Background

Overview:

Asia and the Pacific has experienced extraordinary economic growth and lowered poverty rates over the past decades.  However, inequality remains a major obstacle to sustainable development and achievement of the 2030 Agenda. Continued progress will also be influenced by several key trends already affecting countries in the region: ageing, urbanization, youth unemployment, and climate change. By 2050, 25 per cent of the region’s population (1 billion people) will be senior citizens.  Two-thirds are expected to live in cities.  And 220 of the 358 million global youth who are not in education, employment or training, are from Asia-Pacific.  In addition, the region is highly vulnerable to climate change which impacts men and women differently through, for example, gendered livelihoods and responsibilities. Each of these might further entrench existing inequalities or introduce new ones and countries will need to find ways of responding to to ensure that all the gains of development are more equally shared.

A critical driver of continued inequality in Asia and Pacific is the issue of unpaid domestic and care work that is by and large performed by women. In 2018, the UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub (BRH) published the study “Now is the Time!  Reduce and Redistribute the Unpaid Domestic and Care Work Burden of Women for Sustainable Development”. This report highlighted that women spend more time than men in unpaid domestic and care work in all countries across the region (except New Zealand). It also found that women work longer hours than men when paid and unpaid work is combined.  The study argued that the burden women shoulder at home is an important driver of gender inequality. It constrains learning and economic opportunities for women, including labour force participation and contributions to GDP and tax bases. Developing policy responses to help address this issue has enormous potential to help countries meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The report recommends policy-makers assign a monetary value to unpaid domestic and care work to acknowledge women’s contribution to societies: incentivize redistribution of this work; invest in basic infrastructure to allow easier and safer collection of fuels, water and other traditionally female responsibilities; and invest in the care industry to create decent and sustainable jobs and to contribute to human development through quality care services. Developing a suitable set of policy instruments also requires understanding the likely implications and linkages of the four key trends facing the region: ageing, urbanization, youth unemployment, and climate change. Policy-makers would benefit from a comprehensive mapping of these linkages. They would also be served through follow up to the 2018 study and its recommendations in the form of a coherent guide the range of instruments across sectors, domains, and ministries that can help them address this critical challenge.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objective:

UNDP BRH aims to further contribute to the development of policy interventions to help contribute to gender equality by addressing the root causes of the unequal distribution of unpaid care and domestic work. UNDP is well-placed to contribute to this goal. It can leverage its integrator role and wide range of expertise across policy domains to address unpaid care and domestic work in Asia and the Pacific through a project providing support to policy-makers (through a practical step-by-step guide and a country case study), capacity building (to facilitate implementation of the suggested steps), and awareness-raising (to mobilize support and action).

The initiative aims at contributing to inclusive and gender-responsive policy-making, accelerating development dividends and SDGs progress across the region, and contributing to targets under SDGs1-11 and 16.  It will address structural challenges that hinder SDG achievement as described in the UNDP Regional Programme Document for Asia and the Pacific 20180-2021 (i.e., persistent inequalities, unsustainable urban development, ageing populations and socio-economic alienation among youth).

It is important to note that broader analysis and actions beyond economic policy will be necessary to tackle the root causes of women’s disproportionate unpaid domestic and care work responsibilities.  Mere availability of care services, infrastructure and equal rights does not fully address the challenges.  A broader analysis of the interplay between norms, values and women’s unpaid work, combined with capacity-building activities that challenge social norms and biases, and advocacy efforts that mobilise action against the stigmas that men and women face in this area, are critical aspects of turning unpaid domestic and care work into development dividends.

Scope of work:

UNDP BRH plans to demonstrate how women’s unpaid domestic and care work is affected to key regional challenges (youth unemployment, ageing, urbanization and climate change). It also plans identify interventions to support policy-makers to act through the development of a practical step-by-step guide.

Under the overall guidance of Asia-Pacific Regional Economic Advisor and Asia-Pacific Regional Gender Equality Team Leader based in Bangkok, and in close consultation with the network of UNDP Country Office-based economists in Asia and the Pacific, the consultant will undertake the following tasks:

1. A mapping of the linkages between unpaid care and domestic work and urbanization, youth unemployment, ageing and climate change, aiming to provide a strong argument as to why women’s unpaid domestic and care work should be prioritized through demonstrating its effect on different policy areas.  This task will include literature review and filling in of potential gaps with new data.
2. Development of a practical guidance showing how policy-makers can reduce women’s unpaid domestic and care work through interventions in five areas: child care; elderly care; food security; social norms; and a fifth area to be selected by the consultant.  (These domains will be finalized in consultation upon assumption of the project.) The guidance shall include practical steps and recommendations under each policy area as well as cost-benefit analysis.
3. Application of the guidance to a country in the Asia-Pacific region, to be selected jointly by the consultant and UNDP BRH.  The Country Case Study Report shall be consolidated with the Step-by-Step Guidance Note to concretely illustrate the issues to be covered in each step.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables:

Institutional Arrangement:

Weekly online (voice) consultations with Regional Inclusive Growth Team Leader and Regional Gender Equality Team Leader for progress monitoring and quality assurance as well as to ensure the timely delivery of the specified deliverables.

