UN Women: Gender Economist, Home-based, P4, Retainer International Consultant

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 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. UN Women is mandated to lead, coordinate, and promote accountability for the implementation of gender equality commitments across the UN System. 

Across Asia and the Pacific, UN Women promotes gender equality and women’s empowerment. UN Women implements programs (including normative and advocacy) in 41 Member States in the region, including Australia, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Cook Islands, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kiribati, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nauru, Nepal, New Zealand, Niue, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Viet Nam, through direct implementation as well as implementing partners, which include government entities, non-governmental organizations, the private sector, UN agencies, and non-UN intergovernmental organizations. 

The economic empowerment of women (WEE) – to succeed and advance economically and to make and act on economic decisions – is a prerequisite for realizing gender equality and empowering women in all areas of life. It is also a cornerstone for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda. Unpaid care work has recently been established as a policy target in the global development agenda, as reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (UN General Assembly 2015). UN Women’s global Economic Empowerment Strategy  focuses on the key strategic priorities, namely:

At the global level, under the leadership of the UN Deputy Secretary-General, UN Women recently coordinated an inter-agency working group, which includes the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), ILO, UNOHCHR, and UNDP. The result of this a co-authored UN System policy paper on \"Transforming Care Systems in the Context of the Sustainable Development Goals and Our Common Agenda.” The paper provides a practical framework for UN agencies to address care within the context of the SDGs and promotes comprehensive care systems that enable gender equality and social justice. It highlights policy options to support the transformation of care systems and highlights the importance of human rights-based, universal, and transformative approaches to care. This is an important milestone as it will shape and guide UN and system-wide action on Care in the decades to come. It is also a powerful example of how UN Women is carrying out its coordination role under its triple mandate. The presentation of this paper set the scene for the Forum by building a shared understanding of feminist building-blocks for transforming care systems and underscoring the development of the TransformCare Investment Initiative Asia-Pacific

Within the focus on Transforming Care Systems, the TransformCare Investment Initiative Asia-Pacific (TCII-AP) is a UN Women-convened initiative to make care systems prosperous for people and the planet. TransformCare is a global large-scale, long-term response aiming to catalyse multi-donor investments and multi-partner collaborations to build resilient care systems, serving as a foundation for caring societies and inclusive and green economies where women can fully realize their economic rights and participation. Advancing women’s economic empowerment by building caring societies and inclusive and green economies aims to contribute by 2035 to:

An important part of TCII is to support policymakers with tools and guidance for driving gender-responsive policies and practices to create an enabling environment to transform care systems. Towards this, tools such as the Policy support tool for estimating care deficits, investment costs, and economic returns serve as a guide to public investments in the care economy. This policy support tool was developed in the framework of the UN Women and International Labour Organization (ILO) Joint Programme titled “Promoting Decent Employment for Women through Inclusive Growth Policies and Investments in the Care Economy” and as part of the UN-wide response initiatives to be included in the UN socio-economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Within this framework, the tool aims to provide a methodology on how to:

There is widespread consensus in research and policy evaluations of gender inequalities that women’s disproportionate shouldering of unpaid care work constitutes a root cause of their economic and social disempowerment. The huge gender gaps in unpaid care work time translate into parallel gaps in paid work time and systematically generate gender inequalities in the form of a multitude of market outcomes, including the gender employment gap, horizontal and vertical gender jobs segregation, the gender earnings and wealth gap as well as gender gaps in political representation and decision-making.  

UN Women’s 'Caring Societies, Inclusive, and Green Economies in Asia and the Pacific' notes that over the past 30 years, the gender gap in the labour force participation rate declined by 2 percentage points in the Asia-Pacific region as a whole and across all sub-regions.2 Yet, gender disparities persist in labor markets, with a lower percentage of women participating compared to men. Across Asia-Pacific, there is an urgent need to transform care systems to increase opportunities for women and girls to fully participate in economies and societies. Expanding care services, such as kindergartens, and enhancing care-supporting workplaces through parental leave can ease the time constraints on women and girls with care responsibilities. Improving the status of women workers in the care economy and beyond requires expanding social protections and improving labor conditions, including wages, equal opportunities, and freedom from discrimination, harassment and violence.

To bridge the aforementioned gaps, as part of the UN Women–ILO joint programme Promoting Decent Employment for Women through Inclusive Growth Policies and Investments in the Care Economy, a comprehensive policy tool on public investments in the care economy was developed. This policy tool seeks to increase policymakers’ awareness of the potential of investments in the care economy to meet multiple development priorities, while at the same time advising on how to prioritize such expenditures. Specifically, the tool aims to provide a methodology for how to (i) identify coverage gaps in care services; (ii) estimate the costs of public investments and expenditures for eliminating these coverage gaps; and (iii) assess the various economic returns to such investments in the short- and the long-run. The tool thus seeks to strengthen national capacities and contribute directly to strengthen government efforts on promoting care economy. In Asia and the Pacific only, Nepal has been part of this programme and implemented these tools. However, the demand and interest of other countries in the region is increasing. 

