Local Consultant, Mozambique Women in Business Outlook Full-Time

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. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

In Mozambique, this role is exercised in the context of the overall support provided by the UN system under the UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) 2017-2020. UN Women’s Strategic Note for Mozambique covering the period 2017-2020 focuses on providing financial and technical support to the Government of Mozambique across four thematic areas: women’s economic empowerment (WEE), women’s leadership and participation, institutional strengthening around gender mainstreaming and gender responsive budgeting, women peace and security, as well as combating, preventing and responding to violence against women and girls. Placing women’s rights at the centre of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

The links between gender equality, women’s empowerment and development are well recognized. For example, the World Economic Forum reports that there is a positive correlation between gender equality and a country’s level of competitiveness, its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, and its rank in the Human Development Index. Corporations are well positioned to promote gender equality and empower women in their workplaces, in their communities, and through their purchasing policies and practices. The sheer size and volume of corporate purchasing worldwide means that corporations have the potential to dramatically influence the way suppliers and supply chains operate. Each year, corporations spend trillions of dollars acquiring goods and services, yet purchases from women-owned businesses account for a mere one per cent of the total spend. By overlooking women-owned businesses, many corporations are missing an opportunity to expand their global markets, diversify their supply chains, and grow the economy, while simultaneously improving the lives of women and girls around the globe.

For many women, entrepreneurship offers a path to economic empowerment and it is incumbent upon the global community – including corporations – to help create the conditions that permit this.

Today, there is a gender gap in the level of entrepreneurial activity across all regions due, in large part, to an unequal playing field for men and women and other barriers to entry. Moreover, in both developed and developing economies, women have yet to attain equality with men on such measures as educational attainment, wages, political empowerment and economic participation. Like most businesses, those owned and operated by women are overwhelmingly micro- or small-sized businesses. But unlike their male counterparts, women business owners must contend with a unique and disparate set of challenges in addition to those challenges facing small businesses more broadly. These challenges dissuade some women from starting businesses and prevent others from growing theirs. In other words, these challenges directly contribute to the gender gap. Promoting women’s entrepreneurship through corporate procurement is one way to close or at least narrow the gender gap. At the same time, increased participation by women-owned businesses in corporate supply chains will also yield tangible benefits for corporations. Investing in women-owned businesses and integrating them into corporate supply chains is “smart economics” and good for business. Today, women-owned businesses contribute significantly to the world economy, generating millions of new employment opportunities and spurring local development. Their full economic potential remains largely untapped or underutilized. As of 2013, for example, more than one third of all firms worldwide had women owners, yet they receive a mere one per cent of corporate procurement spend.

In this context, UN Women is seeking to hire a National Consultant to assist to develop the Mozambique Women in Business Outlookincluding mapping women in the formal and informal business, their market share, best practices of growth, opportunities and challenges for market access to facilitate narrowing the gender gap on procurement and increase access to better market. The local consultant will work under the overall coordination of the UN Women Country Representative and direct supervision by the Women’s Economic Empowerment Portfolio Programme Officer.

The assignment is aligned with the UN Women Africa Strategy (2018 – 2021) that intends to ensure that «No Woman and Girl is left Behind» as Africa implements and strives to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – particularly Goal 5: “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”. It further allows UN Women to coordinate its actions in achievement of the Africa’s Agenda 2063 Goals and Aspirations striving for «An Africa whose development is people-driven, relying on the potential of African people, especially its women and youth, and caring for children» (Aspiration 6). UN Women strategy underscores not only the immense benefits of empowering women and girls, but the inherent value of women’s rights, and empowerment as a women’s human rights imperative.

Under the overall guidance and direction of the supervisor, the Consultant will work closely with the programme team, Government institutions governing market rules, Provincial Government, UN Agencies involved in business development (e.g. ILO, UNIDO, etc.), women in business associations, private sector and civil society to ensure the technical direction and best results from the study and key outputs are achieved in a cost effective and timely manner.

Duties and Responsibilities

The study aims to bring into light the most updated status of women in business, identify challenges and explore opportunities for leveraging the vast untapped economic potential represented by women as suppliers in Mozambique.

The specific objectives of the assignment are as follows:

1. Identify the policies or other existing measures that can contribute to enhance women’s participation in business (gender audit of existing policies/regulations);
2. Draft recommendations on how Government entities spending, NGO’s, the UN and signatories (companies) of the Women’s Empowerment Principles, which UN Women and UN Global Compact jointly promulgate, can take action on Principle 5: “Implement enterprise development, supply chain and marketing practices that empower women”.
3. Draft an action plan for strengthening the capacity of women-owned business (through associations) to benefit from procurement (including UN system, NGO, public, private sector).

