Background

Background:

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system in Lebanon efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

Today, Lebanon is facing the long-term structural challenges as well as the profound effects that the subsequent crises are having on its economy (the Syrian crisis since 2011 and more recently the monetary and economic crisis), and there is ongoing need to support job creation and inclusive economic growth especially for the most vulnerable in the most disadvantaged areas. These adverse conditions coupled with the recent financial crisis and the rising unemployment make supporting job creation and economic opportunities a top priority. In particular, women face disproportionately high levels of unemployment and vulnerability. Without serious efforts to support the economic empowerment of women, high levels of unemployment and poverty are likely to persist and even worsen, thus further reducing the resilience of communities and their ability to withstand the shocks and stresses caused by local and regional crises.

Under Lebanon Recovery Fund, UN Women is supporting a joint UN program in Lebanon, the Productive Sectors Development Program (PSDP). The purpose of the joint program is to support gender-responsive job creation and economic opportunities in the agriculture and agro-food sectors, prioritizing women, and female youth in disadvantaged areas. Considering the wide array of challenges that particularly women and girls are facing in the agriculture and agro-food sectors–ranging from a poor policy environment to high cost of doing business and shortage of skills– a comprehensive approach is needed in order to tackle those challenges and create an enabling environment for inclusive and sustainable job creation. As such, the program, funded by Canada and implemented by a consortium of six UN agencies and coordinated by the Resident Coordinator Office (RCO), works at the Macro (legislative and policy reform for an enhanced enabling environment), Meso (institutional support for facilitating product export) and Micro (individual capacity building for businesses, SMS, and employees) levels to achieve its overall objective.

Purpose and scope of the Gender Analysis:

The gender analysis is set to be conducted at baseline and endline of activities, examining the socio-economic aspects of women`s participation within the selected value chain, particularly at how the current compounded crises have impacted their livelihoods and wellbeing. The current task under this ToR will focus on the baseline phase. The findings from the assessment will inform targeted interventions to address the gender gaps across the programme, as well as support in the lobbying efforts planned under the Macro component. The findings will also be used to develop specific programmatic activities that could address the current struggles faced by women in the value chain in light of the current crises, which could help alleviate some of their burdens, allowing them to focus on their long-term growth within the sector.

Objectives

The gender analysis has the following objectives:

1. To develop an in-depth understanding of the gender dimensions of the fruits and vegetables value chain in Lebanon’s agricultural and agro-food sector, in order to inform the gender responsiveness of the program design and implementation.
2. To understand how the current economic crisis has particularly affected the socio-economic conditions, safety, and wellbeing of women in this value chain.
3. To provide concrete programmatic recommendations on how to provide support to women in the value chain to sustain their livelihoods and wellbeing during this crisis in the immediate term, to expand and ensure their full economic participation in the medium to long term.

Research Questions:

The examination will take seek to answer the following research questions, taking into consideration the patriarchal socio-cultural norms surrounding each of the categories.

1. What is the current role and capacity of women within the value chain (specifically in the North and during the crisis)?

• Which function are the women mostly concentrated in (business ownership, harvesting, production, etc.)?
• What is the role of women in the decision making process of the business?
• What are the skillsets and educational levels (stratified by postion within the value chain segment)?

2. What are the challenges that exist that hinder women’s full economic empowerment within this value chain?

• What are the current challenges in the business and economic environments that impede women`s growth in the sector?
• What are the challenges perceived by women to be impeding their professional growth in the sector?

3. How can women be supported to be fully economic empowered within this value chain?

• What productive assets do women have access to that they can utilize independently?
• What social, technical, social care and financial services are needed (stratified by postion within the value chain segment)?

4. How can SGBV be mainstreamed across the value chain?

• How informed and aware of SGBV are women and men across the value chain?
• How can businesses and cooperatives be support to respond to and prevent SGBV?

VOICES OF WOMEN AND MEN

Collecting and displaying the voices of both women and men throughout the program is crucial to ensure gender mainstreaming through a feminist lens. By constantly listening to those voices, program partners can evaluate the success of their activities measured in terms of impact on gender relations and dynamics within the value chain, tweak their activities accordingly, reflect on how the activities can be replicated in future programs.

