Historique
****The time required for the consultancy is within the period from 14 June 2021 to 30 September 2021, home-based.****
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 centre of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls for a new and transformative vision with a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While Thailand has made progress in reducing poverty overall, persistent and newly emerging development challenges can still be seen. These include multi-dimensional inequality, health, education, access to justice, climate change and natural disasters, rising urbanization, demographic shifts and the emergence of extremist groups and ideologies. Understanding how these trends can impede or enable progress towards gender equality and sustainable development is vital for effective SDG implementation. Ensuring women’s equal rights, access and opportunities for participation and leadership in the economy, society and political decision-making are at the core of UN Women’s work in Thailand. While there has been much progress in advancing gender equality, such progress is unevenly experienced by women who are marginalized because of a complex interplay of factors.
In 2021, UN Women in Thailand will continue to strengthen and implement a comprehensive and dynamic set of global norms, policies and standards on gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at the policy and local levels. This will include the provision of strong policy advice and advocacy on normative UN issues which will allow UN Women to link its work with other outcome areas including gender equality in social protection.
UN Women in collaboration with ILO, UNICEF and IOM are implementing the United Nations Joint Program (UNJP) “Accelerating progress towards an integrated and modernized Social Protection System for All in Thailand” (2020-2022). The overall objective of the UNJP is to provide support to the RTG to increase the country social protection coverage towards universality, including for children and specific vulnerable groups including domestic workers and migrant workers, through sustainable social protection systems, including floors, contributing to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda in Thailand. One of the key activities under this collaboration is to design policy options to ensure more effective coverage of domestic workers, including migrants, within the existing social security schemes.
The Royal Thai Government (RTG) has a relatively comprehensive social protection system, however, there remain gaps in coverage for vulnerable groups, particularly migrant and domestic workers employed in the informal sector. As of April 2019, there were 37.34 million people in the labour force of which 236,600 were employed in households as domestic personnel. In addition, Thailand is the main destination country for migrants from Cambodia, Lao PDR and Myanmar. As of July 2019, there were around 3 million migrant workers registered in Thailand. Of which 122,117 were employed in domestic work. Women are especially overrepresented in domestic work. The nature of this work means many domestic workers are employed without appropriate employment contracts and associated with limited access to social protection such as social security and employment-related benefits.
The Domestic Workers Convention (No. 189) defines domestic work as "work performed in or for a household or households". Domestic work includes tasks such as cleaning the house, cooking, washing and ironing clothes, taking care of children, or elderly or sick members of a family, gardening, guarding the house, driving for the family, even taking care of household pets. According to the Convention, the domestic worker is "any person engaged in domestic work within an employment relationship". This definition includes domestic workers engaged on a part-time basis and those working for multiple employers, nationals and non-nationals, as well as both live-in and live-out domestic workers. The employer may be a member of the household for which the work is performed or an agency or enterprise that employs domestic workers and makes them available to households.
Due to the atypical characteristics of domestic work, workers are considered a “difficult-to-cover” group by social security. These characteristics include the fact that work is performed in a private household which makes it difficult to control and inspect; workers frequently have more than one employer; there is a high job turnover rate; in-kind payment is common; receipt of wage income is highly irregular and labour relations are not usually established through an employment contract or formally recognized as employer/employee relation. These difficulties are also associated with other factors such as the lack of legal recognition of domestic work as an occupation, the existence of discriminatory social and legal practices, as well as other socio-cultural elements which engender a low social value for domestic work.
Although the Government has put in efforts to ensure the rights and protection for domestic workers, both Thais and non-Thais, its implementation of policies remain challenging and there are policy gaps that do not ensure protection for undocumented migrants and especially domestic workers who are most vulnerable, especially due to the excluded workplace of private households that hinder inspections by authorities and their inability to access social security and protection.
In this connection, UN Women as part of the UNJP is seeking a consultant to conduct the policy assessment with the objectives to review existing policy and legislation and to identify barriers for the effective social security coverage of domestic workers. The findings will be used to design innovative program solutions aiming at eliminating the barriers to improve access and coverage of social security for domestic workers. The policy assessment will be conducted in collaboration with the Social Security Office, line ministries and the organizations that represent the voice of the contributors/beneficiaries through technical assessments; seminars to discuss the needs, challenges and options and the design of technical solutions to overcome these challenges.
Devoirs et responsabilités
Under the direct supervision of Programme Analyst (Thailand) of UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, the consultant will carry out the policy assessment of the Thai social security and social protection system for domestic workers, including migrants, in order to assess the coverage and access, to identify barriers and to design policy options to ensure more effective coverage of domestic workers, including migrants.
The review should be based both on international standards, such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the ILO’s social security standards, the Global Compact for Migration, and any relevant existing studies.
The consultant will perform the following tasks:
- Develop a Conceptual Framework for the policy assessment.
- Produce a policy assessment report on policy, legislations and barriers for the coverage of domestic workers, including migrant domestic workers. The report will be in English with a maximum of 80 pages excluding Annexes.
