Consultancy - To Conduct Rapid Care Analysis for the 3R Project in South Africa

Contract

This is a National Consultant contract. More about National 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. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

Care work is fundamental for human wellbeing as well as essential for a vibrant, sustainable economy with a productive labour force. The centrality of care to sustainable development and its relevance for gender equality are now widely recognized by the global community including as a target under Sustainable Development Goal 5. 1 Care work ensures the complex and life-sustaining web on which our very existence depends; without it, individuals, families, societies and economies would not be able to survive and thrive. Yet, around the world women and girls shoulder a disproportionate share of care work that is unpaid, unrecognized and undervalued. Prior to the COVID-19 crisis, women already did three times as much unpaid care and domestic work as men with women on average doing around 4.1 hours per day compared to men who on average do around 1.7 hours. For women living in rural areas these figures can vary widely, particularly in areas with limited access to regular basic services such as energy, water and sanitation, as women and girls tend to endure the most of the unpaid labour to collect and manage these resources and services for daily household consumption.

The multi-country Programme addressing unpaid care work entitled, ‘Transformative Approaches to Recognize, Reduce, and Redistribute Unpaid Care Work in Women’s Economic Empowerment Programming, builds on UN Women’s expertise at the global, regional and country level. It also leverages on UN Women’s existing strong partnerships with women’s cooperatives and other women’s rights organizations, traditional leaders, communities, men and boys, and the private and public sectors to address unequal power relations, systemic discrimination and harmful norms and practices that underpin inequities in care work. In particular, the 3R Programme will complement existing UN Women programmes on climate-resilient agriculture and rural women’s economic empowerment in the three countries, by developing a care component which responds to lessons learned that indicate insufficient attention is given to women’s unpaid care and domestic workloads and overall time poverty. This Programme fills a critical gap in this area by developing a holistic package of solutions, i.e., transformative solutions, to these challenges.

The overarching goal of the 3R Programme is to remove the structural barriers to women’s full and equal participation in the economy by recognizing, reducing, and redistributing unpaid care work. In order to contribute to this overarching goal/impact, the Programme aims to contribute to the following two outcomes:

1. National and local governments develop/strengthen laws, policies and services that recognize and address the disproportionate share of unpaid care work by women and girls.
2. Women’s cooperatives and other organizations provide transformative care services in rural and/or urban areas to reduce and redistribute unpaid care work.

Objectives of the Assignment

With the above background, the objective of this assignment is for the Consultant to conduct a Rapid Care Assessment (RCA) to better understand factors influencing the nature, distribution among women, men boys and girls and unpaid care work interventions in South Africa. Secondly, the consultant will use rapid care analysis outcomes to foster a collective understanding and commitment to the care economy through policy and practice.

In conducting the RCA, the consultant will work closely with the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Department of Agriculture, Department of Social Development, the Department of Health and the Department of Basic Education, within the Free State, Limpopo, and KwaZulu Natal Provinces as key informants.

The consultant will also work with Civil Society Organizations and women’s cooperatives to understand their care services needs and opportunities. Most importantly the consultant will engage women, girls, men and boys through exclusive focus group discussions to understand their care needs and issues affecting different social groups in as far as unpaid care work is concerned. Through desk review the consultant will also analyze and review policies and laws not only in terms of their existence, but also measuring the extent to which they are transformative in as far as unpaid care work is concerned.

All outputs derived from this exercise will be utilized as resource materials during the 3R National Consultative Workshop to inform capacity development gaps and technical support needs of women’s cooperatives and other organizations that provide care work. The guidance notes will serve as useful background documents to advocate for strengthened actions to recognize, reduce and redistribute unpaid care work in South Africa; and secondly influence national policy formulation and interventions. The models and guidelines will be implemented to increase capacity of care services. The assignment will include:

• A desk review of relevant documentation on the unpaid care, work from policy and legal perspective to practice
• Convene and facilitate open dialogue through Focus Group Discussion (FGDs) to discuss underlying factors and impact biases in the distribution of unpaid care work at household and community level.
• Compiling a final RCA report highlighting key findings.
• Present the findings during the 3R National Consultative workshop.

Prior to starting the assignment, the Consultant in collaboration with the 3R team, will develop a detailed methodology describing the various aspects to be assessed and how these assessments will be conducted.

