Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination and violence 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 supports UN Member States as they set global standards for achieving gender equality and works with governments and civil society to design laws, policies, programs and services needed to implement these standards. UN Women’s mandate (GA resolution 64/289) is to lead, coordinate and promote accountability of the UN system to deliver on gender equality and the empowerment of women with the primary objective of enhancing country-level coherence, ensuring coordinated interventions and securing positive impacts on the lives of women and girls, including those living in rural areas.

One of the key focus areas in the UN Women Strategic Note 2021 – 2025 is aimed at women’s economic empowerment. In this impact area UN Women utilizes a two-pronged approach of influencing the major players and implementing targeted interventions aimed at influencing policies, programmes and funds relevant for women’s economic empowerment, covering issues of income security, decent work and economic autonomy. UN Women’s key focus in this area of work is in the production of knowledge, programming and policy recommendations on key areas of women’s economic empowerment as well as piloting targeted support to policy makers, businesses, and key categories of women that need economic activation. Building on previous investments in support of gender responsive policies and budgets, UN Women supports the development and resilience of women owned business and women entrepreneurs and supports improvement of the socio-economic position of rural women and their cooperatives.

According to ILO data, only 36% women in BiH are active in the labour market, which is the lowest percentage in Southeast Europe and 21.6% of women are unemployed. About 62,6% of the female workforce is engaged in services (Labour Survey, 2019). The importance of women’s entrepreneurship and its contribution to economic growth is being recognized around the world. Entrepreneurship creates new jobs, which is essential in a country with high unemployment rates, especially among women and youth. Because Bosnia and Herzegovina has the lowest female labor force participation rates in South-East Europe, female entrepreneurship can provide a productive outlet for a well-educated and underutilized talent pool.

According to the World Competitiveness Report (WEF, 2018), BiH ranks 134 out of 140 when it comes looking at the necessary time to start a business, and when looking at the efficiency of the legal framework, BiH ranks 137/140. When it comes to gender (in)equality in entrepreneurship in BiH, female/male ratio for total entrepreneurial activity and entrepreneurial opportunity is unfavourable for female entrepreneurs in BiH. BiH is positioned at 46th place for the total entrepreneurial activity and 53rd place for entrepreneurial opportunity for women, out of a total of 54 countries.
Overall, women business owners face serious financial obstacles, especially in less stimulating contexts, as it is BiH. These include lack of initial capital, lack of resources for financing start-up and business development or even insufficient or poor quality of information on existing government or non-government financial incentives, poor supply of entrepreneurial capital, unfavourable and inappropriate attitude of banks. (UN Women BiH, 2021) Furthermore, women have fewer resources that provide fallback options. Women’s enterprises are particularly susceptible to economic shocks. Women-owned businesses are more reliant on self-financing thus increasing their risk of closure during extended periods of significantly reduced or no revenue. Without a deliberately gendered response, the COVID-19 crisis risks rolling back gains in women’s financial inclusion and access to social protection, constraining women’s ability to support themselves and their families.

The Gender Action Plan BiH for the period 2018-2022 contains goals, programmes, and measures for achieving gender equality in all areas of life and work and three strategic objectives. The strategic objective #1: Development, implementation and monitoring of programmes for the improvement of gender equality in government institutions, includes a goal for improving labour, employment and access to economic resources. Bosnia and Herzegovina has two Ministries of Entrepreneurship (in two constituting entities Federation of BiH - FBiH and Republika Srpska - RS) which directly implement measures and activities, while the State level Ministry for Foreign Trade and Economic Relations is responsible for international cooperation on the topic of entrepreneurship.

Over the past years, UN Women has provided support to national and local stakeholders in advancing women’s rights through initiatives aimed at mainstreaming gender in policy planning and budgeting, and through provision of technical and financial support.  Following previous research and programmatic investments in the direct support to women owned businesses and in order to strengthen the work of ecosystem stakeholders implementing business resilience programs and technical support to women-led businesses, UN Women is seeking to engage consultants to conduct capacity-building trainings for stakeholders working in the field of women entrepreneurship in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Duties and Responsibilities

The overall objective of this consultancy is to promote and contribute to an environment in which women benefit from resilient, inclusive, and sustainable growth in BiH through strengthened policy development and stakeholders’ capacity to promote entrepreneurship and support resilience of women entrepreneurs.

IMMEDIATE OBJECTIVE

The immediate objective of this consultancy is to map entrepreneurial ecosystem in Bosnia and Herzegovina pertinent to women’s entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurial ecosystem is a system of social, economic, cultural, and political relations and actors within a country which directly or indirectly support creation and growth of businesses.
Entrepreneurial ecosystem has a number of elements which play a role of catalyst for the entrepreneurial activities. 

OUTPUTS
The selected Contractors should:

1. Perform mapping of entrepreneurial ecosystem in BiH with applied gender lens
The task of consultant is to map all relevant elements of ecosystem pertinent to women’s entrepreneurship development and support.

