ICR Facility is inviting public and private sector organisations operating in African, Caribbean, or Pacific (ACP) countries to submit proposals to receive free technical assistance aimed at advancing Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE).
The ICR Facility can help you unlock the immense potential of women as entrepreneurs, workers, and investees in ACP countries.
Areas
Addressing Legal and Regulatory Barriers: They support legal reforms that promote Women`s Economic Empowerment. This involves, for example, providing support to policymakers, government agencies, and relevant stakeholders to change or update existing laws and regulations to make it easier to operate a business or for women to have equal rights to property and collateral to facilitate access to credit. This includes simplifying lengthy and complex processes and procedures for doing business, where this affects women disproportionally.
Promoting Gender-Responsive Policies: The aim is to help organisations implement or advocate for gender-responsive policies, opening doors for women-owned businesses and women workers to thrive. This includes for example ensuring that economic policies, public procurement processes or Government budget processes consider the needs of women as entrepreneurs and workers.
Bridging Data Gaps: They provide comprehensive support to organisations in addressing data gaps related to gender-sensitive investment climate policies. They facilitate evidence-based policy-making by enabling organisations to generate and analyse gender-disaggregated data. This includes gathering data on the status of women as entrepreneurs and workers, analysing women’s access to crucial resources like finance, information, and business skills in key sectors, and strengthening the capacities of local institutions, such as National Statistic Offices. Moreover, they empower local actors to organise, process and interpret data, so they can contribute to informed and effective policy-making.
Strengthening Women’s Participation in Investment Climate Reform Processes: They enhance women’s participation in public-private dialogue (PPD) processes to influence investment climate policies. This involves promoting the involvement of women employees, women business owners, and women business associations in PPD processes. Additionally, they focus on strengthening the capacities of women’s organisations to engage effectively in PPD.
Supporting private sector organisations championing women’s economic empowerment: Recognizing the critical role played by private sector organisations, such as chambers of commerce and business associations, they offer specialized support aimed at assisting these entities in making WEE an integral part of their strategic support for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
What are they looking for?
They are looking for committed organisations with specific proposals to promote Women’s Economic Empowerment through business environment reforms. Please submit your proposal online, and let them support you. Your proposal should include:
A description of the technical assistance you are seeking and the results you want to achieve.
Expected outcomes and benefits for women in your country/location.
Eligibility Criteria
The Investment Climate Reform (ICR) Facility is open to applications from sub-regional, national or regional government entities, development finance institutions as well as public-private dialogue mechanisms.
Business associations, cooperatives, chambers of commerce, clusters and Organizations or networks of business support, formal networks of private sector stakeholders and other non-state networks engaged in improving the business environment are eligible as long as the support is connected to a dialogue process involving governmental entities.
Single private for-profit companies or actors that cannot prove a formal representation role of a larger group of private sector stakeholders are not eligible.
Requests must come from an entity based in a member state of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS)
Requests must be aimed at improving the business and investment climate, in particular to support women or youth economic empowerment, in member states of the OACPS (regional multi-country initiatives as well as subnational initiatives are also welcome).
Requests must be part of a wider medium/long term strategy, reform process, or PPD mechanism.
Requests must respond to targeted and specific needs under an ongoing initiative in an ACP country or region.
The proposed intervention can be implemented under a maximum of 90 expert days.
