UNDP Jobs - 55153- International Consultant on Rural Employment / Sel

International Consultant on Rural Employment / Self-employment

Location :

Home-based with one 5-day mission to Tirana, ALBANIA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

20-Apr-2015

Application Deadline :

06-Apr-15 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

15 working days over the period of (April 20 – June 30, 2015)

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

Albania’s vocational education and training (VET) and vocational skills development (VSD) system all too often has failed to equip students with the requisite knowledge, competences and skills for a successful transition into the labour market. This has resulted in an unsuitably qualified labour force, skills shortages and soaring youth unemployment. Recognizing the need to systematically address employment by re-orienting the vocational education and training and vocational skills development system towards labour market needs, and modernizing and extending outreach of employment services, the Albanian government adopted the National Employment and Skills Strategy 2014-2020.

UNDP globally and regionally has built a strategic vision that recognizes the importance of creating employment opportunities as a means to addressing both poverty reduction and inequalities and exclusion. Indeed, the first outcome of the recently adopted United Nations Youth System Wide Action Plan focuses on Employment and Entrepreneurship with the intention to ensure greater opportunities for youth to secure decent work and income over the life-cycle, contributing to a virtuous circle of poverty reduction, sustainable development and social inclusion. To support the integration of various youth employment policy objectives through coordinated action, UNDP Albania, in collaboration with other UN agencies has designed and implemented several skill development / employment related interventions.

After six years of experience addressing labor supply interventions, UNDP Albania’s strategic vision is to contribute to building a labour-market focused skills development system that is suited to enhance the employment and entrepreneurship aspects of the unemployed in urban and rural areas, while simultaneously addressing the skills needs of those employed in the formal and informal sectors and emerging entrepreneurs.

The ambition of the Swiss funded Skills Development for Employment (SD4E) Programme is to make a systemic contribution to the modernization of Albania’s VET/VSD system by addressing several key challenges: skills mismatch and unequal access to employment and training services; labour market challenges in rural areas; insufficient governance of funding for employment and training; lack of coordination / collaboration in the system; inadequate labour market information; and insufficient quality and relevance of VET and VSD providers and their programmes. The overall goal of the programme is that “more young women and men in urban and rural areas in Albania are employed or self-employed.” In order to achieve this goal the programme focuses on four outcomes:

Outcome 1: Improving and diversifying employment promotion measures, and advancing their governance;
Outcome 2: Improved environment and regulatory framework for up-scaling work-based learning schemes (elements of dual system);
Outcome 3: Quality assurance and accreditation of VET/VSD providers;
Outcome 4: Anticipating skills needs in the short and medium term.

Duties and Responsibilities

Employment in the informal economy remains pervasive throughout Albania, with estimates ranging widely and as many as 70 per cent of all young workers exposed to it. Work in the informal economy represents an opportunity to earn a living for many young people both in rural and urban areas. Such engagement is associated with low earnings, poverty and vulnerability. According to the labour force survey 2013, informal employment accounted for 43% of the total employment in the non-agricultural sectors. Contributing family workers accounted for about one-third of the total employment (34%), and among them females were 1.8 times more likely than males to work as contributing family workers. 45.3% of females employed and 24.7% of male employed were contributing family workers. The high proportion of the contributing family workers, in particular among females, indicates that informal employment corresponds to a high percentage of the total employment.

The agricultural sector in Albania is largely underdeveloped and its considerable potential significantly underutilized. Whereas there are approximately 380,000 active farms in the country, the average farm has a size of 1.1 ha, indicating a significant fragmentation of land among farmers, ultimately hampering the benefits of economies of scale. LFS 2012 data indicate that whereas there are 309,000 subsistence foodstuff producers in Albania, only 41,800 of them are in the labour force. In this context channeling the rural workforce into paid employment or self-employment represents a pressing need.

Under the overall guidance of the Deputy Team Leader, and in close collaboration with the Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth, the international consultant (assisted by a national consultant) will perform the following tasks / outputs:

Conduct a desk review of existing national and international research regarding informal employment, with a particular focus on the rural areas;
Analyze available statistical data on the magnitude, depth and structure of the rural economy/ employment in Albania, with the intent of having a clear understanding of the working age population outside the labour force in the rural areas, as well as those that are underemployed;
Review institutional arrangements as they relate to employment services and the social and health insurance schemes, considering the difficulties / implications posed by the systems themselves as well as the related procedures in terms of registration as unemployed job-seekers.
Review regional experiences in addressing rural employment / self-employment, and identify successful models, including those on the extension of employment services to rural areas;
In collaboration with the national consultant, carry out consultations with relevant stakeholders (particularly the Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth, the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Employment Service, the Institute of Social Insurance, the Institute for Healthcare Insurance, etc.) with the aim of assessing the feasibility of different models / schemes for addressing the employment / self-employment of those in rural areas (particularly youth and women).
Advise the Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth on options for piloting interventions in rural areas, inclusive of budgetary, institutionalization and operationalization implications.

Deliverables:

Methodology for data review / analysis and a detailed work-plan and outline;
An analytical report on the rural economy / employment in Albania, inclusive of estimates on the level of informality and underemployment;
Brief report / presentation on regional / international best practices in addressing rural employment / self-employment / extension of employment services to rural areas. The report should include piloting options for MoSWY’s consideration.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
Treats all people fairly without favoritism.

Functional Competencies:

Theoretical and practical familiarity with employment / self-employment / rural employment in a developing country context;
Demonstrated capacity and expertise in doing policy research;
Ability to work under pressure;
Effectively coordinate and advise a research team; and
Meet tight deadlines without compromising on the quality of work, and being flexible;
Strong interpersonal and cross-cultural communications skills;
Excellent presentation skills;
Excellent analytical skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Advanced University Degree in economics, agricultural economics, labour economics, socio-economic studies, rural development or a closely related discipline.

Work Experience:

At least 7 years of relevant working experience particularly in relation to analysing statistical data on socio-economic development, employment, informal employment, rural employment etc.;Substantial technical knowledge on employment issues,
Demonstrated leadership abilities and organizational capacity;
Prior experience in employment related programmes is desirable;
Previous experience/familiarity with UNDP or other UN agencies is desirable.

Language requirement:

Excellent communication and report-writing skills in English.

Evaluation of Applications:

UNDP applies a fair and transparent selection process that would take into account both the technical qualification of Individual Consultants as well as their financial proposals. The contract will be awarded to the candidate whose offer:

Is deemed technically responsive / compliant / acceptable (only technically responsive applications / candidates will be considered for the financial evaluation)
And has obtained the highest combined technical and financial scores.

Technical Criteria - 70% of total evaluation – max points: 70

Criteria A: Theoretical and practical familiarity with employment / self-employment / rural employment in a developing country context – max points: 40;
Criteria B: Educational background– max points: 10;
Criteria C: Analytical skills – max points: 20.

Financial Criteria - 30% of total evaluation – max points: 30

Application Procedure:

Qualified and interested candidates are requested to apply by 6 April, 2015.

Please submit the following to demonstrate your interest and qualifications by explaining why you are the most suitable for the work:

Completed and signed UN Personal History Form (P11) for Service Contracts (SC) and Individual Contracts (IC) – Blank form Download here.
Financial Proposal - specifying a total lump sum amount for the tasks specified in this announcement. The financial proposal shall include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (number of anticipated working days and any other costs such as per diems, travel and incidental expenditures in project sites).

Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested documents. Please group all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.

UNDP retains the right to contact references directly. Due to large number of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.

Due to a large number of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.