A consultant to conduct a feminist economic analysis on the impact of COVID-19 on the participation of women as workers, leaders and business owners in the Palestinian economy

Contract

This is a International Consultant contract. More about International Consultant contracts.

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.

UN Women plays an innovative and catalytic role in the State of Palestine since its inception in 1997. UN Women Palestine Office focuses its activities on one overarching goal, namely, to support the implementation at the national level of existing international commitments to advance gender equality in line with the national priorities. In support of this goal, and thoroughly taking into consideration the specificities of the Palestinian context, UN Women concentrates its efforts and interventions towards the realization of following strategic goals: Mainstreaming gender in governance, peace and security; Supporting women's economic security and rights; and Promoting women’s rights and protection against violence.

To ensure women have income security, decent work and economic autonomy, UN Women and ILO are partnering to implement two complementary programmes: (1) “Promoting Women’s Equal Access to Economic Opportunities and Decent Work in Palestine, phase II”, funded by the Italian Cooperation Development (AICS), and (2) The regional programme “Promoting Productive Employment and Decent Work For Women” implemented in Palestine, Jordan and Egypt with funding from Sweden (SIDA). Both programmes aim at promoting an environment that enables women’s labour market participation and gender responsive policies and legal frameworks related to the world of work and promote productive employment and decent work for women in Palestine. The results of this analysis will feed into the design and implementation of policy interventions of the above mentioned programmes in response to women’s emerging needs in light of COVID-19 to ensure their equal access to the labour market and decent work opportunities.

Recent data and statistics have shown that Palestine is adversely impacted by the consequences of the coronavirus (COVID-19), with an unprecedented economic downturn that is felt by all segments of populations, but also has strong gender implications. COVID-19 is highlighting and magnifying inequalities and the multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination faced by women and girls. The pandemic has moved beyond a health crisis and has morphed into a social and economic crisis, posing a serious threat to women’s employment and livelihoods, especially in precarious informal and non-essential sectors.

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) and the Palestinian Monetary Authority (PMA) estimated that a three-month lockdown due to COVID-19 crisis would lead to a 2.7 per cent decline in public revenue, 4.5 per cent increase in unemployment and a decline in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 5.1 per cent compared to 2019. Thus, it is expected that the GDP may decline by 14 per cent in 2020 as compared to 2019 (PMA, 2020). With the lack of existing gender sensitive data, information received from women themselves indicate that women remain at a greater disadvantage that men, due to workplace discrimination but also since they are expected to take on domestic duties of care and education, hence their jobs are expected to be more disproportionately affected by lay-offs, and result in a sharper and more prolonged dip in women’s engagement in the paid economy.

In the current context, it is vital to adopt immediate urgent measures and longer term structural gender-responsive solutions to mitigate economic losses and the adverse impact on women’s livelihoods during the pandemic in order to position them for economic recovery during and in the aftermath of the pandemic. On the immediate level, it is critical to ensure women’s continued participation in the economy as workers, business owners and leaders, stabilize their incomes, and mitigate other economic losses during the pandemic, protect their employment, and reconcile their work obligations with the increased burden of care work at home due to school closures and caring for the sick and elderly. It is also vital to recognize and advocate for the leadership role of women in decision making related to the immediate economic response during COVID-19. On the strategic level, it is essential to sensitize macroeconomic policies to gender, so that as fiscal stimulus packages are designed, their gender impact is considered. Establishing guidelines for channeling resources to those most impacted by the crisis and providing social and economic recovery support to protect the most vulnerable will go a long way to developing a gender responsive intervention framework.

Against this backdrop, the UN Women Palestine Country Office is seeking to hire an international expert to conduct a feminist economic analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on the participation of women in the Palestinian economy as workers, business owners and leaders. The analysis would help highlight policies and practices that will guide the necessary surge in fiscal and financial stimulus to make the economic frameworks of interventions for response and recovery work for the most vulnerable groups, including women.

The assignment is expected to (i) produce a systematic analysis of the effect of the crisis on main economic indicators for women, including measures of livelihood and labor market outcomes in both formal and informal employment. The assignment is also expected to (ii) estimate the gender impact of response and recovery packages, to the extent that data allow such a disaggregation. Finally, the assignment is expected to (iii) propose recommendations for designing gender sensitive fiscal stimulus packages and for tracking the gender impact of future fiscal stimulus packages. The work would therefore contribute to ongoing discussions and interventions among several national stakeholders – government, international organizations, civil society and the private sector – on interventions for impact mitigation responses of this outbreak.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance of the UN Women Special Representative in the State of Palestine, and the direct supervision of UN Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme Manager, the consultant will undertake the following tasks, duties and responsibilities:

