Background
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.
UN Women Multi-Caribbean Office invites interested individual Jamaican consultants or consultant teams to express their interest in consultancies to deliver varied types of technical assistance under the “WIN: WIN – Gender Equality means Good Business” Programme. The consultancies are home based and may collectively be up to 48 working days during the period April 2019 and December 2019.
Duties and Responsibilities
Description of Requirements:
UN Women - in partnership with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and European Commission - is implementing the regional programme “Win-Win: Gender Equality Means Good Business” to contribute to the economic empowerment of women, recognizing them as beneficiaries and partners of growth and development, by increasing commitment of private companies to gender equality and women´s empowerment and strengthening companies’ capacities to implement these commitments. The programme will ultimately contribute to the achievement of gender equality through enabling women’s labour force participation, entrepreneurship, economic empowerment and thus their full and equal participation in society.
Targeting women led enterprises and networks, multi-national companies, and relevant stakeholders in Europe and selected Latin American and Caribbean countries, the project will promote business links, joint ventures and innovation between women from both regions, while supporting inter-regional dialogue and exchange of good practices to increase the capacity of the private sector more broadly in the implementation of gender equal business.
Empowering women to participate fully in economic life is essential to build stronger economies and improve the quality of life for women, men, families and communities. Companies drive gains in productivity, competitiveness and innovation by developing policies and practices to improve gender equality at the workplace and developing gender responsive procurement and source from women-owned businesses.
Private sector companies have a central and active role to play in achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) cannot be achieved unless women and girls are on an equal footing with men and boys and unless the private sector is on board. In addition to gender equality being a fundamental and inviolable human right and integral to the achievement of the SDGs, women’s and girls’ empowerment is essential to expand economic growth, promote social development and enhance business performance. The full incorporation of women’s capacities into labour forces would add percentage points to most national growth rates – double digits in some cases. Further, investing in women’s empowerment produces the double dividend of benefiting women and children, and is pivotal to the health and social development of families, communities and nations.
Gender equality gives businesses the opportunity to hire from a wider pool of talent, gain greater insights into consumers’ needs, and improve the security and quality of supply. Enlightened businesses are realising that enabling women’s full potential delivers returns. For business, equal treatment of women and men means access to the most talented pool of workers, a more balanced and talented board, greater appeal to the consumer base, an enhanced corporate reputation, and even a more stable supply of basic commodities. Tackling gender inequality is also the right thing to do, as inequality increases women’s vulnerability to poverty and suffering
The situation regarding gender equality in the Jamaican private sector reflects that of the rest of the Caribbean. DFID's report notes that "the situation of gender in the Caribbean is one characterized by low levels of labour market participation by women, and, where activity is seen, it is mostly as employees and concentrated in low-growth, low-status, low-paying sectors. The reason proffered for this occurrence is a high level of gender stereotyping across the Caribbean which has led to women being segregated educationally and consequently also occupationally and sectorally; this is despite women dominating tertiary education enrolment across the region. A recent CAPRI study found that Jamaican women have less access to paid work and resources than men do and bear the largest responsibility for unpaid reproductive work. The time women spend on unpaid care work is time that could be but is not spent on paid and productive work. The study showed clearly that the allocation of Jamaican women's time to unpaid care work has a negative correlation with their labour force participation rates, labour exclusion and gender pay gaps.
Win-Win Implementation Activities:
The programme is being implemented in 6 Latin American and Caribbean countries: Jamaica, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, and Uruguay. The various activities are organized under 3 pillars:
- Networking and cooperation between women-led business;
- Companies and employers’ organizations capacity strengthening, knowledge and good practices sharing and advocacy;
- Innovative financing facility to support women-led innovation and business ventures.
Win-Win Expected Results:
In three years “Win-Win” aims to achieve the following outcomes:
- Increased cooperation and expanded opportunities between women-led businesses;
- Increased sustainable private sector engagement to the achievement of the SDGs;
- Increased support and financial investment in women-led innovation and business ventures.
The Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs)
The guiding platform to achieve gender equality is the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs), launched in 2010. The WEPs are a set of Principles for business offering guidance on how to empower women in the workplace, marketplace and community. Coordinated by UN Women and the UN Global Compact, the Principles emphasize the business case for corporate action to promote gender equality and women's empowerment and are informed by real-life business practices and inputs gathered from across the globe.
The WEPs call for a multi-stakeholder approach to gender equality and have generated the support of over 1900 business leaders from around the world. It is a set of Principles for business offering guidance on how to achieve gender equality and empower women in the workplace, marketplace and community. Among other things, the Principles highlight the importance of creating formal and decent work opportunities for women throughout the pipeline, including leadership and decision-making positions, ensuring equal pay for work of equal value, promoting knowledge, education and skill-building for women and girls, support for women entrepreneurs and women-owned businesses, and combating violence against women – a major impediment to the empowerment and well-being of women and girls worldwide.
