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.
The UN Sub-Regional Team for the OECS will be implementing the project “Enhancing Resilience and Acceleration of the SDGs in the Eastern Caribbean: Universal adaptive social protection modeled at the community, national and sub-regional levels” form January 2020 to January 2022. The project, which is funded by the SDG Fund, is co-led by UNICEF and the World Food Programme (WFP), with ILO, UNDP and UN Women as the other UN agencies to jointly implement the project.
The Joint Programme will contribute to creating an enabling environment for poor and vulnerable people to have predictable access to universal and adaptive social protection. This will support the ultimate goal of reducing structural inequality, reducing poverty and building resilience. Predictable access to universal and adaptive social protection will be promoted through an approach that spans and connects national, community and regional levels. At the national level, the Joint Programme’s interventions will focus on two countries (Barbados and St. Lucia) and will contribute to strengthening national social protection systems to support integrated service delivery by improving institutional capacities and through evidence-based, gender-responsive social and disaster risk management policies and legislation. It will also strengthen these systems through improved management and operational tools. The Joint Programme will support the introduction of innovative financing strategies to ensure fiscal sustainability and expanded coverage of the social protection system. At the community level, the Joint Programme will support the design of innovative community-based adaptive and shock responsive services within existing national programmes to generate evidence for social protection reform and strengthen the targeted communities’ ability to anticipate, absorb and recover from major shocks. At the regional level, legal and policy coherence will be supported by strengthening regional capacities, inter-institutional engagement and South-South cooperation in the Eastern Caribbean.
Through a multi-country approach, the Joint Programme is expected to enable partner governments to accelerate progress towards the implementation of SDGs in support of national commitments and reflective of the significant vulnerabilities of SIDs to external shocks, including climate-related events and impacts. Three key targets will be addressed through Joint Programme interventions to increase the adaptability of social protection to prepare for and respond to shocks and stresses by strengthening its linkages to disaster risk management and climate change adaptation. Specifically, the Joint Programme is expected to contribute to strengthening institutional capacities to expand coverage and adequate social protection through vulnerability analysis and identification of at risk people on this basis, promoting a national social protection floor and sustainable and risk-informed financing (1.3); promoting and monitoring equality and non-discrimination on the basis of sex (5.1) and increasing regional capacity to recognize unpaid care work (5.4); as well as improving service delivery to boost people’s resilience and risk-management capacities (13.1) through evidence-generation and regional cooperation and knowledge sharing. At the end of the Joint Programme, the universal adaptive social protection model should be scalable to become an accepted framework for implementation in most, if not all 11 OECS countries and territories. Working with IFIs will be key not only to ensure sustainable results in Saint Lucia and Barbados but also in replicating the model to other countries.
UN Women’s role in the project is to support OECS Member States with working towards further strengthening national capacity to monitor commitments to global gender equality norms and commitments specified in the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA), Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and the SDGs. UN Women will deploy its technical expertise to address the structural inequalities that exist, and which undermine resilience to economic and climatic shocks from a gender perspective; as well as the relationships between gender, unpaid care work and resilience to climate-related and economic shocks. The Joint Programme will leverage the strategic partnership in place between UN Women and the CARICOM Secretariat on Gender Statistics for measuring unpaid care and domestic work. UN Women will also deploy its global technical expertise on gender-responsive budgeting to assess fiscal space for physical and service delivery infrastructure for the reduction of unpaid care work in Barbados and St. Lucia. UN Women will further pilot approaches for optimizing social protection service delivery to connect the most vulnerable families with high care burdens - the majority of which are headed by women - to services and support to reduce unpaid care work.
Duties and Responsibilities
Objective of the assignment
Under the overall supervision of the UN Women MCO - Caribbean Representative, the Team Leader/Economist will spearhead the conduct of a retrospective study on of the impact of past and ongoing investments by Barbados in providing subsidised day care services on social and labour market outcomes. The study must include the following:
- Documentation and analysis of the budgetary allocations and expenditures on public day care and pre-primary education;
- An assessment of the capacity of public day care centres to meet current and future demand;
- An assessment of the accessibility and affordability of childcare services;
- Documentation and analysis of the macroeconomic impact of current budgetary allocations and expenditures on public day care and pre-primary education;
- A simulation of the impact of scaling up public investment on childcare on job creation (direct effects and indirect effects), poverty and gender equality;
- Policy recommendations to boost public investment for the achievement of universal access to day care services for children ages 0 to 3.
