Baseline Assessment for Women Leading in Rural Entrepreneurship in Armenia – WoLeRE

Duration: 1 month April-May, 2021

Start Date: April 20

Deadline: April 12

Baseline Assessment for Women Leading in Rural Entrepreneurship in Armenia – WoLeRE

Competition Type: Call for Proposals

Description: The CARD is implementing the Rural Economic Development- New Economic Opportunities project funded by USAID. In the frames of this project, the Women Leading in Rural Entrepreneurship in Armenia Component emerges. For the accurate implementation of this component, a baseline study should be initiated. CARD seeks relevant companies who can produce accurate baseline study reports in 60 shortlisted communities of Armenia through covering the following research targets:

Research target 1.  Women pursuing higher paid jobs in agribusiness.  The first expected result will focus on identifying the number of women in target communities who are (or planning to be) engaged in agribusiness activities and pursue higher-paid jobs. Their engagement in local communities and participation in decision-making is under the consideration of this target.

Research target 2.  Reveal gaps in hard and soft skills of agriprenure women for conducting an agribusiness in rural areas of Armenia. The second expected result seeks to identify benchmarks for further improving women’s competencies in leading their businesses in rural areas. The quality of their economic activity has to be studied based on the scope of their knowledge and skills both in soft and hard competency areas.

Research target 3. Partnership and network possibilities of women entrepreneurs in Rural areas of Armenia This finding will enable the component to develop accurate lists of partnership and networking possibilities for the rural entrepreneur women and organize effective networking events and provide precise information to sub-contractors for mentoring and coaching activities.

Research target 4. GBV, trafficking. This target considers women members of communities and women entrepreneurs to reveal the GBV, trafficking, gender equality and child labor issues. The people in leadership positions in local, provincial or national institutions or mechanisms have to be considered to increase their sensibility towards gender issues and good governance. In addition, the young women members of the student groups have to be involved to increase their leadership and entrepreneurial skills. The aim of this survey is to reveal the potential victims of violence and provide relevant assistance foreseen in frames of the WoLeRE Component.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE: Interested Companies are welcome to send their application packs in two hard copy envelopes. Technical information and Financial/Budget information sealed envelopes together with a letter of interest by this email address:

PROJECT INFORMATION:  RED_NEO WoLeRE Component: Women Leading in Rural Entrepreneurship in Armenia (WoLeRE) is a component of a larger RED-NEO program that is currently being implemented by the Center for Agribusiness and Rural Development (CARD) Foundation and is funded by USAID. The intervention will strengthen the gender focus to advance women’s leadership and entrepreneurship in the Armenian agricultural sector by increasing the access of women rural entrepreneurs and business owners to training, financing, market opportunities, and promoting policies and practices for them to establish and grow competitive businesses. It will support women entrepreneurs and female-owned businesses to reach their full potential and be more competitive in the sector. In particular, the activity will enhance women’s capacity and entry points for rural entrepreneurship, increase women’s access to agricultural innovation to raise productivity, and build stakeholders’ capacity and commitment to address insufficient policies, employment practices, cultural, and other barriers to advance women’s economic leadership/empowerment. Overall, the activity will create opportunities for women of employable age in rural Armenia, who comprise approximately 14% of the country’s 2.964 mln population.

To maximize the development impact, the activity will employ cross-cutting approaches, including engagement of men and boys in addressing gender issues, focus on core skills, application of Positive Youth Development (PYD) to engage youth, systemic thinking to problem identification and solution, and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) prevention and response.

RED-NEO is working on: improving the development and growth of rural SMEs, coops, firms, entrepreneurs, farms facilitating market linkages between producers and buyers; and promoting local economic development by establishing networks. Therefore, it is very well positioned for strengthening women’s rural entrepreneurship. The new component of the activity will maximize the development impact of RED-NEO, like gender, the integration will be more intentionally integrated, i.e. more gender-sensitive, women-oriented, and tailored training, capacity building, and other activities will be prepared and implemented.