• Develop a comprehensive workplan (including methodology) for the assignment with specific actions and timeline, including, but not limited to: 1. maintaining ongoing coordination and discussions with the UN Women team regarding the data collection process, formation of the reference group, validation of data provided and reviewing the draft analysis.2. Leading the preparation for a national validation workshop, including preparing the workshop agenda, list of invitees, developing and delivering the key presentation based on the findings from the draft report, incorporating key inputs, feedback and recommendations from the workshop into the final version of the feminist economic analysis.
• Provide support in establishing a reference group of national and international stakeholders who would input into the analysis and provide feedback as needed.
• Conduct a comprehensive data collection, both qualitative and quantitative, through using several virtual and in-person tools (as needed), including, but not limited to, interviews, consultation workshops (at least two), surveys (at least one), focus groups (at least three), literature review (available locally and nationally produced data, analysis and sources) etc. targeting women (employed and unemployed), women entrepreneurs, policy makers and governmental officials, chambers of commerce, trade unions, international actors, private sector, other acting UN agencies etc.
• Develop a feminist economic analysis: the impact of COVID-19 on the participation of women in the Palestinian economy (between 12-15 pages) through:
  • describing the estimated impact of the crisis on the economic situation at the macro and micro levels, from a gender perspective.
  • Analyzing existing economic recovery and response packages from a gender perspective.
  • Proposing concrete policy recommendations, for designing and applying gender sensitive macro-economic measures, fiscal stimulus packages, monetary plans, etc. to inform an inclusive economic response and recovery, including inclusion and leadership of women.

Where possible, the approach should include quantitative analysis as well as a narrative report with disaggregation where possible to show effects for female heads of households, poor women, women with disabilities, among other marginalized groups.

• Deliverable 1: A workplan with key deliverables in line with the detailed tasks with timeframe in English. (expected delivery date: December 2020)
• Deliverable 2: A draft feminist economic analysis: the impact of COVID-19 on the participation of women in the Palestinian economy in English. (expected delivery date: January 2021)
• Deliverable 3: A final feminist economic analysis: the impact of COVID-19 on the participation of women in the Palestinian economy in English and Arabic, approved by UN Women. (expected delivery date: February 2021).

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity.
• Integrity.
• Professionalism.

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues.
• Accountability.
• Creative Problem Solving.
• Effective Communication.
• Inclusive Collaboration.
• Stakeholder Engagement.
• Leading by Example.

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-employment-values-and-competencies-definitions-en.pdf

Functional Competencies:

• Strong knowledge of international standards on women economic security and rights, decent work and gender equality tools and frameworks.
• Ability to liaise with a variety of stakeholders and partners, including government and international organizations.
• Strong analytical, dialogue, consultation, analysis and communication skills.
• Maturity, ability to take decisions under pressure and ability to deal with matters that are politically and culturally sensitive.
• Knowledge of and experience with Financial institutions and women entrepreneurs.
• Ability to work as a member of a team.
• Demonstrated experience in timely delivering of quality products, including knowledge products, and in contributing to complex. processes within the women’s economic empowerment area of work.
• Demonstrated coordination, training, facilitation and presentation skills.
• Results oriented, flexible and problem-solving skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

A Master’s Degree in socio-economic studies, gender studies, or any related development fields. A Bachelor’s degree in combination with 3 additional years of qualifying experience will be accepted in lieu of the master’s degree.

Experience:

• At least six years of extensive experience in feminist economics, economic development, and gender research and analytical work.
• At least five years of experience in international development poloicy-making and support including preparing and publishing policy breifs,/papers.
• At least three years of professional experience in economic research, including macroeconomics, budgeting, public finance etc. is required.
• Previous experience in working with the Palestinian public and private sectors is an asset.
• At least 2 years of previous experience in working with UN agencies or development banks is a strong asset.

Language Requierements:

• Excellent writing, editing and oral communications skills in English, knowledge of Arabic language is an asset. `

This SSA modality is governed by UN Women General Terms and Conditions. UN Women will only be able to respond to applicants who meet the minimum requirements.

Candidates should clearly indicate how they meet the above-mentioned criteria in their applications.

The following documents should be submitted as part of the application. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials:

• UN Women P11 including experience in similar assignments; the P11 form can be downloaded at http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment, a signed copy should be submitted; and
• At least two previous similar samples of work, including analyses, policies or studies from a gender perspective.

Note: Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Please upload as one attachment of the documents as mentioned above online through this website.

Candidates should have the ability to quickly submit degree certificates, medical certification (of good health) expression of Interest (EoI).

Evaluation of applicants:

Candidates will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ qualifications mentioned above, and a financial proposal. A contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer receives the highest score out of below defined technical and financial criteria. Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 50 points in the technical evaluation will be considered for financial evaluation.

Technical Evaluation (70%) – max. 70 points:

• A Master’s Degree in socio-economic studies, gender studies or any related development fields. A Bachelor’s degree in combination with 3 additional years of qualifying experience will be accepted in lieu of the master’s degree. (max 10 points)
• At least six years of extensive experience in feminist economics, economic development, and gender research and analytical work (max.15 points);
• At least five years of experience in international development poloicy-making and support including preparing and publishing policy breifs,/papers (max.15 points)
• At least three years of professional experience in economic research, including macroeconomics, budgeting, public finance etc. is required (max.10 points)
• Previous experience in working with the Palestinian public and private sectors is an asset (max. 5 points)
• At least 2 years of previous experience in working with UN agencies or development banks is a strong asset (max 5 points)
• Samples of previous Similar work: including analyses, policies or studies from a gender perspective (max 10 points)

The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal is allocated to the lowest price proposal. All other price proposals receive points in inverse proportion. A suggested formula is as follows:

p = 30 (µ/z)

Using the following values:

• p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated.
• µ = price of the lowest priced proposal.
• z = price of the proposal being evaluated.

Only long-listed candidates will be contacted.

Financial proposal. The shortlisted candidate will be requested to submit a financial proposal. The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount breaking down a daily professional fee, proposed number of working days and any related expenses, i.e. travel and communications expenses in USD.