Summary of the assignment:

Nature of assignment	Short term
Location	Regional
Timeframe	21 Working days
Reporting	To Executive Director/CEO

ABOUT EAST AFRICAN WOMEN IN BUSINESS PLATFORM (EAWiBP)

The East African Women in Business Platform (EAWiBP) is a forum that brings together business and professional women from across the East African Community (EAC). It’s membership and Steering Committee comprises of; national apex bodies/associations / networks of business women (including associations of women formal and informal cross-border traders); professional women associations; and regional civil society organisations working to promote business women and women’s socio-economic advancement. The Platform works in each East African country through national business and professional associations across the region and by virtue of this; currently represents over 12,500 business and professional women in the region. 

With the view of increasing intra-EAC trade in the region, the East African Business Council (EABC), with the support of TradeMark East African (TMEA) began the process of establishing EAWiBP in 2011. EAWiBP draws its mandate from the Treaty for the Establishment of East African Community, particularly under Chapter 25 and Articles 121 and 122, and is inspired by the vision of becoming “A Women’s Centre of Excellence for Intra and Extra-EAC Trade”. Its mission is; “Position and Catalyse the Participation of Women in EAC’s Integration Process”.  The Platform is taking proactive steps to increase women’s participation in intra – EAC trade, EAC integration process and economic empowerment and thereby works towards the following result areas: 

1. Increased effective participation of women in business in the EAC integration processes
2. Improved economic contribution of women in business in the EAC Partner States
3. Increased progression of women-owned entreprises in the EAC from informal to formal status

BACKGROUND TO THE EAWiBP-TRADEMARK EAST AFRICA PROJECT

The TMEA project- “Greater Inclusion of Women in Trade Regional Programme” is a Regional and Country Programmes targeting Improved environment (policy/regulatory/institutional) for women in trade, Improved capacity (knowledge and skills) of women traders to participate in trade and Increased access to markets and trade-related services for targeted women traders.

The purpose of the Women in Trade programme is to contribute to the greater inclusion of women in trade as one of the pathways to increased business competitiveness and increased trade in the EAC. This will be achieved by the following objectives:

Objective (i) Increase in the trade value and incomes of women traders in East Africa: Women-owned SMEs and traders are unduly impacted by unfavorable policy and trade environments including restrictive regulatory regimes, access to finance, gender insensitive customs border management, information asymmetries, harassment and corruption.

Objective (ii) Increase in the number of women participating in trade: This programme seeks to eliminate the barriers of entry to trade for women across the EAC. This will be addressed through a three-pronged approach that will respond to the constraints at policy, sectoral and firm level.

RATIONALE

Women are among the disadvantaged or special interest groups in many developing economies. AGPO is among the ways to address this through setting aside a percentage of all public procurement opportunities for Women, Youth and Persons with Disability. It seeks to empower these groups by giving access to procurement initiatives without competition from established firms. Consequently, access and uptake of the public procurement opportunities by women is low and, in some cases, not available in specific Partner States.

EAWiBP members being the beneficiaries of this opportunity, it is crucial to know the status of AGPO in all of the EAC Partner States given that not all have this provision in place. The paper hopes to assess the level of uptake for those that have already passed into regulation while reviewing the status and determining why this hasn’t been effected in other Partner States. This will be important in addressing the available constraints in bid to influence its institution in all Partner States and establish a regional framework for AGPO.

SCOPE OF THE WORK

The consultant (s) duties are:

1.    Conduct a desk review on the status of AGPO in all Partner States.

2.    Identify the legal provisions  and gaps, opportunities in each Partner State.

3.    Conduct a survey of its uptake in Partner States that have instituted it. Uptake to analyse  the following aspects:

• The number of Women SMEs that have realised contracts
  The value of contracts disaggregated by sector
• Contracted values per annum in comparison to the target set
• Ownership structure of the successful women owned business

4.    Identification of challenges and other issues to address to increase its uptake and institution in all EAC Partner States.

5. Undertake FGDs across the partner states to establish the challenges/barriers to uptake

6.    Requirements for the establishment of a regional AGPO framwework.

DELIVERABLES
The key deliverables include:

1. Inception report: The detailed work plan for carrying out the scope of work, proposed methodology and research design instruments.
2. Draft Report: Draft paper on the subject
3. Final Report: Final paper after feedback from the EAWiBP & other key stakeholders. Including targeted interventions in response to the key findings
4. Organise a validation meeting with various stakeholders.
5. Policy Brief that contains a summary of key issues for advocacy.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

A suitable candidate should hold the following qualifications and key competencies:

1. Academic and Professional Experience: A Master degree or postgraduate qualification in any of the following fields- Economics, Business Administration, Strategy, International Trade, Trade Policy and Law or any other relevant field is required.
2. Work Experience:  A minimum of 8 to Ten (10) years’ demonstrable experience in conducting research /survey on trade/regional trade related issues. The consultant must have capacity to carry out the survey within the determined timeframe
3. Proven track-record in related assignments particularly on assessment of gender responsive policies and programmes
4. Knowledge of EAC Regional Integration process at all levels, international trade and demonstrated knowledge of gender-related challenges
5. Languages: Fluency in oral and written English is required as it is the main EAC working language. Good working knowledge of French and Kiswahili will be an advantage.
6. Additional Skills: Excellent computer skills (Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, and Excel), Email, analytical tools/software for data analysis, experience in working with internet searches, online databases, and data retrieval) are required.
7. Nationality: The position is only open Nationals of any of the EAC Partner States, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and South Sudan.

APPLICATION PROCESS

The technical and financial proposal must be submitted separately addressed to;

The Executive Director / CEO
East African Business Council (EABC) 
Ninth Floor, Mafao House, Old Moshi Road P. O. Box 2617 Arusha, Tanzania.
Email: director@eabc-online.com with a copy to procurement@eabc-online.com clearly marked “Consultancy to Review Access of Women in Business to Government Procurement Opportunities (AGPO) in EAC Partner States”.

The financial proposal should be protected with a password.
 Applications close on (30^th November 2020) at (5.00 p.m.)

EABC is an equal opportunity employer thus recruitment is on merit and with no regard to one’s age, colour, gender, marital status, disability or impairment, race or creed.
 Canvassing shall lead to automatic disqualification.  Environmental aspects will be taken into consideration.
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