Antecedentes

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 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 UN Women Egypt Country Office is based in Cairo, and works in the following priority areas:

• Leadership and Political Participation;
• Economic Empowerment;
• Ending Violence Against Women;
• Governance and National Planning.

In October 2012, UN Women signed a Contribution Agreement with the European Commission to implement a programme entitled “Spring Forward for Women: Regional Programme for the Economic and Political Empowerment of Women in the Southern Mediterranean Region” (SFW). Operating in 7 Countries, this regional women’s economic and political empowerment program provides a mechanism to advance the economic empowerment of women in the Southern Mediterranean region and to assist them to reposition themselves in the political and decision making spaces so that they may have greater influence in shaping the future of their countries in the ongoing democratic transition while protecting their previous gains.

Economic participation is one of the main criteria in the measurement of gender equality and women’s empowerment.  According to the 2012 Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey (ELMPS), women’s unemployment rate was 23.7 percent compared to 4.2 percent for males.  Women’s labor force participation was 23.1 percent compared to 80.2 percent for males and women’s employment rates stood at 17.6 percent compared to 76.8 percent for males.  These figures are not surprising as female labor force participation in Egypt has been low and has remained stagnant over time.  The other reason for women’s low labor force participation, as noted by Dougherty, is differences between the public and private sectors along other dimensions of employment that are very important to female job seekers.  These conditions include length of the working day, access to paid vacation, sick leave and maternity leave, and exposure, or even a perception of exposure, to the risk of sexual harassment. Many, if not most, private sector jobs in Egypt do not meet women’s minimum acceptable threshold in terms of working conditions, a phenomenon that has been referred to as “reservation working conditions” (Assaad 2014).

It is generally understood that the economic empowerment of women cannot be achieved without women also having agency in other areas of their lives. According to Naila Kabeer, “agency is about more than observable action: it also encompasses the meaning, motivation and purpose which individuals bring to their activity, their sense of agency, or ‘the power within’. While agency often tends to be operationalized as ‘individual decision making’, particularly in the mainstream economic literature, in reality, it encompasses a much wider range of purposive actions, including bargaining, negotiation, deception, manipulation, subversion, resistance and protest as well as the more intangible, cognitive processes of reflection and analysis” (Kabeer 2001).

In other words, a woman’s agency is determined by more than her active participation in the labor market.  Social norms, cultures of discrimination, inequitable laws, power structures, and gender divisions of labor both in- and outside of the home, for example, can significantly impact her feelings of self-worth and power. As such, while a woman’s agency might be individually held, it is created and supported by collective action, which seeks to transform defunct institutions that maintain traditions of gender inequality and gender-based power relations.

Deberes y responsabilidades

Scope of work

In the framework of the implementation of the objectives of the Spring Forward for Women Programme to enhance women’s economic empowerment, UN Women seeks to recruit a qualified national consultant to implement activities to support the following objectives:

• Provide an arena for women members of trade unions to strategize, support each other, and strengthen their sense of shared identity and interests to be able to table their demands at their place of work and to decision makers within their respective trade unions;
• Support female members of trade unions to organize campaigns on women’s rights and gender justice in the work place;
• To make women’s rights and gender justice issues more visible on trade unions agendas.

UN Women’s engagement in this area is guided by key policy areas of CEDAW (articles 10 and 11) and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and aims to contribute to fostering a culture of valuing women’s rights in trade unions and strengthening links between women’s rights organizations and trade unions.

In accordance with UN Women Evaluation Policy and UNEG Norms and Standards, the consultant will work under the overall guidance of the Project Coordinator of the Spring Forward for Women Programme. 

Duties and Responsibilities:

Organize four awareness-raising workshops targeting women and men members of trade unions in Cairo, Alexandria, Delta and Suez. The objectives of which are to:

• Take stock of the situation of women in the work place;
• Review and discuss national legislations and international conventions related to gender equality and women’s empowerment in the work place;
• Examine the problems facing women workers and make proposals for eliminating discrimination particularly with regard to issues of equal pay for work of equal value (gender wage gap), access to maternity leave and to a nursery in the workplace, harassment and the advancement of gender equality in trade unions;
• Contribute to the development of a bottom-up strategy and appropriate actions to deliver the strategy;
• Gain a better understanding of women’s role and status within trade unions; and
• Develop an enduring network among women trade unionists and discuss strategies to ensure that trade unions prioritize measures to improve the employment conditions of women. The consultant should consider setting up an electronic;
• Prepare a report on how to integrate a gender equality perspective in trade unions’ policies, programs, and activities. The report should contain a descriptive section on the situation and position of women in trade unions and a section on what specific action should be taken by trade unions to overcome direct and indirect discrimination against women in assuming leadership positions in trade unions. Additionally, the report should identify the entry points that exist for mainstreaming a gender perspective (for example in trade union by-laws, committees and programs). Any proposed actions or recommendations should be practical and appropriate to the current context and ways of working of Egyptian trade unions;
• Organize an advocacy conference with stakeholders including government representatives from the Ministry of Labor, Federation of Egyptian Industries and CAPMAS, and civil society organizations from trade unions, media and NGOs. The purpose of the conference is to present and get feedback the findings of the 4 workshops held and proposed strategy and action plan identified in the report.

