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Dhaka, Bangladesh, BANGLADESH
Individual Contract
15-May-2024
09-May-24 (Midnight New York, USA)
National Consultant
120 working days over a period of 1st June 2024 to 31 May 2025
16d 18h 12m
English
UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.
Background/Context
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 centre 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. 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 in Bangladesh supports the government in implementing commitments to international normative standards on gender equality and women’s human rights. In line with the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) for 2022-2026, UN Women Bangladesh’s Strategic Note (2022-2026), defines UN Women’s strategic engagement in Bangladesh. The country strategy focuses on strengthening the national structures and mechanisms for gender mainstreaming in policies, plans and budgets; supporting efforts to prevent and eliminate violence against women; promoting women’s access to decent and safe work; promoting policies and government investment in women’s empowerment and resilience building in the context of climate change, humanitarian crisis as well as other threats to peace and security. UN Women works with a range of stakeholders in Bangladesh including the government, civil society and women’s organizations, youth, UN agencies and donors, to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment.
UN Women Bangladesh focuses on women’s economic empowerment and addresses women’s economic empowerment issues that are central to the priorities of the Government of Bangladesh (GoB). UN Women follows a whole-of-society approach rooted in feminist values to ensure that women have income security, decent work, and are economically empowered. As such, UN Women Bangladesh works with the most vulnerable groups of women – which include women migrant workers, women with disabilities, gender diverse groups, ethnic minorities, and home-based workers, among others – to enhance their voices and economic leadership.
The Government of Bangladesh recognizes women’s economic empowerment as one of the key goals to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Despite strong policy frameworks and commitments, women remain marginalized and deeply undervalued in social and economic life. This results in low participation in the formal economy, low wages, poor economic resilience and autonomy, and vulnerability to highly gendered risks of exploitation. The economic growth has not been translated into inclusive growth, and women’s labour force participation has not increased as expected in the formal sector. Although the female labor force participation increased to 42.68 percent in 2022 from 36.3 percent in 2016-17, it remains roughly half of male participation (80.5 percent) . While the participation rate in rural areas rose considerably from 38.6% to 51% from 2016-17 to 2022; there has been a decline in urban areas from 31% to 23.68%. Female employment continues to be concentrated heavily in relatively low skilled, low paid and primarily informal agricultural activities (74.1%). Moreover, around 12.5% of employed women are unpaid contributing family workers. While informality affects both genders, women are disproportionately impacted. Only 3.4% of employed women held formal jobs compared to 21.6% of men.
This is also reflected in sectors related to Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), wherein women’s participations low overall, despite a slight increase in girls student’s enrollment in technical and vocational education from 24% in 2017 to 27.12 % in 2022 (Gender Budget Report 2023-24). The Bangladesh Technical Education Board’s (BTEB) enrolment data (2015-2016) for girls reveals how girls are under-represented in technical education. 95% of female students study nursing while a negligible number of them chose other career paths such as making footwear, electrical engineering, and mechanics, sectors that are highly dominated by men. Moreover, there is a low demand for TVET among potential female students, especially in poor and vulnerable districts, something that can be explained by a lack of awareness and encouragement from parents and society and negative perceptions and attitudes from employers.
The gender ratio among teachers/instructors in TVET institutions is 20% . In addition, women are significantly under-represented in informal or formal institutions. The female dropout rate from secondary education is high, many of the female dropouts enter low-skilled jobs, informal economy, remain unemployed, and/or engage in unpaid care work at home. Therefore, a significant proportion of women remain devoid of opportunities to enroll in TVET programmes, especially in districts which continue to lag behind in terms of economic development and gender equality indicators.
The COVID-19 pandemic further widened the gender gap, with more women losing their income opportunities. Moreover, the pandemic had a huge impact on students as more male students had access to digital devices for online classes. According to ILO’s internal skills project training database around 75% of the currently enrolled youth use smartphones and the institutes under the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) are conducting skills training using online platforms. However, only 28% women are enrolled through online platforms. In addition, a study by BRAC found that only 5% of rural women have access to digital devices (BRAC-BIGD survey 2019). Another hindrance to gender equality in skills and employment is occupational segregation which remains a predominant feature of TVET and labor markets.
Various studies identify social norms, attitudinal, and behavioral barriers from parents and neighbors as critical challenges for the inclusion of women in TVET. Other challenges include financial constraints, inappropriate training environment, lack of incubation support for female entrepreneurs, lack of security, deficient accommodation facilities, workplace sexual harassment, information and knowledge gap, low prospects for decent work, and low self-confidence.
The Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) Policy (2019) has provisions to extend programmes for women’s entrepreneurship and provide support to women to involve in specialized services. Women’s engagement in non-traditional sectors such as information and communication technology (ICT), e-Commerce, and health care is also increasing gradually. Moreover, the number of female exporters and importers increased steadily between 2005-2015, with a sharp increase in 2019. However, despite the policy and programme support provided by the government, women still face barriers to becoming entrepreneurs and running and expanding their businesses. The challenges include lack of mobility, access to information, digital technology, financial resources and services, and market opportunities as well as social norms that for example prevent women from getting loans. In addition, women entrepreneurs mainly engage in manufacturing, textile sector, agriculture, leather, pharmaceuticals, and education consultancy.
In this context, UN Women with support from ILO, is implementing a project titled “Promoting Gender Responsive Enterprise Development and TVET Systems (ProGRESS)”. The objective is to enhance employment for women in the skills sector, in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) 2022-2026, strategic priority on Inclusive and Sustainable Economic Development.
Overall objectives of the project:
Description of Responsibilities/ Scope of Work:
To support implementation of the ProGRESS project, UN Women is seeking the services of a national consultant to provide technical, coordination and documentation support in the following areas.
2. Coordinate and provide technical support to organize policy dialogues on gender equality in TVET/Skills training to implement/review National Skills Development Policy (NSDP) and National Strategy of Gender Equality in TVET
2.1 Develop policy advocacy plan for women/ girls’ access to nontraditional technical education and market-oriented skills for employment.
2.2 Develop series of policy briefs on select topics related to women/girls’ education in TVET and employment opportunities in the Technical and Vocational sectors.
2.3 Organise consultations with multi-stakeholders for reviewing national strategy on skills and gender equality.
3. Provide technical support DTE/BTEB to develop and set-up a tracking system for gender targets and monitoring implementation of action plans (Development and setting-up of the tracking system will be led by ILO. UN Women will provide technical support to integrate gender perspectives)
3.1. Provide technical support in developing the tracking system and developing tools and indicators from a gender lens.
3.2. Organize capacity building workshops for DTE/ BTEB/ TVET institute officials on gender responsive targets, reporting and monitoring.
4. Provide technical support DTE/TMED to undertake gender audit and self-assessment of the training institutions and identify the gaps and challenges relating to gender mainstreaming in skills trainings
4.1 Liaise with government officials for the selection of gender audit tool/self-assessment tool, facilitate the assessment and organise capacity building sessions and workshops as required to facilitate the process, in close consultation with relevant national and international experts.
4.2 Manage coordination and communication with national and international experts for their inputs on gender audit. A technical workshop will be organized among the national level gender and audit experts under the leadership of UN Women internal experts on “Gender and Audit” to select and develop gender audit tools.
4.3 Provide technical and coordination support to conduct needs assessment and validation workshops with TVET institutions.
4.4 Provide coordination support to ensure editing, translation, printing of the gender audit tool.
5. Documentation and reporting
5.1 Provide technical support to prepare events/ workshops reports and result-based reports following UN Women internal and donor reporting compliances.
Deliverables
UN Women internal expertise and resources on gender audit will be used.
Deliverable
Evidence/ Milestone
Expected completion time (due day)
Payment Schedule (optional)
1. Coordinate and provide technical support to “Gender and Skills” taskforce
1.1Conduct meetings with MoWCA and other relevant ministries to form the "Gender and Skills" taskforce.
1.2 Technical support to hold Advocacy events on Gender Equality (GE) in TVET
1.3 Technical support to develop concept note on Gender and skills.
1.4 Capacity building workshops with MoWCA, DWA and other relevant ministries on gender aspects of skills
-Evidence of coordination meeting organized, and events conducted (including but not limited to meeting minutes, reports)
- Four (4) meetings with MoWCA and other relevant stakeholders organized
- Two (2) advocacy events held
-Two (2) concept notes developed
-Two (2) capacity building workshops conducted, and reports prepared
By 31 July 2024
16.6 % of the total amount shall be paid at the end of each month (max. 10 working days in each month) for the number of days worked based on submission of progress report on tasks completed during the month with deliverables and timesheet; accepted and certified by the contract administrator.
2.Coordinate and provide technical support to organize policy dialogues on gender equality in TVET/Skills training
2.1 Develop policy advocacy plan to organize policy advocacy events and produce policy briefs.
2.2 Develop Policy brief on select topics related to women/girls’ education in TVET and employment opportunities in the Technical and Vocational sectors.
2.3 Consultations with multi-stakeholders for reviewing national strategy on skills and gender equality
- Evidence of coordination meeting organized, and events conducted
- Policy advocacy plan with relevant government ministries/ departments developed
- Two (2) Policy briefs on select topics developed
- Two (2) Multi-stakeholders workshops report prepared
By 30 September 2024
16.6 % of the total amount shall be paid at the end of each month (max. 10 working days in each month) for the number of days worked based on submission of progress report on tasks completed during the month with deliverables and timesheet; accepted and certified by the contract administrator.
