Consultant on Women’s Economic Empowerment

Result of Service The consultant is expected to provide inputs to planned outputs including knowledge products and meetings under the women's economic empowetment project to support the achievement of its set obejctives.

Work Location Beirut

Expected duration The duration of the contract is 12 working months extending from the second week of January 2022 until the last week of December 2022.

Duties and Responsibilities The Arab region continues to register one of the largest gender gaps. Women's labor force participation in the region remains low. Various factors can be attributed to the low economic participation of women in the Arab region most important of which are the high involvement of women in unpaid care work and their weak involvement in entrepreneurship.

From one side, the uneven distribution of unpaid care work between men and women is particularly marked in the Arab States where women carry out 80 to 90 percent of all unpaid care tasks and spend an average of 4.7 times more time than men on unpaid care tasks. The uneven distribution of unpaid care work constitutes a root cause of women's social and economic disempowerment in the Arab States, and contributes to the world's widest gender employment gap, horizontal and vertical job segregation, as well as large gender gaps in earnings, wealth, political representation and decision-making. If current patterns endure and women continue to bear the brunt of unpaid care work, there is a serious risk that gender gaps will widen and hard-won achievements in women's socioeconomic empowerment will be reversed.

On another side, women face various barriers to entrepreneurship including scarcity of time due to unpaid care work, a lack of experience due to low labour force participation rates and high unemployment, a lack of access to financial resources and a lack of access to the internet and in some cases a fear of technology, to name a few.

The COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdown and social distancing measures have significantly increased the unpaid care work burden on women and created an additional layer of complexity for them. It has as well significantly influenced the entrepreneurship environment by exacerbating existing challenges and led to increasing gender inequalities and gaps.

These prevailing large gender gaps are closely linked to the policy and legal frameworks that highly influence the structure of the care economy in the Arab States; the benefits provided to caregivers; and the entrepreneurship environment. Addressing the available policies and legal frameworks is thus crucial to promote women's economic empowerment in the region and build the resilience of women to future shocks.

Against this backdrop, ESCWA is currently implementing a project to promote women's economic empowerment. The latter focuses on care and entrepreneurship and targets mainly policy and legal frameworks. It seeks to prepare necessary knowledge products to serve as basis to support member States in their efforts to reform and develop sound policy and legal frameworks, strengthen member States' capacities and provide them with necessary technical assistance to reform existing policies and develop new ones to promote women's economic empowerment.

In light of the above ESCWA seeks to hire a consultant to provide the necessary support to achieve the implementation of the women's economic empowerment project.

Qualifications/special skills Academic Qualifications: An advanced University degree (Masters or equivalent) in economics, social studies, gender studies, or a related field is required. A PhD is desirable. Experience: At least 5 years of in economics, social studies, gender studies, or related relevant experience is required. Research experience on gender-related issues including on women's economic empowerment is desirable. Experience in qualitative and/or quantitative data is desirable. Experience in working on the Arab region is also desirable. Language: Fluency in English is required. Fluency in Arabic and French is desirable.

No Fee THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.