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 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. 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 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.

For this end, UN Women is seeking a consultancy to provide support on the legislative review component of the program. The purpose of the review is to understand the status of the corresponding legal texts, highlighting recommended reforms that have already been made, identify the bottlenecks to their passing, and suggest additional reforms where needed. In order to ensure fair and equitable participation of women in Lebanon`s economy, a comprehensive set of social, labor, economic and fiscal laws must be advanced in the country. For this end, the review will focus on examining the following sets of legislations:

• Labor code
• National Social Security Fund (NSSF) regulations
• The social protection system
• Tax law
• Fiscal Policy
• Bankruptcy regulations
• Personal status and nationality laws, particularly with regards to land and business ownership and management
• National procurement processes
• Imports, exports, and subsidies
• Any other law related to the subject

Methodology

The examination will start with a desk review of the above-mentioned codes and all previous literature on the topic, supported by the legal expert sitting within the project team, focusing on the articles that are most relevant to the purpose of advancing women`s economic participation in the manufacturing and agricultural sectors. This review will enable prioritizing the reforms required to the existing laws, to align with the overall objective of the program, a comparative table of the existing laws/articles and suggested amending ones is to be developed by the legal experts, along with a status of the current status of the reform related to each topic. It is expected that the Legal Review Consultant will support in the revision process, and in the drafting of the proposed amendments to the legal texts in the corresponding technical legal language.

Following this review, the project team will begin a round of consultations with external legal experts, prioritizing lawyers who would be experts on certain topics, as well as civil society organizations and academia who have been involved in similar legislative reform efforts previously. It is expected that the Legal Review Consultant will provide support during these consultations, presenting analysis and recommendations as necessary, and introducing revisions to the proposed amendments where needed.

The desk review and legal discussions should paint a clear picture of how UN Women and the PSDP partners can support the Parliamentary endorsement of the ratifications that are crucial to promote women`s equal economic participation.

Duties and Responsibilities

The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the Gender Equality Advisor to deliver the expected results. 

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.

Functional Competencies

• Experience and record of accomplishment in gender equality and women’s empowerment.
• 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.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree in Law, International Affairs/Development, Sociology, Public Administration, Economics, Gender and Women’s Studies, and/or with strong knowledge of gender issues, or related discipline.
• 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 of 5 years of progressive responsible professional experience conducting legislative reviews and reform
• Experience working on gender specific legislations is required.
• Good knowledge of the UN system, and the role of UN Women, is an asset
• Computer skills, statistics, internet communication and command of MS Office

Language Requirements:

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

Evaluation Criteria:

Consultant 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: (20 points)

Criteria 2: Experience working on legislative review and reform (30 points)

Criteria 3: Experience working on gender specific legislations (20 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.