Terms of Reference

Design and deliver comprehensive set of services for increasing women’s employability and participation in the labour market

Starting date: 07 June 2021 Expected duration of assignment: 07 September 2022 Statement of Need: UN Women is seeking to hire a national company or organization to support the design and delivery of comprehensive set of services for increasing women’s employability and participation in the labour market. Specifically, with this Request for Proposals, the UN Women Programme Presence in North Macedonia will support 12 in implementing local initiatives for women’s economic empowerment.

I. 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. Placing women's rights at the centre of all its efforts, 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 supporting national priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

Through its programmes and projects, UN Women is providing technical assistance to national partners (governmental and non- governmental) in the implementation of existing international and national commitments to women’s rights and gender equality, it facilitates networking and exchange of good practices and advocates for women’s rights and gender equality in all areas of life.

In the Republic of North Macedonia, UN Women is implementing the Project “Promoting Gender Responsive Policies and Budgets: Towards Transparent, Inclusive and Accountable Governance in Republic of North of Macedonia” (2018-2022). Its overall goal is to improve women’s lives and support the inclusion of the most vulnerable groups through integration of gender perspective at all stages of national and local level policymaking and budgeting processes.

The project aims to contribute to the following two outcomes:

1. The Government’s public finance management and the strategic planning processes are improved to respond to the different needs of women and men as a result of effective application of gender responsive budgeting. 2. Civil society organizations, women, including the most vulnerable, actively participate in planning and decision-making mechanisms, and their priorities are fully reflected in public policies and budgets.

Republic of North Macedonia has made significant efforts to advance gender equality through the creation of an enabling legislative framework, adoption of policies and establishment of institutional mechanisms at central and local level. As signatory of CEDAW and as an EU accession country, Republic of North Macedonia has committed to achieving de jure and de facto gender equality and ensuring full development and advancement of women. Although significant efforts have been made to advance the gender equality agenda, gender inequalities in the country remain pronounced in all spheres of socio-economic and political life and systemic efforts for advancing gender equality are needed, in line with the EU acquis and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. One of the areas for substantive engagement towards gender equality is through gender sensitive policies, increased financial allocations and budget transparency. Mainstreaming gender and application of gender responsive budgeting implies recognising that women and men have different needs and play different roles and assessing how policies can be devised to address the gender specific needs and priorities of their citizens.

At local level UN Women is working closely with Local Self-Government Units, CSOs and the Association of the Units of Local Self- Government, for extending technical and expert support to advance initiatives for gender mainstreaming in local governance and local service delivery. These key stakeholders are playing a lead role in the process of engendering local participatory processes and implementation of gender responsive local policies and measures. Currently, the project supports a total of twenty-one (21) local self-government units in the country, that have piloted and implemented GRB initiatives focused on upscaling the proven approaches in mainstreaming gender in sectoral programmes through gender analysis, introduction of gender specific objectives and measures and monitoring progress and impact on lives of women and men.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a great impact on the socio-economic life in North Macedonia and particularly on vulnerable groups of women. According to many analysis, COVID-19 has been disproportionately affecting more women than men which poses a risk of further deepening the pre-existing gender inequalities. The UN Women Rapid gender assessment: The impact of COVID-19 on women and men in North Macedonia, revealed that the women's economic empowerment has also been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. The study showed that 49% of women were inactive in the labour market and 6% of women have lost their jobs due to the pandemic. In addition, the COVID-19 had an immense impact on the women owned businesses, specifically, 65% of women business owners reported that they experienced negative impact on their earnings, while 6% of women business owners reported that they were forced to stop their business operations.

The Government of North Macedonia is taking strong actions to combat and respond to the consequences caused by COVID-19. A series of financial and non-financial support packages are being introduced by the Government aiming to provide special administrative measures and support to the most affected groups and sectors. Municipalities are also organizing their response at local level. According to the UN Women study Mapping the impact of COVID-19 on the socio-economic situation of women at the local level conducted in 20 municipalities implementing gender responsive budgeting initiatives, most of the municipalities have developed measures to respond to the pandemic that are gender responsive. The study has also shown that women are exposed at greater economic risk and women have taken the biggest burden in the care economy, which resulted in increased hours spent doing unpaid work.

Based on the findings and recognizing the important role of municipalities in developing and providing post-emergency services that will respond to the needs of women at local level, UN Women intends to support the municipalities in increasing women`s employability and participation in the labour market by improving their skills and competitiveness. For the purpose of identifying the municipalities that have already included and budgeted measures and interventions for advancing women’s economic empowerment in their local programmes for 2021, UN Women office conducted an internal assessment in the 21 Municipalities included in the project. The assessment has shown that 12 municipalities have budgeted measures for economic empowerment of women in their local programmes. These municipalities have expressed interest to be supported to effectively implement these measures and reach out to women that have been most hardly hit by the pandemic in their communities.

II. Objectives of the assignment

Municipalities are playing crucial role in providing gender responsive local services to women and men. Municipalities supported to strengthen their capacities in implementing gender responsive budgeting have designed and budgeted specific measures for improving the socio-economic situation of women at local level which aim to increase their employability and access to the local labor markets. Such measures are of critical importance during the pandemic given that women have been disproportionately more affected in terms of their livelihoods and economic security due to the COVID-19 crisis.

The objective of the assignment is to support 12 municipalities (City of , Centar, Kisela Voda, Aerodrom, , , , , Kochani, , Gazi Baba, Mavrovo Rostushe) to implement local initiatives for women’s economic empowerment, through design and delivery of comprehensive set of services for increasing women’s employability and participation in the labour market. The services will be delivered in close cooperation with the respective municipalities.

