To contract services of a Business Advisory Consultant

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.

Many international commitments support women's economic empowerment, including the Beijing Platform for Action, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and a series of International Labour Organization conventions on gender equality. UN Women supports women's economic empowerment in line with these, and with the growing body of evidence that shows gender equality significantly contributes to advancing overall economies and sustainable development in communities and countries.

UN Women’s global strategic work plan has established four key outcome areas for women’s economic empowerment including: policies adopted and implemented to strengthen women’s economic empowerment; companies (private and public) promote women’s economic empowerment; gender-responsive services (transport, utilities, markets, water, energy, etc.) to enhance women’s livelihoods; and strengthened coordination of the UN system to the adoption of a common strategy on women’s economic empowerment.

With the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in September 2015, the critical links between gender and sustainable development and the importance of gender-responsive environmental policy for achieving gender equality is now further articulated. Moreover, key priorities for finance and investment for more sustainable consumption and production will be influenced by the SDGs. It is expected that global, regional and national policy frameworks will be increasingly informed by the SDGs.

The Work of UN Women Multi-Country Office – Caribbean 2012-2017

The portfolio of support on Economic Empowerment in the UN Women Multi-Country Office for the Caribbean has traditionally focused primarily on child and gender-responsive social protection and advancing decent work for domestic workers. In 2012, the UN Women Multi-Country Office sought to diversify its work in this area and further strengthen its portfolio of work on gender and sustainable development by issuing a regional Call for project proposals focusing on gender-sensitive food security and sustainable development initiatives in the Caribbean that:

• Supported rural women, small farmers and women entrepreneurs, including agri-business actors, in the context of land rights; agricultural production, food security, livelihoods, natural resource conservation, and climate change;
• Supported the integration of a gendered approach to food security policy and action plans;
• Promoted access to green economy opportunities by women, particularly rural and agricultural women producers and women in fisheries; and
• Increased the capacity of women to establish or undertake economic enterprises, including green economy initiatives.

From 2012 to 2014, the Dominica National Council of Women, with financial support from UN Women Multi-Country Office for the Caribbean supported the Agricultural Women’s Movement in Dominica with the cultivation of two main crops: onions and sorrel.

In November 2014, UN Women hired a consultant to undertake an assessment of this and three other projects on gender-sensitive food security and sustainable development.  The results of this assessment confirmed that while the short duration of the project did not allow for an assessment of impact, there were short term positive benefits for some women. These benefits included most notably, an increase in income and prospect for ownership of assets, including land. The successes of the project propelled the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in Dominica to extend further support to women farmers in the country for onion production. However, the assessment recommended the need for a baseline assessment to support future interventions.

In 2016, UN Women supported the conduct of a Gender-Sensitive Value Chain Analysis of Vegetables and Companion Crops. The results of this analysis provided the baseline information needed to inform the development of UN Women’s four-year programme on Gender Equality, Sustainable Development and Decent Work.

Informed by the results of the abovementioned analysis, UN Women will be providing support to the Northeast Agricultural Women’s Movement in Dominica with Business Advisory Services with a view to strengthening price and contract negotiation skills and capacities at both individual and group levels; and in order to identify value added potential, as well as, new market opportunities including linkages with the eco-tourism sector and other relevant sectors for the Movement and its members.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objectives of the assignment

UN Women is seeking the services of a Business Advisory Consultant to support the Northeast Agricultural Women’s Movement of Dominica to (1) strengthen price and contract negotiation capacity of its members individually and as a group; and (2) identify potential for value addition and new market opportunities, including linkages with the eco-tourism sector and other relevant sectors for the Movement and its members.  

Scope of Work and Deliverables

Timebound Work Plan: 5 Days

Complete a desk review of the relevant project and thematic reports and documents including but not limited to the following:

• Narrative and financial reports pertaining to the project “Empowerment of the Agricultural Women’s Movement-Production and Processing of Onions and Sorrel”;
• Assessment Report on the UN Women-Supported Projects on Gender-Sensitive Food Security and Sustainable Livelihoods;
• The Programme Document for UN Women’s “Gender Equality, Sustainable Development and Decent Work”.

Inventory of Contracts: 10 Days

Inventory of Contracts

• Review of present contracts (formal/written and informal/unwritten) with the private and public sector clients/customers;
• Based on the above, development of an inventory of the contracts disaggregated by crop, product, historical selling prices within the past 2 to 3 years, clients/customers, seasonality, farm size, land ownership status, size of contracts and other relevant variables to be determined. The inventory should include a comparison with current/market prices of the crops and products.

