JOB DETAILS:
The Micro and Small Enterprise (MSE) Recovery Fund is an initiative of the Mastercard Foundation implemented in partnership with FSD Uganda. The Recovery Fund is intended to support MSEs to recover from the adverse effects of COVID-19 in Uganda. The 5-year Fund, currently in its third year of implementation, commenced in November 2021 and is expected to end in December 2026. The five-year fund targets to secure/protect 100,000 jobs at risk due to the adverse long-lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, create 150,000 new dignified and fulfilling work for young people below 35 years (70% young women, 7% refugee youth and 3% young people with disabilities) and enable an additional 150,000 people to find jobs indirectly.

FSD Uganda in collaboration with Asigma Capital, gnuGrid and Microsave as co-implementing partners have for the past over two years carried out activities aimed at provision of capital to 25 grassroot financial providers to ease their liquidity and build their capacity to lend to young people; build robust operating systems among Tier 4 institutions and improve operational efficiency to drive down the cost of doing business to increase reach and address the cost of credit. To this effect, the Fund’s goal is to provide capital to 25 selected FSPs for on-lending to 50,000 MSEs. The intervention also intends to use technology to drive impact and scale by supporting at least 10 participating FSPs to develop digital solutions that will enable them to improve their loan processes to reach and serve more.

Financial Sector Deepening Uganda (FSD Uganda) is a not-for-profit company working to promote financial inclusion in Uganda. Several studies show that financial exclusion in Uganda is a major constraint to economic growth and to people moving out of poverty. The FinScope Survey of 2023 shows that women are more excluded than men (21% vs 16% respectively), but also indicates that an increasingly youthful population poses challenges to reducing financial exclusion. FSD Uganda seeks to develop a more inclusive financial sector with a focus on low-income individuals including, but not limited to, youth, women, refugees, persons with disabilities, smallholder farmers, as well as micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). FSD Uganda works through partnerships and facilitates both public and private sector institutions to improve policy, laws and regulations that shape the financial sector and to develop relevant financial products.

Objective of assignment
As part of the program’s deliberate focus on gender responsiveness, we seek a Gender Specialist to provide strategic support to the MSE Recovery fund on gender mainstreaming initiatives to ensure sustainability and institutionalization of program activities.
While this contract is expected to be non-exclusive, the Gender Specialist will act as a part of the FSD Uganda team in delivering this program. Therefore, the advisor will be held to the same organizational values, ethics, and standards as the FSD Uganda team and its partners.