Duration of the Assignment:

Up to a maximum of 35 working days over a period of maximum 3 months. The expected starting date is 30th August 2019.

Duty Station:

This is a home-based assignment with weekly online (voice) consultations with UNDP BRH.  No mission travels are expected.

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 favouritism.

Technical Competencies:

• Analytic capacity and demonstrated ability to process, analyse and synthesise complex, technical information;
• Proven ability to support the development of high quality knowledge and training materials, and to train technical teams;
• Proven experience in the developing country context and working in different cultural settings.

Communication:

• Communicate effectively in writing to a varied and broad audience in a simple and concise manner.

Professionalism:

• Capable of working in a high pressure environment with sharp and frequent deadlines, managing many tasks simultaneously;
• Excellent analytical and organizational skills.

Teamwork:

• Projects a positive image and is ready to take on a wide range of tasks;
• Focuses on results for the client;
• Welcomes constructive feedback.

Required Skills and Experience

The following minimum qualifications are required:

Essential

• Master’s degree or equivalent in relevant areas such as Economics or Public Policy.
• Minimum 7 years of relevant experience in the area of economic analysis or economic policy development, including multi-dimensional analysis with emphasis on gender equality.
• Experience in compiling, managing and analyzing data from different sources for economic and social policy development.
• Experience in analyzing gender dimensions of economic and social policies.
• Proven fluency in English writing skills.

Desirable

• Knowledge on design thinking and behavioural insights.

Competencies

• Strong command of English.
• Ability to perform tasks in timely manner and under pressure, to tight deadlines.
• Ability to communicate verbally and in writing with a wide range of partners persuasively and collaboratively.
• Able to work independently and as part of a team seamlessly using a range of modern means of communication as required.

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payment :

Consultant must send a financial proposal based on Lump Sum Amount. The total amount quoted shall be all-inclusive and include all costs components required to perform the deliverables identified in the TOR, including professional fee, travel costs, living allowance (if any work is to be done outside the IC´s duty station) and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the IC in completing the assignment. The contract price will be fixed output-based price regardless of extension of the herein specified duration. Payments will be done upon completion of the deliverables/outputs and as per below percentages:

• 1st payment upon the submission and approval of Deliverable 1: Mapping - 20% of total contract amount
• 2nd payment upon the submission and approval of Deliverable 2: Step-by-Step Guidance Note - 30% of total contract amount
• 3rd payment upon the submission and approval of Deliverable 3: Country Case Study and Consolidated Report – 50% of total contract amount

In the event of unforeseeable travel not anticipated in this TOR, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and the Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Travel costs shall be reimbursed at actual but not exceeding the quotation from UNDP approved travel agent.  The provided living allowance will not be exceeding UNDP DSA rates. Repatriation travel cost from home to duty station in Bangkok and return shall not be covered by UNDP.

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer:

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

The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as a) responsive/compliant/acceptable; and b) having received the highest score out of set of weighted technical criteria (70%). and financial criteria (30%). Financial score shall be computed as a ratio of the proposal being evaluated and the lowest priced proposal received by UNDP for the assignment.

• Relevant academic background (15%)

• Minimum 7 years of relevant experience in the areas of economic analysis, economic policy development, including multi-dimensional analysis with emphasis on gender equality (20%)
• Experience in compiling, managing and analyzing data from different sources for economic and social policy development (30%)
• Experience in analyzing gender dimensions of economic and social policies (20%)
• Fluency in written English (15%)

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% of the total technical points would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document as the application only allows to upload maximum one document:

1. Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP;
2. Personal CV, indicating all relevant and similar previous experiences, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Applicant and at least three (3) professional references;
3. Brief description of why the applicant considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment, relating how he/she proposes to conduct the assignment to their previous experience.
4. Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided.  If an Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offeror must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP.
5. A copy of a paper analyzing gender dimensions of economic or social policies of any country, written by the applicant in English in the past 3 years.

Incomplete proposals may not be considered. The short-listed candidates may be contacted and the successful candidate will be notified

ANNEXES

Annex I - TOR_ Unpaid domestic and care work and SDG progress

Annex II- General Condition of Contract

Annex III - Offerors Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability and Financial Proposal

All documents can be downloaded at : http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=55288