III. Scope of Work

UN Women in North Macedonia is seeking to contract a national company or organization, with relevant expertise and professional experience, to develop and deliver comprehensive set of services for supporting women’s economic empowerment in 12 municipalities (City of Skopje, Centar, Kisela Voda, Aerodrom, Tetovo, Sveti Nikole, Kriva Palanka, Bitola, Kochani, Strumica, Gazi Baba and Mavrovo Rostushe), through development and delivery of training modules on strengthening the employability, entrepreneurship, and digital skills of women from vulnerable groups, and design of informative audiovisual products.

IV. Tasks and Responsibilities

- Prepare work plan and methodology in close coordination with UN Women for delivery of comprehensive set of services in support of municipal efforts to increase women’s employability and participation at labor market; - Conduct desk review of existing research and analysis on the labor market situation in the 12 municipalities, including existing local economic development programmes and measures; - Conduct mapping and identification of potential beneficiaries of the services in close coordination with selected municipalities, with focus on women from vulnerable groups as defined by the respective municipalities; - Develop four training modules: (1) Development of business ideas and business plans, (2) Basic employment skills, (3) Entrepreneurship and management skills, and (4) Digital marketing, online sale and use of digital technologies; - Deliver series of trainings in the following municipalities:

Training modules Municipalities Estimated number of beneficiaries: Development business ideas and Strumica 25 business plans Kriva Palanka 25 Centar 20 Bitola 30 Aerodrom 25 Kochani 20 Kisela Voda 20 City of Skopje 50 Sveti Nikole 25 Gazi Baba 20 Entrepreneurship and Strumica 25 management skills Kriva Palanka 25 Centar 20 Bitola 30 Aerodrom 25 Kochani 20 Kisela Voda 20 City of Skopje 50 Sveti Nikole 25 Gazi Baba 20 Basic employment skills Kochani 30 Bitola 30 Digital marketing, online sale and Strumica 25 use of digital technologies Kriva Palanka 25 Centar 20 Bitola 30 Aerodrom 25 Kochani 20 Kisela Voda 20 Sveti Nikole 25 Mavrovo Rostushe 2

- Deliver vocational skills courses (Pedicurist and Manicurist training, Massage Therapist training, Hairdresser training Seamstress training and Tailor training) targeting total of 45 women in Municipalities of Centar (20), Aerodrom (20) and Mavrovo Rostushe (5); The types of vocational trainings will be further agreed in cooperation with the Municipalities; - Develop and deliver training on branding, packaging and sale of agricultural products for 20 women in of Kochani and for 10 women in Municipality of Mavrovo Rostushe; - Develop and design informational and promotional materials for women entrepreneurs in the following municipalities: Activities Municipalities Documenting successful stories of women Bitola entrepreneurs through development of short Kisela Voda promotional video (2 (two) videos with women beneficiaries, including footage from their daily activities in duration of maximum 4 minutes each) Develop a database and informational bulletin of Tetovo women entrepreneurs with registered businesses in Municipality of in Tetovo (in Macedonian and Albanian). The bulletin should be designed for online use through the Municipality’s website.

- Identify and document good practices for women’s economic empowerment at local level, by selecting few women beneficiaries from the training programmes; - Prepare a final report (in English) on the activities conducted including lessons learned and recommendations for future UN Women interventions.

V. Expected Deliverables

- Plan and methodology for the assignment, with clear timelines and deliverables in English; - Overview of the labour market situation and local programmes for economic development in the 12 municipalities; - Mapping report on identified women beneficiaries in coordination with municipalities; - Four training modules on: (1) Development of business ideas and business plans, (2) Basic employment skills, (3) Entrepreneurship and management skills, and (4) Digital marketing, online sale and use of digital technologies; - Vocational skills training plan including number and types of trainings to be delivered; - Reports on delivered trainings in each municipality; - 2 short promotional videos on successful stories of women entrepreneurs from Municipalities of Bitola and Kisela Voda (including footage from their daily activities in duration of maximum 4 minutes each); - Database and informational bulletin of women entrepreneurs with registered businesses in Municipality of Tetovo (in Macedonian and Albanian); - Informational brochure with identified and documented good practices for women’s economic empowerment at local level, by selecting few women beneficiaries from the training programmes; - Final report on the activities conducted including recommendations, lessons learned and findings from the monitoring of the activities;

A. DELIVERABLE SCHEDULE

Deliverable Payment Amount Timeframe

1. Plan and methodology for the assignment, with clear 20% 17 June 2021 timelines and deliverables in English; 2. Overview of the labour market situation and local 05 July 2021 programmes for economic development in the 12 municipalities; 3. Mapping report on identified women beneficiaries in 19 July 2021 coordination with municipalities; 4. Four training modules on: (1) Development of business 50% 30 August 2021 ideas and business plans, (2) Basic employment skills, (3) Entrepreneurship and management skills, and (4) Digital marketing, online sale and use of digital technologies; 5. Vocational skills training plan including number and types 30 August 2021 of trainings to be delivered; 6. Reports on delivered trainings in each municipality; 20% 30 June 2022

7. 2 short promotional videos on successful stories of women 30 July 2022 entrepreneurs from Municipalities of Bitola and Kisela Voda (including footage from their daily activities in duration of maximum 4 minutes each); 8. Database and informational bulletin of women 30 July 2022 entrepreneurs with registered businesses in Municipality of Tetovo (in Macedonian and Albanian); 9. Informational brochure with good practices on women’s 13 August 2022 economic empowerment at local level by selecting few women beneficiaries from the training programmes; 10. Final report on the activities conducted including 10% 07 September 2022 recommendations, lessons learned and findings from the monitoring of the activities;