Historique

I.  Background

UN Women Ethiopia Country Office (ECO) works to support national and local efforts in the acceleration of progress towards gender equality and women empowerment, while also advocating for systematic integration of gender-focused approaches within various sectors of organizations.

Aligned to UN Women ECO Strategic Note (2022-2025) to support Ethiopia’s effort to achieve shared prosperity and sustainable development goals, the Women Economic Empowerment (WEE) program supports government and partners in creating enabling environment and enhancing institutional capacity for women and girls to access and control over productive resources, financial and non-financial services, information and opportunities, through promoting gender responsive policies and legal frameworks; and conducting evidence-based advocacy engaging key stakeholders. These strategic focuses have also been implemented through its various programs including the ongoing UN Women and ILO Joint Program of promoting decent employment for women through inclusive growth policies and investments in the care economy.

UN Women has been implementing the Global Joint Programme together with ILO: “Promoting decent employment for women through inclusive growth policies and investments in the care economy” in Ethiopia. The main objective of the programme is to support government and development partners in implementing gender-sensitive policy responses to the pandemic and during the recovery phase.

Care provision has important implications for gender equality and women’s economic empowerment. Provision of care services can speed-up economic growth through increased women’s labour force participation, improved revenue, expanded consumption and livelihood options; and job creation in the care sector and non-care sectors, thereby, benefitting families, communities, and country’s economy at large.  

Majority of the care work is undertaken by unpaid care workers globally, mostly women and girls. Unpaid care work is one of the main obstacles to women moving into better decent jobs, affecting the number of hours spent by women in work for pay or profit, their status in employment and working conditions as well as leisure time which has an adverse impact on their overall health and wellbeing. Evidence shows that women’s paid work does not on its own automatically transform the gendered division of unpaid labour. When both work for pay or profit and unpaid care work are accounted together, the working day is longer for women than it is for men.  

On the other hand, paid care workers who provide services in care sectors such as education, health and social work and in other non-care sectors as well as domestic workers are prone to low pay and have limited social protection. The gap between women in care and non–care employment shows the degree to which care employment is attractive to women and a potential area to advance women labour force participation[1].

II.  Justification

Investing in care economy contributes to long-term economic development, through contributing to the quality of human resources and the development of human capabilities. In Ethiopia, there has been a progress on financing care services both by the government and stakeholders working on paid and unpaid care works. So far, the government and private sectors have ongoing initiatives by providing daycare services; children have access to preprimary education; provision of elder care services, and access to labour and time-saving technologies like solar energy, fuel energy, biogas, food processing materials etc.; and working on advocacy and awareness creation on care economy are also another initiative. National policies and legal frameworks related to care contribute for realizing the importance of care economy in the country. The Labor Proclamation (No.1156/2019) extended the 90 days maternity leave to 120 days. This allows women to care of themselves, as well as their newborns. For the first time in Ethiopian history, the Ethiopian Labour Law 1156/2019 has given male workers paternity leave of three consecutive days. Additionally, the Civil Service Proclamation 1064/2017 provides paternity leave for ten days. This proclamation also mandates the establishment of a nursery in government institutions where female civil servants could breastfeed and take care of their babies in a private room. This public childcare provision is only for workers in government organization. It is uncommon for other parents to afford private owned childcare centers which are mainly available in urban areas. As a result, coverage is often low and highly unequal.

Among the paid care sectors, Early Child Care and Education (ECCE) is one of the care services in education sector that supports a number of women being employed and at the same time address women’s constraint in participating in productive activities. According to Education Statistics Annual Abstract 2019/20, a total of 700,838 teaching force were available across all levels: kindergarten, “O”-class, primary and secondary schools in Ethiopia. Out of this, in kindergarten schools, 93 % of teachers are being females, which exemplifies that ECCE as a profession is predominantly females’ domain and attracts greater number of female workforces[1].

Health care workers are among the paid care workers who provide care services for patients who need short-term and long-term care. In Ethiopia, women generally comprise the majority of workers in the health sector but occupy lower-level cadres, and experience gender hierarchies in management, which result in differences in pay and promotion.

