Background

UN Women, the United Nations entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women, was created to accelerate progress towards the fulfillment of their rights around the world. UN Women assists UN member states in setting international norms and standards for achieving gender equality and works with governments and civil society to develop laws, policies, programs, and services needed to implement these standards.

Despite having a wide range of economic opportunities that contribute to the development of women's entrepreneurship, such as ownership of property, access to financing and loans, different factors continue to inhibit women's participation in entrepreneurship including infrastructural barriers, limited credit histories and inability to provide financial services. The findings from the study on the impact of COVID-19 on women's SMEs suggest that women's businesses were more likely to experience significant financial losses.

UN Women Kazakhstan focuses on the promotion of Women’s Empowerment Principles in the corporate and quasi-public sectors, reduction of the gap in wages, introducing targets and/or quotas for women in managerial positions, improving labour legislation and access of rural women to entrepreneurship and creation of public-private partnerships to support various women's initiatives.

According to its Strategic Note, the UN Women Kazakhstan is strengthening its cooperation with the private sector, aimed at developing strategic partnership with businesses in the area of Women’s Economic Empowerment and looking forward to engaging private sector and developing joint initiatives to  implement specific projects related to women's participation at the decision-making level, ending sexual harassment at the workplace, addressing pay gap, advancing women's professional development, and equal opportunities in the corporate sector.

In this regard, UN Women Kazakhstan plans to hire an national consultant, in order to develop a gender-responsive multisectoral financial tool for private sector engagement. This tool will include three components 1) review of a company’s internal policies and processes;  2) analysis of a company’s business model; 3) gender-sensitive financial market products.

Under the supervision of UN Women Programme Specialist, in daily coordination with the Communication Analyst, UN Women Kazakhstan plans to hire an national consultant in order to develop a gender-responsive multisectoral financial tools for private sector engagement.

Based on international best practices and current UN Women initiatives for private sector, new tools are expected to enhance and diverse national financial market, improve economic environment for women and serve as a drive for positive changes for women’s economic empowerment. A gender-responsive multisectoral financial tool will be developed in accordance with UN Women policies, in line with market needs and interests paying special attention to gender equality, women’s empowerment, digitalization, innovation and electronic  commerce aimed at inclusion of women from vulnerable groups including in rural and distant areas with a “Leaving no one behind” principle.

Duties and Responsibilities

National consultant will develop a gender-responsive multisectoral financial tools for private sector engagement, focusing on business organizations and financial institutions, in line with UN Women standards, strategies and plans, women’s empowerment principles, and is expected to undertake the following specific tasks:

• Analyze best practices on gender-sensitive business models;
• Analyze best practices on gender-sensitive corporate policies and cultures;
• Analyze the women entrepreneurship market in Kazakhstan;
• Analyze specific challenges women entrepreneurs face starting their businesses and conduct two surveys for women-owned startups and mature businesses;
• Analyze factors affecting successfulness of women’s businesses;
• Map the main stakeholders in the country including financial institutions, education and capacity building institutions, business service providers that offer products and services to women entrepreneurs;
• Analyze the potential credit need for SME owned by women;
• Analyze the market share of the main banks on SME Banking and the different segments;
• Develop the value proposition about serving to women entrepreneurs;
• Develop financial and non-financial offerings as per the results of the above analysis;
• Develop the roadmap for the implementation of the proposed financial products and services.
• Conduct at least two briefing on the findings and recommendations to the national partners.

The National consultant is expected to work home based and consult with UN Women online. If needed, the consultant might conduct short-term field visit to Kazakhstan (travel expenses should be included in the financial proposal).

All deliverables must be certified and approved by UN Women. 

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration

To learn more about UN Women values and competencies, please follow the link: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf

Required Skills and Experience

Required qualifications:

The selection process of National consultant will be by following criteria:

Education:

• University degree in economics, finance, law, public/business administration, banking, and other relevant fields.
• Master’s degree in Finance, Banking with focus on International Banking, Corporate, Stock, Audit components; Business Administration or Law with focus on Corporate, Financial, Commercial components is an asset.

Experience:

• Minimum 10 years of experience in related field.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in banking sector, corporate finance, corporate law, audit.
• Experience in developing women's market for financial institutions is a great asset.
• Experience in gender finance is an asset.
• Experience with UN agencies and other international companies/organizations, as well as with government agencies is an asset.

Evaluation

Only candidates who have passed the preliminary selection will be informed.

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, hires, trains, compensates and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by applicable law. All employment decisions are made on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational needs.  

If you require any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information with your application. 

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy for conduct that is inconsistent with the goals and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of power and discrimination. All selected candidates will be required to adhere to UN-Women's policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN-Women staff and will therefore be subject to a thorough background and background check. (A background check will include verification of academic credentials and employment history. Selected applicants may be required to provide additional information in order to conduct a background check.)