Therefore, the UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP) aims to establish a diverse pool of consultants for placement on a retainer pool, accessible to the Regional Office, Multi-Country Offices (MCOs), NPPs, and Country Offices. It is seeking technical support from international consultants under a retainer contract to contribute to provide technical assistance to conduct established policy tools , costing tools, economic modeling, programme and policy development, knowledge management, and coordination functions particularly for efforts to implement the ‘Transform Care Investment Initiative Asia-Pacific (TCII-AP)' as well as the broader Women’s Economic Empowerment portfolio and targeted activities. The consultant will be integral in advancing UN Women’s deployable response capacity and serve as gender economist capacity to support UN’s coordinated responses in the region. 

The detailed terms of reference for specific assignments will be developed by the hiring manager in consultation with selected consultants. All qualified candidates with experience in one or more of the areas of expertise outlined in the Vacancy Announcement are encouraged to apply. Each consultant will be expected to work on specific deliverables as required by the relevant office, within their respective expertise. 

*Note: While on retainer, there is no guarantee of work, and selected consultants retain the right to decline assignments based on their availability and expertise. 

Objective of the consultancy 

The objective of this consultancy is to provide specialized support in providing ad-hoc technical support and advisory to UN Women country offices, including conducting the care investment policy tool and wider costing tools, economic modeling, programme and policy development, knowledge management, and coordination functions. 

Candidates are particularly requested to identify where their strengths lie the most amongst the areas of expertise and competencies listed below.

UN Women will retain the copyright of the assignment. Each consultant will be expected to work on specific assignments as required by the relevant office within their respective expertise.

*Note: The service will be rendered “on call” basis. UN Women does not warrant that the maximum of contract amount will be purchased during the term of the agreement. While on retainer, there is no guarantee of work, and selected consultants retain the right to decline assignments based on their availability and expertise.

An immediate deliverable for one of the chosen retainer consultants will be applying the care investment policy support tool immediately in Viet Nam and further countries if days allow. Furthermore, the consultant's work will lay a solid groundwork for UN Women programming on women’s economic empowerment and specific the care economy.  

Description of Responsibilities/ Scope of Work

Under the supervision of the Regional Advisor in the Women’s Economic Empowerment Section at UN Women and/or Technical Experts in the ROAP WEE Unit the consultant will be responsible for a timely delivery of all agreed deliverables, subject to UN Women's satisfactory acceptance. UN Women will lead and organize quality assurance on all deliverables and facilitate communication between the consultant and UN Women's HQ, regional and country offices, as required. 

The consultant may be responsible for a selection of the following, based on experience and need:

*Note: The service will be rendered on “on call” basis.  UN Women does not warrant that the maximum of contract amount will be purchased during the term of the Agreement. While on retainer, there is no guarantee of work, and selected consultants retain the right to decline assignments based on their availability and expertise.

 

Competencies :

Core Values:

Core Competencies:

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Values and Competencies Framework: 

Functional Competencies:

Required Qualifications

Education: 

Experience: 

Languages: Excellent command of written and spoken English is required. Knowledge of other official UN languages is a plus. 

Consultant’s Workplace and Payment

This is a home-based consultancy. UN Women does not warrant the maximum of 200 days. The service will be purchased during the term of the Agreement. The consultant will be engaged under a retainer contract, which facilitates direct engagement of the consultant depending on need and availability within the contract period for a pre-agreed fee. 

Payments for this consultancy will be based on the achievement of each assignment and certification that each has been satisfactorily completed. Payments will not be based on the number of days worked but on the completion of each stated assignment within the indicated timeframes.

How to Apply

Submission package includes

If applying through the system, Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. So please consolidate your (all) required documents into 1 file prior to attachment.

Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment. Please merge all documents into one document to attach.

Payments

Payments for this consultancy (retainer) will be based on the achievement of each deliverable and certification that each has been satisfactorily completed. Payments will not be based on the number of days worked but on the completion of each stated deliverable within the indicated timeframes.

UN Women does not warrant that the maximum number of working days will be purchased during the term of the Agreement.  The consultant can only be engaged through the issuance of Quantum Purchase Order, based on the agreed Contract every time the UN Women wishes to procure the service.

Statements :

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.

Diversity and inclusion:

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)

Note: Applicants must ensure that all sections of the application form, including the sections on education and employment history, are completed. If all sections are not completed the application may be disqualified from the recruitment and selection process.