Hence, investing in the care economy of health and education contribute towards meeting the coverage rates of population in health care, as set by SDG 3 (health care for all) and achieving the enrolment rates in education to attain SDG 4 (education for all) respectively.  In addition, it contributes to the achievement of SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth). Such investments have important multiplier effects by facilitating women’s labour force participation, creating jobs in the care sector, increasing state revenue, advancing economic status of households and beyond, enhancing children’s capabilities and supporting the well-being of children and women, and other vulnerable groups. It is crucial to unlock the potential areas of care sector that can offer many millions of women joining the formal workforce and builds stronger economies and wealthier households. Thus, government and other stakeholders including private sectors need to promote gender responsive care system through the 5R approaches /frameworks- Recognition, Reduction and Redistribution of unpaid care and domestic works; as well as Reward and Representation of care workers.

The Joint Program of UN Women and ILO have developed a new policy tool “A Guide to Public Investments in the Care Economy: Policy Support Tool for Estimating Care Deficits, Investment Costs and Economic Returns.” This policy tool seeks to increase policymakers’ awareness of the potential of investments in the care economy to meet multiple development priorities, while at the same time advising on how to prioritize such expenditures. Specifically, the tool aims to provide a methodology for how to (i) identify coverage gaps in care services; (ii) estimate the costs of public investments and expenditures for eliminating these coverage gaps; and (iii) assess the various economic returns to such investments in the short- and the long-run. The tool thus seeks to strengthen national capacities and contribute directly to strengthen government efforts on promoting care economy which is led by the Ministry of Women and Social Affairs (MOWSA).

It is with this understanding that UN Women Ethiopia is seeking a National Consultant to apply the above-mentioned policy support tool to the case of Ethiopia with a focus on childcare and pre-primary education; and conduct capacity building workshop on how to estimate the potential employment and economic returns of investing in care services. The consultant will be expected to work in close collaboration and coordination with MOWSA, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Finance and UN Women. He/she will also be technically supported by an international consultant engaged by UN Women who will provide technical support regarding the analytical work produced.

III. Objective

General objective

The overall objective of this consultancy work is to apply the policy tool of UN Women and ILO “A Guide to Public Investments in the Care Economy: Policy Support Tool for Estimating Care Deficits, Investment Costs and Economic Returns” to the case of Ethiopia with a focus on childcare; and pre-primary education.

 Specific objective

This consultancy work aims at achieving the following specific objectives:

1. To review UN Women-ILO policy support tool and ensure necessary steps are undertaken to adapt it the country context,
2.  To identify the coverage gaps in care Economy and   estimate the costs of public investments and expenditures for eliminating the coverage gaps,
3. To assess the various economic returns to investments in a care economy n the short- and the long-run.
4. To conduct capacity building workshop on how to estimate employment and economic returns of investing in childcare and pre-primary education; and how to replicate the tool for other care services e.g., care for elderly people and other care services (depending on data availability).   

The methodology includes but is not limited to (please see the policy tool for full methodology) the following: -

• To conduct a literature review on documents, reports, and research on the intersecting themes of i. ECCE services (extent of quality of coverage, employment conditions, human resources and trainings in this sector, its relation to women’s unpaid care work time or paid employment); ii. Labor market trends in employment, unemployment and gender inequalities in the labor market, women’s access to jobs and (un)employment; iii. Macroeconomic policy environment, particularly recent fiscal spending patterns, social spending and fiscal space.
• To review the existing gender-disaggregated statistics on unpaid care work (in particular time allocated to childcare as part of unpaid work); enrollment in ECCE centers, employment in ECCE sector (no of workers, wage levels, employee qualifications, ECCE centers cost structure, public expenditures on ECCE services, etc.), so as to i. provide a quantitative assessment of the current situation in Ethiopia (to the extent necessary the quantitative analysis should also take into consideration other dimensions beyond gender, such as rural-urban, regional, etc.); ii. Compile the necessary data for the analysis as outlined below including time-use survey, household labor force survey and Input-Output data for Ethiopia;
• To carry out the national–level calculations on assessing the care deficit in ECCE services;
• To estimate the costs of investments and expenditures in expanding childcare and pre-primary education care services (eliminating coverage gap), based on the data collected.
• To assess economic and employment returns of investing in ECCE services in Ethiopia.

