Background

UN Women programming areas in Kazakhstan are fully aligned with the national development priorities and contributes to enhancing national ownership in the practical implementation of countries’ gender equality commitments. Among them is advancement of women’s economic rights and social protection for women informal workers.

Despite its growing social and economic significance, domestic work has been, and remains, one of the most precarious, low-paid, insecure and unprotected forms of employment. Many domestic workers are overworked, underpaid and unprotected.

Domestic work differs from other types of work in many respects. First, domestic work is largely limited to inside the home, and therefore can escape the outreach of conventional mechanisms of control, such as labour inspection services that face legal and administrative obstacles to inspecting private premises. Second, domestic work mirrors work traditionally performed by women without pay, and is thus perceived as lacking in value and exogenous to the “productive” economy. This explains why domestic workers commonly earn low wages, and may often be either under- or unpaid at regular intervals. Third, domestic workers have limited bargaining power as they are an “invisible” (working inside the household, out of public sight) and isolated workforce, with no peer workers to turn to for support or guidance on what is to be considered a reasonable request or an unacceptable treatment. When migrant workers are involved, their isolation may be even greater as they often do not master the national or local language and have no family or other supportive networks to rely on. All these characteristics reinforce the perception of domestic work as not constituting “real” work, thus contributing to its further undervaluation and neglect.
The National Commission on Women and Family-Demographic Affairs under the President of Kazakhstan, national women machinery, proactively promotes social issues related to women economic empowerment, particularly focusing on improving mechanisms of regulation of informally employed women. In this context one of initiative developed by the National Commission is to estimate economic value of Domestic work and elaborate adequate response in social policy.  

As the first step it is planned to conduct expert meeting (September 2012) on discussing Domestic work as a part of economy impacting social and economic prosperity of the country with participation of Members of Parliament, representatives of the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, Ministry of Economy and Budgeting, Civil Service Agency, Statistic Agency, Trade Union and international organizations. The discussion will be supplemented by international experience in development of mechanisms regulating informal employment in the context of Domestic work’s contribution to economic development.      

The purpose of the expert meeting is:

• To discuss informal employment and the value of women domestic workers’ contribution to the social and economic progress;
• To discuss and finalize the methodology for the assessment of women domestic workers’ contribution to the social and economic progress, the draft methodology is based on international experience (best practices) on calculation of women domestic workers contribution to GDP.

To respond to the national efforts in this direction, UN Women EECA SRO decided to provide technical support to this initiative which is in line with implementation of international commitment by Kazakhstan, including MDGs and CEDAW.
In order to ensure international expertise UN Women EECA SRO is looking for an International Consultant who will conduct analysis encompassing international practice in valuing contribution of women domestic workers in sustainable economic development and provide expertise during the discussion in Astana (at the beginning 2012), Kazakhstan.

Duties and Responsibilities

The International  Expert will report to UN Women Portfolio Manager for Kazakhstan and focus on accomplishing the following tasks:

• Review and define the positive international experience on regulations of women employment (with a focus on informal employment), including domestic work;
• Undertake a peer review of the analysis of the Labour Code of Kazakhstan in regard of addressing domestic work issues (the analysis is done by the Federation of Trade Unions of Kazakhstan);
• Present practices and methodology for assessment of the contribution by the domestic work into the GDP (based on existing positive experiences);
• Review challenges and opportunities in Kazakhstan for undertaking an analysis of women employment in informal economy, with focus on domestic workers, and calculation of their contribution to economy and GDP;
• Based on the review of international experience and situation in Kazakhstan to develop recommendations for further  analysis of women employment in informal economy, with focus on domestic workers, and calculation of their contribution to economy and GDP adopted to the realities of Kazakhstan;
• Present international experience (best practices) on regulations of the domestic work and a draft methodology  on calculation  of domestic workers contribution to GDP at the Expert meeting in Kazakhstan (Astana, 2012);
• Provide expert inputs during the discussions and support in the process of development of recommendations to the draft methodology; 
• Finalize the methodology  based on the discussion findings taking into account international experience and Kazakhstan realities;
• Develop  the final report on the assignment, including the findings of the analysis/review undertaken and  addressing results of the Experts’ meeting’s consultations  (September-October  2012);
• Finalize the Report and the methodology and submit to UN Women SRO.

Deliverables/Timeframe:

• Prepare analytical review and define the positive international experience on regulations of women employment (with a focus on informal employment), including domestic work. Based on this review develop analytical review challenges and opportunities in Kazakhstan for undertaking an analysis of women employment in informal economy, with focus on domestic workers, and calculation of their contribution to economy and GDP - by July 25, 2012 - 20%;
• Prepare draft methodology  on calculation  of domestic workers contribution to GDP with  recommendations for further  analysis of women employment in informal economy, with focus on domestic workers, and calculation of their contribution to economy and GDP adopted to the realities of Kazakhstan - by August 30, 2012 - 50%;
• Presentation of international experience (best practices) and draft methodology  on calculation  of domestic workers contribution to GDP with  recommendations at the Expert meeting in Kazakhstan, and Finalization of the methodology  based on the discussion findings taking into account international experience and Kazakhstan realities - by September 30, 2012 - 20%;
• Finalization of the report on recommendations based on the feedback received during the Expert Meeting - by October 10, 2012 - 10%.

Management Arrangements:

The International Consultant will be working under the direct supervision of the Programme Specialist of the UN Women Sub-Regional Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, overall guidance and supervision of Portfolio Manager in Kazakhstan.

Evaluation:

UN Women applies fair and transparent selection process that takes into account the competencies/skills of the applicants as well as their financial proposals. The contract shall be awarded to the expert who is the most technically qualified and provides the best value for money.

Technical evaluation criteria:

Nr. / Criteria / Maximum points

1. Ph.D. (or equivalents) degrees in Economics, Sociology, Statistics or other  related discipline - 80;
2. At least 10 years of professional experience in areas of employment, labour relations and gender equality - 50;
3. Previous similar work experience with international organizations (including UN organizations) in the area of living standards and poverty - 40;
4. Advanced research skills - 65;
5. Ability to undertake analytical work and prepare narrative reports - 65;
6. Proficiency in English, Russian is an asset - 50.

Maximum total technical scoring: 350

Only candidates who reached at least 245 points will be qualified for financial evaluation.

Financial Proposal:

Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 150
 
S – score received on financial evaluation;
Fmin – the lowest financial offer out of all the submitted offers qualified over the technical evaluation round;
F – financial offer under consideration.
 
Winning candidate:
 
The winning candidate will be the candidate, who has accumulated the highest aggregated score (technical
scoring + financial scoring).

Submission process:

1. Letter of interest;
2. CV/duly filled Personal History Form PHF11 (downloadable from http://www.unwomen.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/P_11_form_UNwomen.doc
   Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment;
3. Financial proposal for the given scope of work. *

*Each applicant will be required to submit an aggregated financial offer (“aggregated financial offer” is the total sum of all financial claims of the candidate for accomplishment of the task). 

Competencies

• Previous similar work experience with international organizations (including UN organizations) in the area of employment;
• Advanced research skills;
• Ability to undertake analytical work and prepare narrative reports.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Ph.D. (or equivalents) degrees in Economics, Sociology, Statistics or other  related discipline.

Experience:

• At least 10 years of professional experience in areas of employment, labour relations and gender
  equality.

Language requirements:

• Proficiency in English, Russian is an asset.
  

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.