Finalized Report “Analysis of Price and Contract Negotiation Capacity of the Northeast Agricultural Women’s Movement; and Identification of Potential for Value: 15 Days

Analysis of Price and Contract Negotiation Capacity; Identification of Potential for Value Addition and New Market Opportunities

• Meetings with the Executive of the Northeast Agricultural Women’s Movement to undertake the following:
  • Meeting 1: To present the Inventory of Contracts and collectively determine the following:
    • Capacity for Value Proposition: The capacity of members of the Movement to understand how to price and value their produce.

Addition and New Market Opportunities

• Barriers to optimal price and contract negotiation at individual and group levels, including sociocultural, economic, environmental and other barriers;
•  Capacity to understand contracts and the categories of contracts relevant to their produce sector;
• Identification of contexts where formal contracts would be advantageous and disadvantageous.

Meeting 2: To undertake the following:

• Identify potential for value addition and new market opportunities including linkages with the eco-tourism sector and other relevant sectors;
• Collectively develop recommendations for a Marketing and Organisational Strategy for the Movement.

Drafting of document “Analysis of Price and Contract Negotiation Capacity of the Northeast Agricultural Women’s Movement.” This document must identify potential for value addition and new market opportunities; and recommendations for a marketing and organisational strategy for the Movement.

Finalised Training Curriculum “Strengthening the Price and Contract Negotiation Capacity of the Northeast Agricultural Women’s Movement”: 10 Days

Development of a Training Curriculum

• Preparation of a Curriculum for a 2-day training for the members of the Northeast Agricultural Women’s Movement on Price and Contract Negotiation. The curriculum must include the following:
  • case studies based on information from the abovementioned Inventory of Contracts and the Analysis of Price and Contract Negotiation Capacity while ensuring confidentiality;
  • Models/Examples of successful negotiations at both individual and group levels.

Facilitation of Training Workshop for the members of the Northeast Agricultural Women’s Movement on Price and Contract Negotiation: 5 Days

Facilitation of Training Workshop

• Preparation of Workshop Agenda;
• Facilitation of 2-day Training.

Reporting Requirements

The Business Advisory Consultant will be under the overall supervision of the UN Women Representative and the day-to-day supervision of the UN Women Programme Specialist – Economic Empowerment and will be expected to work closely with the President of the Northeast Agricultural Women’s Movement.

Competencies

Core Values / Guiding Principles:

Integrity and Fairness:

• Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Professionalism:

• Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work. Conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results.

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 difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies:

Work in teams:

• Demonstrate 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.

Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making:

• Demonstrate informed and transparent decision making.

Time Management:

• Demonstrate ability to produce deliverables within agreed-upon timeframes.

Organisation Capacity:

• Demonstrate ability to strengthen capacity of both formal and informal organisations.

Required Skills and Experience

Minimum Requirements

This consultancy is open to all nationalities including CARICOM nationals. The consultant should meet the following criteria:

Education:

• Post-graduate degree, at least a Master’s degree, in Agricultural Economics, Economics, Business Administration, Law or similar degree with proven or demonstrated expertise in at least two of the following areas: Gender Studies, Development Studies, and Environmental Sustainability.

Required skills and experience:

• A minimum of 10 years of progressively responsible and relevant experience working on agricultural development/agri-business in the CARICOM region;
• Demonstrative experience in leading and conducting research on small and medium sized enterprise development;
• Demonstrative experience in working with women’s groups on women’s economic empowerment;
• Demonstrative experience in working on contract negotiation, particularly with small business owners/operators;
• Proven expertise in the use of results-based methodologies;
• Familiarity with the policy and programme reform context in the Caribbean is an asset, but not required;
• Prior experience in the UN System and the Region will be an asset.

Languages :

• Fluency in English is required.

References:

• Minimum of three client references that include the name of the contact person, title and contact information.

Remuneration:

• The consultancy fee will be negotiated before contracting. Each payment will be based on a predefined and formal agreement between UN Women and the consultant and will be disbursed based on satisfactory completion of agreed deliverables.

Hardware, Software and Communication:

• The consultant must be equipped with a fully functional laptop, which must run at least Windows 7. The consultant must be reasonably accessible by email and telephone (preferably mobile). The use of reliable, internet-based (Skype or equivalent) is required.

Location and Duration:

• The consultancy will be home based but travel to Dominica is required;
• The consultant will be engaged for a maximum of 45 working days during the period 2 October 2017 – 28 February 2018. 

Application for Consultancy

Applications must include:

• A financial proposal must be submitted which should include the following:
  • Consultants’ fees (listed as daily rate x number of days);
  • Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) (listed as DSA x number of days);
  • International transportation costs (number of round trips between destination x price);
  • Local transportation costs (if any);
  • Other relevant costs.

All submissions should be submitted online via the UNDP Jobs. It is important to note that the UNDP Jobs portal can only accept one set of documents. As such, all application materials must be scanned into one document and submitted.