Lead Consultant to undertake Situation Analysis on the Care Economy in East and Southern Africa

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. Placing women’s rights at the centre 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. 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 spent more time on unpaid care and domestic work compared to their male counterparts, with women on average doing around 4.1 hours per day compared to men who on average do around 1.7 hours globally[1]. For women living in rural areas in East and Southern Africa 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 bear the brunt of the unpaid labour to collect and manage these resources and services for daily household consumption.

Furthermore, illness or other crises in the household can increase the time spent by women and girls on care-giving and domestic work. This has been brought into sharp focus by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has exacerbated the care demands on women and girls due to pandemic-related measures and lockdowns. As evidenced from previous epidemics, women and girls tend to be the ones who take on the bulk of the extra care needed when national systems are unable to cope. Addressing unpaid care work is particularly relevant in the East and Southern Africa contexts where access to decent work is limited and women’s employment options are significantly constrained by societal expectations that burden them with disproportionate responsibility for unpaid care and domestic work.

To address the inequities in unpaid care, UN Women developed the ‘Transformative approaches to recognize, reduce, and redistribute unpaid care work in women’s economic empowerment programming’ programme (‘3R Programme’). Funded by Global Affairs Canada, the 3R Programme builds on UN Women’s expertise at the global, regional and country level as well as UN Women’s existing strong partnerships with governments, women’s cooperatives and women’s rights organizations, traditional leaders, communities, men and boys, and the private and public sectors. The 3R Programme seeks to address unequal power relations, systemic discrimination and harmful norms and practices that underpin inequities in care work. In particular, the 3R Programme proposes the development of 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.

Objectives of the assignment:

In order to support regional discourse on the care economy and promote decent work for women to support gender equality and women’s empowerment, it is important to address the disproportionate share of unpaid care work responsibility that falls on women in the East and Southern Africa Region. In this regard, UN Women is undertaking a situation analysis on the care economy in the region[2], not only to raise awareness about the importance of care work but also to support the development of better care related policies. The situation analysis will include policy and data analysis, based on the framework of the purple economy (see pillars of the purple economy below), as well as a review of interventions and programmes implemented by civil society organisations, NGOs and other organisations related to the care economy. The Lead Consultant will create a regional report as well as support consultants conducting a simultaneous national assessment on the same agenda.

The overall purpose of the analysis is to identify gaps in data and policy about care work, to propose how to effectively improve women’s time poverty, and to serve as baseline to develop programmes and project. The consultant will be under the direct supervision of the Regional Policy Specialist for Women’s Economic Empowerment and will undertake the assignment in close coordination with UN Women.

The lead consultant will focus on achieving the following objectives:

1. Conducting a situation analysis of the care economy in the ESAR, including paid and unpaid care work, as well as domestic work. The situation analysis will include, but not be limited to, quantitative data on distribution of paid and unpaid care and domestic work between men and women, relevant labour market statistics, and relevant demographic trends. In addition, it should include qualitative data related to gender roles influencing women’s participation in the labour force and burden of unpaid care work at home;
2. Within the framework of the purple economy[3], identify gaps in laws and policies. The mapping should include, but not be limited to, laws and policies that aim to alleviate the burden of unpaid care and domestic work on women; global, regional and national frameworks; improvements in care facilities and early childhood development; increasing women’s labour force participation; increasing productivity at work; social protection measures and how unpaid care and domestic work influence their coverage;
3. Consider different populations based on care needs across the life-cycle[4] and differences between urban and rural settings;
4. Support consultants conducting national situation analysis in the region on the same agenda as well as incorporating their findings into the regional report.

The pillars of the purple economy:

1. A universal Social Care Infrastructure: reduces and redistributes care costs between public and domestic spheres;
2. Labour market regulations (for work-life balance with equal gender incentives): redistributes care costs between men and women within the domestic sphere;
3. Ecologically-sound physical infrastructures for rural communities: reduces and redistributes care costs between public and domestic spheres;
4. An enabling macroeconomic environment: recognizes care costs and enables its reduction and redistribution.

This assessment will serve as basis for the formulation of future programming and support to member states in achieving SDG 5.

This exercise will directly contribute to the 3R Programme’s Output 1.2: National and Local Authorities have increased tools and capacities to develop and implement laws, policies and services that address unpaid care work, by providing evidence and avail existing data.

Scope of Work:

In undertaking the assignment, the consultant will conduct a desk review as well as consult with the relevant ministries, civil society organizations, women’s cooperatives, private sector entities and public entities that are involved in care services.

UN Women will be recruiting a Lead consultant to work with a team of 3 support consultants to work on country specific analyses. The lead consultant will also function as the team leader to ensure that the national analyses are comparable and follow similar approaches and will utilize the national analyses to inform the regional analysis required in this TOR.