- Present the findings of the report at the validation workshop for representatives of RTG social protection agencies, employers, representatives of workers and workers’ organizations, representatives of civil society, and UN staff.
- Based on the outcomes of the workshop and comments from UN Women and UNJP agencies, finalize the policy assessment.
- Work in close collaboration with the UNJP team, including UN Women, ILO, UNICEF and IOM in order to ensure that all work is consistently developed.
The report should cover the following points:
- A Conceptual Framework for the policy assessment on social security and social protection for domestic workers and immigration and labour migration law regarding migrants, including an introduction, based on international literature review.
- A desk review of key laws and policies on social security and social protection for domestic workers both Thais and migrants. The review should discuss the legislative and regulatory environment that support or hinder the implementation and extension of social security benefits to domestic workers.
- Stakeholder assessment to assess the existing conditions to strengthening and promoting further social security and social protection for domestic workers both Thais and migrants including:
- Perceptions of the level of demand and political commitment for social security from relevant stakeholders, professional groups and targeted population.
- Readiness of existing social security administration governance and organizational capacity to improve scheme operations including developing outreach services and coordination.
- Understanding of awareness and trust on social security administration by public in general and domestic workers in particular.
- Roles and acceptance by general public to improve the coverage and access of the scheme to cover the target population if needed.
- Profile of domestic workers, both Thai and migrant to assess characteristics, needs, risks, challenges on the access to social security services including the willingness and ability to pay for social insurance.
- An analysis of outcomes across gender including the following aspects: gender gaps, cause, effects and impacts on workers, employers and government stakeholders.
- Existing proposals to address these inequalities.
- A set of recommendations regarding improvements to the design, regulatory and operational framework for social security delivery for domestic workers, including migrant workers.
The methodology will include but not limited to:
- Desk Review of relevant legislation and academic commentary.
- Analysis of social protection data by gender including number insured under the Social Insurance Law; numbers in receipt of benefit; level of benefit; etc.
- Consultation including but not limited to key informant interviews (KII) and focus group discussions with policymakers and key stakeholders (government, employers/employees organizations, employers, workers both Thai and migrant and NGOs/CSOs).
- Survey for the profile of domestic workers in Thailand.
*The consultant is required to arrange Thai – English interpretation/research assistant for data collection KIIs and focus group discussions as necessary.
Expected Deliverables and Time Frame
28 June 2021
– Detailed work plan and concept note outlining assessment methodologies, conceptual framework and stakeholders in consultation with UN Women and UNJP.
15 July 2021
– Draft report of policy assessment on social security and social protection for domestic workers (in English).
15 September 2021
– Presentation of the findings for a validation workshop with inputs from stakeholders. The validation workshop is tentatively planned in August 2021.
– Final report of policy assessment on social security and social protection for domestic workers (in English).
Contract Supervision
The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the Programme Analyst (Thailand), UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific who will be responsible for the quality assurance of the deliverables.
Schedule of Payment
Payment upon submission and satisfactory deliverables of the report submitted.
Compétences
In addition to aforementioned requirements and qualifications, it is important that the consultant shares the core values and core competencies of the organization.
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
Qualifications et expériences requises
- Advanced university degree in Social Sciences, Economics, Political Science, Women Studies or other gender and development disciplines. A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
- Minimum 5 years of relevant work experience with technical knowledge and expertise on thematic areas of social protection and gender equality.
- Familiarity with the Thai national context is considered as an asset.
- Proven experience in conducting research, report writing and technical consultancy on social protection issues.
- Experience in liaising and coordinating with national counterparts and civil society organizations
- Experience working with the UN Agencies or other international organizations is advantageous.
- Proficient in English writing.
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.
1. Technical qualification evaluation criteria:
The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on the following technical qualification evaluation criteria:
A) Education (10%)
- Advanced university degree in Social Sciences, Economics, Political Science, Women Studies or other gender and development disciplines.
B) Substantive experience and skills (40%)
- Minimum 5 years of relevant work experience with technical knowledge and expertise on thematic areas of social protection and gender equality.
- Familiarity with the Thai national context is considered as an asset.
- Proven experience in conducting research, report writing and technical consultancy on social protection issues.
C) Coordination skills (20%)
- Experience in liaising and coordinating with national counterparts and civil society organizations.
- Experience working with the UN Agencies or other international organizations is advantageous.
D) Language skills (30%)
- Proficient in English writing.
Total Obtainable Score = 100%
2. Financial/Price Proposal evaluation:
- 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 price component is 100.
- The maximum number of points will be allotted to the lowest price proposal that is opened/ evaluated and compared among those technically 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.
How to Apply
Interested applicants are requested to submit documents listed below to UN Women via email: hr.bangkok@unwomen.org and cc vanissa.limkriangkrai@unwomen.org
- Updated CV
- Personal History Form (P.11) (available at http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs)
- A technical proposal outlining the overall approach to the work plan and stakeholder engagement for the assignment (approximately 2-3 standard A4 pages)
- A financial proposal specifying professional fee breaking down in deliverables and related cost
- Minimum of one writing sample
Deadline of submission: 30 May 2021