Background

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN WOMEN) in partnership with the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia Centre for Women (ESCWA Centre for Women) are embarking on a project to estimate the economic cost of violence against women in the Arab region.

As the international community and the UN system move forward into the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), both UN-Women and the ESCWA Centre for Women are undertaking a set of substantive and technical activities to better support Member Countries in planning, implementing and monitoring the SDGs, particularly goal 5 on gender equality and the empowerment of women.  Furthermore, drawing on the normative work completed by UN-Women and ESCWA Centre for Women in the 2014-2015 biennium, the two organizations aim to develop a project that aims at estimating the economic cost of violence against women in the Arab region. The ultimate objective of this project is to provide member States with an economic model that estimates the annual service provision cost in selected sectors such as health; develop macro estimates due to loss in productivity; and estimate the annual cost of violence against women on the household level as a result of expenditures on medical care, seeking paid support at the legal system. Estimating the cost of violence against women will contribute to advancing the understanding of the phenomenon and will establish a deeper understanding of the burden borne at the individual as well as national levels, towards informing social and economic development policies envisioned towards implementing the SDGs.

To this end, UN-Women and the ESCWA Centre for Women will develop a detailed project proposal, including an inventory of best practices in this area, along with identification of the independent variables that affect the cost of violence against women, as well as the data needed to feed into the proposed economic model. The project proposal will provide the basis for a development of the economic model as well as a detailed study analyzing each of the identified independent variables.

The project proposal aims to lay the ground for the development of an economic model that estimates the cost of violence against women in the Arab region. It will develop a conceptual model based on international and regional best practices in this field.

It will identify the independent variables that can be considered in estimating the cost of violence against women and examine them as well as the data required to feed into the model. This can include the various categories of costing of violence, such as justice cost (policing, court trails, penal cost…etc), health cost (capital and material cost…etc), social survives cost (public services for survivors of violence), education cost (special education services…etc), employment cost (lost work time, actual leave time…etc), and household cost (out of pocket cost, transpiration, therapy ..etc). It will build on insights gained from global research and evaluations on violence against women, the project proposal will contribute to expanding the understanding on the costs of violence against women, as well as the efforts undertaken by Arab States to address violence against women and to fulfill their commitments towards international obligations.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the joint supervision of UN Women and ESCWA, the consultant will propose the implementation proposal to include methodology and roadmap for this assignment to be endorsed by both UN-Women and ESCWA, guided by the following specific responsibilities:

  • Work closely with UN-Women and ESCWA to identify the parameters of the violence against women and the definition used to inform the development of the model;
  • Identify international and regional best practices in the area of estimating the economic cost of violence;
  • Identify the categories and sub categories of the costing that will populate the economic model;
  • List the data needed and sources to feed into the model;
  • Develop the options for the economic model to be used (cost benefit analysis), its limitations and benefits, as well as the methodology that will be adopted;
  • Develop the log framework for the project;
  • Participate in a consultation meeting to be held in Beirut to plan for the project and agree on its key parameters.

Deliverables:

  • Detailed project document, including completed logframe with smart indicators, baselines, targets

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

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

Functional Competencies:

Development and Operational Effectiveness:

  • Ability to lead strategically including management and reporting;
  • Ability to lead formulation, oversight of implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the initiative;
  • Ability to apply development theory to the specific country context to identify creative, practical approaches to overcome challenging situations.

Management and Leadership:

  • Builds strong relationships with clients, focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to feedback;
  • Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
  • Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities;
  • Ability to lead effectively,  mentoring as well as conflict resolution skills;
  • Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills;
  • Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure;
  • Proven networking, team-building, organizational and communication skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Masters degree in economics and or statistics or a related field. Background in gender issues is preferable        

Experience:

  • Minimum 15 years experience in the area of economics and in conducting research including conducting modeling. Experience in research on violence against women preferable.

Language:

  • Strong written and spoken English and Arabic, French is an asset;
  • The final proposal will be in English.

Evaluation Criteria

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology: Cumulative analysis:

When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract should be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

  • Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
  • Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Technical Criteria weight; 70%

Financial Criteria weight; 30%.

Contract will be awarded to the technically qualified consultant who obtains the highest combines score (financial and technical).

Applications procedure

Documents to be included when submitting the proposal:

Interested Individual Consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

Proposal
To be included as part of the proposal

  • A cover letter with a brief presentation of your consultancy explaining your suitability for the work;
  • UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment; and
  • Personal CV.

Financial proposal:

  • Proposed daily fee.