3.Support DTE/BTEB to integrate gender elements to the tracking system for gender targets and monitoring
3.1 Provide technical support in integrating gender elements in the tracking system and developing tools and indicators utilizing gender lens.
3.2. Organize capacity building workshops for DTE/ BTEB/ TVET institute officials on gender responsive targets, reporting, and monitoring etc.
- Evidence of coordination meeting organized, and events conducted (including but not limited to meeting minutes, reports)
- Evidence of technical inputs provided to integrate gender in the tracking tools
- One (1) capacity building workshop held, and report prepared
By 31 December 2024
25 % of the total amount shall be paid at the end of each month (max. 10 working days in each month) for the number of days worked based on submission of progress report on tasks completed during the month with deliverables and timesheet; accepted and certified by the contract administrator.
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4.Support DTE/TMED to undertake gender audit and self-assessment of the training institutions
4.1 Work closely with Government for the selection of gender audit tool/self-assessment tool, facilitate capacity building workshop.
4.2 Coordination and communication with national and international experts for undertaking gender audit
4.3 Support needs assessment and validation workshops with TVET institutions
4.4 Coordination support to ensure editing, translation, and printing of the gender audit tool
-Evidence of coordination meeting organized, and events conducted (including but not limited to meeting minutes, reports)
-Evidence of gender audit tool/ self-assessment tool selected
- Evidence of coordination with National/ International expert for gender audit
- 4 workshops conducted for
needs assessment, validation, and capacity building
- Evidence of inputs provided to the Needs assessment report
-Audit tools finalized and printed (English-Bangla
By 31 March 2025
25 % of the total amount shall be paid at the end of each month (max. 10 working days in each month) for the number of days worked based on submission of progress report on tasks completed during the month with deliverables and timesheet; accepted and certified by the contract administrator.
5. Documentation and reporting
5.1 Support to prepare events reports and gather inputs to result-based reports following UN Women internal and donor reporting guideline.
Events reports prepared and inputs provided to other internal and Donor reports.
By 31 May 2025
16.6 % of the total amount shall be paid at the end of each month (max. 10 working days in each month) for the number of days worked based on submission of progress report on tasks completed during the month with deliverables and timesheet; accepted and certified by the contract administrator.
English to Bangla translation will be done by another national consultant.
Payment schedule
Payment will be processed at the end of each month (max. 10 working days in each month) for the number of days worked based on submission of progress report on tasks completed during the month with deliverables and timesheet; accepted and certified by the contract administrator.
Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel
This position will be home based. However, the consultant may be requested to come to the UN Women for meetings and coordination, as required.
Travel, Logistics and DSA:
Travel arrangements for the consultant outside Dhaka should be undertaken only upon prior agreement/approval from UN Women. UN Women will organize the travel, and cover travel expenses. The Consultant/SSA shall receive per-diem or DSA and terminals not to exceed the United Nations daily subsistence allowance rate in such other location(s) and actual travel cost.
Supervision and Performance Evaluation:
Under the overall guidance of the UN Women Deputy Country Representative, the selected consultant will work under the direct supervision of the Programme Manager – Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE). The consultant will work closely with MoWCA, DTE, TMED and UN Women, ILO. The Programme Manager, WEE, UN Women Bangladesh, will carry out a performance evaluation of the consultant at the end of the assignment
Core Values:
Core Competencies:
Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies:
https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process#_Values
Education:
Master’s degree or equivalent in Economics / Women’s and Gender Studies/Development Studies/Law/Political Science/Anthropology or other relevant Social Science discipline.
Technical Competencies:
Language:
Technical Qualification Evaluation Criteria:
The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on the following technical qualification evaluation criteria:
Evaluation criteria:
The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on the following technical qualification evaluation criteria:
Criteria-01; Educations Qualification - Max Point 10
Criteria-02; Number of years of practical experience of working with Government on the national polices/ strategies / action plan on gender equality/ women’s advancement. Max Point 20
Criteria-03; Proven track record on developing policy briefs and advocacy papers for the government ministries/departments on gender equality issues.. Max Point 15
Criteria-04; Strong background in capacity building and facilitation with the government officials particularly with the Technical Training institutions. Max Point 25
Criteria-05; Experience in working with TVET/ Skills development institutions will be an asset. Max Point 20
Criteria-06; Excellent communication and writing skills in Bangla and English. Max Point 10
Interested Individual Consultants will submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications.
To be included as part of the proposal:
NB: 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 based on 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.
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