UN WOMEN Jobs - 34761- Consultant for developing a National Strategic Pla

Consultant for developing a National Strategic Plan for Women in Informal Cross Border Trade Project

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

Mbabane, SWAZILAND

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

21-Jan-2013

Application Deadline :

11-Jan-13 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

20 days

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

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. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

UN Women Southern Regional Office (SRO) is collaborating with the Ministry of Commence, Industry and Trade – Small, Micro Medium Enterprise SMME Unit) to implement the ‘Women in Informal Cross Border Trade in Swaziland’ Project. The overall goal of the project is to create wealth, reduce poverty and minimise exclusion among Women in Informal Cross Border Trade (WICBT). The project aims to strengthen the informal sector to contribute to poverty alleviation through the integration of WICBT in national policies, legislation, programmes, plans and budgets. Service provision such as health, finance and infrastructure pertinent to the sector will also be enhanced for a comprehensive approach to enabling the business value chain so that it can contribute positively to the national economic growth.

The main objective of the assignment is to produce a national strategic plan for WICBT. The consultant will specifically undertake the following components: (i) Conduct an assessment for national policies, regulatory frameworks, programmes and budget allocations in enabling and enhancement, as well as identify gaps for the promotion of WICBT, (ii) Investigate the institutional, structural, and service provision capacity needs for the promotion of WICBT initiatives, and make recommendations for capacity building and interventions for future undertaking in the priority sector, and (iii) Conduct a needs assessment for the WICBT highlighting their bottlenecks and identification of key areas of support through a strategic plan.

Duties and Responsibilities

Working in collaboration with the MICT-SMME Unit and the WICBT Project Coordinator the consultant is expected to undertake, but not limited to the following tasks:

Conduct a review of the national policy and regulatory frameworks, legislation, programmes, supporting WICBT.
Identify key individuals, institutions and structures and conduct capacity needs assessment that will inform the development of a strategy for the promotion of the WICBT programmes.
Conduct two stakeholders’ consultations workshops, the inception workshop and the validation workshop, and other project consultations as identified by the implementation plan.
Develop National Strategic Plan for the WICBT sector and present the drafts to the stakeholders for validation as well as approval by the MICT SMME-Unit and UN Women – SRO.

Methodology: The above assignment will be accomplished through deskwork studies, review of different literature including (policies, strategies and plans in the trade and entrepreneurship sector) to establish existing gaps towards WICBT initiatives. Several consultative meetings with various key stakeholders will be conducted to gather information and their experiences. The consultants are also expected to carry out field visits and apply various technical data collections and analysis methodologies to assess information on barriers, service provision to the sector, infrastructure and pertinent issues to WICBT.

Deliverables:

Validated needs assessment report covering primary stakeholders in WICBT.
A comprehensive, Women in Cross Border Trade Strategy and Action Plan identifying interventions for the various enabling levels namely policy and regulatory, programmes, capacity development and service and infrastructure. The strategy should also depict the programmes sustainability issues.

Competencies

Proven track record in conducting complex participatory capacity needs assessments with strong expertise and experience in facilitating workshops;
Proven track record in developing Development strategy with experience in the informal trade issues;
Able to communicate effectively, verbally and in writing with a wide range of people with ability to team-build.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Masters degree in Social Sciences, Economics and Trade, Development Management or other related field.

Experience:

At least 15 years of experience leading the design and implementation of development strategies, programmes in trade issues;

Language:

Fluency in English