Scope of Work

Develop an Inception Report, with timeframe on executing the Tasks and outputs.

• Desk Review of the unpaid care work in South Africa; national and provincial developmental plans, (including identifying gaps in laws and policies related to unpaid care work);
• Develop a rapid care analysis tool to be used for the analysis of the unpaid care work;
• Document review of existing care tools, services and infrastructure within the care services including early childhood development services, basic education, etc.
  • Liaise with Stakeholders and solicit required information to conduct the rapid care analysis
  • Review National Development Plans, regulations, other government documents and available resources that address care work and basic education within the South African context.
• Conduct the rapid care analysis from policy to practice;
• Develop synthesis report from above activities i.e., Develop guidance notes to influence national, local policy interventions;
• Develop a tool to conduct rapid care analysis of participating cooperatives and other organizations;
• Obtain and review a database/(s) of cooperatives and other organisations that will be assessed, from the national, local, district government stakeholders. Synthesis and confirm database to be used with the UN Women;
• Conduct rapid care analysis in the target districts;
• Prepare Guidance notes together with participating organisations on how to strengthen actions towards the 3Rs.
• Develop synthesis report from above activities

Geographical Areas Covered

The current 3R Programme is so far being implemented in the following regions.

Group

Province

Regions

Group 1

Limpopo Province

Capricorn, Mopani, Sekhukhune District

Group 2

Free State

Motheo, Thabo Mofutsanyane District

Group 3

KwaZulu Natal, and Mpumalanga

UMgungundlovu District (KZN); Ehlanzeni (MPU)

Duties and Responsibilities

Deliverables

The expected deliverables below should be read in line with the specific objectives, and Outputs above.

Deliverable

Activity

Timeline

(15)

Inception Report and development of the RCA tools and identification of target groups for Focus Group Discussions

• Brief meeting with UN Women and other concerned institution
• Prepare and present a comprehensive inception report including rapid care analysis tools to be used for the exercise
• Needs assessment framework and tool/(s) to conduct care need assessment of participating cooperatives
• The Inception report should also include calendar for the FGDs using RCA methodology as per Oxfam guidelines with an explanation in the inception tool on how the methodology will be adapted.
• Incorporate inputs and finalize for validation before the start of the Consultative Workshop
• Submit and Present to the UN Women

3 days

Undertake Rapid Care Assessment in the targeted districts of Limpopo, Free State and KZN provinces.

• Conduct rapid care analysis as stipulated on the Tasks and Outputs, to better understand time allocation and use by women and girls in relation to men and boys
• Identify systemic barriers, challenges and best practices associated with care services

8 days

Presentation to the UN Women

• Submit final draft report of the rapid care analysis
• Undertake a presentation of the RCA finding during the 3R National Consultative workshop

• Consolidate a final report including comments and input from workshop participants.

  4 days

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/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf

Functional Competencies

• Good analytical skills and knowledge of quantitative, qualitative and participatory research methodologies and analysis on care work;
• Excellent facilitation, organization and planning skills;
• Proven information management and data skills (Excel, PowerPoint, MS word) in the areas of multi-modal, cross-sectoral data collection, data visualization, including RCA and M&E;
• Proven skills and knowledge of project management / cycle and family engagement for care work.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Masters University degree in Child Development, Care Work, Gender equality, social work or other related field experience is required;

Experience:

• A minimum of eight (8) years of experience in education/care work with significant field experience in Care Work, unpaid care work, women’s rights and empowerment, gender equality in technical and/or coordination role;
• Demonstrated experience in developing Care work (plans, programmes and budgets and strategies).
• Ability to work collaboratively as part of a team in a challenging and highly fluid and complex environment, flexibility and ability to handle ambiguity and constant change;
• Ability to work under pressure to tight deadlines.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is required;
• Understanding of South African Indigenous languages (IsiZulu, IsiXhosa, Afrikaans, Sepedi, and Sesotho) is an advantage for conducting the assignment;
• Knowledge of the other UN official working language is an asset.

Note:

Please note that applications without a completed and signed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

UN Women Personal History form (P-11) can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment

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, colour, 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. 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, colour, 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.

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.)