Deliverables:

• 4 awareness-raising workshops. Consultant must get prior approval of UN Women on the agenda of the workshops and submit a tentative budget for the preparation of each workshop. UN Women will cover the cost of hotel bookings and payment of DSA, if warranted, to workshop participants.  After each workshop the consultant is expected to submit minutes of meeting, contact list of participants, and photo documentation;
• Report on the subject of integrating a gender equality perspective in trade unions’ policies, programs, and activities. Consultant must seek prior approval of the SFW Project Coordinator on the outline of the report.

Advocacy Conference. This entails undertaking the following tasks in close consultation with the SFW Project Coordinator:

• Prepare invitation;
• Prepare a concept note and agenda for the conference;
• Identify speakers in close cooperation with UN Women and confirm their participation;
• Develop a list of relevant invitees and confirm participation to those invited;
• Prepare abstracts on the event for the UN Women website and communication team;
• Support UN Women team in ensuring that UN Women and EU Visibility guidelines are followed;
• Document procedures of the conference in a conference report with photo documentation.

UN Women will cover the cost of hotel booking and payment of DSA, if warranted, to conference participants.

Monitoring and Reporting Requirements:

• First and second workshops by 17 June 2015;
• Third and fourth workshops by 31 August 2015;
• Report submitted by 13 September 2015;
• Advocacy conference organized by 24 September 2015.

Competencias

Core Values and Guiding Principles:

• Integrity: Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct;
• Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity: Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies:

• Ethics and Values: Demonstrating / Safeguarding Ethics and Integrity;
• Organizational Awareness: Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment;
• Developing and Empowering People / Coaching and Mentoring : Self-development, initiative-taking;
• Working in Teams: Acting as a team player and facilitating team work;
• Communicating Information and Ideas: Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively;
• Self-management and Emotional intelligence: Creating synergies through self-control;
• Conflict Management / Negotiating and Resolving Disagreements;
• Knowledge Sharing / Continuous Learning: Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others.

Functional Competencies:

• Creates, edits and presents information in clear and presentable formats, using appropriate IT functionality;
• Previous experience in training and coaching;
• Ability to organize and complete multiple tasks by establishing priorities;
• Ability to handle a large volume of work possibly under time constraints;
• Establishes, builds and sustains effective relationships with clients, demonstrating understanding of client’s perspective; anticipates client needs and addresses them promptly;
• Thoroughly and methodically collects, verified and records data, demonstrating attention to detail and identifying and correcting errors on own initiative; maintains databases.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education:

• Bachelor degree in Arts or Social Sciences fields.

Experience:

• A minimum of 7 years of professional experience engaging on gender equality and labor rights issues;
• Solid connections and extensive experience with various Egyptian trade unions on issues of rights and equality;
• A strong skill set in areas of training, capacity building and facilitation of multi-stakeholder consultations;
• Sound knowledge and experience in women’s rights and gender equality issues.

Language:

• Fluency in Arablic is required;
• English would be an asset.

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

Cumulative analysis:

When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract should be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
• Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Technical Criteria weight; 70%

Financial Criteria weight; 30%.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Criteria Weight Technical: 70%:

• Criteria: (Weight: 20%. Maximum obtainable Points: 20);
• Criteria: Solid connections and extensive experience with various Egyptian trade unions on issues of rights and equality (Weight: 40%. Maximum obtainable points: 40);
• Criteria: A strong skill set in areas of training, capacity building and facilitation of multi-stakeholder consultations (Weight: 20%. Maximum obtainable Points: 20);
• Criteria: Sound knowledge and experience in women’s rights and gender equality issues (Weight: 20%. Maximum obtainable Points: 20).

Financial: Lowest financial proposal: 30%

Contract will be awarded to the technically qualified consultant who obtains the highest combined score (financial and technical). The points for the Financial Proposal will be allocated as per the following formula:

(Lowest Bid Offered)/ (Bid of the Consultant) x 30
"Lowest Bid Offered" refers to the lowest price offered by candidate scoring at least 49 points in technical evaluation.

Application procedure

All interested applicants should submit the following requirements. The following documents should be merged in one standalone file which includes all three documents, since the online application submission does only permit to upload one file per application. Incomplete submission can be a ground for disqualification.

• The UN Women Personal History Form (P11) signed is required when applying – to download the form please go to http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment;
• A current and complete C.V. in English with indication of 3 references as well as the permanent e-mail and phone contact;
• Financial proposal: Daily rate. Please note that the consultant is entitled to travel expenses when travel is required.