[1] Education Statistics Annual Abstract September 2019-March 2020, Ministry of Education (2020)

[1] The role of the care economy in promoting gender equality: progress of women in the Arab states, UN Women (2020)

Devoirs et responsabilités

IV.  Tasks and responsibilities

Phase I

1. Review UN Women's policy tool “A Guide to Public Investments in the Care Economy: Policy Support Tool for Estimating Care Deficits, Investment Costs and Economic Returns.”
2. Develop inception report
3. Present inception report at inception workshop
4. Revise the inception report based on comments from the inception workshop and UN Women  
5. Prepare a draft report with the research findings, present to stakeholders, receive feedback and revise for a final report.
6. Submit the final draft assessment report
7. Develop a two-pager policy brief that will inform various policy dialogues on the care economy
8. Submit draft capacity building sessions’ PPT and handouts

Phase II

1. Present key findings and recommendations of the assessment at validation workshop
2. Conduct a capacity building workshop for policy makers and experts from MOWSA, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health and other relevant organization on how to estimate economic and employment returns of investing in childcare and pre-primary education; and how to replicate the tool for other care services eg. elderly care services and other care services (depending on data availability).
3. Submit validation workshop and training report for review,
4. Submit final assessment report; a two-pager policy brief (developed from assessment report) and validation workshop and training report including PPT and handouts.

V.  Deliverables

The specific deliverables for this consultancy, to be approved by UN Women Ethiopia Country Office, will be the following:

1. Inception Report (which includes understanding of ToR, proposed methodology according to the policy tool, outline of the assessment, deliverables, and schedule as the main components) about ten-page long
2. Inception workshop report
3. Draft assessment report, policy brief and training materials (PPT and handouts)
4. Minutes of consultations
5. Validation workshop and training report
6. Revised assessment report incorporating inputs collected from validation workshop, training and UN Women,
7. Final assessment report; Two-pager policy brief and training PPT and handouts

• The consultant will be guided by the following contact persons:

• Sinidu Fekadu, National Project Expert, UN Women (sinidu.fekadu@unwomen.org)
• Simegn Kuma, Program Analyst, UN Women (simegn.kuma@unwomen.org)

• The consultancy is home-based, and UN Women is not required to provide a working space for the consultant  .  

Compétences

VI.  Competencies

Core Values/guiding principles:

• 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 Consultant 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, each individual should have an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

 Core Competencies:

• 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.

Qualifications et expériences requises

VII.  Required Skills and Experience

Education

• Minimum qualification Master’s degree in economics, or any other relevant field of economics with an expertise in the areas of gender and development.

Experience

• Minimum 10 years of experience in conducting policy-oriented research related to gender equality.
• Experience in collecting, compiling, refining, tabulating and analyzing data (in particular for Ethiopia) required for the report including Input-Output analysis.
• Experience in facilitating participatory, interactive, multi-cultural training for adults,
• Previous experience working with the United Nations system, the African Union or other inter-governmental organizations will be an asset.
• Excellent analytical and report writing skills.

 Language and skill

• A consultant needs to have excellent knowledge of written and oral communication in English
• Computer skills: full command of Microsoft applications relevant to the assignment

Criteria for Review of Applications

NOTE

Interested applicants must submit the following document/information (in PDF format) to demonstrate their qualifications.

Technical component:

• Letter of interest explaining why he/she is the most suitable for the work
• Submit related research made by a consultant
• Signed Curriculum vitae with contact details of 3 clients for whom you have rendered preferably similar services  

CONFIDENTIALITY AND PROPRIETARY INTERESTS

The Individual Consultant shall not either during the term or after termination of the assignment, disclose any proprietary or confidential information related to the consultancy service without prior written consent. Ownership of all documents and background papers prepared for the purpose of this consultancy shall rest with both the UN Women Ethiopia Office.