ShelterTech Consultant – Gender Analysis Consultant

Background and Introduction: Habitat for Humanity is a global nonprofit housing organisation working in more than 70 countries around the world. Habitat’s vision is of a world where everyone has a decent place to live. Habitat for Humanity formally launched the Terwilliger Centre for Innovation in Shelter (TCIS) in 2016 consolidating more than a decade of experience in developing market-based solutions for housing. The goal of the TCIS is to make housing markets work more effectively for people in need of decent, affordable shelter, thereby improving the quality of life for low-income households. One such initiative is ShelterTech, the world’s leading platform for affordable housing innovation, to bring together entrepreneurs, corporations, investors and development partners in mapping out and supporting innovations with the potential to disrupt the affordable housing sector. To date, ShelterTech has supported over 120 innovations enter the market or scale their solutions in 20+ countries.

First ever women focussed SHEltertech program: While ShelterTech has always encouraged and supported women entrepreneurs, it now recognizes the need for a more intentional focus on gender inclusion as a key driver of equitable and scalable solutions in the housing sector. The SHElterTech Program builds on this foundation by embedding a gender lens into ShelterTech’s work, ensuring that women-led businesses have access to the resources, networks, and capital needed to scale their impact. By addressing gender disparities in the built environment, the program seeks to create a more inclusive, resilient, and innovative housing sector that benefits low-income communities worldwide.
Objectives: The SHElterTech Program seeks to deepen the understanding of women’s involvement across the ShelterTech portfolio, with a focus on their roles in leadership, decision-making, and technical fields within the housing and construction sector. The program will also examine the role of women as end-users and beneficiaries of housing and construction solutions. This includes understanding whether women represent a significant portion of the customer base and how their needs, preferences, and decision-making influence the adoption of products and services.

Program Outcomes:

• A detailed report highlighting gender representation across the current ShelterTech portfolio, including key challenges faced by women-led startups in the housing and construction sector.
• Strengthened entrepreneurial skills for women founders through customized training and mentorship programs focused on leadership, fundraising, and skill development. Specific interventions will be designed based on insights from the gender analysis, considering the stage, sector, and unique needs of startup.
• Fostering Male Allyship and Inclusive Leadership: A structured approach to engaging men as allies in gender equity efforts.
• Enhanced Visibility and Support: Increased recognition, advocacy, and networking opportunities for women entrepreneurs within the housing and construction ecosystem, fostering greater access to funding, partnerships, and market opportunities.
• Scope of work: The project will be implemented in 2 phases
• Activities: Assess the roles and involvement of women in key positions such as:
• Leadership (founders, co-founders, executive roles).
• Decision-making (directors, board members).
• Technical roles (engineers, designers, product developers)
• Supply Chain and Gender Typing: Analyze the presence of women across the supply chain, examining if women are involved in key functions such as procurement, manufacturing, and logistics, or if they are confined to certain roles (e.g., HR, marketing). Investigate potential gender stereotypes.
• Customer Analysis: Determine whether women make up a significant portion of the customer base for these startups and whether products or services are tailored to women’s needs.
• Entry barriers: for women as founders, employees in housing and construction startups
• Challenges and Barriers: Identify specific barriers that women face in leadership, technical roles, and other capacities within the portfolio.
• Outcome: Produce a detailed report outlining key findings, gaps in gender diversity, and recommendations to increase women’s participation and leadership across the ecosystem.
• Stakeholder workshops: Once the report is developed, a stakeholder workshop to be organized to discuss the findings, gather feedback, and refine the recommendations in collaboration with key industry players, policymakers, and ecosystem partners. The finalized recommendations will then serve as a strategic guide for shaping future interventions and driving meaningful progress toward gender inclusion in the housing and construction sector.
• Phase II: Phase 1 will shape the direction of the program. In the meantime. Few ideas to be considered are
• The second phase of the program will be informed by the findings and recommendations from Phase I, including the gender analysis report and stakeholder workshop discussions. The agency will be responsible for executing targeted interventions designed to strengthen women’s participation and leadership within the ShelterTech ecosystem.

Key Activities Under Phase II*

• Capacity Building for Early-Stage Startups
• Fundraising Readiness Support
• Fostering Male Allyship in Leadership
• Developing Gender-Inclusive Policies
• Leadership Training for Women Founders
• *The Phase II interventions will be iterative and flexible, allowing for adaptation based on startup needs, sector challenges, and ecosystem feedback, with TCIS providing oversight to ensure alignment with ShelterTech’s broader mission.
• Time Frame: The execution period considered is from April 2025 to December 2025.
• Monitoring and Evaluation: A comprehensive Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) framework will be jointly developed by TCIS and the implementing agency to systematically track progress, measure key performance indicators (KPIs), and ensure that interventions deliver measurable impact

How to apply

• Submit a proposal to Priya Mohan (Manager – Entrepreneurship & Innovation – India) at pmohan@habitat.org / slowrence@habitat.org by February 28, 2025. Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.
• Detailed Terms of Reference to be accessed here: SHEltertech_Genderprog_TCISIndia_TOR_Final.docx

Proposal format

• Business Registration details and all the required supporting documents.
• Experience: Description of past programs and impact metrics
• Program structure and implementation plan as per details provided in the ‘Scope of Work’ in this Terms of Reference.
• Detailed financial proposal.
• Biodata of the key personnel who will handle the project and details of any new resource
• Partners – List of current partners and details on those that may of relevance to this program
• Estimated Budget including travel expenses (estimate)
• Project schedule & work breakdown structure with timelines, key milestones, project phases, or other project plan information.