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CONSULTANT - DRAFT A DEVELOPMENT PLAN ON ISSUES RELATED TO ENTREPRENEUSHIP IN SOUTH AFRICA


Location : Home-based with travel to Johannesburg (Twice)
Application Deadline :18-Oct-11
Additional CategoryPoverty Reduction
Type of Contract :Individual Contract
Post Level :International Consultant
Languages Required : English  
Starting Date :
(date when the selected candidate is expected to start)
31-Oct-2011
Duration of Initial Contract :30 Working Days
Expected Duration of Assignment :30 Working Days

 

Background

UNDP Africa’s strategic vision places development for pro-poor growth and accountability at the centre of all UNDP-supported activities in the region, given the fact that lack of capacity in these areas remains one of the key challenges faced by Africa today in its efforts to achieve the MDGs. To achieve this goal UNDP has set itself the tasks of: i) strengthening its strategic thinking and advocacy functions in line with the UNDP Strategic Plan and with Africa’s development agenda; ii) creating in-house capacity to translate corporate support goals into capacity development results; and iii) providing support to UN reform and strengthening its partnerships with both UN and external development partners.
 
The UNDP regional project entitled, “Building African Capacity to Gain Maximum Benefit from Inclusive Globalization and Regional Integration” is in line with the first focus area mentioned above. The specific objectives of the project are to strengthen the capacity of African countries for increased participation in global trade and linking trade policies to poverty reduction, and having trade negotiations outcomes that reflect common African position. The project is an important component of a strategy aimed at making globalization work better for Africa, and congruent with the African Union’s vision of regional integration, high levels of growth and poverty reduction. Under the project, institutional capacities are strengthened in the area of research on trade issues and analytic work to inform trade policy formulation, enhanced outcomes that reflect common African position.
 
One of the main activities of the project is supporting the engendering of policies for increased participation of women in formal trade. For this purpose, one of the activity results undertaken was conducting a needs assessment for women entrepreneurs needs and formulating a capacity development plan for regional policy for enhancing the role of women in trade. The workshop was held from 15-17 September 2010 and was mainly consultative in approach with the overall outcome being better participation and contribution of women in all forms of international trade (both formal and informal).
 
The specific outcomes of the workshop were threefold:
 
  • Conduct a needs assessment: A needs assessment and consultations with    women entrepreneurs from all five RECs that the Regional Trade Project covers were conducted.
  • Produce a report which captures concrete recommendations by women entrepreneurs on how key areas in which they required capacity development.
  • Provides a platform for exchange of experiences: The workshop was a platform for women entrepreneurs to exchange experiences in their respective sectors.  
The workshop identified five critical areas that pose challenges to women engaged in International Trade in Africa. These are:
  • Access to finance and productive resources
  • Access to international markets
  • Reducing the cost of doing business
  • Organization and advocacy skills with Government and other organizations like the United Nations
  • Issues related to Entrepreneurship  
 The capacity Development Plan will focus on the five areas above.
 

Duties and Responsibilities

It should be noted and emphasized from the outset that this is an inter-practice collaborative effort between the Trade Project, Gender Practice, and Capacity Development Practice in UNDP. 
 
The overall purpose of this initiative is to Draft a Capacity Development (CD) and Implementation Plans based on the outcomes of the needs assessment and recommendations of the workshop report (September 15-17 2010). 
 
This activity of the project intends to support engendering of policies for increased participation of women in formal trade. More specifically, the objective of this assignment is to systematically develop a chapter of the Capacity Development and Implementation Plans in Issues related to the entrepreneurship as identified in the workshop. This will be consolidated and published with the other four chapters.
 
Working closely with RBA’s Regional Trade Project, Gender, Capacity Development Teams and the lead consultant, the consultant will provide substantive analysis on other issues relating to women entrepreneurs in Africa. The workshop report of the needs assessment will be a major reference point to tap on the issues that were discussed in the workshop. The workshop clearly identified the need to assess the impact of trade on gender equality in order to assist countries in designing appropriate strategies and policies. Being able to contribute to the value chain, business planning, access and use of technology, and innovation emerged as some of the main issues. This also constitutes ensuring better capacity development for women at all levels. 
 
The consultant will produce the draft chapter on Issues relating to Entrepreneurship. This will then be transformed to a Capacity Development Plan. These issues were identified by the needs assessment workshop to include the Cultural, legal and social barriers. In some countries women are not allowed to own the key factors of production, e.g. land. Furthermore, there was recognition of lack of Solidarity and synergy among women entrepreneurs the ongoing poor representation of women in decision making processes, e.g. the parliaments. 
 
The workshop clearly identified the need to assess the impact of trade on gender equality in order to assist countries in designing appropriate strategies and policies. Being able to contribute to the value chains, business planning, access and use of technology, and innovation emerged as some of the main issues. This also deals with ensuring better capacity development for women at all levels.  
The expected result of this initiative is to ensure the timely and high quality delivery of the following:
  • Presentation of an annotated outline of the chapter on Issues relating to women entrepreneurship following the orientation meeting
  • Production of first draft of the chapter on Issues Relating to Women Entrepreneurship
  • Presentation of the preliminary findings at the validation meeting
  • Submission of the final draft of the chapter on Issues Relating to Women Entrepreneurship 

Competencies

Corporate Competencies
  • Demonstrates commitment to UNDP’s mission, vision and values (especially the approach that UNDP takes towards, gender, trade and human development).
  • Practices adherence to corporate rules, regulations and procedures
  • Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.  
Functional Competencies
  • Good knowledge, understanding, and some experience of international trade, entrepreneurship especially from the perspective of economics of gender (being able to look at the relevant issues from a strong gender lens).
  • Excellent facilitation, training, and analytical skills are required. Excellent skills for reporting and extracting necessary and relevant information are a must.
  • Excellent quantitative and qualitative research, communication (written and verbal), economics especially, International trade economics covering issues of trade negotiations, gender and development concepts.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:
  • Minimum master’s degree in Economics, International Trade, Social Sciences, International Law and Policy, Business Administration, and/or related disciplines.
Experience:
  • Five years of experience in International Trade area and negotiations.
  • Ability to use computers and office software packages and advance knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages
 
 

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