National Consultant on care work/gender responsive services and care solutions

Contract

This is a National Consultant contract. More about National Consultant contracts.

Background

UN Women, the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women has been created to accelerate up the process of meeting the needs of women and girls across the world. UN Women supports UN Member States as they set global standards for achieving gender equality and works with governments and civil society to design laws, policies, programs and services needed to ensure that the standards are effectively implemented and truly benefit women and girls worldwide. UN Women is at the forefront of the global drive to remove gender barriers and end discrimination, because we believe in a world of justice and human rights for everyone.

About 85% of Tajik labor migrants are male and 20% migrate with their wives. In 2016, 50% of households in Tajikistan were female headed, with 87% of children remained behind with a single parent. Many Tajik men working abroad gradually cease contact with their families and stop sending remittances, opting to build a new life in Russia. This has led to the existence of an extremely vulnerable and marginalized group in Tajik society, the so-called ‘abandoned families’ or ‘families left behind’ of migrant workers. Women and children left behind suffer from poor wellbeing, including mental health, compounded by limited services and support. The current CFP targets families left behind by migrant workers (with women - left behind in focus) and communities where they reside prioritizing the most vulnerable families, including those with a member facing disability.

Families left behind often struggle to access rights and protections, incl. limited access to legal remedies and discrimination in the application of law. Women often unable to divorce their absent husbands or obtain court ordered alimony and child support. There are no functioning systems to identify and register families left behind and a limited awareness among them of available services. Rural women left behind lack equal access to property, land, and credit making them dependent on the other family members and increasing their vulnerability to poverty. This leads to economic and other forms of violence against the women left behind. Traditionally, they live with their in-laws, therefore legally claiming a domicile after divorce or abandonment is difficult. Women have limited access to justice due to the lack of money for documents and lawyers or lack of information about legal protections. Practically, no or few initiatives target ‘families left behind’.

The joint (with IOM, UNICEF and FAO) project Empowerment of ‘Families left behind’ for improved Migration Outcomes in Khatlon, Tajikistan (MMPTF-funded), observes a comprehensive approach, attention to good governance and capacity of local systems, a need to build awareness, knowledge and attitudes of the local population and a focus on longer term transformative gender investments. The project enjoys support and cooperation of Local Authorities; Committee on Women and Family Affairs (CoWFA) and its local Departments, Ministry of Health and Social Protection (MoHSP) and its local Departments, Ministry of Labour, Migration and Employment of Population (MoLMEP) and its local Departments, Migration Services (MS) and Departments of Agriculture. One of the objectives of the given project is to develop and pilot solutions to address the burden of unpaid care work on women by understanding the situation of unpaid care work, raising public awareness about the importance of the care work, and promote gender-transformative interventions in local communities.

‘Care work’--also sometimes called reproductive work or domestic work-- refers to the provision of services for family and community members outside of the formal labor market. It includes direct care of person, such as childcare or care of dependent adults, as well as domestic work, such as cooking, cleaning or fetching water or firewood. Care work is primarily done by women. ‘Unequal’ and ‘heavy’ unpaid care work has implications for women’s health, well-being, mobility, time for training and employment and it perpetuates their unequal status in society. It can also decrease women’s level of participation in development initiatives.

Unpaid care work is critical and underpins economic and social life in all societies. In most of countries majority of women and girls do the household work and twice of their time spend on household work, including work longer hours than men. As in most countries worldwide, Tajik women work more than men when unpaid care work is factored. Specifically, in rural Tajikistan women perform almost 10 hours of total work per day while men do almost 8 hours. This is in line with results for other countries in the region: in the Kyrgyz Republic, for example, women work on average 7 hours and 20 minutes while men work 6 hours; in Mongolia, women work almost 9 hours per day and men 8 hours per day; and in Armenia, women work in total 6 hours and 55 minutes and men 5 hours and 55 minutes[1].

The purpose of the assignment is to develop and provide practical recommendations to systematically and effectively reduce the unequal burden of unpaid care work (domestic care work) and improve women’s labour market outcomes.

UN Women in Tajikistan intends to hire a National Consultant to develop and/or adapt training module on care work and conduct trainings and workshops on care solutions.

Goal and objectives:

The overall goal and objectives of the proposed consultancy is to (i) develop and/or adapt training Module on care works and gender responsive services; (ii) conduct training and explore the topics for CSOs and local authorities on local gaps (iii) conduct workshops for CSOs and local authorities on care solutions and practical recommendations with regard to care services.

