Drafting National Digital Accessibility Policy in Palestine Consultant

Result of Service The consultant will be responsible to deliver the following:

• The report prepared should be in Arabic and in electronic format;
• The report submitted should not be less than 30 pages;
• A 2 to 4 pages executive summary of the report.

The completed parts should be edited and saved in MS-Word (*.docx file) or an alternate compatible format. PDF format will not be accepted. It should include a table of contents to be automatically updated followed by a list of all tables and figures. The various parts should be submitted in electronic form and sent to the email address of the designated focal point. Attention is kindly drawn to the need to ensure that the final draft of the outputs be thoroughly

• MTIT and ESCWA shall review the second draft of the submitted report and send its comments and suggestions for improvements to the consultant 2 weeks later;
• The consultant shall review and incorporate the comments and suggestions made by MTIT and ESCWA into a revised final version of the report and submit it to ESCWA 2 weeks later;

• The report is considered final after incorporating discussions outcomes from the national related workshop (if any) and comments during the review process.

  Work Location UN-House ESCWA

  Expected duration 2 Months

  Duties and Responsibilities In 2020, ESCWA launched the Arab Digital Inclusion Platform (ADIP) to support policymakers in developing and improving their national policies and guidelines for enhanced e-accessibility, so as to bridge the digital divide and enable all people to access and use ICT. ESCWA developed two templates, namely the ESCWA template on national policy of e-accessibility for the Arab region: and the ESCWA template on technical guidelines of e-accessibility for the Arab region. These templates have been converted to interactive online tools, easily accessible by policy makers and interested users. Recently and under the framework of the above ADIP project, the Ministry of Telecom and Information Technology (MTIT) in Palestine requested the technical assistance of ESCWA to develop digital accessibility policy.

The consultant shall propose to the designated ESCWA focal points a detailed version of the national digital accessibility policy in the Ministry of Telecom and Information Technology (MTIT). To produce the draft policy, the consultant is requested to conduct, among others, the main following tasks:

(1) Review and make use of the ESCWA e-accessibility templates and tools as well as selected regional and international best practices in the field of digital accessibility strategies and policies; (2) Convene meetings and interviews with the various stakeholders and prepare a summary of their remarks and observations; (3) Suggest the needed digital accessibility policy based on best practices, gap analysis and national needs;

In addition, the consultant would also ensure the following activities: (1) Present the draft policy in a national workshop (physically or remotely) and capture the main comments and findings of the discussions; (2) Update the draft proposal according to all received feedback and comments during the reviewing process by ESCWA and MTIT.

ESCWA promotes gender equality and integration of youth through its publications and therefore the consultant should pay attention, with the help of ESCWA staff, to gender considerations and youth dimension throughout the research work and thereby ensure that the narrative language should be gender sensitive.

Qualifications/special skills An advanced university degree in information and communications technology or a related field is required; a Ph.D. is desirable. At least 5 years of experience and of research in Technology related issues is required. A concrete knowledge in the domain of planning and strategies is desirable.

Languages Fluency in written and spoken Arabic is required; a good knowledge of the English 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.