81306249-Developing Integrated Management Systems in Women-Led Enterprises Project (DIMS)

Employment promotion for women for the green transformation in Africa" (WE4D) is a regional programme commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). It is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and designed as a multi-donor initiative that can receive funds from other commissioning parties through combined financing and thereby scale approaches and results. To date, the programme is co-financed by the European Union (EU) through the regional Team Europe Initiative (TEI) "Investing in Young Businesses in Africa" - Supporting Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Development (IYBA-SEED), the EU Team Europe Initiative "Investing in Young Businesses in Africa - Women Entrepreneurship for Africa: Entrepreneurial Skills and Seed-Funding" (TEI IYBA WE4A) and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad). Further regional and bilateral co-financing from the EU is currently in the negotiation process. WE4D runs from January 2023 until December 2027 and is implemented in six countries: Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. WE4D seeks to implement the "Developing Integrated Management Systems in Women-Led Enterprises Project" (DIMS project) as one of its interventions. The aim of the project is to support the establishment and development of the latest Integrated Management Systems (IMS) within selected women-led companies in Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, and possibly Malawi. An integrated management system integrates all of an organization"s systems and processes into one comprehensive framework, enabling an organization to work as a single unit with unified objectives. As such, a growing number of enterprises have chosen to introduce fully integrated systems, meeting the requirements of (1) the Quality Management Standard (QMS) (ISO 9001), (2) the Environmental Management Standard (EMS) (ISO 14001) and (3) the Occupational Health & Safety Standard (OHSS) (ISO 45001). IMS reduces costs, increases the quality of products or services of certified companies, and thus creates more demand for goods and services of these companies - leading to additional employment opportunities.