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 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.” 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

Scope of the assignment

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.

At the same time, investigations recently carried out on labour market did not include the agricultural sector, because production units in agriculture differ from the production units in non-agriculture activities, and agriculture holdings are badly covered or not covered at all by INSTAT’s Business Register. Therefore, no reliable information is available on the labour market characteristics of agricultural sector, and studies such as the Skills Needs Analysis do not cover it. On the other hand, large scale food distribution has recently pushed many foodstuff producers to register their enterprises, since it is required an official registration to sell products to big grocery chain. Therefore, the number of registered farms greatly increased from 2.000 in 2014 to 22.000 in 2015 and some 32.000 in 2016 (Business Register, INSTAT). There is an urgent need for a kick-off study on the size and structure of employment in the agricultural sector, which will allow national statistics to integrate it on their data collection procedures.

Under the overall guidance of the Deputy Team Leader, and in close collaboration with the Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth, and other relevant stakeholders, the national consultant will perform the following tasks / outputs:

1. Conduct a desk review of existing national and international research regarding informal employment, with a focus on the rural areas; (5 working days)
2. 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; (7 working days)
3. Analyze new available data on registered agricultural enterprises in Albania, their size and number of employees. Combine the data with other sources, also at local level, in order to identify to the extent possible (i) the number of registered farmers for which agriculture is the prime sector of employment and (ii) the real amount of informal agriculture work in rural areas. (10 working days)
4. 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. (4 working days)
5. Review regional experiences in addressing rural employment / self-employment, and identify successful models, including those on the extension of employment services to rural areas; (5 working days)
6. In collaboration with SD4E programme team 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); (5 working days)
7. Advise the Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth on options for piloting interventions in rural areas, inclusive of budgetary, institutionalization and operationalization implications. (12 working days)

Deliverables

• Methodology for data review / analysis and a detailed work-plan and outline timeframe of the assignment;
• An analytical report on the rural economy / employment in Albania, inclusive of estimates on the level of informality and underemployment;
• A map of employment in the agricultural sector, in the form of an analytical report, with description of registered and estimates of informal workers;
• 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

Core Values

Integrity:

• Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Professionalism:

• Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.

Cultural sensitivity and respect for diversity:

• Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff;
• Additionally, the individual should have an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies

Communication:

• Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication.

Planning & Organizing:

• Develops clear goals in line with agreed strategies, identifies priorities, foresees risks and makes allowances accordingly.

Organizational Awareness:

• Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.

Teamwork:

• Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi-ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.

Accountability:

• Takes ownership of all responsibilities and delivers outputs in accordance with agreed time, cost and quality standards.

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;
• Excellent presentation 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

• Substantial technical knowledge on employment issues, and 7-10 years of relevant working experience particularly in relation to analysing statistical data on socio-economic development, employment, informal employment, rural employment etc.;
• Prior experience in employment related programmes is desirable;
• Previous experience/familiarity with UNDP or other UN agencies in a similar assignment is desirable;

Language

• Excellent communication and report-writing skills in English

Evaluation Procedure

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: Adequacy of brief proposed methodology – max points: 20

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

Application Procedure

Interested applicants are advised to carefully study all sections of this ToRs and ensure that they meet the general requirements as well as specific qualifications described. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials.

The application should contain:

• Cover letter explaining why you are the most suitable candidate for the advertised position. Please paste the letter into the "Resume and Motivation" section of the electronic application.
• Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability-please fill in the attached form...http://www.un.org.al/editor-files/file/PSU_%20ICLA.doc.
• Filled P11 form including past experience in similar projects and contact details of referees, please upload the P11 instead of your CV. Download here.
• Financial Proposal in ALL* - specifying a total lump sum in Albanian Lek  for the tasks specified in this announcement.  The attached template may be used - http://www.un.org.al/editor-files/file/Financial%20Offer%20template.doc. Please note that the financial proposal is all-inclusive and shall take into account various expenses incurred by the consultant during the contract period (e.g. fee and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services).
• Copy of Diplomas and copy of Passport.

*Kindly note that Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability and Financial Proposal are two separate documents and should be both part of your application.

How to Submit the Application:

To submit your application online, please follow the steps below:

• Download and complete the UN Personal History Form (P11) for Service Contracts (SCs) and Individual Contracts (ICs);
• Merge your UN Personal History Form (P11) for Service Contracts (SCs) and Individual Contracts (ICs), Financial Proposal Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability and cover letter into a single file. The system does not allow for more than one attachment to be uploaded;
• Click on the Job Title (job vacancy announcement);
• Click “Apply Now” button, fill in necessary information on the first page, and then click “Submit Application;”
• Upload your application/single file as indicated above with the merged documents (underlined above);
• You will receive an automatic response to your email confirming receipt of your application by the system.

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.