Expert Services under Gender and Social Inclusion Program for DigiFemmes Program Coordinator

Update 1/18/23: Amendment posted with Questions and Answers

Please see attached SOW and Solicitation.

The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is a U.S. Government corporation whose mission is to support economic growth and poverty reduction in carefully selected developing countries that demonstrate a commitment to just and democratic governance, economic freedom, and investments in their citizens.  Key MCC operating principles relating to the award of country grants include emphasis on economic impact, country-led solutions and implementation, and focus on results.  For more information on the MCC, please visit www.mcc.gov.

The Gender and Social Inclusion (GSI) unit at MCC seeks an experienced project coordinator to help oversee the implementation of the DigiFemmes program, which is located in Côte d’Ivoire.  The specific skillsets, required experience, and anticipated tasks and deliverables are detailed in subsequent sections. The range of tasks and deliverables will require a talented, experienced, motivated, and adaptive consultant that is well networked and thrives working is cross sectoral teams.

The DigiFemmes program, initially referred to as the Women’s Data Lab and Network (WDLN), is a three-year data and digital skills-building program for women in Côte d’Ivoire. The program is a partnership of MCC, US Agency for International Development, and Microsoft, with MCC serving as the lead implementor. After an intensive co-creation process, the program was officially launched in April 2022. The program seeks to build Ivorian women’s knowledge of and skills in the data and digital domain by offering several distinct tracks. The first track, referred to as the DigiFemmes Academy, is a two-year training program for women seeking to become full stack developers and entrepreneurs. The Academy uses an experimental gamification pedagogy and runs cohorts of 150 women annually. The second track, DigiFemmes Entrepreneures, offers targeted entrepreneurship training focused on data and digital skilling for women with established small to medium enterprises (W-SMEs) in Côte d’Ivoire. 50 women enter the incubation phase of this track and after 6 months, 15 are selected to continue in an Acceleration program. In addition to these tracks, the program seeks to build data and digital skills in the business ecosystem in Côte d’Ivoire through periodic “Light Touch” trainings for women entrepreneurs who are not official participants of the program, as well as by improving the enabling environment through targeted gender trainings for ecosystem actors.

The DigiFemmes Program aims to:

• Provide a centrally accessible, welcoming, and safe space for W-SMEs, while also supplying entrepreneurs access to business development training, data and digital training, resources, mentors and role models they need to succeed.
• Build the capacity of women-owned businesses and associations to generate user-friendly data and business intelligence information and develop delivery methods for use by women-owned businesses, business associations, cooperatives, etc.
• Deliver in-demand data analytics, visualization, machine learning, and other data science skills, which will enhance the ability of W-SMEs and businesses to make use of available market data and business data, and to develop technology services.
• Build a digital network and strengthen the community of women-owned businesses and associations to access online tools, knowledge, resources and solutions.

As stated above, this program is funded by USAID through their Women’s Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP) Fund.  Thus, it is implemented separately from other MCC investments in Côte d’Ivoire. However, the DigiFemmes team within MCC coordinates with the Resident Country Mission within Abidjan, as well as with relevant USAID programs in the country.