Private Sector Gender Specialist Consultant – USAID Burma RITA

Job Title: Private Sector Gender Specialist Consultant

Project: USAID Responsible Investment and Trade Activity (the Activity)

Level of Effort: Up to 60 days of LOE

Reports to: Deputy Chief of Party

Period of Performance: on/about June 1, 2021 – May 30, 2022

Base of Operations: Remote

Overview of the Position:

The Private Sector Gender Specialist Consultant will provide high-level expertise for a variety of cross-cutting activities related to gender equality and social inclusion in the workplace, supporting women leaders in business, and gender lens investing for the USAID Responsible Investment and Trade Activity (the Activity). The Private Sector Gender Specialist Consultant will provide strategic direction for integrating GESI into the Activity’s objectives and may work on specific, discrete tasks in the Activity’s Gender and Inclusive Development Action Plan (GIDAP), as needed.

Activity Background

The USAID Responsible Investment and Trade Activity (the Activity) is a five year (July 2020 – June 2025) USD 18.7 million activity that works with a broad range of international and domestic private sector firms and civil society actors to promote civilian ownership of the Myanmar economy. Through a facilitative and business ecosystem-strengthening approach, the Activity helps increase responsible trade and investment in Myanmar, and supports firms operating in or entering the market in Myanmar to improve corporate governance, business transparency, and competitiveness. The Activity contributes to USAID’s Development Objective 2 “Inclusive economic growth strengthened” and Intermediate Result 2.2 “Responsible and transparent private sector expanded”, as well as to USAID’s Private Sector Engagement Strategy, Indo-Pacific Strategy, and the Integrated Country Strategy.

The Activity’s approach to strengthening the private sector is guided by four objectives:

• Increase fair and responsible trade and investment in Myanmar.
• Improve corporate governance, business transparency, and competitiveness of local firms.
• Promote economic integration, investment, and trade for the benefit of Myanmar citizens in non-urban areas.
• Empower women to participate in the economy more fully.

Specifically, under Objective 1: Increase fair and responsible trade and investment in Myanmar, the Activity will work to increase gender lens investing (GLI) into the country (task 1.1.3). This includes but is not limited to the following activities:

• Develop relationships to support regional GLI investors to identify deals in Myanmar, support local investors that want to improve their GLI capacity, and support ITAF beneficiaries to achiever GLI priorities.
• Support investors and asset managers to develop GLI data collection and monitoring capacity so that they can identify gender inequity at a firm level, make suggestions for improvements, and monitor GLI at a portfolio level, leveraging the data to market their fund performance to investors.
• Work with GL investors and business organizations to fund capacity-building programs for accelerator models that build a pipeline of potential GLI investments.

Specifically, under Objective 2: Improve corporate governance, business transparency, and competitiveness of local firms, the Activity will support women leaders in business (task 2.1.5). This includes but is not limited to the following activities:

1. Work with firms and organizations to deepen and expand programs that support women’s leadership roles in business and improve working conditions for women in the workplace.
2. Expand programs and bring in local chapters of successful international programs that support women’s leadership.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Consultant will provide strategic direction for the Activity’s GESI work and may support work on discrete assignments, on an as needed basis. The Consultant’s tasks include:

• Review the Activity’s GIDAP, workplan, and completed foundational assessments
• Per the Activity’s GIDAP, develop a two-day GESI-focused training on integration of GESI through planning, developing the business case for inclusion of women, youth and other disadvantaged groups, establishing the principles behind gender lens investment, and articulating how RITA will use a purposive inclusion lens across all aspects of its programming. The training will cover key aspects of USAID’s Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Policy and how it is aligned with RITA objectives. Remotely deliver the training to Activity staff.
• Provide guidance and advice on incorporating GESI into activity design, including Objective 1 and Objective 2 workstreams, sector-specific strategies, private sector engagement, and implementation of the Investment and Technical Assistance Facility (ITAF).
• Participate in Activity pause and reflection sessions, which include a strategic review of progress, assumptions, results, and ways to adapt GESI programming. Support the team to develop and investigate critical learnings questions around GESI to inform improved programming.

Period of Performance, Level of Effort, Deliverables

This consultancy is for one year from June 1, 2021 to May 30, 2022 and includes up to 60 days of LOE to be used on an as needed basis. Delivery of GESI training will be due by June 30, 2021. Otherwise, exact deliverables and due dates will be discussed on an ongoing basis in line with the strategic need of the Activity, the GIDAP and workplan.

• Master’s degree in social science, international development, or a relevant field
• 8-10 years of experience designing, monitoring, and evaluating international programs, and/or conducting applied research on local governance systems including rigorous surveys, studies, and analyses.
• Knowledge of and/or experience with USAID results frameworks, M&E plans, and program evaluation including collaboration and learning.
• Demonstrated experience designing and conducting data quality assessments and data audits
• Excellent communications and personnel management skills and ability to relate to people at all levels of an organization and of different multi-cultural backgrounds
• Extremely well organized and self-directed individual with sound technical skills, and analytical ability
• Fluency in written and spoken English is required

Qualifications:

• A master’s degree in business administration, economics, women studies, or other related fields.
• At least 10 years work experience designing gender and social inclusion programming for the private sector donor programming
• Demonstrated work experience with the private sector, including with companies, investors, and business service organizations in emerging markets.