We are pleased to inform you that the East African Women in Business Platform now invites eligible and qualified firm or consortium to apply for consultancy position of supporting EAWiBP to implement outcome 2 component of its workplan;

TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR A FIRM OR CONSORTIUM SUPPORTING EAWiBP TO 
IMPLEMENT OUTCOME 2 COMPONENT OF ITS WORKPLAN
I.  BACKGROUND TO THE EAWiBP TRADEMARK EAST AFRICA PROJECT 
The TMEA  project-  “Greater Inclusion of Women in Trade Regional Programme”  is  a  Regional
and  Country  Programmes  targeting  Improved  environment  (policy/regulatory/institutional)  for 
women in trade, Improved capacity (knowledge and skills) of women traders to participate in trade 
and Increased access to markets and trade-related services for targeted women traders.
The purpose of the Women in Trade programme is to contribute to the greater inclusion of women 
in  trade  as one of the pathways to increased business  competitiveness  and increased trade in the 
EAC. Greater inclusion for women in trade in the EAC will be achieved through 2 key objectives:

Objective (i)  Increase trade value and incomes of women traders in East Africa:  Women-owned
SMEs and traders  are unduly impacted by unfavourable policy and trade environments including 
restrictive regulatory regimes, access to finance, gender insensitive customs border management, 
information asymmetries, harassment and corruption. This results in many women traders being 
reluctant to shift to ‘formal’ trade, even if trade liberalisation and regional integration reforms are 
to their advantage.

Objective (ii)  Increase in the number  of women participating in trade:  This programme seeks to 
eliminate the barriers of entry to trade for women across the EAC. This will be addressed through 
a three pronged approach that will respond to the constraints at policy, sectoral and firm level.
The TMEA programme continues to build on the achievements realized in building women traders 
capacity  to  access  markets  and  trading  information,  institutional  strengthening  of  women 
associations and platforms (border, national and regional), and sensitization of women traders on 
EAC  trading  processes  and  advocacy  for  an  enabling  environment  for  women  in  trade.  The 
additionality of the  programme  will be in (i)  reaching more women,  (ii)  working in new geographic 
locations,  (iii)  targeting  not  only  women  cross  border  traders  bit  also  other  categories  like 
exporters,  processors/manufacturers,  urban  traders  and,  (iv)  providing  more  integrated  and 
sustainable  solutions  for  the  inclusion  of  women  in  trade  that  will  respond  to  the  changing
environment and draw from the lessons learned in Strategy 1.

2. ABOUT EAST AFRICAN WOMEN in BUSINESS PLATFORM (EAWiBP)
The East African Women in Business Platform (EAWiBP) is a forum that brings together business 
and professional women from  across the East African Community (EAC). It’s membership and 
Steering Committee comprises of; national apex bodies/associations / networks of business women 
(including associations of women formal and informal cross-border traders); professional women 
associations; and regional civil society organisations working to promote business women and 
women’s socio-economic advancement. The Platform works in each East African country through 
national business and professional associations across the region and by virtue of this; currently 
represents over 12,500 business and professional women in the region. 
With the view of increasing intra-EAC trade in  the region, the East African Business Council 
(EABC), with the support of TradeMark East African (TMEA) began the  process of establishing 
EAWiBP  in  2011.  After  comprehensive  stakeholder  consultations  EAWiBP  was  formally 
established and launched by the Secretary General of the EAC, Ambassador, Dr. Richard Sezibera, 
in May 2012. The Platform is currently hosted by EABC, the regional apex body for the private 
sector  established  in  1997,  with  the  aim  of  fostering  private  sector  participation  in  the  EAC’s 
integration process.
EAWiBP draws its mandate from the Treaty for the Establishment of East African Community, 
particularly under Chapter 25 and Articles 121 and 122, and is inspired by the vision of becoming 
“A Women’s Centre of Excellence for Intra and Extra-EAC Trade”. Its mission is; “Position and 
Catalyse  the  Participation  of  Women  in  EAC’s  Integration  Process”.   The  Platform  is  taking 
proactive steps to increase women’s participation in intra  –  EAC trade, EAC integration process 
and economic empowerment and thereby works towards the following result areas: 
1.  Increased effective participation of women in business in the EAC integration processes 
2.  Improved economic contribution of women in business in the EAC Partner States 
3.  Increased progression of women-owned enterprises in the EAC from informal to formal 
status  
EAWiBP  works  towards  achieving  its  goals  through  policy  advocacy  and  by  linking  business 
women to information, markets, capital and technical assistance. It specific intervention areas are:
1.  Trade related knowledge strengthening of it’s membership 
2.  Policy  Research  and  advocacy  on  issues  related  to  Trade  participation  and  women’s 
economic empowerment 
3.  Business to Business (B2B) linkages and networking 
4.  Business Development Skills including use for ICT to grow business 
5.  Business advisory and dissemination of information and business intelligence 
The Platform’s key beneficiaries are; national women business and professional associations and 
their members, cross border traders (including informal traders), small holder farmers and their 
associations,  women-owned/run  Micro,  Small  and  Medium  Entrepreneurs  (MSMEs)  and  large 
enterprises and their national associations. According to a baseline study/survey for support to the 
East African Women in Business Platform (2017) carried out during the Phase 1 of the project, the 
study established that there was no Women in business who traversed the entire Six EAC nations 
in search for markets for their products due to language constraints and lack of market information.
The  platform  seeks  not  only  to  strengthen  capacity  of  national  associations  but  also  facilitate 
women  entrepreneurs  to  access  information,  markets,  capital,  skills  and  technology  as  well  as 
influence policy towards a favourable business environment that takes into consideration the needs 
and priorities of business women.

2. OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this assignment is for increased access to market and trade related services for 
500 targeted women SMEs by equipping them with knowledge and skills to engage in regional 
trade.The  objectives of the assignment therefore is to profile women SMEs, develop a B2B 
strategy and monitoring tool, train women SMEs, conduct twinning of women SMEs, create a 
virtual market place, and design a training platform and roll out trainings for women SMEs 
through the webinar. 
The assignment has 5 phases as follows:
Phase I- Profiling of women businesses
Phase II- B2b Strategy and M&E tools
Phase III- Women SME training in business opportunities and markets access procedures; 
standards, branding, raw material sourcing, packaging design, branding, manufacturing, quality 
assurance, and labelling   
Phase IV- Development of a market  place and twining/connecting women in business
Phase v: Monitoring and documenting results 

3.DUTIES 
The firm or consortium will:
•  Profile women SMEs across East Africa
•  Develop a B2B strategy and monitoring tool  to help track transactions from the B2Bs  of 
the number of women SMEs exporting within EAC region and to the global markets
•  Carry out  twinning of 200 women SMEs thoughout the project
•  Organize oneface to face meeting for women SMEs involved in twinning for the matched 
businesses
•  Develop a virtual  market place  platform  to network, link and connect women SMEs to 
trade with each other in EAC region
•  Train EAWIBP staff on the virtual platform operations and utilization
•  Popularize and track transactions in the Virtual Market Place in partnership with EAWIBP 
staff
•  Design a webinar platform
•  Train EAWIBP staff on the webinar platform roll out
•  Develop Webinar platform Curriculum
•  Develop a schedule for conducting twinning and training women SMEs via webinar.
•  Facilitate twelve (12) virtual meetings to train women SMEs via webinar 

4.EXPECTED OUTPUTS
•  The format for profiling of women SMEs developed and presented for inputs.
•  Design of B2B strategy and monitoring tool developed and presented for inputs.
•  Format for conducting twinning of women SMEs developed and presented for inputs.
•  Design of a virtual platform developed, content for training EAWIBP staff, procedure for 
popularizing and tracking transactions mechanism and presented for inputs.
•  Design of a webinar platform, content for webinar curriculum to train women SMEs  and 
EAWiBP staff developed and shared for inputs.
•  Develop a schedule for training EAWiBP Staff, training and twinning women SMEs via 
webinar (from March 2020 to March 2022) developed and shared for inputs.
•

5. DELIVERABLES 
•  Women SMEs profiled
•  B2B strategy and monitoring tool developed
•  List of women SMEs twinned  and report  developed   with profile of the companies twinned
•  One  face to face twinning meeting held  for women SMEs involved in twinning for the 
matched businessesand report generated
•  Virtual platform developed  and EAWIBP staff trained on the virtual platform operations 
and usage
•  List of transactions tracked, Virtual Market Place popularized and reports generated 
•  Webinar platform designed and curriculum developed
•  12 virtual meetings held to trainwomen SMEs   via webinar platform from March 2020 to 
March 2022 ;reports  of every meeting with list of women trained provided 
•  EAWiBP staff trained on webinar platform
•  Schedule for conducting twinning and training women SMEs via webinar developed.

