Background
WEstart: Mapping Women’s Social Entrepreneurship in Europe is a ground-breaking research and advocacy project based out of the European Women’s Lobby Secretariat in Brussels. From 2014 to 2015, WEstart mapped women’s social entrepreneurship in 10 EU countries, using a team of 10 feminist consultants/social enterprise experts, who conducted desk-research to produce a short literature review on the overall context and state of social enterprise in their country, put together a comprehensive list of 100 women-led social enterprises in their country, conducted in-depth interviews using feminist methodologies with ten women each, and disseminated a survey to hundreds of women in their countries.
After each of the 10 countries were mapped, each consultant created a 6-page mini-report, which was disseminated nationally and on the EU level. The results of all ten countries were then compiled into an overview report, and published on a proprietary website:
www.WEstartEurope.org, which also hosts the WEstart database (a searchable database of the 1,000 women social entrepreneurs compiled by the consultants). The results of WEstart were presented at a final conference in Brussels in September of 2015, and disseminated nationally and throughout the EU, to policymakers, academics. After the conference, a Facebook group was created to help connect the WEstart Community.
This initial mapping was the first step in a longer term strategy on the part of the European Women’s Lobby to help foster social entrepreneurship as a more sustainable and equitable model by connecting social entrepreneurs and advocating for policy change that supports women’s and minority leadership in this growing sector, and promotes social economy as a more sustainable, inclusive and just economic model.
WEstart Luxembourg
After the success of our original mapping, we have now obtained funding to map women-led social enterprise in Luxembourg, using the research tools and processes we developed last year.
WEstart Luxembourg proposes to bridge the gap in gathering evidence and knowledge with regards to women’s social entrepreneurship in Luxembourg. This will subsequently support opportunities to further develop mutual learning, regional partnerships, mentoring, transferring knowledge and skills, identifying good practices and providing new employment and business opportunities to women across Luxembourg.
The core aim of WEstart Luxembourg is to gain a better understanding of the situation and state of play of women’s social entrepreneurship in Luxembourg. The research conducted will help the EWL to foster women’s social entrepreneurship by connecting social entrepreneurs and advocating for policy change that supports women’s leadership in this growing sector within Luxembourg and the EU as a whole.
The national consultant will be responsible for undertaking a national level mapping of women’s social entrepreneurship within Luxembourg, producing a short report, presenting the findings at a final conference, and disseminating the results of the research on a national and EU level.
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Closing date for applications is June 3, 2016
Find the Terms of Reference for this job as consultant here.
Attached documents
