Scaling up low-carbon, climate-resilient businesses led by women and young people in Uruguay

Description

The United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON), on behalf of Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) invites qualified interested firms to submit Expression of Interest (EOI) to participate in the upcoming solicitation for provision of technical assistance implementation of the Technical Assistance on Scaling up low-carbon, climate-resilient businesses led by women and young people in Uruguay. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on behalf of the Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN) requires the services of an institution to deliver the technical assistance as approved by National Designated Entity from Uruguay. The objective of this Technical Assistance is to strengthen the ecosystem of low-carbon and climate-resilient businesses led by women and young entrepreneurs, enhancing their business skills so that they achieve business sustainability, and providing tools to measure and disseminate their environmental impact and identify ways to strengthen the enabling environment for their development. The participation of the private sector in the national climate agenda is an axis that has been gradually incorporated into national strategies, particularly in the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). While traditional productive sectors already have carbon reduction and climate resilience targets, in recent years a movement of companies, particularly MSMEs and entrepreneurs, has emerged whose contribution to climate change mitigation and/or adaptation is the value proposition of entrepreneurship. This niche, embedded in a broader national entrepreneurial ecosystem, with a strong bias towards women and youth, requires support in developing entrepreneurial skills and strengthening entrepreneurial networks and communities, enabling them to remove barriers that prevent ventures from accessing new markets and ensuring their sustainability, while maintaining the foundational value proposition. The gender analysis of both the Monitoring and Verification system and the three National Adaptation Plans submitted by the country (Coasts, Agriculture and Cities and Infrastructure), have identified the gender-differentiated impact of climate change on the economy, as well as the role played by women in Uruguay, which is often concentrated in the sectors most vulnerable to climate change, such as agriculture or tourism. Therefore, women have applicable knowledge in areas such as agriculture and livestock, marine-coastal zones, forestry management, food preparation, recycling, recycling, food processing and food safety, recycling, among others, which makes them potential "agents of change". Within the surge of Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) whose contribution to climate change mitigation and/or adaptation is the value proposition of the venture. This niche, with a strong bias towards women and youth, requires the development of entrepreneurial skills and the strengthening of entrepreneurial networks and communities, enabling them to remove barriers that prevent ventures from accessing new markets and ensuring their sustainability, while maintaining their foundational value proposition. Therefore, there is both a need and an opportunity to accompany these groups of women and young entrepreneurs or MSME leaders to improve their business skills in order to achieve sustainability of their companies and equip them with tools to measure and disseminate their environmental impact, which will provide them with differentiation and access to new markets and customers while contributing to the country's decarbonisation and resilience goals. This Technical Assistance will: 1) Improve the enabling environment for sustainable micro-enterprises and SMEs led by women and youth. 2) Enhance and develop the capacity of gender-sensitive institutions and develop good practice guidelines. 3) Identify and test a capacity building programme with 5 MSMEs Some of the expected outputs are: 1. Work plan and related communication documents developed 2. Project working group established 3. Assessment of the status quo of environmentally sustainable MSMEs led by women and youth and their enabling enviroment 4. Design and piloting of an incubator programme for environmentally sustainable SMEs led ny women and youth. 5. Supporting mechanisms to strengthen the enabling environment for environmentally sustainable MSMEs led by women and youth. The complete details of the requirement will be provided in the tender documents that will be issued to bidders after this request for EOI is closed.