National Expert on Inclusive Capital Market and Institutional Development Strategy (BIMx)

Background: UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. Women’s economic empowerment is a cornerstone of sustainable development, inclusive growth, and gender equality. Ensuring that women have access to financial resources, markets, and decision-making processes is critical to advancing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Women entrepreneurs play a vital role in job creation, innovation, and economic resilience. However, they continue to face systemic barriers in accessing finance, including limited collateral, gender bias in lending, lack of financial literacy, and restricted access to networks. Globally, a significant financing gap persists for women-led businesses, with estimates ranging in the trillions of USD. Women are also underrepresented in capital markets both as investors and issuers. Addressing these gaps requires not only financial instruments but also sound, inclusive capital market development and institutional strategies that raise awareness, build confidence, and promote participation. The Moldova International Stock Exchange (BIMx) is being developed as a modern platform for corporate financing and investment, contributing to the development of the capital market. As a new institution, BIMx must define a capital market and institutional development strategy that is inclusive and gender-mainstreamed, responsive to the needs of women entrepreneurs and investors. As BIMx mission and vision is aligned to the national strategy of economic development, the national strategy of capital market development (National Capital Market Development Strategy 2025-2030, approved by Parliament Decision No. 123/2025), the National Financial Inclusion Strategy 2030 (SNIF 2030), the NBM Taxonomy Roadmap (which also incorporates financial inclusion objectives alongside sustainable finance criteria), and the EU acquis, including the gender equality directive and relevant sustainable finance/ESG disclosure requirements. It targets gender equality, financial inclusion, and environmental and social sustainability in accessing capital market tools. In this path, it requires, as a central element of the capital market, advice and support in developing its capital market and institutional development strategy, inclusive, gender-mainstreamed and sustainability-oriented, to achieve its objectives. The consultant will be reporting to Programme Coordinator, and will be supported by Programme Associate, who will be the point of contact on the contract and payment issues. Description of Responsibilities/ Scope of Work The objective of the assignment is to provide advice and support to the Moldova International Stock Exchange (BIMx) in developing its business development strategy , ensuring that the strategy is also inclusive, gender-mainstreamed, and sustainability-oriented. BIMx developed its Business Plan first, ahead of a fully articulated institutional strategy - reversing the usual sequencing in which strategy precedes the business plan. The strategy is therefore expected to consolidate and extend the existing Business Plan: to embed the systematic gender-mainstreaming, financial inclusion, and sustainability dimensions the Business Plan currently addresses only partially and aligns it explicitly with national and EU frameworks. BIMx has already articulated its vision, mission, and institutional values; these are not to be re-created but incorporated into and consistently reflected throughout the strategy. The consultant will be responsible for delivering the following four interrelated tasks: Task 1: Diagnostic review Review BIMx’s Business Plan, its institutional context, governance, and alignment with national strategies, and assess entry points for gender mainstreaming, inclusion, and sustainability Produce an alignment matrix mapping the BIMx Business Plan and draft business development strategy Use the UN Women Moldova needs assessment "Women Entrepreneurs' Access to Finance in Moldova" (survey of 253 women entrepreneurs and focus groups with 175 women across four regions), extending its evidence base and recommendations to the capital market context Extend consultation process BIMx's internal governance structures (National Commission for Financial Markets; National Bank of Moldova; Ministry of Economic Development and Digitalization; Ministry of Finance; Organization for Entrepreneurship Development (ODA); commercial banks; investment funds; women business associations) Task 2: Advisory support to strategy development Advise and support BIMx in drafting a gender sensitive business development strategy, including strategic objectives, priority actions, institutional arrangements, and a preliminary resourcing/budget outline that can feed directly into the BIMx Business Plan for 2027-2030 Ensure that gender equality, inclusion and environmental/social sustainability are mainstreamed throughout the strategy, including gender-responsive and sustainability-responsive measures, and develop a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework with gender-disaggregated and sustainability-related performance indicators, aligned with BIMx's own KPI cycle Consolidate the role of women on capital markets by increasing awareness among women-owned SMEs about equity financing and listing opportunities; establishing partnerships with women's business associations, chambers of commerce and entrepreneurship support organizations; promoting gender responsive corporate governance and WEPs Develop a preliminary concept for a future BIMx stock market index (indicative eligibility criteria, weighting principles, and a launch timeline linked to growth in the number of listed issuers), to be refined once BIMx has a sufficient base of listed companies; this is a forward-looking concept note, not a complete, ready-to-operate index methodology Task 3: Validation and recommendations Support the validation of the draft strategy with BIMx management, shareholders, board, and relevant stakeholders, finalize the document based on feedback received Develop recommendations for the implementation and monitoring of the strategy, and on further support to BIMx for inclusive, gender-mainstreamed and sustainable capital market development Support BIMx management in presenting and supporting the final strategy at the BIMx Board meeting Task 4: Practical support to BIMx management and Business Plan execution Develop a gender sensitive market attraction/engagement plan and a promotional package (value proposition materials, a simplified pitch/prospectus-style presentation, and outreach collateral) to present and sell BIMx's listing and investment services to prospective issuers (including women-led and women-owned SMEs) and investors (including women's business and investment networks), directly supporting BIMx's target of at least four listed issuers by 31 December 2026 Provide periodic advisory/coaching touchpoints (approximately monthly, format and frequency to be agreed with BIMx management) to the BIMx President (CEO) on strategic and institutional development matters arising during the assignment, including facilitating connections with peer leadership at partner or regional exchanges where relevant Develop a simple, practical KPI tracking tool for BIMx management to monitor progress against the key indicators. Deliverables Timeline Diagnostic note and strategy outline Institutional review, consultation findings, alignment matrix (mapping the Business Plan and draft strategy against national and EU frameworks), and annotated outline of the strategy 30 September 2026 Draft gender sensitive business development strategy and recommendations Inclusive, gender-mainstreamed and sustainability-orien