Deadline: 16 August 2018
The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) is inviting Private SMEs, Companies, Local Government Institutions (LGIs), NGOs and any organizations engaged in women economic empowerment in Bangladesh to submit gender responsive proposals for funding under the IELD program.
Focus Areas
- Women Economic Empowerment or Gender Responsive SMEs: Investment projects owned or developed by women or projects with large derived benefits accruing to women, which address challenges faced by women such as employment and job creation, income generation, technical business skills, innovation, and entrepreneurship.
- Local Economic Development: Businesses that offer local government institutions, the private sector and local communities the opportunity to work together to improve the local economy by enhancing competitiveness, increasing sustainable growth and ensuring that growth is gender sensitive.
- Public service delivery infrastructure: Public Private Partnership (PPP) Projects that provide women with better business and income earning opportunities through improved infrastructure (i.e. preferential access to transportation, storage facilities, market structures, modern agro-processing machinery and energy infrastructure).
- Value chain integration and trade: Gender responsive SMEs that enable women to secure access to one or more components of value chain integration including logistics, operational support, warehousing, human resource development, procurement, communication, marketing & sales, printing & packaging services or other value chain additionalities, within the country and cross-borders.
Eligibility Criteria
Proposals must meet all of the following eligibility criteria(s):
- Institutional profile:
- Significant number of women engagement in organisational structure and workforce which includes women representation amongst the Board of Directors,
- Management team and full-time staff
- The business has an explicit commitment to gender equality in employment
- The business makes explicit spending and program commitments that increase gender equality and support women’s advancement (i.e. conducted gender related training will be considered as added value)
- Commercial viability:
- Proposals that show ability to generate revenue and make profits will be given priority
- Companies with a successful track record of profitability in the last two years of operations will also be preferred. (Applications should therefore be supported by a detailed description of the cost and revenue streams associated with the project).
- Project status:
- Priority will be given to existing projects that are looking for expansion. Project development activities must have passed a pre-feasibility stage beyond a concept note, i.e. proposals should include as a minimum a completed business plan and all initial compliance steps (e.g. licenses, permits, titles, etc.).
- Company size & Project size:
- Medium sized companies/SMEs (as per Bangladesh Bank definitions) with assets worth BDT 1 crores to 15 crores with total number of employees between 50 to 100 being engaged full-time is preferred
- Total cost for expansion project is between BDT 50 lacs to 5 crores
- Supply chain procurement:
- The business provides price equality to male and female suppliers
- Number of women involve in the value chain and the project’s positive contribution to women’s lives
- Located in poorest districts:
- Special consideration will be given to projects from the country’s poorest districts which includes Kurigram, Dinajpur, Bandarban, Magura, Kishorganj, Khagrachari and Jamalpur or adjacent districts
- Development impact:
- Project that will generate positive economic benefits e.g. job creation, income generation, empowerment of women including trade and market access
- Qualified management:
- The proposal must show evidence that the proposed management team has the necessary technical and managerial skills to run the project
- Compliance:
- Compliance with Bangladesh laws and regulations and UNDCF/UNDP Environmental & Social Performance Standards including industrial laws, human (labor & women) rights is a must
How to Apply
Applicants can submit their application via email at the address given on the website.
For more information, please visit UNCDF.