Expertise France is the public agency for designing and implementing international technical cooperation projects. The agency operates around four key priorities :

• democratic, economic, and financial governance ;
• peace, stability, and security ;
• climate, agriculture, and sustainable development ;
• health and human development ;

In these areas, Expertise France conducts capacity-building initiatives and manages project implementation, leveraging technical expertise and acting as a project coordinator. This involves combining public sector expertise with private sector skills to drive impactful results.

Objective of the mission

The primary objective of this mission is to enhance the gender sensitivity of ongoing and upcoming interventions within the IYBA-SEED project. This includes:

• Providing targeted support to project teams in the five countries to foster gender sensitive approaches of their action plans and of the implementation of the activities,
• Training project stakeholders on gender-sensitive approaches and ensuring their application in project activities,
• Developing a guideline and checklist to be annexed to all service contracts and partnerships, to ensure the respect and integration of gender dimensions in the implementation of activities.

Methodology

The Gender expert will assist the CTs (Country Teams) with their needs in gender expertise through the implementation of activities indicated in previous section, and thanks to his/her:

• Autonomous and proactive coordination of the preparation and implementation of related activities with the five CTs[1],
• Flexibility and availability according to the implementation timeline for each CT,
• Rigorous follow-up of all working meetings with CTs, in the form of list of agreed points and follow-up actions, shared within 5 working days after each meeting with relevant CTs (with Program Director and Project Officer in cc).

The mission will follow the following process:
Phase 1. Start of the mission and documents review:

• The Gender expert will familiarize him/herself with the projects documents prepared during the inception phase: Project Description of Action, CAPs (Country Action Plans) for each country of the project, gender strategy, etc.
• The Gender expert will attend meetings with the PMU to enhance his/her understanding of the project objectives and activities.

Phase 2. Kick off and planning with CT

• Kick off meetings will be organized with each CT (Benin, Kenya, South Africa, Senegal and Togo).
• During this phase, the Gender expert will acquire good understanding of the IYBA-SEED activities in each country. The Gender expert will work with each CT to identify their needs in gender expertise and prioritize the interventions according to the constraint of the mission (budget, timeline, availability).
• The Gender expert will provide a work plan for his/her interventions in each country until the end of the mission.

Phase 3. Activities implementation:

• The Gender expert will be responsible for the autonomous implementation of the activities identified and planned during phase 2 of the mission (see section VI below).
• The implementation of the activities will be ensured online with the possibility of field missions when necessary.
• The expert will create a detailed guideline & a checklist to annex to all service contracts and partnerships, ensuring that all activities are implemented with a gender-sensitive approach.

Phase 4. Closure of the mission:

• The expert will submit a final report summarizing the mission outcomes and recommendations.

The expert may be invited to participate to IYBA-SEED lessons-learning process

IYBA-SEED

Expertise France is the French public international cooperation agency. It designs and implements projects which aim to contribute to the sustainable development of partner countries, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda and the priorities of France’s external action.
The project “Investing in Young Businesses in Africa – Supporting Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Development” (IYBA-SEED) is co-funded by the European Union (DG INTPA), the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Team France and Slovak Aid, for a period of 4 years (2023-2026). It is implemented by a consortium of leading European development agencies, including Enabel (Belgium), Expertise France (France), GIZ (Germany), SAIDC (Slovakia) and SNV (Netherlands). The consortium is led by Expertise France.
IYBA-SEED is part the Team Europe Initiative of the same name (TEI IYBA), in particular of its third Block aimed at “supporting the ecosystem, with a special emphasis on women and young people”. For information, the first two Blocks of the TEI IYBA are aimed at increasing financial and technical support for enterprises and entrepreneurs at (pre-)seed stages.
IYBA-SEED takes an “Ecosystem Strengthening” approach: it targets the entrepreneurship ecosystem and its actors, in order to reach young businesses (i.e. SEED beneficiaries) which are defined as:

• (Very-)early stage businesses and entrepreneurs (pre-seed and seed)
• Led by young entrepreneurs (18-35yo) and/or women entrepreneurs (of all ages)

The project aims to “contribute to creating decent jobs and resilient economies by strengthening entrepreneurship ecosystems in a number of sub-Saharan countries so that they can increase access to Business Development Services (both financial and non-financial) for SEED beneficiaries” in 5 countries in sub-Saharan Africa (Benin, Kenya, Senegal, South Africa and Togo).


IYBA-SEED works on four key components / specific objectives
1) Capacity Development and Networks : strengthen and connect Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Actors (EEAs) and their networks (both nationally and internationally) to improve access to Business Development Services (both financial and non-financial) for SEED beneficiaries
2) Business Environment: contribute to a business environment (policies and regulations) which is conducive to the creation and growth of SEED beneficiaries
3) Entrepreneurial Culture: promote an inclusive entrepreneurial culture that encourages existing and future young and women entrepreneurs to create and grow SEED beneficiaries
4) Knowledge: foster access for Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Actors, SEED beneficiaries and other stakeholders to lessons learned and best practices for Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Strengthening
The project is implemented by five CTs based in the five project’s countries (Benin, Kenya, South Africa, Senegal and Togo) and a PMU based in Belgium.
Following a first year of an inception phase, the Country actions plans are currently being implemented in in each of the five implementing countries. The Action Plans contain activities tailored to the local contexts and needs, including activities either specifically designed for women, or activities intended to ensure better participation of women, targeting the improvement of the gender equity in access to Business Development Services.


(a) Master's degree or equivalent in Gender Studies, Political Science, International Cooperation, Anthropology or equivalent.
(b) Proven experience (4+years) in gender issues and gender mainstreaming, preferably in development projects or international organizations. Experience in this field on the African continent would be an asset
(c) Good knowledge of cooperation mechanisms and official development assistance, experience in project management under European Union or AFD (Agence Française de Développement) funding would be an asset.
(d) Familiarity with Africa’s development landscape and its policy frameworks would be an advantage (especially in Benin, Kenya, Senegal, South Africa and Togo).
(e) Fluency in English and French (read, written and spoken)
(f) Excellent organizational and project management skills with the ability to multitask and meet deadlines
(g) Diplomacy and ability to adapt, resilience and capacity to work under pressure in a multi-cultural environment.
(h) Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a multicultural and interdisciplinary environment.
(i) Minimum of three similar experiences in conducting gender missions and/ or two years work experience working as gender expert.

Bid documents

Candidates must submit a complete bid file containing the following documents:

• The draft contract, duly completed (yellow parts) signed and dated, and in annex:

o The expert financial offer that will be annexed to the contract
o the annex covering the definition and conditions for processing personal data on behalf of the contracting authority, duly completed;

• A technical offer containing the following information:

o Description of the proposed services
o Methodology
o Action plan
o Timeline
o Etc.

• The designated expert CV that should be annexed to the contract
• The DAJ_F044ENG_v01 Candidature Form Individual Expertise and its annexes filled, dated and signed.

Application documents

Candidates must submit the following application documents:

• Proof of registration at the trade and companies registry (“k-bis” or equivalent);
• Proof of the candidate’s compliance with its social security obligations
• The attached application form;
• The attached GDPR compliance verification form, used to verify that the bidder has implemented appropriate technical and organisational measures such that data processing complies with relevant data protection laws and regulations (GDPR and French data protection legislation), thereby guaranteeing the rights of data subjects;
• As applicable, the court ruling on receivership (redressement judiciaire);
• A description of the technical resources that meet the participation conditions set out below:

o List of minimum 03 references relevant to the object of the contract for projects of similar size, stating the names and phone numbers of the competent contact persons; Or work certificate.