The Women in Business Outlook will fill the data gap for the definition/measurement of progress of the following key indicators:

• Of public procurement policies targeting women’s business enterprises;
• Change in public procurement directed towards women business enterprises;
• Increase of corporates sourcing from women business enterprises;
• Change in bids from women business enterprises.

Guiding normative frameworks and reference documents: UN Women Flagship Programming Initiative; UN Women Africa Strategy (2018 – 2021); the UN Women and UN Global Compact Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs); the Power of Procurement: How to buy from women-owned businesses; CEDAW; Beijing Platform for Action; Sustainable Development Goals; Strategic Provincial Development Plans; Government Five-Year Program 2015-2019; PROMULHER, BAÙ functioning guidelines, Instituto de Cereais de Moçambique (ICM) procedures, Mozambican Public Procurement Regulations (works, goods and services – Decrees 42/89, Decree 29/97, Decree 54/2005), Mozambican Local Content Legal Framework, Made in Mozambique label campaign attribution rules, among others.

1. Present an Inception Report

• Draw a road map and detailed action plan for the entire consultancy and research (including a timeframe);
• The study methodology will be developed by the consultant and presented for approval to UN Women. The methodology should use a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods that are appropriate to address the main study questions and account for complexity of gender relations and to ensure participatory and inclusive processes that are culturally appropriate. These methods should be responsive to human rights and gender equality principles, the “leaving no one behind” principle and facilitate the engagement of key stakeholders. Measures will be taken to ensure the quality, reliability and validity of data and data collection tools. Limitations with respect to the sample (representativeness) should be stated clearly;
• Conduct a desk review of existing literature, legal framework, strategies and policies on the subject on global and local context;
• The inception report should identify possible members that will compose the study reference group (e.g. Federation of Women Entrepreneurs – FEMME, CTA, trade chambers, Associations of Women in the Informal Sector, etc.).

2. Draft a Report – Mozambique Women in Business Outlook

Plan and coordinate all the activities for the primary data collection. Determine which locations and entities will the research be conducted and identify which specific localities will the focus per district;

Data collection to follow participatory methodologies putting women entrepreneurs at the center of all analysis;

• Primary data collection should be undertaken through observations, site visit, individual key informant interviews and focal group discussions with representatives of relevant government institutions and development partners (duty bearers), , women in business and beneficiaries (right holders) and key community players (community leaders, opinion makers) and civil society organizations seeking to address gender equality and human rights issues. The consultant will develop a sampling frame (area and population represented, rationale for selection, mechanics of selection, and limitations of the sample) and specify how it will address the diversity of stakeholders in the intervention;
• Produce the report (Mozambique Women in Business Outlook) on findings with the supervision of UN Women in a timely manner.

3. Facilitate a Validation Seminar

• Prepare the presentation of findings and take note of all the recommendations made by the validation committee of women in business to facilitate affirmative procurement;
• A long side with UN Women, women’s organizations and partners, incorporate all the strong recommendations identified during the validation workshop into the final study report.

4.Present the Study Main Findings at a National Event

Upon request conduct a presentation of the mapping, main findings and recommendations in a national event.

Outputs:

1. Inception report detailing methodologies for data collection, list of institutions to be consulted, analysis and validation of the results.  The inception report should include the work plan, report outline, timeframe and potential value chains for young women entrepreneurship development. (Term/Period of 7 Days after signature of the contract);
2. Field-based key informant interviews and group discussions (in selected sample provinces). With the possibility of one comparative learning trip to South Africa. (Term/Period of 20 Working days including travel).
3. Preliminary Report and women in business mapping (database). (Term/Period of 15 Days after completion of field work).
4. Final report incorporating recommendations from validation meeting including a contact list of all people involved and references. (Term/Period of 5 Days after reception of UN Women comments).
5. Presentation of the main findings of the study and the mapping data base with a reference group (a validation seminar Term/Period of 1 Day).
6. Presentation of the main findings of the study to stakeholders including the launch of the database of women in business – Mozambique (Term/Period of 1 Day).

