Consultant to support the development of childcare economy legal framework in Lebanon

Result of Service Determining the childcare-related texts and aspects to be amended and or developed to promote the childcare economy and providing advice on appropriate legal changes and alternatives in Lebanon.

Work Location Remotely

Expected duration 3 months

Duties and Responsibilities Background: Deficient legal frameworks constitute one of the main factors that deepen countries’ gender gap and inequalities. In fact, equality and non-discrimination in legal and justice systems has been identified as one of the main challenges and priority areas by the Arab Member States in the Beijing +25 review. Lebanon is no exception to this rule, with one of the largest gender gaps in the world, ranking 119 out of 146 countries according to the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2022. This low ranking is closely linked to the country's low female labour force participation rate associated with various factors among which, in addition to the deficient legal frameworks, discriminatory social norms and caregiving responsibilities traditionally assigned to women are key.

Although the uneven distribution of unpaid care work between men and women is a global phenomenon, it is particularly marked in the Arab States including Lebanon, where women carry out 80 to 90 percent of all unpaid care tasks according to the McKinsey Global Institute, and spend, on average, 4.7 times more time on unpaid care tasks than men according to the ILO.

Within this context, consecutive and unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic and economic crises in Lebanon, have further burdened women with a disproportionate increase in childcare responsibilities, leading them to reduce their professional responsibilities and working hours, work part-time and engage in multiple tasks outside the formal workplace such as working from home, or even completely withdraw from the labour force. In the absence of adequate social protection systems, women in Lebanon were consequently the hardest hit economically in terms of job lay-off and wage reduction.

These factors have therefore brought to the forefront the centrality of care work and highlighted the need for comprehensive care policies deemed essential for women’s economic empowerment and gender equality. They have highlighted the importance of family-friendly work policies as more and more evidence is emerging demonstrating that effectively implemented flexible working arrangements and maternity/paternity/family leaves and provisions have positive impacts not only on employees – by giving them the opportunity to maintain a healthy work-life balance - but also on employers - by leading to a more engaged and committed workforce and on the communities in general. Similarly, affordable, accessible and quality childcare services and adequate social infrastructure are key and essential not only to redistributing unpaid care work, but also to building human capital and promoting children’s development. Therefore, these policies are crucial for countries to increase human capital, work productivity in all settings, and promote gender equality which ultimately benefits both societies and economies.

In light of the above context, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) has been granting particular attention to enhancing the childcare sector in Lebanon since 2020, and has worked with several partners on preparing the below studies and consultations partners to push for the enhancement of the sector by addressing its associated legal and policy frameworks:

- A case study on women’s economic empowerment and childcare economy in Lebanon, produced by ESCWA, in partnership with the International Labour Organization and in collaboration with the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Ministry of Public Health; - Public hearings organized by the Women and Children Parliamentary Committee entitled "Women's Economic Security in Crisis Contexts" in 2021, where the preliminary findings and recommendations of the above case study were presented and discussed; - A national multi-stakeholder dialogue organized by the Lebanese National Commission for Women's Affairs in partnership with ESCWA and in collaboration with UN Women, the World Bank, and the Arab Institute for Women at the Lebanese American University in June 2022; - A legal study conducted by ESCWA in partnership with the Lebanese Parliament on the implementation of flexible work arrangements in Lebanon in 2023

Similarly, and against this same context, the Women and Child Parliamentarian Committee has collaborated with different partners to discuss the legislative reform process of the sector.

The findings and recommendations of all above mentioned studies and consultations demonstrated that despite the advancements and reforms made over the past few years, important barriers were still to be lifted to ensure an enabling environment for women’s economic participation. The findings also highlighted significant deficiencies at the strategic and vision level. It is apparent that all achievements and on-going efforts are scattered and disparate and do not fall under a national agreed vision or strategy that would frame and guide efforts at all levels and enable these efforts to accumulate and build on each other. The findings revealed the importance of developing a national strategic vision for the childcare sector in Lebanon to frame the needed interventions at all levels, among which the legal component constitutes a major pillar, and strengthen coordination among various government and non-government actors. They permitted to identify all challenges and gaps to promote childcare economy in Lebanon and called for a detailed review of legal texts to be amended or developed for this specific purpose including the ones related to labour market policies and social services provisions, and social protection.

Against this backdrop, ESCWA is supporting the Lebanese Women and Children Parliamentary Committee to develop a comprehensive childcare-related framework covering all legal texts and aspects that may need to be reformed and/or developed to promote the childcare economy in Lebanon.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Under the direct supervision of the Social Affairs Officer responsible for the care economy stream at ESCWA, and overall guidance of the Gender Justice, Population and Inclusive Development cluster leader, the consultant will be responsible for the following tasks and deliverables:

- Conduct necessary research and reviews to determine all legal texts governing family-friendly and enabling labour market policies and quality childcare provisions, as well as related social protection issues; - Carry out an in-depth review of the above related existing legal texts/frameworks in Lebanon and globally, and provide appropriate insights and advice on necessary modifications and reforms to specific legal texts and laws; - Based on the above, propose legal alternatives and changes - Identify key stakeholders that need to take part in national discussions and advise on the topics to be discussed during national workshops where needed; - Participate in the national discussion sessions/workshops which will be organized in this context and contribute to documenting outputs and recommendations.

Outputs will also be reviewed and approved by the Chair of the Lebanese Women and Children Parliamentary Committee.

Qualifications/special skills A master’s degree or equivalent in Lebanese law studies or related area is required.

All candidates must submit a copy of the required educational degree. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed. A minimum of 8 years of professional work experience in the legal field is required. Knowledge of labor and gender laws is required. A minimum of 3 years of work experience in drafting law proposals is required. Previous work experience with parliamentarian committees is required Experience with international organizations on similar issues is desirable.

Languages English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat; and Arabic is a working language of ESCWA.

For this position, fluency in Arabic is required. Knowledge of English is desirable.

Note: “Fluency” equals a rating of ‘fluent’ in all four areas (speak, read, write, and understand) and “Knowledge of” equals a rating of ‘confident’ in two of the four areas.

Additional Information Recruitment for this position is on a local basis. The incumbent is required to have the legal right to live and work in the specified working location.

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.