Background

I. Background

The “Safe and Fair: Realizing Women Migrant Workers’ Rights and Opportunities in the ASEAN Region (2018-2022)” is part of the European Union-United Noations (EU-UN) Spotlight Initiative to eliminate violence against women and girls. Safe and Fair (the Programme) is implemented through a partnership between the ILO and UN Women (in collaboration with UNODC) with the overriding objective of ensuring that labour migration is safe and fair for all women in the ASEAN region.

The Programme delivers technical assistance and support with the overall objective of making labour migration safe and fair for all women in the ASEAN region. The Programme engages with ASEAN Member States’ government authorities, ASEAN institutions, workers’ organisations, employers and recruitment agencies, civil society organisations, community-based organisations, families and communities, research institutions and academia, media networks, youth and the general public and supports programming in ten countries (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam).

The Programme aims to address women workers’ vulnerabilities to violence and trafficking, strengthen rights-based and gender-responsive approaches to violence against women and labour migration governance and support access to essential services by:

• Improving the frameworks that govern labour migration and ending violence against women;
• Improving access to information and services for women migrant workers and opportunities for them to network and organise;
• Producing data and evidence on the experiences of women migrant workers; and
• Campaigning to generate a better understanding of the contribution of women migrants.

II. Purpose of the consultancy

To strengthen coordination among various stakeholders providing services to and ensure access to quality services for women migrant workers, the Safe and Fair programme is seeking a consultant to develop a comprehensive service directory of available services for women migrant workers subject to violence in Lao PDR. The service directory will include services for women migrant workers who experience violence, harassment, exploitation and trafficking in persons. The directory will include areas addressed in the Essential Services Package for Women and Girls Subject to Violence and any other potential resources for women migrant workers such as labour actors, consular officers or other service providers.  The developed service directory will be part of Safe and Fair’s compilation of service directories from ASEAN member states and will be used for wider dissemination through embassies, consular officers, civil society organisations and networks and other partners across the region.

The service directory developed will map out services (shelter, health, social, legal, justice, policing and labour) available to women migrant workers in Laos. The mapping should be conducted in Laos, with particular attention on locations with high population of women migrant workers. Extensive communications with potential organizations to be included in the service directory is expected to verify quality, types, and conditions of the services they provide to women migrant workers. 

Duties and Responsibilities

III. Scope of works

The consultant is expected to complete the following key tasks:

1. Review relevant documents and identify relevant stakeholders, service providers that deliver services to women migrant workers (in normal times and during the COVID-19 pandemic) ;
2. Communicate with relevant stakeholders, service providers that deliver services to women migrant workers (in normal times and during the COVID-19 pandemic);
3. Conduct interviews, as needed, with experts working in the related fields and other relevant stakeholders;
4. Prepare a draft report or database of the services mapping containing all the relevant information about the identified organizations, including their names, where they are located, their coverage of the country, services offered, target group and contact details (in normal times and during the COVID-19 pandemic);
5. Finalize the report or database based on the comments and inputs. The final report or database should be in an editable format to keep the service directory updated afterwards. 

IV. Final products and deliverables.

The consultancy is expected to be completed within a period of two (2) months from the date of the contract signing with close communications with VAW Specialist of UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific and National Programme Coordinator of Safe and Fair programme of the ILO Laos Office.

The consultancy will result in the following output: -

Competencies

V. Key qualifications

• Master’s degree or equivalent in social science, gender studies, labour migration or other related fields.
• Has at least 5 years of experience working on gender and labour migration, gender equality, violence against women or other issues related to women migrant workers
• Demonstrated experience in doing research in areas of labour migration and trafficking, VAW, gender and development, preferably in the ASEAN region;
• Strong understanding of issues related to gender equality in the context of labour migration, violence against women, preferably in the ASEAN region;
• Previous working experience with CSO in Lao PDR is desirable.
• Strong written and communication skills in English and Lao;

VI. Evaluation

Applications will be evaluated based on the cumulative analysis.

• Technical Qualification (100 points) weight; [70%]
• Financial Proposal (100 points) weight; [30%]

A two-stage procedure is utilised in evaluating the applications, with evaluation of the technical application being completed prior to any price proposal being compared. Only the price proposal of the candidates who passed the minimum technical score of 70% of the obtainable score of 100 points in the technical qualification evaluation will be evaluated.

Technical qualification evaluation criteria:

The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100. The technical qualification of the individuals is evaluated based on following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

Financial/Price Proposal evaluation and term of payment:

• Only the financial proposal of candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% score in the technical evaluation will be considered and evaluated.
• The total number of points allocated for the financial component is 100.
• The maximum number of points will be allotted to the lowest price proposal that is opened/ evaluated and compared among those technical qualified candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% score in the technical evaluation. All other price proposals will receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest price.
• Financial proposal: the financial proposal shall specify a lump sum amount breaking down the professional fee for each deliverable.

Required Skills and Experience

VII. Submission of application

Interested candidates are encouraged to submit electronic application to hr.bangkok@unwomen.org  with -cc to younghwa.choi@unwomen.org with the email subject “National consultant for development of national service directory of services for women migrant workers in Laos” no later than 15 MAY 2020, COB.

Submission package includes:

• Curriculum vitae

• Cover letter
• Financial proposal: the financial proposal shall specify deliverable fees breaking down into the professional fee, for each deliverable.

**Please note, you can only submit 1 file in the UNDP application system. If you submit your application through the UNDP application system, please create one file with all the required documents mentioned above. Applicants with incomplete submission will not be considered.**