Competencies

Corporate Competences and Ethics

• Demonstrate integrity, values and ethics in accordance to UN Women norms;
• Promote the vision, mission and strategic objectives of UN Women;
• Show respect regardless the race/colour, sex, religion, nationality and age as well as be sensible to cultural adaptation capacity;
• Consultant are expected to have personal and professional integrity and abided by the UN Code.

Functional Competences

• Knowledge of legislation, programme and public policies on gender, women’s economic empowerment, and women’s rights in general in Mozambique;
• Demonstrated experience in gender and economics related research;
• Leadership and skills to work with autonomy and initiative;
• Strong Advocacy skills;
• Excellent knowledge of gender equality and women’s empowerment in country;
• Strong knowledge of UN system.

Managing knowledge and learning

• Promote knowledge sharing and a learning culture;
• Team working; and
• Strong communication skills, oral and written in Portuguese and English; knowledge of local languages is an asset.

Ethical Code of Conduct

• Independence: Consultant shall ensure that independence of judgment is maintained and that the study findings and recommendations are independently presented.
• Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity: Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity.
• Impartiality: Consultant shall operate in an impartial and unbiased manner and give a balanced presentation of strengths and weaknesses of the key players in the field.
• Conflict of Interest: Consultant are required to disclose in writing any past experience, which may give rise to a potential conflict of interest, and to deal honestly in resolving any conflict of interest which may arise.
• Honesty and Integrity: Consultant shall show honesty and integrity in their own behaviour, negotiating honestly the study costs, tasks, limitations, scope of results likely to be obtained, while accurately presenting their procedures, data and findings and highlighting any limitations or uncertainties of interpretation within the study.
• Competence: Consultant shall accurately represent their level of skills and knowledge and work only within the limits of their professional training and abilities in study, declining assignments for which they do not have the skills and experience to complete successfully.
• Accountability: Consultant are accountable for the completion of the agreed deliverables within the timeframe and budget agreed, while operating in a cost-effective manner.
• Obligations to Participants: Consultant shall respect and protect the rights and welfare of human subjects and communities, in accordance with the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other human rights conventions. Consultant shall respect differences in culture, local customs, religious beliefs and practices, personal interaction, gender roles, disability, age and ethnicity, while using study instruments appropriate to the cultural setting. Consultant shall ensure prospective participants are treated as autonomous agents, free to choose whether to participate in the study, while ensuring that the relatively powerless are represented.
• Confidentiality: Consultant shall respect people’s right to provide information in confidence and make participants aware of the scope and limits of confidentiality, while ensuring that sensitive information cannot be traced to its source.
• Avoidance of Harm: Consultant shall act to minimize risks and harms to, and burdens on, those participating in the assignment, without compromising the integrity of the study findings.
• Accuracy, Completeness and Reliability: Consultant have an obligation to ensure that the study report and presentations are accurate, complete and reliable. Consultant shall explicitly justify judgments, findings and conclusions and show their underlying rationale, so that stakeholders are in a position to assess them.
• Transparency: Consultant shall clearly communicate to stakeholders the purpose of the study, the criteria applied and the intended use of findings. Consultant shall ensure that stakeholders have a say in shaping the study and shall ensure that all documentation is readily available to and understood by stakeholders.
• Omissions and wrongdoing: Where consultant find evidence of wrong-doing or unethical conduct, they are obliged to report it to the proper oversight authority.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Post-Graduate degree (Masters) in business administration, rural development/agronomy, development studies, development economics, macroeconomics, trade and development and related fields.

Experience:

• More than ten (10) years of proven experience in the subject areas relevant to affirmative procurement, women in businesses and gender equality, economic empowerment of women, financial inclusion, and empowerment of women; support to micro, small and medium enterprises;
• Solid knowledge on the status of women’s rights, women’s economic empowerment, legislation and policies in the field of trade, investment and economic development machinery in Mozambique;
• Strong understanding of gender and its intersections with macroeconomic indicators, etc.;
• Solid knowledge of gender equality issues and experience in conducting market analysis, gender-responsive procurement and gender related research for advocacy purposes;
• Understanding of the legal and institutional frameworks on trade and industrialization and economic growth;
• Experience in women and youth entrepreneurship development methodologies;
• Demonstrated ability and experience to plan and undertake research, collect and analyse data within a given timeframe;
• Knowledge of Results Based Management and proven experience of using the approach in the formulation of action plans;
• Demonstrated ability to write research reports.

Acquaintance on affirmative procurement arrangements and platforms (e.g. Buy From Women) is an asset.

Language Requirements:

Fluency in Portuguese and English both spoken and written.