Background

The purpose of this contract is to develop a methodology, collect data and analyse the data to estimate the costs of the impact of sexual harassment (SH) in the workplace for businesses and employees in 2 selected countries of South Asia and South East Asia. The research will contribute to make the business case for workplaces to addresses sexual harassment in the workplace.

UN Women

Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations (UN), UN Women 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 the efforts of the UN system to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. UN Women provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

UN Women has a universal mandate that encompasses a normative, an operational/programmatic as well as a coordination role, all of which are closely linked with its unique structure. At the core of its mandate, UN women plays a leading role in supporting governments in delivering on their gender equality and empowerment of women (GEEW) commitments in the SDGs. UN Women is mandated to stimulate and coordinate improved action on gender equality across the whole UN system.

Project background

Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is one of the most widespread violation of human rights worldwide, globally affecting around one in three women in her lifetime. Regional evidence suggests that a similar ratio applies in the Asia-Pacific region. Forms of VAWG may vary, and there are variations across sites, however, current available data indicates that over 37 per cent of women in South Asia, 40 per cent of women in South East Asia and up to 68 per cent of women in the Pacific have experienced violence at the hands of their partners.[1] Violence against women also occurs in the workplace. Across Asia, studies in Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines and the Republic of Korea show that 30 to 40% of women suffer workplace sexual harassment.[2] Violence against women has devastating consequences for survivors, communities, businesses and society. Violence damages survivors’ mental and physical health and undermines their educational, earning and employment opportunities, limiting women’s ability to fulfil their true potential.

Sexual harassment is any unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature that might reasonably be expected or be perceived to cause offence or humiliation, when such conduct interferes with work, is made a condition of employment or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment. Sexual harassment may occur in the workplace or in connection with work. Sexual harassment is a form of VAW and the manifestation of a culture of discrimination and privilege based on unequal gender relations and other power dynamics. Sexual harassment may involve any conduct of a verbal, nonverbal or physical nature, including written and electronic communications. Sexual harassment may occur between persons of the same or different genders, and individuals of any gender can be either the targets or the perpetrators.

Violence at the workplace diminishes women’s participation and advancement in the workplace and contributes to sex discrimination at work. The violence that women experience in the workplace impacts employee performance and productivity. Sexual harassment in the workplace represents a cost to employers, in terms of disruption to the workplace, negative impacts on the business’ image, productivity and workplace culture, loss of managerial time to investigate complaints and in particular, employee absenteeism and employee turnover. Employers can also be held legally responsible for acts of sexual harassment committed by their employees or agents, exposing them to the possibility of legal proceedings and compensation payments. Sexual harassment lawsuits cost companies and individuals millions of dollars each year in settlements, verdicts and legal fees. For businesses, research has found significant costs in terms of decreased productivity due to violence against women, both in and outside of the workplace.[3] Sexual harassment also has economic costs for women in terms of lost opportunities, impact on their career and actual cost when accessing some services or having to quit.

While governments are responsible for ensuring that national legislation and institutional frameworks address violence against women and workplace violence, the workplace itself is recognized as a critical place to discuss violence, with a view to prevent it and help women experiencing violence. This supports women’s economic advancement and empowerment in the workplace, which in return contributes to ending violence against women. They can also contribute to preventing violence against women in general by promoting gender equality and by changing social norms that condone or tolerate such violence.

Ending VAW in the workplace is a smart investment and can result in strong financial benefits for companies.[4] Supporting survivors of VAW to stay in work by providing safe and supportive environments not only optimizes productivity and profitability, but also reduces recruitment and training costs for employers[5]. Research into the costs associated with the various dimension of violence against women in the workplace have demonstrated that sexual harassment in the workplace can be costed. Studies of the costs of violence show that early prevention and intervention costs vastly less than does later-stage crisis care and other societal consequences.