Consultant should do the mapping of minimum of following segments:

• Policy (relevant government institutions; policies, strategies, and action plans relevant for women’s entrepreneurship; government entrepreneurial programs and initiatives implemented within last 3 years; gender lens on regulatory framework; tax environment and incentives; access to infrastructure; intellectual property protection etc.)
• Support systems (incubators; accelerators; R&D institutions; co-working spaces; NGOs providing entrepreneurial support in various forms; international organizations and initiatives supporting WE; mentoring platforms; professional service providers and consultants; business contests; business zones; clusters; entrepreneur’s networks; diaspora networks; networking events; meet-ups; business awards etc.)
• Education (entrepreneurship in formal education; universities as entrepreneurship catalysts; informal entrepreneurial educational programs; specialized trainings etc.)
• Finance (banks; microfinance institutions; grants; convertible loans/grant; combined program providing financial support; development banks; guarantee fonds; private investors and business angels; investment fonds – public or private; venture capital etc.)
• Culture (media formats promoting entrepreneurship; role models and success stories; tolerance for risk and failure; celebration of innovation etc.)
• 6. Market (large/medium/small companies as customers; government as customer; digitalization; value chain creation; distribution channels; technological development etc.)

2. Produce a report on mapped entrepreneurial ecosystem inclusive of recommendations in each analyzed segment and deliver visual presentation of key findings to the UN Women BiH

DELIVERABLES AND TIMEFRAME

Under direct supervision of the WEE Coordinator, the consultants will be expected to submit the following deliverables within the indicative timeframe:

Reporting

Under the direct supervision of UN Women WEE Coordinator and UN Women Programme Specialist and the overall supervision of UN Women Representative the selected Contractor will develop and deliver the above listed outputs in accordance with the above outlined timeframe. 

The contractor is expected to report regularly to UN Women BiH CO the progress of the completion of the deliverables. The contractor is also expected to inform UN Women of any unforeseen challenge or risk that might occur during the duration of the assignment.

Competencies

CORE VALUES:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

CORE COMPETENCIES:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-employment-values-and-competencies-definitions-en.pdf

Functional Competencies:
Knowledge Management and Learning

• Shares knowledge and experience
• Seeks and applies knowledge, information, and best practices from within and outside UN Women
• Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more practice areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills
• Development and Operational Effectiveness
• Demonstrates excellent written and oral communication skills. Communicates sensitively, effectively and creatively across different constituencies
• Demonstrates very good understanding of and experience in communications and outreach/advocacy
• Ability to perform a variety of standard specialized and non-specialized tasks and work processes that are fully documented, researched, recorded and reported
• Ability to review a variety of data, identify and adjust discrepancies, identify and resolve operational problems
• Uses Information Technology effectively as a tool and resource

Leadership and Self-Management

• Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude
• Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure
• Proven networking skills and ability to generate interest in UN Women’s mandate
• Identifies opportunities and builds strong partnerships with clients and partners

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

• MA in in Economics, Gender Studies, Political Science, Public Policy, Social Sciences, Public Administration, Management, Public Policy, or related fields. BA. can be accepted with additional minimum 2 years of experience.

Skills and Experience:

• 7 years in working on socio-economic issues in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Recognized expertise and experience in gender mainstreaming, public policy analysis, or related fields;
• Experience in policy analysis and strong understanding of gender and concept of women empowerment and gender equality (at least two policy documents in this area developed). Work on gender equality, entrepreneurship development and/or strategies/budgets/institutions will be considered as an asset;
• Strong analytical, writing and communication skills;
• Excellent spoken and written English is required;
• Previous experience working with UN Women and other UN Agencies will be considered as an advantage.

EVALUATION OF OFFERS

UN Women applies a fair and transparent selection process that takes into account both the technical qualification of potential consultants as well as the financial proposals submitted in support of consultant applications. Candidate applications will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of applicant qualifications and financial proposal. Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 50 points in the technical evaluation will be considered for a validation interview.

The contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
• having received the highest score out of below defined technical and financial criteria.

Criteria:

Technical Evaluation – documents and interviewed based (70%)

• MA degree in in Economics, Gender Studies, Political Science, Public Policy, Social Sciences, Public Administration, Management, Public Policy, or related fields - 20 points
• At least 7 years of experience years in working on socio-economic issues in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a recognized expertise and experience in gender mainstreaming, public policy analysis, or related fields – 20 points
• Knowledge of policy analysis and women empowerment and gender equality (at least two policy documents in this area developed)  – 10 points
• Strong analytical, writing and communication skills – 5 points
• Excellent spoken and written English is required – 5 points
• Previous work with UN and/or other international organizations will be considered an asset – 10 points

Financial Evaluation - based on submitted offer (30%)

• Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 30
  • S - score received on financial evaluation.
  • Fmin - the lowest financial offer out of all the submitted offers qualified over the technical evaluation round.
  • F - financial offer under the consideration.

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents:

1. Expression of interest
2. Detailed financial proposal (which includes consultancy fees, travel to and accommodation in Sarajevo for 3 2-day trainings, subsistence etc. in a form of a lump-sum)
3. UN Women Personal History (P11) form http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment

Please note that incomplete applications will not be considered.

For any additional information, please contact unwomen.bih@unwomen.org.

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need. 
If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application. 
 UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination.  All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)