The Women's Empowerment Principles offer seven steps to guide business on how to empower women in the workplace, marketplace and community. Subtitled, Equality Means Business, the Principles Emphasize the business case for corporate action to promote gender equality and women's empowerment and are informed by real-life business practices and input gathered from across the globe. Rather than being prescriptive or a new initiative to which business is asked to subscribe, the WEPs seek the point the way to best practices by elaborating the gender dimensions of good corporate citizenship, the UN Global Compact and business role in sustainable development.
In Jamaica, there is a total of twenty-four companies that have signed the UN Women/UN Global Compact Women Empowerment Principles (WEPs) CEO Statement of Support. The Win-Win Jamaica component will be working with these companies to advance them through the WEPs pathway and achieve the stated outputs of the Win-Win Programme.
It is now required to expand the consultant database, to cover the necessary areas of technical assistance. The
Consultants/Consultant Team shall together provide the following services including training and capacity building in the following areas:
- International Trade
- Business development
- Organization development and management
- Responding to Procurement RFQs: How to develop financial and technical proposals
- Financial Management
- Proposal Writing for Resource Mobilization/Funding
- Development of leadership skills
- Networking
- Mentorship and Coaching
- eCommerce - social media and website development
- Marketing including niche and digital marketing
- Gender mainstreaming
- Provision of Rapporteur services
- Communications - writing, photography and videography
- Translation to English from Spanish and Portuguese
Outputs:
The following outputs are expected under the respective outcomes:
Outcome 1: Increased cooperation and expanded opportunities between women-led businesses
Output:
- Networking platforms support expanded opportunities for women-led businesses from Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean
Outcome 2: Increased sustainable private sector engagement to the achievement of the SDGs
Outputs:
- Improved capacities of companies to develop and implement gender equality practices and to genuinely integrate them into their corporate policy and practice
- Strengthened capacities and knowledge to support gender equality implementation in the private sector
- Reporting platform enables companies to monitor and report implementation of their commitments to women’s empowerment and gender equality
- Knowledge exchange enables companies to share and take up effective gender equitable business practices
- Business organizations capacity is enhanced to promote gender equitable employment and business practices
Outcome 3: Increased support and financial investment in women-led innovation and business ventures.
Output:
- Impact investment facility established as innovative and sustainable financing model to attract additional private sector investments for gender equality, linked to SDG5 achievement.
Competencies
Core Values/Guiding Principles:
Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies:
Core Competencies:
- Strong analytic and organization skills;
- Excellent command of written and spoken English including the ability to convey complex concepts and recommendations, in a clear and persuasive style tailored to match different audiences;
- Ability to work independently and as part of a small team, manage competing priorities and perform well under pressure;
- High level of familiarity and comfort with digital platforms and use of technology in business and organizational development
Required Skills and Experience
Education:
- Individual Consultants and Consultant Teams should possess MBA or Master’s degrees, in at least one of the following areas: international trade, entrepreneurship, financial management, business development, organisational development, private sector development, social policy, gender studies, development studies, strategic communication, digital communication, marketing, or a related field of study.
Experience:
- At least 7 years’ experience and proven track record in the stated technical areas;
- Demonstrable knowledge of issues related to gender, women’s empowerment, private sector development and sustainable development in Jamaica/Caribbean:
- Demonstrable experience in the design, development and delivery of training and capacity building services.
- Work experience at the supervisory/managerial level in the private sector is obligatory.
- Prior work experience with the United Nations would be considered an asset
Languages:
- Fluent in English; working knowledge of Spanish
UN Women will examine the outcome of this request for Expression of Interest (EOI) and will consider those respondents that have expressed their interest providing the required information as to their ability to fulfill UN Women’s Request for Proposal (RFP) requirement. The RFP will only be disseminated to those respondents that will have fully met the EOIs requirements.
Submission details:
EOIs should be submitted by email to the attention of Desree Ebanks at (desree.ebanks@unwomen.org).
The interested Consultants/Team of Consultants must provide information indicating that they are qualified to perform the services e.g. (brochure, description of similar assignments, experience in similar conditions, availability of appropriate skills among staff, etc.) Consultant/Team of Consultants may associate to enhance their qualifications.
The Consultant/ Team of Consultants will be selected in accordance with the procedures set out in UN Women’s Procurement Guidelines and UN Women Financial Rules and Regulations.
The EOI and accompanying documents must be received via e-mail no later than midnight Eastern time on 15 April 2019 clearly labeled “Consultancies on Technical Assistance for Win-Win: Gender Equality Means Good Business Programme in Jamaica” EOIs received after the above deadline will not be considered.
EOI from suppliers failing to provide the requested information will be disregarded. Invitations to bid and any subsequent purchase order will be issued in accordance with the rules and procedures of UN-Women.
This EOI does not entail any commitment on the part of UN-Women, either financial or otherwise. UN-Women reserves the right to accept or reject any or all EOI without incurring any obligation to inform the affected applicant/s of the grounds.
Interested consultants may obtain further information at the below address:
Note:
Submissions to UNDP Jobs are limited to a maximum of 10 MB, virus-free or corrupted contents to avoid rejection, and no more than 1 email transmission.
All applications must be submitted through UNDP jobs. Please do not send applications to UN Women staff as they will not be accepted.