Scope of Work and Deliverables
The Team Leader/Economist is expected to be in Barbados for the full duration of the consultancy; and sub-contract her/his team qualified members. The Team Leader and his/her team are expected to deliver the following results:
- Document outlining study methodology and approach (Timeframe: April 2020);
- Analysis of the budgetary allocations and expenditures on public day care and pre-primary education (Timeframe: May 2020);
- Assessment of the capacity of public day care centres to meet current and future demand (Timeframe: June 2020 – July 2020);
- Assessment of the capacity of accessibility and affordability of childcare services (Timeframe: June 2020 – July 2020);
- Analysis of the macroeconomic impact of current budgetary allocations and expenditures on public day care and pre-primary education (Timeframe: July 2020 – August 2020);
- Simulation of the impact of scaling up public investment on childcare on job creation (direct effects and indirect effects), poverty and gender equality (Timeframe: August 2020 – September 2020);
- Final report of the Retrospective Study which should also include recommendations to boost public investment for the achievement of universal access to day care services for children ages 0 to 3 (Timeframe: October 2020 - November 2020).
Reporting Requirements
The consultant will work under the overall supervision of the UN Women MCO-Caribbean Representative, with direct reporting to UN Women Programme Specialist for Economic Empowerment and Statistics.
Competencies
Core Values / Guiding Principles:
- 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.
Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies:
Functional Competencies:
- Strong gender responsive budgeting, economic analysis, social research and analytical skills;
- Excellent written and oral communications skills including the conveying complex concepts and recommendations, in a clear and persuasive style tailored to match different audiences;
- Ability to interact independently as part of a team;
- Ability to multi-task and operate effectively in stressful situations.
Required Skills and Experience
The Team Leader/Economist should herself/himself meet the following criteria:
Required skills and experience:
Education:
- A Master’s Degree in any of the following areas Economics, Econometrics, Public Policy.
The Team Leader will be assessed on the qualifications of members of his/her team who should, either individually or combined, possess the following:
- Advanced University Degree in Economics, Econometric, Public Policy.
Experience:
- At least five years’ experience conducting socioeconomic research and analysis within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is required;
- At least three years’ experience undertaking economic forecasting and modelling within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is required;
- At least five years’ experience working on gender equality and/or human rights is required;
- At least three years’ experience working on fiscal space analysis for social protection or related areas is an asset but not required.
The Team Leader will be assessed on the strength of the members of his/her team whose skillsets either individually or combined, should meet the following criteria:
- At least three years’ experience conducting socioeconomic research and analysis within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM);
- At least two years’ experience undertaking economic forecasting and modelling within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM);
- At least three years’ experience working on fiscal space analysis for social protection or related areas is an asset but not required.
Languages:
- Fluency in oral and written English is required.
References:
- Minimum of three client references that include the name of the contact person, title and contact information.
Remuneration:
- The consultancy fee will be negotiated before contracting. Each payment will be based on a predefined and formal agreement between UN Women and the consultant and will be disbursed based on satisfactory completion of agreed deliverables.
Hardware, Software and Communication:
- The consultant must be equipped with a fully-functional laptop, which must run at least Windows 7. The consultant must be reasonably accessible by email and telephone (preferably mobile). The use of reliable, internet-based telecommunications application software (Skype or equivalent) is required.
Location and Duration:
- The consultancy will be based in Barbados (no travel is required);
- The consultant will be engaged for a maximum of 100 working days during the 1 April 2020 – 30 November 2020.
- Interviews will be conducted with the shortlisted applicants;
- The consultant contracted will be required to sign a statement of confidentiality and freedom from any conflict of interest with potential future contractors with respect to the TORs and work that they will be delivering;
- The consultant should submit, along with his/her application, the curriculum vitae of team members.
Note:
Submissions to UNDP Jobs are limited to a maximum of 10 MB, virus-free or corrupted contents to avoid rejection, and no more than 1 email transmission. As such, all application materials must be scanned into one document and submitted.
All applications must be submitted through UNDP jobs. Please do not send applications to UN Women staff as they will not be accepted.