Entrepreneurship Ecosystem and Access to Finance Expert, National Consultancy, NOC, BiH

Background:

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

UN Women Bosnia and Herzegovina is implementing interventions aimed at strengthening women’s economic empowerment through improved entrepreneurial ecosystems, enhanced access to finance, and strengthened cooperation between public and private sector actors.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the initiatives contributing to these goals is the Gender Equality Accelerator Joint Programme, implemented jointly by UN Women, UNICEF, UNDP, and UNFPA, in partnership with the Agency for Gender Equality of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Gender Center of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Center for Equality among Women and Men of Republika Srpska, and with support from the Governments of Sweden and Denmark and the Delegation of the European Union. The programme focuses on three strategic areas: eliminating violence against women and girls, empowering women economically, and advancing women’s leadership and participation in governance. This integrated, cross-sectoral approach aims to support more effective, inclusive, and sustainable gender equality outcomes. Within the Women’s Economic Empowerment Pillar, the BiH Gender Equality Accelerator aims to economically empower women by transforming the care economy, labour market, and entrepreneurial ecosystem to be more gender-responsive. It focuses on strengthening policy frameworks, reducing barriers to women’s workforce participation and entrepreneurship, and enhancing access to finance, tailored business support, and digital skills. By building the capacities of institutions, CSOs, and the private sector, the initiative supports inclusive policies, promotes gender-responsive workplaces, and empowers women and girls to thrive in the digital age - aligning with SDGs 1, 5, 8, and 10, and strategic priorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

This initiative is particularly relevant to GEA’s work on strengthening women’s entrepreneurship and creating a more enabling entrepreneurial ecosystem. It will contribute to enhancing the capacities and resilience of women entrepreneurs through targeted financial and non-financial support, while also supporting relevant stakeholders in advancing institutional frameworks, policy approaches, public-private collaboration and mechanisms that facilitate women entrepreneurs’ access to finance, advisory services and other forms of business support. 

Available programme evidence and stakeholder feedback indicate that women entrepreneurs in Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to face fragmented entrepreneurship support services, uneven access to information and business development opportunities, limited availability of financing tailored to different stages of business development, and barriers related to collateral requirements, risk perceptions, financial capability and access to business and investment networks. At the same time, entrepreneurship policies, financial support mechanisms and private-sector initiatives are not always informed by gender-responsive analysis or sufficiently coordinated across institutions and levels of government. There is also a need for more systematic collection and use of sex-disaggregated data to assess whether existing financial and non-financial support mechanisms effectively reach women-owned and women-led businesses.

The consultancy will address these gaps through gender-responsive policy and market analysis, institutional advisory support, capacity development, structured stakeholder engagement and the development of practical recommendations and financing model options adapted to the institutional and market context of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In addition, the Consultant will provide technical support to engagement with financial institutions and other relevant private-sector actors, including company-level advisory and multi-stakeholder learning activities aimed at strengthening women's access to finance and economic empowerment.

The assignment will cover relevant state, entity, Brčko District, cantonal and local-level institutions, as applicable, as well as development banks and funds, commercial banks, microfinance institutions, guarantee schemes, business support organizations, chambers of commerce, accelerators, incubators, investors, private-sector companies, civil society organizations and women entrepreneurs.

The consultancy is designed as one integrated technical assistance package covering the full continuum from entrepreneurship ecosystem analysis and policy support, through access-to-finance system strengthening, to practical engagement with financial institutions, private-sector actors and women entrepreneurs. The different components are mutually reinforcing and are intended to generate coherent recommendations, practical solutions and implementation pathways rather than standalone outputs.

The consultant will report to the WEE Programme Coordination Specialist, under the overall oversight of the Programme Management Specialist, and will be supported by the WEE Programme Associate and WEE Programme Assistant, who will serve as points of contact for contractual and administrative matters.

Description of Responsibilities/Scope of Work

The overall objective of the consultancy is to strengthen the enabling environment for women’s entrepreneurship in Bosnia and Herzegovina by providing specialized and intermittent technical support to improve the gender responsiveness, coordination and effectiveness of the entrepreneurship ecosystem and the relevance, diversity and accessibility of financing opportunities for women-owned and women-led enterprises.

Specifically, the consultancy will:

• strengthen the integration of gender-responsive approaches into entrepreneurship policies, strategies and institutional coordination mechanisms;
• generate practical evidence on the availability, accessibility and suitability of financial instruments for women entrepreneurs;
• develop and assess feasible options for innovative financing and investment models;
• strengthen the capacities of relevant institutions, financial-sector actors, business support organizations and women entrepreneurs; and
• support the adoption of gender-responsive business practices by selected companies to strengthen women’s economic participation and expand opportunities for women-owned businesses in corporate value chains.

The immediate objective is to generate actionable evidence, strengthen institutional and entrepreneurial capacities, and facilitate structured cooperation among public institutions, financial institutions, business support organizations, investors, private-sector companies and women entrepreneurs. The assignment will result in practical policy recommendations, financing model options, capacity-development tools and institutional follow-up actions.

Based on the above-described objectives of the assignment, under the supervision of UN Women’s Programme Coordination Specialist, the national consultant is expected to undertake the following tasks and responsibilities under the Gender Equality Accelerator Joint Programme:

Result Area 1: Entrepreneurial Ecosystem and Policy Strengthening

Under this result area, the consultant will:

• conduct a desk review of the entrepreneurship ecosystem and relevant policy, regulatory and institutional framework across Bosnia and Herzegovina, including, where relevant, the state, entity, Brčko District and cantonal levels, to inform the assignment;
• develop and apply a gender-responsive assessment framework for reviewing at least two policy or strategy documents selected in consultation with UN Women; 
• prepare written recommendations, proposed amendments or technical inputs for the selected documents; 
• assess institutional roles, coordination arrangements, overlaps and gaps affecting support to women entrepreneurs; 
• prepare and facilitate stakeholder consultations involving relevant public institutions, private-sector actors, financial institutions, and development partners; 
• document consultation findings, agreed action points, institutional responsibilities and matters requiring further consideration; 
• prepare practical recommendations for strengthening institutional coordination and public-private cooperation; and 

• design and deliver one capacity-building session on gender-responsive entrepreneurship ecosystem development for relevant institutional and ecosystem actors.

