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:
The workshop identified five critical areas that pose challenges to women engaged in International Trade in Africa, which the Capacity Development will focus on and these are:
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Duties and Responsibilities | |
The overall purpose of this initiative is to Draft a Capacity Development (CD) and Implementation Plan based on the outcomes of the needs assessment and recommendations of the workshop report (September 15-17, 2010). The specific objective of this assignment is to write a capacity development plan chapter on access to international markets based on the outcomes of the meeting held on 15-17 September 2010. Access to International markets was identified as one of the main challenges women entrepreneurs face. Issues related to this topic included trade facilitation, concerns related to customs (including sexual harassment), product quality and standards, marketing, and trade negotiations. Working closely with RBA’s Regional Trade Project, Gender, Capacity Development Teams and the lead consultant, the incumbent will provide substantive analysis on issues related to international market access and women entrepreneurs in Africa. The most alarming concern is the Lack of knowledge in women relating to the international markets. Furthermore, customs rules and procedures seem to be complex and hard to be understood by women during exporting or importing. These expose women entrepreneurs to different hurdles including abuse. Women traders are exposed to gender-related problems at borders such as sexual harassment; bribery and corruptions, safety and security. Non- dissemination of information on trade agreements to the women entrepreneurs also pose a challenge of women not being aware of what is going on in the trade arena and these include the market access opportunities that women have but are not able to take advantage of them because of lack of knowledge. 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 incumbent will produce a chapter on International Market Access that will be transformed to a Capacity Development Plan with four other chapters. The expected result of this initiative is to ensure the timely and high quality delivery of the following:
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Competencies | |
Excellent quantitative and qualitative research, communication (written and verbal), economics especially, International trade economics covering issues of trade negotiations and development concepts. Corporate Competencies
Functional Competencies
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Required Skills and Experience | |
Education:
Experience:
Language:
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Consultant : Access to International Markets - Women Entrepreurship Draft Capacity Development Plan
Consultant : Access to International Markets - Women Entrepreurship Draft Capacity Development Plan
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