TERMS OF REFERENCE

                                                                                                                      for

                                            Developing a Typology of Women Owned Businesses in South Africa and Business Development Strategies and Model

1. BACKGROUND

UN Women provides a strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States' priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with Civil Society Organisations, Private Sector, and other relevant actors to attain gender equality.

UN Women developed a set of 12 global flagship programming initiatives that respond to its strategic plan, which are based on comprehensive theories of change to address underlying structural barriers. UN Women South Africa Multi-Country Office (SAMCO) Flagship Programme on Stimulating Equal Opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs through Affirmative Procurement, Investment, and Supply Chain Policies simultaneously addresses the structured barriers faced by women-owned businesses in accessing procurement opportunities and seeks to leverage and systematically include innovation,  partnerships and financial solutions to accelerate implementation and scale up.

The programme seeks to improve women entrepreneurs access to procurement opportunities in the supply chain. The primary target sectors for the programme are Energy, Agriculture, Transport, and Mining.

The programme’s strategy is  a two-pronged approach:

• To strengthen the capacity of women-owned businesses to respond to any procurement requests in general; and
• To develop the capacity of women entrepreneurs to engage in key markets where they are under-represented.

SAMCO seeks to appoint a company to develop a typology of women entrepreneurs and appropriate business enterprises and design an appropriate enterprise development strategy and model for scale.

1. OBJECTIVE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The company will support SAMCO to:

1. Develop a typology study of women business enterprises that have the potential either currently or with some enterprise development investment, to take up public or private sector procurement opportunities.

   The Typology will identify the main characteristics of women-owned businesses including their ownership structure. Ideally the typology study will characterize the businesses by revenue, products and employee size as well as geo-location of the various types of business by sector and geography

2. The study will also define the enterprise development needs of each of the Women-Owned Business Typologies identified above and propose a framework to shape the capacity development support for them
3. The Consultancy will develop a framework and or a model for capacity development of the various typologies of women owned businesses as identified above

1. SCOPE OF WORK

The company will be expected to do the following:

3.1 Analyse and develop a typology of women entrepreneurs and women-owned business enterprises in South Africa

• Conduct an overview, and an analysis of women entrepreneurs and women- owned businesses in South Africa.
• Develop a typology of women entrepreneurs and women-owned businesses in South Africa according to revenues, employees, type of business and sector
• Identify common barriers and gender issues experienced by women entrepreneurs and women-owned businesses in each category to access business and procurement opportunities.
• Provide an analysis of requisite skills and strategy to address barriers of each category in accessing procurement opportunities in both the public and the private sector.

3.2 Develop an ecosystem of women-owned enterprises and entrepreneurs

• Identify key stakeholders supporting work aimed at strengthening capacity of  women owned businesses and outline their focus, target group, products/services provided, geographic area etc
• Develop roles and responsibilities in the ecosystem.

3.3 Support SAMCO to design a woman- owned enterprise development strategy

• Provide an overview of successful strategies/approaches/methodology that enable women entrepreneurs to access procurement opportunities
• Conduct analysis of existing acceleration and incubation programmes (identified by SAMCO)  and how SAMCO can leverage on these to identify gaps.
• Support SAMCO to articulate value addition and develop a partnership model with existing interventions including existing acceleration, incubation programmes
• Develop SAMCO partnership model with existing interventions including existing acceleration, incubation programs
• Identify other modalities that SAMCO can use to support programme implementation for scale

1. DELIVERABLES and TIMELINES

• Deliverable One: Inception Report containing detailed work-plan specifying activities, methodology and timelines agreed with UN Women; Week 1
• Deliverable Two: Data collection tools; Developed in close consultations with UN Women, Week 2 
• Deliverable Three: Typology of women entrepreneurs and businesses and ecosystem, week 3 to 4

• Deliverable Four: Draft women-owned enterprise development strategy and model, week 5
• Delivery Five: Power Point Presentation and final report, week 6

1. CRITICAL INFORMATION ON KEY EXPECTATIONS AT APPLICATION

    

1. The proposals should include a detailed CV of the team leader, profiles of other team members, if any.
2. A proposal indicating methodology for executing the consultancy (3 pages max.)
3. UN Women will request selected companies to share samples of past work and proof of experience cited in the application.
4. The cost structure should be inclusive and as detailed as possible.
5. Please include contact details of at least three references.

Disclaimer: Any material arising from the consultancy shall be the property of UN Women. 

Location of assignment

• The assignment is home based.

   

  Duration of the assignment

• August 2017 – October 2017 

Remuneration

• Amounts to be paid against deliverables and certification of the work. 
• Financial proposal to include any anticipated travel expenses.

Core values / guiding principles

• Integrity: Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values relating to human rights
• Professionalism: Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work. 
• Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity: Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating the difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core competencies

• Ethics and Values: Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity Organizational Awareness
• Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment Development and Innovation
• Demonstrate the ability to work in a multicultural, multi-ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.
• Communicating and Information Sharing: Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication 
• Self-management and Emotional Intelligence: 
• Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behaviour towards others 
• Conflict Management: Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution. 
• Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing: Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge 
• Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making: Demonstrate informed and transparent decision making 

Required Skills and Experience

Experience:

• At least ten years’ demonstrable experience in strategy development
• Experience working on Women Economic Empowerment
• Understanding of procurement landscape and women entrepreneurship 
• Working experience in social research, strategy development
• Proven experience in developing enterprise development strategies

Languages:

• Fluency in English.

Team Leader

• Considerable experience conducting research on social and economic policy 
• Strong qualitative methodological and analytical skills with considerable knowledge of the field of gender and/ or the use of participatory research methods;
• Proven capacity to develop enterprise development strategies
• Ability to work independently and as part of a small team, manage competing priorities and perform well under pressure;
• Experience in supporting or contributing to national policy development.
• Master's Degree (PhD preferred but not required) in Social Sciences, Social Research, Gender & Development Studies, Management Strategy or a related field.

The Technical proposal and Financial proposal must be submitted in two separate emails to [email protected], with a clear subject of the email formatted as:

            [Technical Proposal: RFP ref # - Company Name]

            [Financial Proposal: RFP ref # - Company Name]