RFP - Hiring of resource agency for WE India Project

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About the Organization

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.  Placing women’s rights at the centre of all its efforts, the UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

A key area of concern for UN Women is women’s economic empowerment as expressed in UN Women’s Strategic Plan 2022-2025 as well as in the targets and indicators of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 for gender equality and women’s empowerment and of several other SDGs relating to inclusive growth, decent work, ending poverty, reducing inequality, and revitalizing the global partnership for sustainable development.

About the Proposal  

The Women Empower India (WE India) project:

WE India is a collaborative effort between UN Women India and the European Union (EU)  to advance women’s economic empowerment in India ( 2024-2027).  By promoting decent and safe economic opportunities, data driven policy advocacy, collaborative efforts with a range of stakeholders around addressing discriminatory social norms and engagement in EU- India policy dialogues within the Team Europe framework, the project aims to enhance the enabling environment for economic and social rights for women and girls in all their diversity in India.

The project envisions following result areas:

• Increased access to safe and decent economic opportunities for women and girls in all their diversity.
• Enhanced gender transformative policies and decision- making processes to improve women’s access to safe and decent employment and entrepreneurship.
• Positive gender norms that enable and increase women’s participation in economic and social life are promoted.

Ultimately, the programme will contribute to the achievement of gender equality through enabling women’s increased participation in the labour force, improved opportunities for women’ employment in high growth potential sectors such as digital and clean energy with a focus on Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM), entrepreneurship, and through strengthening of corporate sector’s commitment and action to ensure gender equality in business culture and practices. 

Key components of the project include:

• Corporate action for women’s economic empowerment through Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs)
• Women’s access to decent and safe employment
• Women’s entrepreneurship focussed on access to finance, markets and business development
• Gender data and statistics
• Positive social norms

Objective of the Assignment:

The objectives of the assignment are:

• to expand Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) adoption and implementation by existing and new signatories at scale in India and create an enabling ecosystem for women’s participation and leadership in corporate sector
• to leverage the potential of corporate sector in strengthening the ecosystem for women’s  decent and safe employment opportunities
• to strengthen women’s entrepreneurship specifically women’s access to finance, markets and business development support including leveraging the potential of corporates in creating an enabling environment for women entrepreneurs

UN Women seeks to hire services of an organization/consulting firm/resource agency to support the implementation of WE India Programme to meet the objectives as stated above. The agency is expected to deploy its proven expertise, established resource base as well as experience on empowering women and promoting diversity and inclusion within corporate environment.

The selected supplier is expected to have a full-time team of professionals comprising of expertise and experience on promoting women’s employment and entrepreneurship; women’s economic empowerment policies & programmes; corporate policies on HR and procurement, supply chains, diversity and inclusion; trainers and operational staff fully dedicated to WE India assignment.  

Target Group:

• Corporate Sector – private and public companies 
• Women entrepreneurs leading registered micro small and medium enterprises
• Women and girls in ITIs and polytechnics
• Industry bodies, incubators, accelerators, investors, financial institutions, service providers
• Relevant National and State Government Ministries and Departments

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Expand Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) awareness, adoption and implementation by existing and new signatories at scale in India
• Leverage the potential of corporate sector in strengthening the ecosystem for women’s decent and safe employment opportunities
• Strengthen women entrepreneurs’ access to finance, markets and business development support including leveraging the potential of corporates in creating an enabling environment for women entrepreneurs with a focus on registered women’s micro small and medium enterprises as well as startups.
• Quarterly detailed progress report as well as final project completion report

Time Frame and Location:

Time frame: The contract will cover the period from June 2025 to October 2027

Location:

• Pan India for WEPs adoption and implementation by private and public companies
• Pan India for women registered micro, small and medium enterprises
• Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra for STEM Connect Initiative

Eligibility

• Vendor is a legally registered ccommercial entity.
• Vendor is not suspended, nor otherwise identified as ineligible by any UN Organization, the World Bank Group or any other International Organisation in accordance with Instructions to Vendors.
• No conflicts of interest in accordance with Instructions to Vendors.
• The Vendor has not declared bankruptcy, in not involved in bankruptcy or receivership proceedings, and there is no judgment or pending legal action against the vendor that could impair its operations in the foreseeable future.
• Litigation History: No consistent history of court/arbitral award decisions against the vendor for the last 3 years.
• The organization should have at least 3 years substantive demonstrated experience in promoting women’s empowerment in corporate sector, women’s employment and entrepreneurship in Indian context.
• The organization should have experience in evidence-based research, policy advocacy with government, corporates, financial institutions and other relevant stakeholders in the areas of gender lens investing, women’s employment and leadership in corporates and entrepreneurship.

Qualification of team members may include but not limited to :

• Master’s degree in gender issues, economics, business administration, human resources, public policy, law, international relations or other related fields.
• minimum 5 years of relevant experience with a demonstrable ability in working on issues of diversity and inclusion, conducting interactive trainings/workshops/ dialogues, undertaking research and analytical reviews, and providing technical expertise in the areas of gender lens investing, employment, entrepreneurship, and multi-sector partnerships;
• excellent command of English

The offeror must demonstrate experience in at least one (1) similar assignment.

How to Apply

Deadline on: 23-May-2025 08:00 (GMT -4.00)

For more information please check the Link

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Tags Entrepreneurship Skill Development Women Empowerment Others