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.

Of the 128.6 million people currently in need of humanitarian assistance, over three-quarters are women and children. Conflict and displacement affect women and girls differently from men and boys. Disruption to livelihoods, social protection, health, education, and shelter caused by a crisis, worsen the situation for women and children in their care, leaving them food insecure and at risk of exploitation and abuse.

One particular impact of crisis is the loss of opportunity for young women to gain an education and improve their livelihood prospects.  Conversely, offering opportunities that provide a second chance to pursue education, particularly where that education is appropriate, accessible and improves their prospects for gainful employment, can be among the most effective interventions to provide income, build resilience and support their wellbeing and development. 

Aligned with the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, UN Women’s Second Chance Education and Vocational Learning (SCE) Programme is a solution for marginalized young women and women who have missed out on education, offering pathways either back into formal education and/or to employment or entrepreneurship.

Specifically, the SCE Programme brings together public and private sector partners to: i) promote supportive multi-sectoral policy and financing frameworks to create an enabling environment to pilot and scale up successful SCE solutions: ii) address harmful and discriminatory social norms that keep girls and young women out of education; iii) provide high quality content; iv) tailor educational opportunities directly to the local labour market to increase the value of education and create a pipeline of educated your women ready to transition to employment.

Duties and Responsibilities

This consultancy is to support implementation of SCE focusing on tailoring educational opportunities to suit the needs of the labour market and facilitate the transition of targeted women and young women to gainful employment. This assignment includes the following key tasks:

1. The first task is to design and implement an assessment methodology to be undertaken in six target countries, which will support identification of labour market needs and opportunities for UNW’s SCE target groups. Specifically, educational interventions/ learning pathways based on their viability, return on investment from an employability perspective, and long-term employment prospects.
2. Support Country Office to implement the research methodology and collect data to draft the results of the assessment exercise.
3. The third task is the development of country case studies following a standard template, designed to inform programming at the country level.
4. The third deliverable is an aggregated report that encompasses the case studies and key conclusions of the research.

The research and analysis should utilize both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, depending on the context, using existing data where possible and available. Collection of data must be disaggregated to better understand labour sector profiles, challenges and opportunities. All proposed analysis and recommendations should account for barriers of any kind, with particular emphasis on gender disparities and barriers to employment. Lastly, the analysis should identify skills needed to increase employment, entrepreneurism and economic conditions both from a contextualized labour and from an education/ vocational learning perspective in addition to anticipated skills needed in the future and potential opportunities for marginalised and excluded women. UN Women can contract and cover the costs of local research assistants in each country to address data collection needs, under the supervision of the lead consultant. This consultant may be required to conduct missions to support data collection at the local level.

Key tasks include:

1. Identify, analyse and recommend economic sectors where potential gainful employment opportunities exist for the identified women and young women population;
2. Identify, analyse and recommend barriers to education, vocational learning and basic education needs for the identified women and young women population;
3. Identify the barriers for the women and young women to access these opportunities, particularly barriers relating to skill needs and mismatch;
4. Recommend appropriate or potential technical/vocational and business skills training needs to overcome the identified barriers, adopting a cost-benefit and return on investment schedule approach in formulating the recommendations;
5. Identify education and skill development service providers to help implement the recommendations relating to SCE.

Country case studies:

Each country case study is expected to be between 8 – 10 pages in length. The outline of the case studies can be informed by the following illustrative outline:

Section 1 - Context Assessment: This section provides an overview of the school-to-work transition at both the levels of the country as well as the target population groups. It will include statistical and qualitative elements relating to schooling, drop-outs, gender gaps, formal and informal employment by sector, as well as issues relating to women and girls not in education, employment and training. The goal of this section is to justify the need for the project’s intervention.

Section 2 – Intervention Option Assessment: This section examines the current school-to-work pathways of the target population groups, identifies barriers, challenges, and opportunities. Subsequently, options to address these barriers to improve employability are proposed, categorized by sector, needed education and skill development investments possible providers of these education and skill development opportunities, return on investment from a wage perspective, and wage growth projections. Attention to be given to viability, scalability, and transferability in examining these options.

Section 3 – Policy and Programmatic Recommendations: This section identifies specific recommendations to feed into the project’s action plan per country, to deliver concrete results within the scope of 3 years. Considerations to budget allotments, implementation capacity, and risk and contingency planning should be an inherent part of the recommendations.

Aggregated report:

The aggregated report shall include a global overview of the research undertaking, to include an executive summary, methodology, key findings, and programmatic recommendations. It will be no more than 20 pages, and will include the country case studies as separate attachments.

Deliverables: 

1. Inception report including workplan, fieldwork schedule and methodology. The inception report is to be approved by the Supervisor prior to commencing research activities.  It will also include data collection needs and timeline for the assignment. Please note that a local consultant and or UNW Country Office staff will support data collection at the country level.
2. Six Country case study reports, guided by the aforementioned illustrative outline.
3. Draft aggregate report, to be presented in a meeting with UN Women for feedback.
4. Final report, including a PowerPoint presentation on the results, to be presented to UN Women, donors, and relevant stakeholders.

Timeframe of deliverables:

Competencies

Core values:

• Integrity;
• Professionalism;
• Respect for Diversity.

Core Competencies:

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

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-employment-values-and-competencies-definitions-en.pdf

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced degree in economics, social and political sciences, human rights, gender equality, development studies with specializations in labour market research.

Experience:

• A minimum of seven (7) years of progressively responsible and relevant professional work experience.
• Strong experience in research on international development affairs and on policy issues.
• Proven excellent research and analytical skills and experience in drafting
• Proven coordination and liaison skills, capacity to plan and coordinate action with different offices.
• Ability to manage complex tasks, prioritize and deliver tasks on time.
• Excellent organizational and interpersonal skills; versatility; attention to detail; ability to work under pressure without sacrificing quality
• Expertise on issues and trends in education, learning and employment, with emphasis on reaching women, young women and girls is an asset
• Strong English writing and editing skills, with proven ability to translate research findings into clear text.
• Previous experience in a UN organization is preferred.

Languages:

• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English
• Fluency in Spanish and French considered an asset.

Location and Duration:

• The consultancy will be homebased with missions as required to Country Offices;

Remuneration:

• The consultant will be paid as per the agreed payment schedule/upon full completion of deliverables.
• Costs associated with travel and local research support will be covered separately outside the scope of this contract.

Evaluation of procedure:

The candidates will be evaluated against the following technical and financial criteria:

• Advanced degree in economics, social and political sciences, human rights, gender equality, development studies with specializations in labour market research (10 points);
• At least 5 years of work experience in the field of employment/labour market analysis (25 points);
• At least 5 years of work experience in conducting qualitative studies (data collection through desk review, key informant interviews, etc.), quantitative studies in different contexts (50 points);
• Proven track record in publishing succinct and clear reports emerging from similar research (15 points).

Application Information:

• Please indicate your ability, availability and daily/monthly rate (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference above. Applications submitted without a daily/monthly rate will not be considered.
• All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment;
• UN Women will only be able to respond to those applications in which there is further interest.