Background

Gender equality and women’s empowerment are strategic policy and programme priorities for UNDP and important accelerators to reach inclusive and gender balanced development outcomes.  The COVID-19 pandemic has renewed the attention of policy makers, development practitioners and scholars on the capability of social protection systems to respond to increased care needs. The disproportional impact of care burdens on women and related consequences on their capabilities and interest to seek full-time formal employment urge policymakers to assess and reconsider the resilience of social protection systems to respond to the needs of men and women, and to invest in care for a gender-responsive recovery and inclusive growth.  

Strengthening the gender responsiveness of social protection systems to address inequalities has also been identified as a priority in the UNDP Gender Equality Strategy 2022-2025, while the UNDP Regional Programme for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (ECIS) 2022-2025 embraces SDG 5 “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” as a targeted and horizonal programme priority.

UNDP IRH aims at designing a coherent framework for assessing the level of gender responsiveness of social protection systems in the region. Considering the novelty of the approach, this assignment will specifically focus on the subset of social care services and policies. The assessment will constitute the basis for an analysis of the factors behind unequal distributions in unpaid care work, the main features of national care infrastructures, prevalent gaps in care service provision, and the labour conditions of care workers. Moreover, the analysis will provide an overview of the main norms (including social norms) behind the unequal distribution of unpaid care work, the prevalence of informal work, low earnings and precarious working conditions experienced by care workers, with the aim to identify factors that can lead towards gender-balanced outcomes in care service provision and underpin policy discourse and advocacy to recognize the scale of needs, policy and implementation actions required to strengthen the availability, accessibility, affordability and quality of care services, reduce women’s unpaid care work and provide decent work for women and men in the care sector.

Duties and Responsibilities

UNDP is looking to recruit an international expert to develop a coherent analytical framework for assessing the gender responsiveness of social protection systems, including by developing a Gender-Responsive Care Index. This composite index shall enable to scrutinize care programmes by applying a gender lens to normative, policy, institutional and financial frameworks and by identifying the gaps which can lead to socially inefficient and unequal outcomes. The findings and the accompanied analytical tool shall be summarized in a set of policy recommendations for the improvement of social protection and care policies and programmes.

The proposed Index should focus on reviewing the set of policies and standards, including occupational and qualification standards, normative frameworks, labour standards and quality of jobs of care workers, institutional capacity and financing for care services and infrastructure through a gender lens and it will cover: i) domestic and care activities ii) care services to enable increased women’s labour force participation rates and iii) women’s agency in policy design process, etc. The composition of the index should be flexible enough to allow for a modular approach while analyzing different social care systems.

The composite index shall comprise of a number of indicators for measuring the gender responsiveness of care systems and state-supported measures for care services. Each indicator needs to have clear criteria and scores (including their weighting depending on the relevance) which will allow for cross-country comparisons. Research questions need to be well defined to lead towards assessments that will further guide policymakers in improving their policies and building gender responsive care systems.

The expert will set the analytical framework and develop the Gender-Responsive Care Index based on similar indicators and indices developed, among others, by other UN agencies and international institutions. S/he will provide a detailed documentation on recommended list of indicators, which are modular and can be adjusted/added to the country produced indicators (if available).

The expert will provide a methodology which will guide local experts in analyzing national social protection policies and care infrastructures and assess their gender-responsiveness. The collection of data and information and follow-up analysis shall build on official sources at the country level, the compiling and categorizing of which will be done by national research analysts (five analysts will be engaged for five countries/territories in the Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States Region -ECIS). For this purpose, a questionnaire needs to be formulated by the expert to ensure the compilation of relevant and similar data from different social protection systems.

Based on the data and information collected by national analysts, the expert will assess national care systems, policies and measures in five countries/territories, and produce an analytical report with findings from the country-based assessments, with at least two country case studies from the region, and recommendations for developing policy measures and enhancing investments for gender-responsive care. Case studies should highlight data gaps and challenges preventing countries/territories from designing and developing gender-responsive care policies and services, and therefore from advancing multiples SDGs, by increasing women’s labour force participation and productivity, reducing gender inequalities in care work, professionalizing the care sector and generating decent work for men and women.

The expert will test the availability of gender-related indicators proposed with the tool (Index for gender responsiveness). It is expected that the lessons learnt from the process will be taken into consideration and, if needed, appropriate corrections made in the Index itself.

The expert should also identify and compile a list of resources for future reference (publications, similar datasets produced at the international level, learning tools, etc.).

I.METHODOLOGY AND APPROACH

It is expected that the methodology will include the following tools and approaches:

• Comprehensive desk study and analysis of similar international tools for the measurement of the impact of social protection systems on poverty, inequality and gender equality;
• Semi-structured interviews with stakeholders, partners and beneficiaries, as proposed by the expert and agreed with Inclusive Growth and Gender Team Leaders.
• Online meetings with the group of five national experts (to be engaged by UNDP in selected countries/territories) to provide necessary guidance for the collection and assessment of relevant country data.