Accordingly, the gender analysis exercise will aim to create a technical advisory committee comprised of women and men nominated from the different beneficiary groups who will be assessed during the exercise. The technical advisory committee will act as a community platform to inform the program of the impact of the activities, challenges, and recommendations from a community perspective. The committee will coordinate directly with the Gender Advisor, who will in turn convey relevant programmatic information to the partners. As such, the consultant is expected to provide support on the formation of this advisory committee while conducting the analysis.

Expected Methodology:

It is recommended this study rely on a mixed-method approach including secondary literature review and qualitative and quantitative data collection. Data collection activities are further elaborated as follows: 

Secondary Data Collection

The consultant will conduct a review of literature for covering issues of gender equality and women’s economic participating in the agricultural sector, with a focus on the North of Lebanon. UN Women’s initial survey of the literature review shows that there is very limited information available on gender equality that exist in agriculture in Lebanon. The most notable and recent studies have been conducted by the ILO (Potential Opportunities for Women`s Economic Empowerment in the Potato and Leafy Green Vegetables Value Chain in Akkar, March 2017), UNDP (Gendered Value Chains Study: Barriers and Opportunities, March 2020), FAO (Country Gender Assessment of the Agriculture and Rural Sector, 2021), and FAO (Support to Women Cooperatives and Associations in the Agro-Food Sector in Lebanon, 2020). It is recommended that the consultant conduct their own review of secondary data sources in addition to the ones mentioned above. In order not to replicate recent studies and overburden the communities and stakeholders with repetitive data collection, the primary data collection under this study will focus on the gaps that exist in the available research, with a focus on the North area.

Primary data collection

It is expected that the primary data collection will gather and examine information on employees in the value chain (women and men), women and men farmers, SMEs/MSMEs, extension services, municipalities, cooperatives, and large agricultural firms. The sampling will be done from the above-mentioned beneficiary groups who will be targeted in the program activities. For that, the following methods will be used: 

• Focus group discussions
• Key informant interviews
• Surveys
• Information retrieved from technical assessments undertaken by UN partners to the program 

Duties and Responsibilities

The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the Gender Equality Advisor to deliver a detailed gender analysis.

Deliverables:

Competencies

Core Values

• Respect for Diversity;
• Integrity;
• Professionalism.

Core Competencies

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
• Accountability;
• Creative Problem Solving;
•  Effective Communication;
•  Inclusive Collaboration;
•  Stakeholder Engagement;
•  Leading by Example.

Functional Competencies

• Substantive experience and record of accomplishment in gender equality and women’s empowerment.
• Demonstrated analytical and technical skills in designing and carrying out Gender Analysis exercises.
• Good knowledge of the agricultural and agro-food sectors in Lebanon.
• Good knowledge of UN Women and the UN system.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree in Gender and Women’s Studies, Development, Sociology, Research, Public Administration, Public Policy, or related Humanitarian field.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• Minimum 3 years of progressively responsible professional experience in issues related to gender equality, human rights, and development.
• Minimum 3 years’ experience conducting multi-level gender analysis and/or gender related research.
• Experience working in the agriculture and agro-food sectors in the Middle East region in general, and Lebanon in particular, is an asset.
• Computer skills, internet communication and command of MS Office.

Language Requirements:

• Proficiency in written and oral English and Arabic is a must.

Evaluation Criteria:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology: Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for the financial evaluation.

Criteria Weight Technical: 70% (70 points)

• Criteria 1:  Education (5 points)
• Criteria 2:  Experience conducting multi-level gender analysis and/or gender related research (30 points)
• Criteria 3: Experience in issues related to gender equality (30 points)
• Criteria 4: Experience working in the agriculture and agro-food sectors (5 points)

Financial: Lowest Financial Proposal: 30% (30 points)

The points for the Financial Proposal will be allocated as per the following formula:

• Contract will be awarded to the technically qualified consultant who obtains the highest combined score (financial and technical);
• The points for the Financial Proposal will be allocated as per the following formula: (Lowest Bid Offered*)/ (Bid of the Consultant) x 30;
• 'Lowest Bid Offered' refers to the lowest price offered by Offerors scoring at least 49 points in the technical evaluation.

Application:

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

• A cover letter with a brief presentation of your consultancy explaining your suitability for the work and link to portfolio of work;
• UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process;
• Personal CV; and Financial proposal; Proposed inclusive daily rate.

The above-mentioned documents should be merged in a standalone file including all them, since the online application submission does only permit to upload one file per application. Incomplete submission can be a ground for disqualification.

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)