Consultancy- Drafting a Policy Paper on ways to incentivize employment in the Private Sector

Contract

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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 Jordan Country Office is committed to advancing global gender equality standards and promoting women's economic empowerment and participation. This mission is articulated in the 2023-2027 Strategic Note, emphasizing coordination across projects and programmes with three core pillars. Effective implementation, monitoring, and collaboration with government, private sector partners, civil society, and international partners are integral to these efforts.

Jordan’s women’s labour force participation rate is around 14%, which is considered as one of the lowest labour force participation rates in the world in a country that is not in a conflict. The adverse impact of this reality has multilayered effects. Among those are the impact on the national economic growth due to the low labour force participation rate, and very high unemployment rates and their implications on the national GDP. On the micro level, the private sector’s enterprises are deprived from economically inactive women’s skills and talents. At the same time, it adversely impacts the socio-economic situation of the Jordanian households and on women’s access to their rights and public services. The government of Jordan has recognized in the Economic Modernization Vision that increasing women’s labour force participation is one of the national priorities and has set a national target to double the current women’s labour force participation rate by 2033. All stakeholders including the government, private sector, civil society organizations including employees’ and employers’ associations and experts agree that increasing women’s labour force participation in the private sector is the key to meet this target. The government of Jordan with the leadership of the Inter-ministerial Committee for Women’s Empowerment (IMC-WE) have been doing considerable efforts to address the structural challenges that hinder women’s economic participation and identified the need to invest more efforts and resources in incentivizing the private sector to increase women’s labour force participation.

Stemmed from its mandate, a fundamental aspect of UN Women's work in Jordan is its partnership with the private sector to support women’s access, retention, and promotion in its enterprises. This collaboration is guided by the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs), which provides the private sector with solutions, tools, and resources to advance gender equality in the workplace, marketplace, and the community. This aligns with Jordan's Economic Modernization Vision, which seeks to boost women's labour force participation to 28% by 2033, by creating 280,000 jobs for women. This is aligned clearly with the national priorities to mainstream gender into the Economic Modernization vision produced by the IMC-WE, which provides a unique opportunity of evidence-based tools and guidance that can be localized to the Jordanian context to support national efforts to meet national targets for economic growth. The collaboration between IMC-WE, UN Women and the private sector is instrumental in driving this transformative agenda and paving the way for increased women's labour force participation and broader economic modernization in Jordan.

In collaboration with the Inter-Ministerial Committee for Gender Equality and under the guidance of the Deputy Country Representative, the Consultant will be assigned the responsibility of drafting a Policy Paper on incentivizing the private sector to promote women’s employment at its enterprises. The policy paper aims to provide a policy actions and alternatives and policy recommendations to the government on how to incentivize the private sector enterprises and representatives to take practical actions to invest in increasing the number of their women’s employees, their retention rates and representation in leadership positions. The policy paper should be structured and drafted in an approach that is contextualized and applicable to Jordan’s case. The policy paper should be drafted in full alignment with the national frameworks, specifically the Economic Modernization Vision and its Women’s Empowerment Strategy and their executive plans.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance of the UN Women Deputy Country Representative and the Technical Lead of Women’s Economic Empowerment Portfolio:

1. Conduct desk reviews of the current situation of women’s economic participation in the private sector in Jordan and incentives provided to increase it that should include:

• Brief review of the status of women’s economic participation in the private sector in Jordan including trends, barriers to women's employment and retention, and opportunities, especially within the Economic Modernization Vision framework and other main national frameworks.
• Review the Economic Modernization Vision and other national frameworks and regulations in terms of available public incentives provided for the private sector to increase women’s employment and their enactment status. The desk review should cover as well other incentives provided to the private sector for national targets purposes and the possibility to apply them to incentivize women’s employment in the private sector.
• Review the national frameworks in terms of existing "public" incentives for the private sector to increase both national and international investment in the private sector. All incentives targeting certain target group, such as women’s employment, youth employment and people with disabilities or specific sectors/locations such as, green economy, and development zones should be included.
• Review of the regional and international best practices to incentivize the private sector enterprises to employ more women including but not limited to the investment in the provision of supportive work environment and investment led development approach.
• Conduct a consultation meeting with selected WEPs signatories and private sector representatives, and 5 senior key informant interviews in the private sector and the government to discuss the issue to inform the process of drafting the policy paper.

