbean is the region with the second highest failure rate of women-owned businesses.
The COVID-19 pandemic and its associated lockdowns worsened this situation, disproportionately impacting women, forcing many MSMEs into precarity and further limiting capital flows.
To support women’s economic resilience in the Eastern Caribbean, UN Women, in association with UNFPA, is implementing the Build Back Equal Programme funded by Global Affairs Canada in Grenada, Dominica, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. This project is taking a comprehensive approach to addressing the barriers women face to economic empowerment and providing increased sustainable opportunities for women’s economic growth. Women’s livelihoods will be made more resilient through increased access to reliable financing and technical assistance to ensure they have the business skills to operate and grow their businesses through environmentally friendly, climate and shock resilient innovation.
To align with existing strategies and initiatives, UN Women is seeking to hire a service provider to conduct a gender audit of OECS Commissions’, Regional Institutions’, and national support to women-owned MSME’s in the four countries, as well as identify and assess the existing business support services for women-owned MSMEs.
The service provider is expected to deliver the following results:
Develop a Workplan and Inception report
Gender review of existing services of the OECS Commission/Secretariat’s, regional institutions’ and national government’s support to MSMEs in Saint Lucia, Grenada, Dominica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, as well as existing business support services for MSME provided by non-governmental institutions (private sector, CSO, academia etc).
Draft a comprehensive report including recommendations for future programming and collaborations; (database and report of no more than 25 pages).
Final report on achieved results and recommendations on the way forward for future projects.
Deliverables
Core Values:
Core Competencies:
Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies:
https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process#_Values
Functional Competencies:
Education and Certification:
Experience:
Languages:
Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel
Remuneration
Hardware, Software, And Communication
Other:
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