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. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women will lead and coordinate United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

UN Women plays an innovative and catalytic role in the State of Palestine since its inception in 1997 (as UNIFEM). UN Women Palestine Office focuses its activities on one overarching goal, namely, to support the implementation at the national level of existing international commitments to advance gender equality in line with the national priorities. In support of this goal, and thoroughly taking into consideration the specificities of the Palestinian context, UN Women concentrates its efforts and interventions towards the realization of following strategic goals: Mainstreaming gender in governance, peace and security; Supporting women's economic security and rights; and Promoting women’s rights and protection against violence.

Emerging evidence on the impact of COVID-19 suggests that women’s economic and productive roles are affected disproportionately and differently from men. Women earn less, save less, hold less secured jobs, are more likely to be employed in the informal sector, have less access to financial services and lack access to professional networks. As a result, women’s preparedness and mitigation capacity to absorb economic shocks becomes more compromised than that of men. Therefore, it is important to engage private sector as a major actor in the economic sector in Palestine in designing and implementing response and economic recovery action plans that attract, retain and promote women’s participation and leadership in the labour force and the world of work.

UN Women’s engagement with the private sector in Palestine focuses on mainstreaming gender in the labor market and the economy at large, specifically, it focuses on promoting corporate policies that ensure decent work conditions and earnings for women. The approach is guided by the Women Empowerment Principals (WEPs), which include a set of global principles offering guidance to businesses on how to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in the workplace, marketplace and community.

During 2021, private sector partners have enhanced their abilities to assess their institutional performance on gender equality using the WEPs gender gap analysis tool, and promoted a gender inclusive working environment and response to COVID-19, utilizing a number of practical tools and resources provided by UN Women.  A Partnership Strategy with the Palestinian Private Sector was developed to offer a roadmap for UN Women’s support to the private sector in Palestine, utilizing the WEPs and other gender equality tools for enhancing gender equality and women’s economic empowerment. The Strategy aims to deepen partnerships with key players in the economic sector at the national, regional and global levels and to increase the engagement of the private sector with various stakeholders to achieve a positive impact on women’s equal participation and retention in the labour market as workers, leaders and business owners.

In line with UN Women’s strategic priority “increasing women’s income security, decent work and economic autonomy”, and within the framework of the regional programme “Promoting Productive Employment and Decent Work For Women” implemented jointly by UN Women and ILO in Palestine, Jordan and Egypt, with funding from the Government of  Sweden (Sida), UN Women Palestine Country Office is seeking to recruit a national consultant to support the implementation of UN Women’s Strategy for Partnership with the Private Sector in Palestine.

This assignment comes under the Decent Work Joint Programme’s outputs 2.1 “Corporate leaders’ group in favor of promoting women employees is increased” and 2.4 “Corporate investment in training and professional development of women employees and gender equality is promoted”,with focus on the WEPs, mainly Principle 2: Treat all Women and Men Fairly at Work without Discrimination, Principle 4: Education and training for career advancement, Principle 5: Enterprise development, supply chain and marketing practices, and Principle 6: Community initiatives and advocacy.

Objective of the assignment

The main objective of this assignment is to support the engagement and commitment of the private sector for achieving a positive impact on women’s equal participation, access to decent work and retention in the labour market and in leadership positions. This will be achieved through supporting the implementation of the Partnership Strategy with the Private Sector, including the development and execution of a national actional plan to enhance the implementation of WEPs by private sector stakeholders, through knowledge, capacity building, networking, advocacy, research and outreach interventions.

By the end of this assignment, private sector stakeholders will be equipped with practical tools and hands-on methods on the WEPs implementation (from theory to practice), engaged and active in knowledge sharing opportunities and platforms, provided with skills development services and are able to monitor the impact and results achieved.  

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance of the UN Women Special Representative in the State of Palestine, and the direct supervision of the Task Manager, the consultant will undertake the following duties and responsibilities:

1. Support in implementing the Private Sector Partnership Strategy:

• Develop an action plan for the implementation of the Private Sector Partnership Strategy, with key milestones, tools, timelines etc. in collaboration with UN Women team.
• Formulation/adapting existing needs assessment tools and sensitization workshops (at least two), in collaboration with UN Women’s team and relevant partners, to identify key milestones and interventions on capacity development, awareness raising, advocacy and policy interventions, to inform developing the Strategy action plan.
• Update the mapping report of UN Women’s previous engagement with private sector and other acting stakeholders in Palestine through the Women Empowerment Principals (WEPs) and other gender equality tools/frameworks in Palestine as needed.
• Update the offline database for the WEPs signatories and potential signatories in Palestine and related details, profiles, sectors, geographical location etc. on a regular basis as guided by UN Women team.
• Support UN Women in establishing and launching the WEPs Network - comprised of  WEPs signatories in Palestine, with rotational coordination responsibility among the private sector partners/signatories, to serve as gender champions, and to engage around gender responsive policies and practices as means for private sector’s growth and improved socio-economic conditions for women at the national and regional levels.