[1] Unpaid Care Work Burden in the COVID-19 crisis, UN Women

[2] Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, South Sudan, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

[3] See figure 1 for the definition of the purple economy

[4] (1) Two-year-old still need assistance with bathing, clothing eating and in many cases moving around/walking; (2) At 12 years old, the situation varies greatly depending on whether the person is a girl or a boy, or from a worse-off or better-off family. While in some contexts at that age, a child’s only obligation is to attend school, in other (mainly girls) are expected to take responsibility for tasks such as washing and ironing clothes; (3) Most people aged 42 years are able to take care of themselves and others. Often at this age, there are children, grandchildren and parents to care for. However, for men, it is likely that more time will be devoted to paid work and less to caring responsibilities. For women ,it is likely that caring responsibilities will be significant; (4) 72 years old: when aging, individuals might become senile and in need of total care, but it is just as possible that they are still working. If we are fortunate at this age one would be retired and receiving a pension, but at the same time might be doing unpaid care work, such as looking after grandchildren.. Women are less likely to receive a pension than men because the care work they perform during their lives does not entitle them to this benefit; they are also more likely to be taking care of others.

Duties and Responsibilities

Develop an Inception Report, with timeline on executing the tasks and deliverables of the assignment. The inception report will include:

• all details on the proposed methodology of the study;
• the proposed table of contents;
• proposed questionnaires for the interviews with key informants (if any), proposed list of stakeholders to consult (key informants);
• an indicative list of documents that the consultant will review and use for the analysis such as laws, policies, regulations, other government documents and available resources that address paid and unpaid care and domestic work within the national context.

Literature Review and Key Informant Interviews:

• Compile an annotated bibliography by conducting a desk review of available data, research and publications on the care economy in the region, including relevant UN Women studies[1];

• Contact and interview with relevant stakeholders (with support from UN Women staff if required). Findings to be included in situation analysis.

Mapping existing policies and gaps related to unpaid care and domestic work, with policy recommendations:

• Conduct a mapping of regional laws and policies, and programmes, that are directly and indirectly related to reducing or redistributing the share of unpaid care and domestic work, including social protection measures;

[1] Gender Pay Gap, Quantitative Analysis of Youth Not in Education, Employment and Training (NEET), Cost of the gender gap in agricultural productivity

• Identify policy gaps to reduce women and girls’ burden of unpaid care and domestic work;
• Identify successful policy changes and interventions to reduce the burden of unpaid care and domestic work, while promoting decent work in the care sector in the ESAR context.

Undertake a situation analysis on the care economy in East and Southern Africa:

• Based on the above, collect and analyse statistics on the distribution of unpaid care and domestic work between men and women, including relevant labour market statistics and social protection coverage;
• Collect qualitative information influencing unpaid care and domestic work, such as social norms and workplace culture;
• Compile information on key stakeholders, including representation of domestic workers, government agencies and CSOs that interact with care work.

Lead the team of consultants to:

• Coordinate methodologies to ensure the country analyses are comparable;
• Quality assure the national reports from the team of consultants;
• Coordinate the team and report back to UN Women on progresses, challenges faced and support required (if any).

By conducting the above tasks, the consultant will liaise with the pre-identified key informants and solicit information through consultations.

Details of deliverables

Timelines

Submit an inception report as per item A in the above section (duties and responsibilies)

31st March 2023

Submit the first draft of the situation analysis as per items B, C and D in the above section

15th April 2023

Submit final situation analysis report incorporating the feedback from UN Women.

24th April

Submit a brief report indicating the support to consultants conducting the national assessment. This support must include:

• Reviewing and quality assurance of methodology and report
• Ensuring timely and quality delivery of analyses

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

• Excellent analytical skills and knowledge of quantitative, qualitative, and participatory research methodologies and analysis on care work;
• Proven information management and data skills (Excel, PowerPoint, MS word) in the areas of multi-modal, cross-sectoral data collection, data visualization, including mapping and M&E;
• 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.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Masters University degree in Political Sciences, Public Policy, Gender Studies, Development, Economics or another related field. PhD is a strong asset.

Experience:

• At least 7 years of experience in conducting research and studies, in socio-economic areas, gender equality, women’s rights and empowerment, and sustainable development;
• Proven experience in conducting situation analysis in the region;
• Experience in working with government institutions;
• Experience in developing, managing, monitoring and/or evaluating programmes in care work and women’s empowerment is an asset.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in oral and written English is required.

All applications must include completed and signed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2022-07/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form-en.doc

Applications without P11 may be treated as incomplete and may not be considered for further assessment.

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).