Purpose

UN Women in partnership with UNDP is seeking to recruit a consultant to lead the design and implementation of a costing study to estimate the costs of the impact of sexual harassment in the workplace for businesses as well as the costs for employees in 2 selected countries of South Asia and South East Asia. The study will provide evidence on the costs of sexual harassment for businesses and for employees as well as recommendations and tools to advocate for action. The study will focus on estimating the impact of sexual harassment on productivity, absenteeism, turnover as well as other relevant criteria for businesses in the selected countries. The study will also provide an estimation of the costs induced for employees who have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace such as lost opportunities, impact on their career and actual cost when accessing some services. This will support UN Women and UNDP’s work to show the costs of sexual harassment for businesses and its impact on victims/survivors, perpetrators and bystanders, and provide evidence to inform policies to prevent and promote businesses’ role in addressing sexual harassment in the workplace, as a workplace issue. The research should also consider the impacts and costs for perpetrators of sexual harassment, bystanders and diverse experiences of sexual harassment, including men, LGBTIQ people, transgender and non-binary people.

[1] The World Health Organization, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and South African Medical Research Council (2013). ‘Global and regional estimates of violence against women: Prevalence and health effects of intimate partner violence and non-partner sexual violence’ p 16, 20

[2] UN Women, “Fast facts: statistics on violence against women and girls” at: http://www.endvawnow.org/en/articles/299-fast-facts-statistics-on-violence-against-women-and-girls-.html, Retrieved November 1st 2017.

[3] Smith H. (2015). Private Sector Development Synthesis Note - Women’s Economic Empowerment”, The Donor Committee for Enterprise Development.

[4] Chung, D., Zufferey, C., & Powell, A. (2012). Preventing violence against women in the workplace. Australia: Victorian Health Promotion Foundation.

[5] Day T., Mckenna K., and Bowlus A., (2005). The Economic Costs of Violence against Women: An Evaluation of the Literature, Expert brief compiled in preparation for the Secretary-General’s in depth study on all forms of violence against women. United Nations and the University of Western Ontario.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of work

The study will estimate the indirect and direct costs of sexual harassment in the workplace to selected businesses and employees. It will also provide recommendations to address and respond to sexual harassment in the workplace. The study is meant to be used as an advocacy tool and should be user-friendly.

The specific objectives of this costing study are to:

1. Identify and estimate the multiple financial costs associated with the impact of sexual harassment for businesses and employees in 2 selected countries of South Asia and South East Asia.
2. Engage businesses in the costing study exercise to raise awareness on the costs of sexual harassment for employees and the private sector.
3. Develop a knowledge and advocacy product that demonstrates the cost of inaction for the private sector and provide the business case to encourage businesses to address sexual harassment and violence against women as a workplace issue in the Asia region. 

The consultant is expected to work in consultation with relevant UN Women and UNDP regional and country managers in designing, developing and implementing this research project. In addition, a reference group will be set up and comprised of partners, representatives from the private sector, UN, civil society and research/academic institutions.

The following key components are envisioned, building on the methodology Costing the impacts of gender-based violence (GBV) to business: a practical tool[1]:

