National consultant to conduct trainings on business fundamentals and techniques, development of emotional intelligence, and self-confidence skills to economically empower women living with

Contract

This is a National Consultant contract. More about National Consultant contracts.

Background

UN Women, the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women has been created to accelerate up the process of meeting the needs of women and girls across the world. As a part of the UN reform agenda, it brings together resources and mandates which will subsequently have a lasting impact on the whole community. One of the significant parts of UN Women work in Tajikistan is addressing the HIV vulnerabilities of women and girls that requires work at many levels – from developing national policies to providing or facilitating support to local community groups. It requires strategies for supporting behaviour change among men and social change to develop social, cultural, and legal environments that empower women.

In Tajikistan, WLWH often lack vocational skills and do not have any stable income. Moreover, once they tested positive, they become abandoned by both, husband and his family and parents. Subjected to multiple stigma and discrimination, WLWH are desperate to find any job to survive with their children.

For a woman without stable income who is living with HIV in Tajikistan, the challenges are threefold – economic hardship, stigma, and lack of employment/credit opportunities due to gender and HIV-based discrimination.

With this purpose, UN Women office in Tajikistan initiated a series of trainings for women living with HIV on business fundamentals and techniques, and self-confidence skills to empower WLWH economically and psychologically by building their capacities and skills that are important for running their own businesses, to enhance their leadership, management, and entrepreneurial skills. The training aimed at addressing issues relating to stigma, discrimination, and self-esteem by providing various kind of support through the course of the training.

The training has been conducted in close cooperation with International Labor Organization and its T-MBA affiliate using the modules of the SIYB (Start and Improve Your Business)-a management training program with a focus on starting and improving small businesses as a strategy for creating more and better employment for women and men, particularly in developing economies. The program is composed of a set of inter-related training packages and supporting materials for different levels of business maturity from starting to growing enterprises. The SIYB program is structured into four separate training packages, Generate Your Business Idea, Start Your Business, Improve Your Business and Expand Your Business which are designed to respond to the progressive stages of business development.

This training was replicated during the second quarter of 2021 based on the experiences, challengers and lessons learnt from their peers, holders of the already formed business projects.

To date, with the support of UN Women, 50 women living with HIV passed the training and expanded their knowledge in business fundamentals and entrepreneurship, built their capacities and skills that are important for running their own businesses, to enhance their leadership, management, and entrepreneurial skills. As a result, four joint business projects have been formed by UN Women and successfully led by women living with HIV in Dushanbe, Khujand, Kulob and Tursunzade. The successful implementation of the mentioned four economic initiatives was cited as a valuable initiative in the Joint Global Evaluation of the UN Joint Programmes on HIV/AIDS in 2021 and led to continuation of support of WLWH economic empowerment.

In this regard, UN Women plans to hire a National Consultant/trainer to provide support in building the economic independence and strong emotional intelligence of women living with HIV; based on the lessons learnt from the previous businesses replicate the six days training on basics of entrepreneurship skills for already selected group of 20 women living with HIV; and support finalization of the designed business projects.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of the UN Women Country Programme Manager, the National trainer will be responsible for the following:

• In designing a training module that includes five directions: basics of Business and Entrepreneurship, development of emotional intelligence, visualization, formation of personal growth and soft-skills and financial planning and taxation in business; local HIV legislation and needs of the group should be considered and clearly addressed. The training agenda should include sessions to be conducted by WLWH holders of the current business initiatives funded by UN Women to share their experiences and challenges as well as lessons learnt.
• In assessing outcomes of the previous UN Women Tajikistan economic empowerment training outcomes, including former trainees in the training agenda, and organizing a knowledge sharing session with them for participants.
• In preparation, facilitation, and provision of the 6 days of business/marketing training for 20 women living with HIV from all four regions of Tajikistan.
• In provision of support to WLWH in finalization of their own business projects and link the participants to the potential investors who are ready to invest in the implementation of business projects.
• In preparation and submission of the detailed report on the conducted trainings along with the supporting documents for the review and approval of UN Women Country Programme Manager and further recommendations.

1. Expected outcomes

With support of the National trainer and the peer’s women living with HIV:

• WLWH are equipped with basics of business education, leadership, strategy, and organization of business.
• WLWH are emotionally harmonized in family and community, their leadership skills enhanced, women can effectively build communication with friends, colleagues, and relatives, able to combat stress and manage conscious emotional response, self-motivation skills developed.
• Practical skills, business dating, profit and loss calculation skills developed.
• Women’s projects and business plans for their further implementation fully developed and presented at the final event.

Competencies

1. Competencies and Qualifications

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Good knowledge of the training topic on medical aspects and ethical norms in the field of HIV counselling.

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf

Functional Competencies:

• Possesses the ability to work independently, under pressure and meet deadlines;
• Good knowledge of technical area;
• Good organizational skills and ability to pay close attention to detail;
• Experience in report writing.

Required Skills and Experience

Qualifications:

Education:

University degree in Economic and business, Medicine, Sociology, Social Work, humanities and social sciences or another related field.

Experience:

• 5 years of professional experience in conducting trainings and capacity development in inter-personal skills, life skills and/or behavioral assertiveness on business and women rights among women of low-income households
• Experience in developing practical training guidelines and programme; experience in documentation, reporting and evaluation of training programs
• Experience in working with women and men with HIV and AIDS and/or previous experience in provision training on HIV issues is an advantage.
• Experience working with international organizations, NGOs, UN organizations or other development assistance actors.

Knowledge of languages:

• Fluency in written and oral Tajik and Russian. Knowledge of English is an advantage

Other:

• Good computer skills in Windows environment, knowledge of internet communications and command of MS Office applications (Word, Excel, Power Point).