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:
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 Plan 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, 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 develop a Capacity Development Plan Chapter on the Cost of Doing Business and how it affects women entrepreneurs. As shown above, this was one of the areas of concerns identified by the women entrepreneurs. 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 consultant will provide substantive analysis on the cost of doing business that affect 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 analysis will feed in to the development of the Capacity Development Plan for women entrepreneurs in Africa. Infrastructure related issues such as energy provision, communication, and transportation came up as specific challenges affecting women entrepreneurs. The consultant will produce the draft chapter on Reducing the Cost of Doing Business that will be transformed to a Capacity Development Plan. In this area, some of the identified problem was stringent labour laws that prevent hiring, firing, and introduction of merit based promotions etc. Poor infrastructure also contributes to the cost of business for example, Communications, energy, transportation, etc. Moreover, Customs procedures including movement of people, goods and capital across borders are very stringent and business friendly. 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 facilitation and development concepts, experience in regulatory framework, especially related to the business environment. Corporate Competencies
Functional Competencies
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Required Skills and Experience | |
Education:
Experience:
Language:
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Consultant : Cost of Doing Business - Women Entrepreneurship Draft Capacity Development Plan
Consultant : Cost of Doing Business - Women Entrepreneurship Draft Capacity Development Plan
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