• Conduct desk/evidence analysis to begin framing local approaches to cost-assessment categories, experiences of sexual harassment and help seeking-behaviours and determine data availability and gaps of the cost-assessment categories.
• Complete an evidence review of the good practices, challenges, policies and practices related to ending sexual harassment in the workplace in Asia. 
• Design, development, piloting and finalization of the research tool: the consultant will be expected to develop a research tool best suited to meet research objectives and in an effective, culturally appropriate, gender-sensitive, and ethical manner. The tool will need to be piloted prior to finalization to ensure optimal design in the two countries. The methodology will outline definitions and scope of the study, identify the sources of violence-related expenses to capture the costs of sexual harassment for businesses and employees, identify the key informants and stakeholders to interview and outline the cost-assessment categories. It will include a pilot mapping of experiences of sexual harassment and help-seeking behaviours at the firm level. The survey tool is expected to comprise five separate components: SH incidence section, and sections detailing SH impacts in the workplace – productivity, absenteeism and other costs. It should determine the most appropriate sampling approach according to the research objectives. The methodology will include a key-informant component to supplement management and human resource data gaps. The methodology should include both quantitative and qualitative data collection.
• Drafting Terms of Reference (ToR) and facilitating a training of national researchers: While the hiring of local research institutes and/or national researchers will be the responsibility of UN Women Regional Office, the consultant will be responsible for developing the TOR for the national researchers as well as designing and implementing a training programme that enables them to collect the necessary data for the research. It is anticipated that the training of local researchers will contain the following components:
  • Sensitization on issues of gender equality, VAW and sexual harassment
  • The aim of the study, the role of the researcher, how to collect data
  • Importance of safety and privacy of interviewees and procedures on how to respond to reports of violence.
  • Practice interviews and data collection exercises
  • Reporting and documentation of research process and findings
• Implementation of the costing research itself: The lead research consultant is expected to manage and oversee the process of data collection with a view to ensuring quality control. The consultant will collect data and conduct interviews and focus group discussions (in-person and through Skype) with selected key informants (personnel of the businesses selected, Human Resources, senior managers, finance, employees and other relevant persons).
• Convene multi-stakeholder consultation to get buy-in for the process.
• Data analysis documentation and dissemination: The consultant will analyze the data in consultation with national researchers.
• Validate research findings through multi-stakeholder consultations and other methods to ensure buy-in, ownership and support of the results.
• Documentation and dissemination: The consultant will be responsible for leading the preparation and completion of a report on the studies with information on the research process, findings, estimation of the costs of SH for workplaces and employees and provide a set of recommendations for businesses to strengthen prevention and response of Sexual Harassment in the workplace. Special attention should be given to the production of a report that is user-friendly, written in plain language in order to serve as advocacy materials.

Preliminary schedule of deliverables

While the contractor will be expected to develop a detailed work plan based on Project requirements, below is a preliminary breakdown of the main components of the Project:

[1] Walker D, and Duvvury N. (2016). Costing the impacts of gender-based violence (GBV) to business: a practical tool. Overseas Development Institute.

Expected Deliverables:

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

Required Skills and Experience

• Master’s degree in Social Science (International Development studies, Economics, Gender/Women's studies, Sociology, Business Management and/or a closely related discipline).
• At least 7 years of relevant work experience, particularly in the area of economics, VAW, costing VAW, gender-responsive budgeting or related.
• Experience designing and implementing a costing study on VAW impact, gender-responsive budgeting or related field is a definite advantage.
• In-depth expertise in designing, implementing and disseminating complex social research projects on economics, sexual harassment, violence against women or gender issues. Experience in the Asia-Pacific region is an advantage.
• Proven experience selecting, training and managing teams of committed researchers to ensure rigorous data collection resulting in comprehensive and quality data.
• Detailed understanding for the full range of ethical and safety issues associated with conducting this type of research and demonstrated ability to plan for these in the Terms of Reference.
• Experience working with the private sector in Asia and the Pacific on gender issues is an asset.
• Knowledge of gender equality and the empowerment of women, with demonstrated experience of researching or working on gender preferably in violence against women.
• Understanding of the social, cultural, and political context of Asia and the Pacific and its impact on women and girls.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills as well as strong analytical skills.

Submission of application

Interested candidates are encouraged to submit an electronic application to c.padungpornworakul@unwomen.org with -cc to marie.palitzyne@unwomen.org, not later than 16 February 2020.

The Submission package includes:

• Updated CV
• Cover letter
• Short technical proposal
• Personal History Form (P11 which can be downloaded from http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs)
• Financial proposal: the financial proposal shall specify a lump sum amount breaking down the professional fee for each deliverable. All the travels costs will be covered by UN Women according to UN Women’s rules and regulation and should not be included in the financial proposal