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 in Lebanon 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.

Today, Lebanon is facing the long-term structural challenges as well as the profound effects that the subsequent crises are having on its economy (the Syrian crisis since 2011 and more recently the monetary and economic crisis), and there is ongoing need to support job creation and inclusive economic growth especially for the most vulnerable in the most disadvantaged areas. These adverse conditions coupled with the recent financial crisis and the rising unemployment make supporting job creation and economic opportunities a top priority. In particular, women face disproportionately high levels of unemployment and vulnerability. Without serious efforts to support the economic empowerment of women, high levels of unemployment and poverty are likely to persist and even worsen, thus further reducing the resilience of communities and their ability to withstand the shocks and stresses caused by local and regional crises.

Under Lebanon Recovery Fund, UN Women is supporting a joint UN program in Lebanon, namely Productive Sectors Development Program (PSDP).  The purpose of the joint program is to support gender-responsive job creation and economic opportunities in the agriculture and agro-food sectors, prioritizing women, and female youth in disadvantaged areas. Considering the wide array of challenges that particularly women and girls are facing in the agriculture and agro-food sectors–ranging from a poor policy environment to high cost of doing business and shortage of skills– a comprehensive approach is needed in order to tackle those challenges and create an enabling environment for inclusive and sustainable job creation. In the PSDP, UN Women is one of six participating UN agencies responsible for a set of activities/outcomes as part of the overall program.

Objective of the Assignment:

At the Macro level of the PSDP, UN Women will conduct a thorough gendered examination of relevant legislative and policy frameworks encompassing women`s equitable and safe economic participation in identified value chains  across the agriculture and agro-food sectors, including informal work; and will focus on unpaid care work, including reforms for gender-equitable care leave, flexible hours for work-life balance, maternity and paternity leave, sexual harassment in the workplace, recruitment and hiring, pay scale, and care insurance for self-employed women. The culmination of this analysis will be a series of advocacy and lobbying initiatives with key stakeholders, aimed at driving through the corresponding legislative and policy reforms.

Deberes y responsabilidades

UN Women is seeking a consultancy to undertake the policy review component. The purpose of this review is to determine the set of national policies being implemented at different micro and meso levels of the agricultural and agro-food sectors, to identify policy reforms that would enable the labor markets to be more gender equitable and inclusive. It is expected that the following parameters be examined:

• Recruitment and hiring
• Equal pay
• Training and capacity development
• Business establishment/registration and licensing
• Access to credit and MFIs.
• Import/export process and issues.
• Infrastructure
• Sexual harassment in the workplace

These parameters will be examined through the following recommended but not mutually exclusive methodology:

1. Desk review: Analysis of relevant documents, with a focus on the National Action Plan of Women Economic Empowerment developed by the Lebanese Government with the support of UN Women and the World Bank Group and presented at the Mashreq Gender Facility in collaboration with the Government of Canada.
2. Primary data collection:Constituting the bulk of the research, surveys, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions with representative private sector entities that are agricultural and agro-food in nature, extension services, women employees, and support functions, such as chambers of commerce are expected to be carried out.

The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the Gender Equality Advisor to deliver a program Gender Equality Strategy. 

Competencias

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.

Functional Competencies

• Substantive experience and record of accomplishment in gender equality and women’s empowerment.
• Substantive knowledge of the agricultural and agro-food sectors in Lebanon.
• Good knowledge of UN Women and the UN system.
• Demonstrated analytical and technical skills in developing strategies.
• Ability to introduce new approaches and strategic innovations.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education:

• Master’s degree in Agriculture, , Development, Sociology, Public Administration, Public Policy, Economics, Gender and Women’s Studies or related field.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• Minimum 7 years of progressively responsible professional experience in issues related to public policy, economic growth, or gender equality.
• Minimum 3 years’ experience conducting multi-level national policy research and analysis.
• Experience working in the agriculture and agro-food sectors in the Middle East region in general, and Lebanon in particular, is an asset.
• Computer skills, internet communication and command of MS Office.

Language requirements:

•  Proficiency in written and oral English and Arabic is a must.

Evaluation criteria:

Consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology: Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for the financial evaluation.

Criteria Weight Technical: 70% (70 points)

Criteria 1 :Education: (10 points)

Criteria 2 :Experience in Economic growth and gender equality in the region, and in Lebanon (20 points)

Criteria 3 : Experience in conducting research and analysis of public policy issues (40 points)

Financial: Lowest Financial Proposal: 30% (30 points)

The points for the Financial Proposal will be allocated as per the following formula:

• 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 Offerors scoring at least 49 points in the technical evaluation.

Application:

Interested individuals must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

• A cover letter explaining your suitability for the work and previous work portfolio, and ability to meet the requirements, method of engagement based on but not mutually exclusive to the above recommended methodology and tools and other relevant information.
• UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment;
• Personal CV; and Financial proposal; Proposed inclusive daily and lump-sum rate, which should include all costs associated with data collection and analysis.

The above-mentioned documents should be submitted together, incomplete submission can be a ground for disqualification.