1. Provide technical advice and capacity development to strengthen UN Women’s partnerships with the private sector and relevant acting stakeholders:

•     Provide UN Women’s private sector partners with technical advice and support in designing and implementing outreach events (at least 2 during the assignment’s duration) and initiatives on several aspects, including gender responsive procurement, social impact strategies, women’s leadership, inclusion in the workplace, etc.).

• Design and deliver at least four training/coaching sessions to develop private sector partner’s capacities and support developing/updating existing gender responsive action plans and institutional policies, including but not limited to developing and supporting implementing different monitoring tools for their plans, providing advice to develop leadership programmes/interventions for women employees, flexible working arrangements etc.
• Based on consultation with UN Women and partners, support designing and conducting at least one community-based initiative, with focus on inclusion in the workplace (WEPs principals 2 and 6).

•     Support in identifying and reaching out to new companies (minimum of five), in different economic sectors, including women-led companies, seeking buy-in from their leadership to join the WEPs and advocate for corporate gender responsive policies and practices and their implementation.

1. Support UN Women’s efforts in documenting and showcasing best practices and lessons learned of WEPs signatories at the local, regional and global levels:

•     Support the preparation and facilitation of UN Women’s WEPs events, knowledge sharing workshops and webinars (at least 3), and produce relevant reports on lessons learned, best practices and opportunities.

•     Facilitate strategic convenings with private sector companies (at least 5) to share innovative ideas and strategies for enhancing the gender-responsiveness of their internal policies and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programming activities, and to adopt affirmative actions in relation to gender responsive procurement.

• Support in developing and conducting online surveys (at least 2), for WEPs signatories on the progress of WEPs implementation and impact on their performance and achievements, based on specific indicators and targets, to prepare relevant analyses and inform future interventions and the impact on corporates at internal and external levels.

•     Work closely with WEP signatories to document the change and develop written materials (at least 2 case studies / best practices) to showcase the positive effect of women’s leadership and participation on development, growth and economic (i.e. reduction in staff turnover, less absenteeism, women in leadership positions affecting policy making, increased productivity, investments in training and professional development of women employees, corporate policies in favor of women entrepreneurs, corporate financial performance, etc.) taking into consideration COVID-19 impact and response;

Deliverables:

• Deliverable 1: A detailed workplan for the assignment, including the methodology, with key deliverables in line with the detailed tasks with timeframe in English. (expected delivery date: October 2021)
• Deliverable 2: An action plan for the Strategy implementation and an updated mapping/strategy/WEPs signatories database. This includes training tools developed and delivered and events/knowledge sharing workshops conducted, and related annexes. (expected delivery date: November 2021)
• Deliverable 3:  A progress report on the Strategy action plan implementation, including capacity development, events, meetings conducted, as applicable, and the community-based initiative conducted. (expected delivery date: December 2021)
• Deliverable 4: A report on the trainings/sensitization/awareness sessions and the WEPs network meetings and events conducted. (expected delivery date: February 2022)
• Deliverable 5: Two case studies finalized and approved, (expected delivery date: April 2022)
• Deliverable 6: The successful launching of the WEPs Network ToR and documents on awareness raising, meetings conducted, as applicable (expected delivery date: June 2022)
• Deliverable 7: A final report summarizing the assignment results and materials developed, including a section on the UN Women’s strategy implementation progress, opportunities and challenges, an updated Strategy and database of WEPs signatories and potential signatories per sector and geographical location, training tools/modules, case studies and all related annexes, including, pictures, pre and post assessments etc.  (expected delivery date: August 2022)

All final deliverables shall be submitted in English.

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.

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

Functional Competencies

• Strong knowledge of international standards on women economic security and rights and related instruments, including the WEPs other gender equality tools and frameworks.
• Ability to liaise with a variety of stakeholders and partners, mainly the private sector;
• Strong analytical, dialogue, consultation and communication skills;
• Maturity, ability to take decisions under pressure and ability to deal with matters that are politically and culturally sensitive;
• Ability to work as a member of a team;
• Demonstrated experience in timely delivering of quality products, including knowledge products, and in contributing to complex processes within the women’s economic empowerment area of work;
• Demonstrated coordination, training, facilitation and presentation skills;

Results oriented, flexible and problem-solving skills;

Required Skills and Experience