6. METHODOLOGY
The methodology of the assignment is as follows:
•  Requirements Gathering. The  firm or  consortium  is  expected to meet EAWiBP and 
TMEA teams to understand the needs  that lead to this assignment  so as to develop a 
suitable solution. An initial assessment report to EAWiBP will  be the main deliverable. 
Among other deliverables the report should highlight are key components that will be 
included  in  the  format  for  profiling  women,  B2B  strategy  and  monitoring  tool, 
Twinning, virtual platform,  Popularizing and tracking transactions,  webinar design and 
curriculum.
•  The development should only start after EAWiBP is satisfied with the designs. 
•  Validation and testing of the virtual platform and webinar.
•  Training of Users and Administrator.
•  Deployment and support.

7. TIMEFRAME
The assignment is expected to last for a maximum of 70 days spread out to 3 years.
Assignment                                                 Days 
1.    Requirements Gathering                         7
2.    Design Development                              30 
3.    esign and content development             60 
4.    Validation and Testing                            45
5.    Deployment                                             7
6.    Training of EAWiBP staff                        2
7.    •  Profile women SMEs.
•  Training women SMEs                             45 

Twinning of Women SMEs. 
•  Face to face twinning meeting. 
•  Popularizing and tracking 
transactions in the Virtual Market 
Place. (Digital marketing and audit 
trails)
Total number of days  196 

8.COORDINATION
The firm or consortium shall be supervised by project leaders from EAWiBP, East African 
Business Council and TradeMark East Africa.

9. REPORTING
The firm or consortium will report to, the EAWiBP Coordinator.

10. REQUIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE
The firm or consortium should be legally registered in any East African Community country.

(a) Technical Requirement for the Development of the Virtual Platform and Webinar
1.  At  least  3  members  of  the  team  should  have  degrees  in  the  Information  Technology, 
Computer Science, Computer Engineering or any other related course from an Accredited 
University.

2.  The  company  should  have  proven  experience  in  the  development  of  E-commerce  web 
development,websites, portals,  web applications and digital and social  media marketing,
and for at least 3 years;  and should have done at least 3  similar assignments in the last 3 
years.

3.  The team composition should have at least one Web Designer and One  front  end    developer
and one back end developer.
 
4.  The developers should be conversant with open-source web technologies and proficient 
in any of the following: PHP, Java, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, MySQL, PostgreSQL, 
MVC frameworks, Git and have minimum 3 years’ experience

5.  Team should also have a Project Manager with 5 years’ experience in managing similar 
projects

6.  Team should also have a system analyst with minimum 3 years’ experience

7.  Team should also have a system tester with minimum 1 year experience

8.  Should have filed for tax returns for at least the past 2 years

9.  Specific and in-depth expertise in any content management system, preferably one that can 
be easily scaled to integrate with mobile applications, payment systems, emailing system 
and social media.

(b) Technical requirements for B2B strategy and monitoring tool, profiling, twinning and 
training experts
1.  Lead  consultant  Must  have  a  Master’s  Degree  in  Education,  Trade,  Economics, 
Development studies, Business Administration or any other related field

2.  At  least  3  members  of  the  team  should  have  degrees  in  Education,  Trade,  Economics, 
Development  studies,  Business  Administration,  Information  Technology  or  any  other 
related field.

3.  Minimum of 5 years’ experience in profiling, twinning and training

4.  Demonstrate experience in profiling, twinning and training of women in trade and business 
associations within EAC, with references from at least 3 organizations for which similar 
work has been conducted.

5.  Excellent communication skills and Reporting Skills.

6.  Demonstrate understanding of issues of women in business in EAC, SMEs and trade.

11.MODE OF PAYMENT
Time                                                             Amount to be paid
Upon submission of the inception report     20% of the total amount
Upon submission of the draft report             35% of the total amount
Upon approval of the final report                 45% of the total amount

12. APPLICATION PROCESS
The firm or consortium is requested to submit a technical proposal containing CVs with academic 
and  professional/  training  certificates  of  the  proposed  team  and  financial  proposal  to  the 
EAWiBP/EABC not later than Friday 10thJanuary, 2020. The application should be addressed to 
procurement@eabc-online.com  and copy  ngitonga@eabc-online.com  and  ngitonga@eawibp.org
clearly marked  “CONSULTANCY TO SUPPORT EAWiBP TO IMPLEMENT OUTCOME 2 
COMPONENT OF ITS WORKPLAN”

December 2019