  Result Area 2: Access to Finance and Capacity Development for Women Entrepreneurs 

• Under this result area, the consultant will:
• map financial instruments and financial and non-financial support mechanisms available to women entrepreneurs and women-owned and women-led enterprises in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including their key characteristics; 
• assess barriers affecting women entrepreneurs’ access to and effective use of existing financial instruments; 
• consult relevant banks, microfinance institutions, development funds and banks, guarantee schemes, investors, business support organizations and women entrepreneurs; 
• identify gaps in the current financing landscape by type of entrepreneur, business stage, enterprise size, sector and location; 
• identify and assess potential innovative financing approaches relevant to women entrepreneurs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including their feasibility, potential partners, implementation requirements, risks and opportunities;
• develop a comprehensive assessment report on women’s access to finance, including key findings, identified barriers, gaps in existing support mechanisms, promising financing approaches and recommendations for strengthening the financing ecosystem for women entrepreneurs;
• design a capacity-development programme for women entrepreneurs covering investment readiness, access-to-finance mechanisms, business growth and financial resilience; 
• deliver the programme through at least three thematic training sessions or modules; and

• facilitate at least two structured engagement activities with financial institutions, investors, business support organizations or other relevant ecosystem actors.

  Result Area 3:  Private Sector Partnerships for Women's Access to Finance

• Under this result area, the consultant will:
• develop or adapt a concise diagnostic tool or framework for assessing barriers and opportunities within financial institutions and other relevant private-sector actors to improve access to finance and business support for women entrepreneurs; 
• provide targeted advisory support to up to five companies selected by UN Women;
• conduct a diagnostic assessment with each selected company and identify practical measures related to women-owned businesses supplier diversity, access to business opportunities and development of gender-responsive financial and business support services; 
• prepare a concise and tailored action note for each participating company; 
• prepare an anonymized synthesis of common barriers, promising practices and recommendations arising from the company-level work; 
• design and facilitate at least one multi-stakeholder learning activity to share relevant findings and practices among public institutions, companies, financial institutions, investors, business support organizations and other relevant actors;
• prepare policy and practice recommendations based on lessons generated through the assignment; and 
• consolidate the findings from the entrepreneurship ecosystem, access-to-finance and private-sector components into a final institutional roadmap and synthesis report.

Each of these tasks will be executed through a combination of research, stakeholder engagement, and expert consultation, ensuring that the outcomes are both practical and aligned with the good international practices.

Deliverables

Competencies :

Core Values:

• Integrity;
• Professionalism;
• Respect for Diversity.

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
• Accountability;
• Creative Problem Solving;
• Effective Communication;
• Inclusive Collaboration;
• Stakeholder Engagement;
• Leading by Example.

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Values and Competencies Framework: 

Functional Competencies:

Knowledge Management and Learning
•    Shares knowledge and experience
•    Seeks and applies knowledge, information, and best practices from within and outside UN Women
•    Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more practice areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills
•    Development and Operational Effectiveness
•    Demonstrates excellent written and oral communication skills. Communicates sensitively, effectively, and creatively across different constituencies
•    Demonstrates very good understanding of and experience in communications and outreach/advocacy
•    Ability to perform a variety of standard specialized and non-specialized tasks and work processes that are fully documented, researched, recorded and reported
•    Ability to review a variety of data, identify and adjust discrepancies, identify and resolve operational problems
•    Uses Information Technology effectively as a tool and resource

Leadership and Self-Management
•    Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback
•    Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude
•    Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure
•    Proven networking skills and ability to generate interest in UN Women’s mandate
•    Identifies opportunities and builds strong partnerships with clients and partners

Required Qualifications

Education and Certification:

•  Master’s degree or equivalent in economics, finance, management, public policy, development studies or related field. (pass/fail) 

• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree. (pass/fail)

Experience:

• At least 7 years of progressively responsible professional experience in entrepreneurship ecosystem development, SME development, and private-sector development. (25 points)
• Demonstrated experience in access to finance, financial inclusion, financial-sector analysis, investment funds, or the design/assessment of financing instruments for SMEs or entrepreneurs, with at least three relevant assignments. (20 points) 
• Experience in policy and regulatory analysis, strategic planning and preparation of actionable recommendations for public institutions, with at least two relevant policy, strategy or analytical assignments. (15 points)
• Experience coordinating or facilitating multi-stakeholder processes involving public institutions, private-sector actors, financial institutions, investors or business support organizations, with at least three relevant processes or assignments. (15 points) 
• Experience designing and delivering at least two capacity-development programmes or multi-session training assignments during the past five years. (10 points)
• Demonstrated experience integrating gender equality or women’s economic empowerment into entrepreneurship, finance, SME-development or private-sector assignments, with at least two relevant assignments. (10 points) 
• Experience working on programmes financed or implemented by international organizations, international financial institutions or development partners is an asset. (5 points)

Languages:

• Fluency in written and spoken English and Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian is required.  (pass/fail)

Statements :

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.

Diversity and inclusion:

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)

Note: Applicants must ensure that all sections of the application form, including the sections on education and employment history, are completed. If all sections are not completed the application may be disqualified from the recruitment and selection process.