Expected outputs:

1. Select indicators which will enable the tracking and international comparison of gender-responsiveness of care policies and services. Indicators have to be measurable, have well defined criteria and weighting methods.
2. Design a methodology, interview questions and framework for analyzing collected information for a gender-based review of different care policies and services;
3. Develop guidelines for the collection and assessment of country data, and develop a Composite Gender-Responsive Care Index (to be tested by the national analysts who will collect the data from five selected countries/territories). The Composite Index should assess the set of policies and standards, including occupational and qualification standards, normative frameworks, labour standards and quality of jobs of care workers, and include aspects covering the availability, accessibility, affordability, quality and financing of care services.
4. Prepare an analytical report collecting the relevant data, mapping out the data sources, data gaps and other shortcomings in compiling country-level data and their assessment/measurement, providing recommendations for standardization of the data and lessons learned.
5. Produce a brief presenting two specific case studies, based on the collected data and following the methodology previously developed (Index for gender-based review of social protection policies).
6. Produce a policy brief summarizing the findings and providing policy recommendations for governments to revise policy frameworks to turn unpaid care work into decent work and strengthen public financing of the care sector, and providing a comparative overview of relevant initiatives at the international level.

Deliverables 4,5,6 will be merged into a final synthesis report.

7)Prepare a manual documenting the process and compile a list of resources for future reference.

II.DELIVERABLES

The Payment will be made in two instalments upon confirmation of UNDP on the satisfactory completion of the deliverables:

• First instalment: upon completion of Deliverable 1, Deliverable 2 and Deliverable 3;
• Second instalment: upon completion of Deliverable 4, Deliverable 5, Deliverable 6 and Deliverable 7.

III.INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENT

The consultant will work under direct supervision of the IRH Team Leader for Inclusive Growth and Gender Equality. S/he will be in regular communication with the supervisors and will provide updates on the progress achieved on a regular basis. In course of performing his/her job, the consultant will need to closely collaborate with the nominated team members.

The UNDP Team Leaders will provide guidance to the expert on expectations related to the design of the deliverables and will provide quality assurance throughout the process. UNDP will engage additional analysts required for carrying out the work on a country level. UNDP will cover the costs for interpreter for interviews with non-English speaking interviewees.

UNDP shall request the Contractor to read carefully, understand and sign the ‘Code of Conduct for Evaluators in the UN System’, which can be accessed at: http://www.unevaluation.org/unegcodeofconduct

All communication and reports will need to be prepared in English language. The final product will be the property of UNDP which will exclusively hold the copyrights and other proprietary rights.

IV.DURATION OF THE WORK

The duration of the Consultant’s work is estimated to up to 30 working days in the period from 15 October 2022 to 31 March 2023. 

V.DUTY STATION AND TRAVEL

The assignment will be fully home-based.

If unforeseen travel is requested by UNDP and not required by the Terms of References (ToR), such travel shall be covered by UNDP in line with applicable rules and regulations and upon prior written agreement. 

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
• Fulfils all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Functional competencies:

• Strong interpersonal skills, communication and diplomatic skills, ability to work in team
• Strong analytical, reporting and writing abilities
• Strong organisational, coordination and time management skills
• Ability to organise tasks independently and assume responsibility
• Openness to change and ability to receive/integrate feedback
• Ability to work under pressure and tight deadlines
• Ability to adapt solutions and proposals to specificities of client organizations.

Required Skills and Experience

The selected candidate shall possess:

• A Master’s Degree in Economics, Social Sciences or related disciplines. PhD will be considered as an asset.
• At least 7 years of relevant professional experience in the areas of relevance for this assignment (social protection and gender equality).
• At least 7 years of relevant professional experience in design, management and delivery of complex assessments with multiple stakeholders in development cooperation contexts.
• At least 3 assignments as Lead consultant in designing social protection programmes or measures.
• Strong English language proficiency.

XII. CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF BEST OFFER

The award of the contract shall be made to the offeror whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

a) Being responsive/compliant/acceptable, and

b) Having received the highest score based on the following weight of technical and financial criteria for solicitation as per the schedule below:

* Technical criteria weight: 70%

* Financial criteria weight: 30%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70%) in the technical evaluation shall be considered for the financial evaluation.

For the considered offers in the financial evaluation only, the lowest price offer will receive 30 points. The other offers will receive points in relation to the lowest offer, based on the following formula: (Pn / Pl) * 30 where Pl is the financial offer being evaluated and Pn is the lowest financial offer received. 

Technical Criteria:

XIII. Application procedures

Qualified candidates are requested to apply online via this website. Kindly note that the system will allow only one attachment. Therefore, please upload all required documents as one file. The application should contain:

• Cover letter explaining why you are the most suitable candidate for the advertised position and a brief methodology on how you will approach and conduct the work (if applicable). Please paste the letter into the "Resume and Motivation" section of the electronic application.
• Filled P11 form including past experience in similar projects and contact details of referees
  Please upload the P11 instead of your CV.
• Offeror’s Letter and 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, travel, per diems and any other possible costs). Kindly download the template offeror’s letter and financial proposal through the link:
• General Terms and conditions as well as other related documents can be found under: http://on.undp.org/t7fJs.
• Sample report(s) and/ or links to online content authored/coauthored by the candidate that is relevant to this assignment (sample(s) can be submitted as .pdf together with other attachments
• Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials

*Please note that the financial proposal is all-inclusive and shall take into account various expenses incurred by the consultant/contractor during the contract period (e.g. fee, health insurance, vaccination, personal security needs and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services...). All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. This includes all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel. 

Payments will be made only upon confirmation of UNDP on delivering on the contract obligations in a satisfactory manner.

Individual Consultants are responsible for ensuring they have vaccinations/inoculations when travelling to certain countries, as designated by the UN Medical Director. Consultants are also required to comply with the UN security directives set forth under dss.un.org

General Terms and conditions as well as other related documents can be found under: http://on.undp.org/t7fJs.

Qualified women and members of minorities are encouraged to apply.

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.

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.