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.
In 2015, on 25 September, the United Nations General Assembly adopted unanimously the Resolution 70/1 Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Gender equality and women’s empowerment is at the heart of the agenda, as numerous goals and targets address structural barriers to achieve equal rights and opportunities between women and men, girls and boys.
One of the key areas of concern is the economic empowerment of women. It is expressed in targets and indicators of SDG 5 (Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls) and SDG 8 (Promote inclusive and sustainable development, decent work and employment for all). Progress toward it depends not only on the adoption of a set of public policies by governments, but also on the existence of an enabling environment and active engagement of the corporate sector. This is also relevant to the achievement of SDG 1 (Poverty Reduction), SDG 10 (Reduced inequalities) and SDG 17 (Revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development).
About 90 per cent of jobs in the world are in the private sector. This represents a huge potential to implement transformative actions in the world of work and social responsibility in favour of women, benefiting the whole society. There is an increasing consciousness, interest and commitment of private and public sector companies on the value and benefits of gender equality and the economic empowerment of women and its role to achieve it.
UN Women - in partnership with the European Commission is proposing the regional programme “Promoting Economic Empowerment of Women at Work in Asia – WeEmpower Asia” to contribute to the economic empowerment of women, recognizing them as beneficiaries and partners of growth and development, by increasing commitment of private companies to gender equality and women´s empowerment and strengthening companies’ capacities to implement these commitments. The
programme will ultimately contribute to the achievement of gender equality through enabling women’s labour force participation, entrepreneurship, economic empowerment and thus their full and equal participation in society.
The guiding platform will be the Women’s Empowerment Principles. The WEPs are a set of Principles for business offering guidance on how to empower women in the workplace, marketplace and community. Coordinated by UN Women and the UN Global Compact, the Principles emphasize the business case for corporate action to promote gender equality and women's empowerment and are informed by real-life business practices and inputs gathered from across the globe.
Targeting women led enterprises and networks, multi-national companies, and relevant stakeholders in selected Asia countries, the project will promote business opportunities for women entrepreneurs and women-owned enterprises in Asia and their business relations with Europe, while supporting inter-regional dialogue and exchange of good practices to increase the capacity of the private sector more broadly in the implementation of gender-sensitive business culture and practices. The programme will cover seven countries: India, Indonesia, China, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, and Viet Nam. It will also have a regional component under the responsibility of UN Women Region Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP).
The overall objective of the WeEmpower Asia programme is that more women lead, participate and have access to enhanced business opportunities and leadership within the private sector to advance sustainable and inclusive growth. The programme will achieve this through three complementary outcome areas to be implemented in seven selected middle-income countries in Asia:
- Women’s networks, public institutions, and the private sector will collaborate and share expertise and knowledge to build an enabling business environment for women’s economic empowerment in the workplace and in the market place
- Thecapacity of women-owned businesses and women entrepreneurs will be developed to enable them to engage with government and private sector corporations in policy development and dialogues for advancing women’s economic empowerment, and
- The private sector will be supported to implement gender-sensitive practices and culture within their businesses through the take-up of the Women Empowerment Principles (the WEPs – a set of guiding principles to achieve gender equality within companies).
Duties and Responsibilities
Services Required:
In line with ensuring an enabling business environment that promotes women’s decent work, well being and economic empowerment, UN Women is in need of a technical consutlant with expertise and experience in doing policy reviews to draft a policy paper that would forward gender responsive company, local and national policy/ies tackling work from home arrangements, online work and other related opportunities.
These would include:
- Review existing and proposed policies that protect and promote women’s decent work and well being especially at this context;
- Review and document select company policies that adheres to promotion of decent work, wellbeing and opportunities for women that could encourage others to do the same;
- Prepare policy paper that would enable the companies and government to ensure promotion and protection of women’s decent work and well-being mindful about the new normal and the work adjustments that needs to be made by different companies and businesses.
- Organize / co-host two (2) policy discussions to present and enhance the paper which can be submitted for consideration by companies and legislators for adaption and action.
The consultant is expected to leverage on existing work, expertise and networks and adding it to the resources and groups already identified and working with the UN Women.
Overall Objectives:
To prepare a policy paper based on reviews of current and proposed policies and good private sector practices that promotes women’s decent work, wellbeing and economic security
Specifically, the consultant will undertake the following:
- Review of current and proposed policies linked to WFH arrangements, online work, and other related opportunities
- Document best or ideal cases adapted by companies that can be a reference for others ;
- Prepare and finalize a policy paper forwarding gender responsive proposals linked to WFH, online work and other related opportunities;
- Organize and co-host policy discussions to refine this proposals for submission to the congress and consideration of private sector groups.
Deliverables
Target Date of completion
Payment
- Approved concept note
- Timeline of activities with target dates
- List of initial policies to be reviewed and companies to be featured
30 July 2020
40% of contract price
- Initial policy review and company case studies
- Draft policy paper
- 1st policy discussion
15-30 August 2020
20% of contract price
- Final policy paper and case studies
- 2nd policy discussion
30 September 2020
20% of contract price
- Policy discussion highlights & documentation
- Photo documentation with captions / narratives
- End of project report, debrief and planning
30 October 2020
20% of contract price
(final tranche)
Payments
Payments for this consultancy will be based on the achievement of each deliverable and certification that each has been satisfactorily completed. Payments will not be based on the number of days worked but on the completion of each stated deliverable within the indicated timeframes.
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
Required Skills and Experience
Required qualifications:
- Master’s degree in gender studies, international affairs, and/or any relevant field directly related to gender and Peace, Security and Governance;
- Minimum five years of relevant work experience with expertise and experience in doing policy reviews and policy paper that would forward gender responsive company, local and national policy/ies tackling work from home arrangements, online work and other related opportunities or the like
- Knowledge of the issue on women economic empowerment is desirable
- Previous experience with UN Women and other UN agencies an advantage
- Excellent command of written English and Tagalog, other UN languages an asset.
Contract period and work location
The consultant will be based in Manila. The consultant will have the possibility for remote work in consultation with the supervisor.
Submission of application
Interest candidates are encouraged to submit electronic application to jean.ricohermoso@unwomen.org, not later than 6 July 2020.
Submission package includes:
- Personal History Form(P11)
- Writing sample of policy paper or the like
- Financial proposal: the financial proposal shall specify a lump sum amount based on the above payment schedule.
Please be noted that the system only allows 1 attachment per application so please combined all files into one. In case that is not possible, you can submit the application again with different attachments.
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.
Note:
In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.