[1] WOMEN’S TIME USE IN RURAL TAJIKISTAN, June 2020 https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/609486/womens-time-use-tajikistan.pdf

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the supervision of the UN Women Project Manager, the consultant will perform the following tasks, that include but are not limited to the following:

1. Develop & provide consultancy plan on implementing process to UN Women Team.
2. Adapt/develop training materials: Conduct a desk review and develop or identify existing materials and adapt a training module/handout on care work and gender responsive services.
3. Collaborate with the Responsible Partner/PO “Gender and Development” and to involve PO into this process so that they can consider drafted recommendations when supporting and implementing activities at the grassroots level to identify and redistribute unpaid care work.
4. Conduct 1 day basic training on care work and gender responsive services and 2 days’ workshop on care solutions for 20 participants of CSOs and local authorities in two target areas of Khatlon District (Kulyab, Dusti) with regard to provision of care services; jointly identify main issue and care solutions; mobilize actors/participants and increase understanding, strengthen capacity, catalyze and increase commitment.
5. Develop and provide a set of practical gender responsive solutions/recommendations for community with regard to care services.
6. Pre- and post- training evaluation has to be done and submitted to the RP and UN Women.
7. Present the results to UN Women and PUNOs, and their key partners.

UN Women will organize trainings and workshops’ logistics in 2 targeted regions (if needed).

1. Expected deliverables

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Deliverables

Timeframe to provide deliverables

1

The detailed consultancy plan on process implementation is presented and approved by UN Women

October 25, 2022

2

Drafted training module on care work and gender responsive services with assessment tool, agenda, handout materials, and structured guidelines of the training, submitted to UN Women

November 6, 2022

3

Conducted a one-day training on care work and gender responsive services and two days’ workshop on care solutions for 20 participants of SCOs and local authorities in Kulyab and Dusti.

Pre- and post- training evaluation reviewed, and the results submitted to the UN Women.

November 18, 2022

4

Practical gender responsive solutions/recommendations for community with regard to care services developed and provided to UN-Women.

November 23, 2022

5

The results of the assignment with progress report are provided to UN Women and PUNOs, and their key partners

November 27, 2022

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration

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 knowledge of technical area;
• Good organizational skills and ability to pay close attention to detail;
• Analytical and research skills and training skills;
• Experience in report writing.

Technical competencies:

• Experience working under minimum supervision and tight deadlines;
• Computer literate (being able to use MS Windows, office applications, Internet search);
• Proven track record and experience in gender-related work.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Undergraduate (Bachelors) University degree in education, gender or social development, human rights, law, humanitarian sciences, social studies, economy or related field.

Working Experience:

• A minimum of 3 years of experience in gender equality issues, policy research/analysis in the fields of gender equality, migration, political science, social sciences, or related field;
• At least 3 years of experience in developing educational/training tools, and/or provision of interactive training to adult audience. Examples of previously provided training(s) should be listed in the P11.
• A minimum of 3 years of experience in document revision, report writing, curricula, manuals, training modules on gender and social development, methodology development;
• Prior experience in the work environment of an international agency, NGOs, UN, or international institutions.
• Proven previous experience and good knowledge of the issue on care work and gender responsive services is an asset;

Knowledge of languages & additional requirements:

• Proficient knowledge of Tajik and/or Russian languages, English language is an asset.

Application Process

The application should include:

• Letter of Interest;
• Personal History Form (P-11 form) - including past experience in similar assignments; can be downloaded at http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment a signed [scanned] copy should be submitted;
• Financial Proposal Specify a total lump sum amount for the tasks specified in this Terms of Reference. The financial proposal shall include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (daily rate and number of anticipated working days, any other possible costs, including expenses for the trip to/from the training place, and accommodation), signed copy should be submitted.

Candidate should have the ability to quickly produce degree certificates and medical certification (of good health) should they be short-listed in consideration of the consultancy post.

All documents should be submitted by the link: www.jobs.undp.org by the deadline 21 October 2022.

Payment Schedule

Payment for the services provided will be made by deliverables as per the below table upon achievement of expected results and approval of the deliverable and acceptance of services by the UN Women (PERF) that the services have been satisfactorily performed.

1. First payment upon submission and approval of the 1st & 2nd deliverables.
2. Final payment upon submission and approval of the 3rd 4th and 5th deliverables.