Deadline: 31-May-23
UN Women is inviting proposals to support women and excluded groups for their economic recovery and resilience in the post COVID-19 context.
Objectives
- The overall objective is to support women and excluded groups for their economic recovery and resilience in the post COVID-19 context. The specific objectives of the assignment are as follows:
- To enhance income opportunities of project participants in selected value chains through sustainable livelihood interventions for economic recovery in the aftermath of the COVID 19 pandemic.
- To promote increased access to finance and e-commerce platforms for women from excluded groups in the project locations.
- To address gender-based barriers and discriminatory norms that limit women’s economic autonomy and decision making at different levels (family/community/market/state institutions)and enhance their leadership and access their rights, entitlements, and resources.
- To strengthen the advocacy efforts for the protection and promotion of women’s economic security and rights including those from the most vulnerable groups such as women home based workers.
Funding Information
- The budget range for this proposal should be [USD 180,000- USD 200,000]
- Timeframe: 18 months(August 2023- January 2025).
Methodologies/Approaches
- Group/clustering approach: For collective bargaining power and better access to the markets/resources, group/clustering approach will be adopted to enable collective voice for bargaining a better deal to buy raw materials and sell products, capacity to accept orders in large scale, development of social capital among peers for psychosocial supportetc. The group clustering approach may require design of group formation and awareness meetings, orientation on collaborative leadership and group management.
- Accompaniment and mentorship support for the optimal and sustainable use of seed fund: The RP will provide handholding and accompaniment support to the women collectives/group business to help them access and use the seed fund in an efficient manner.This will be facilitated by developing a brief written guideline which will include seed fund operation modality, management and operation of seed fund, building up seed fund for self-sufficiency etc.
- Collaboration with community-based networks and institutions to work on gender biased discriminatory norms and harmful practices:The selected partner will identify relevant community-based networks and institutions such as youth clubs, women’s organizations/networks, entrepreneurs’ network, networks of faith-based leaders and community leaders to collaborate with and challenge gender based discriminatory norms and harmful practices. By engaging local networks and institutions, the selected partner will impart knowledge and build on local capacity to sustain advocacy efforts in the community to address gender biased social norms beyond the project period.
- Collaboration with local governments: Past experiences demonstrated that collaboration and linkage with local government from early stage of intervention played a critical role for ownership, sustainability, and scalability of the programmes. Further, coordination and linkage with local government provides entry points for public procurement of goods and services from the women entrepreneurs.
- Private sector engagement for market linkage and financial services: The selected RPs will engage with private sector actors including leading e-commerce platformsand BFIs and mobilize them to strengthen market platform and financial services for women entrepreneurs from excluded groups.
- Enabling measures: The selected agency should ensure that all interventions are disability and gender responsive. Enabling measures to support individuals from excluded group participation in the programme should be designed and adequately budgeted for, keeping in mind their distinct needs. This can include (but not limited to) childcare support for women (including new mothers), or reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. Adequate logistics and travel support should be provided, including for an accompanying family member/care provider.
- Engaging with the regional network of Home-Based Workers to create cross learning opportunities and benefit from the repository of knowledge products and evidence for advocacy on women home based workers’ rights.
Geographical locations
- The initiative will be rolled out in three districts namely Rautahat (Madhesh Province), Kavre (Bagmati Province and Kailali (Sudurpaschim Province) of Nepal.
Eligibility Criteria
- Proven technical competencies in the application of human rights-based and feminist approaches to advance gender equality and for ensuring their voices and needs as rights-holders.
- Demonstrable organizational experience on women’s economic empowerment, with a particular focus on promoting women’s collectives. Prior experience in financial inclusion and market linkage would be an advantage.
- Demonstrable experience in implementing programmes on gender equality and women’s empowerment, and in formulating result-oriented programme, monitoring programme based on indicators and quality reporting.
- A minimum of five years of experience in community mobilization (men and boys) for gendered social norm change, working with national/international development partners in the areas of gender equality and social inclusion.
- Sound knowledge and technical expertise on gender in humanitarian action.
- Proven organizational experience in building strategic partnerships, connections and networks with relevant partners, including government agencies, community-based organizations, CSOs at the provincial and local level.
- Demonstrable commitment to working with women, girls, other genders that are economically, socially, culturally, or otherwise excluded, excluded and/or marginalized.
Qualification and Experience/skill for psycho-social counselor
- Minimum three years of demonstrable work experience in providing psychological counselling on stress management, mental health training and supervision, with special emphasis on managing critical incident stress.
- Current/past affiliation with accredited mental health institutional or psycho-social organization will be an asset.
- Experience of providing trauma counselling in humanitarian action will be an added advantage.
- Counselor should follow standard UN Women and WHO guidelines and ethical standards related to GBV, while developing content and delivering services
For more information, visit UN Women.