2. Draft the policy paper: The policy paper should identify a menu of possible policy actions and measures to incentivize the private sector enterprises in Jordan to take actions to increase the number of their women’s employees. The policy paper should be structured and drafted in an approach that is contextualized and applicable to Jordan’s case.

• Draft the first version of the policy paper based on the desk reviews and consultations per the approved outline.
• Conduct consultation sessions/meetings with stakeholders from the government, private sector, think tank, advocates, economists and experts to discuss the proposed menu of possible policy actions and measures with their KPIs.
• Reflect the feedback to finalize the second draft of the policy paper to be revised and shared with key stakeholders for any final comments.
• Propose newly introduced or reformed key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor the progress towards the policy recommendations in alignment with the economic modernization and women's employment.
• Submit the finalized and approved policy paper.

3. Present the policy paper to national stakeholders using a PowerPoint presentation according to what national partners and UN Women consider as the best venue to do so.

DeliverablesNumber of daysPercentage of paymentTimelinesExecutive workplan for the consultancy based on the TOR3 working days10%December 15, 2023Desk reviews conducted per the outlined scope of work in this TOR30 working days20%January 20, 2024Consultation meeting with selected WEPs signatories and private sector respresentatives, and 5 senior key informant interviews12 days10%January 20, 2024The first version of the policy paper10 working days15%February 5, 2024Consultation workshop/meetings to discuss the policy paper with the stakeholders including the private sector representatives15 working days15%February 25, 2024The second (revised) draft of policy paper10 working days30%March 20, 2024Final and approved version which will be presented at a launching eventConsultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

• This is a short-term home-based consultancy that is home-based, that is deliverable based for 80 days during a 4 months.
• UN Women will support the Consultant with background information and documents, and a list of stakeholders relevant for the assignment.
• The Consultant is expected to work using his/ her own computer.
• UN Women will directly cover travel costs (If any) as per UN Women’s rules and regulations

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: https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process#_Values

Functional Competencies:

• Substantial knowledge and professional experience in in socio-economic and development in general, and in particular private sector development.
• A profound commitment to gender equality and women's empowerment, incorporating a gender-sensitive lens and approach throughout the policy paper.
• Proficiency in policy analysis, research, and evidence-based policy recommendation formulation.
• Effective communication and collaboration skills to engage diverse stakeholders, understand their perspectives and interests, and encourage various private sector companies.
• Ability to work in multicultural environments, demonstrating cultural sensitivity and adaptability when engaging with diverse sectors and organizations.

Required Skills and Experience

Education and Certification:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in economics, public policy, or another relevant field.
• A bachelor’s degree in combination with 2 additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• At least 7 years of progressively responsible work experience in the field of socio-economic research, economic empowerment including working with the private sector, and policy development, with demonstrated experience in research and analysis in the identified thematic areas required.
• Proven ability to write clear and effective papers and reports, demonstrated through the submitted sample required.
• Proven expertise in gender equality and women’s empowerment

Languages:

• Fluency in English and Arabic is required.

Evaluation Criteria:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology: Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for the financial evaluation.

Criteria Weight Technical: 70% (70 points)

• Criterion 1: master’s degree or equivalent in economics, public policy, or another relevant field. A bachelor’s degree in combination with 2 additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree (15 points)
• Criterion 2: At least 7 years of progressively responsible work experience in the field of socio-economic research, economic empowerment including working with the private sector, and policy development, with demonstrated experience in research and analysis in the identified thematic areas required (15 points)
• Criterion 3: Proven ability to write clear and effective papers and reports, demonstrated through the submitted sample required. (15 points)
• Criterion 4: Proven expertise in gender equality and women’s empowerment . (15 points)
• Criterion 5: Fluency in English and Arabic is required. (10 points)

Financial: Lowest Financial Proposal: 30% (30 points)

The points for the Financial Proposal will be allocated as per the following formula:

• Contract will be awarded to the technically qualified consultant who obtains the highest combined score (financial and technical);
• The points for the Financial Proposal will be allocated as per the following formula: (Lowest Bid Offered*)/ (Bid of the Consultant) x 30;
• 'Lowest Bid Offered' refers to the lowest price offered by Offerors scoring at least 49 points in the technical evaluation.

Application:

• Personal CV or P11 (P11 can be downloaded from: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2022-07/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form-en.doc)
• Personal CV;
• All inclusive Financial proposal based on a daily rate

The above-mentioned documents should be merged in a standalone file including all them, since the online application submission does only permit to upload one file per application. Incomplete submission can be a ground for disqualification.

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)

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