National Consultant to Assist in Conducting a Country Study for Assessing the Fiscal and Employment Effects / Benefits on Gender Equality Through Early Childhood Education and Care in Nigeria at UN Women

Location: Home-based, Nigeria
Additional Category: Gender Equality
Type of Contract: Individual Contract
Post Level: National Consultant
Expected Duration of Assignment: 25 working days spread over 4 months

Background

• Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (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. Through its programmes and projects, UN Women is providing technical assistance to national partners (governmental and non-governmental) in the implementation of existing international and national commitments to women’s rights and gender equality, facilitates networking and exchange of good practices and advocates for women’s rights and gender equality in all areas of life.
• Women economic empowerment is key for achieving gender equality, poverty eradication, inclusive economic growth and sustainable development. Despite some progress in increasing the presence of women in the public life, their participation in the labor market is still low and globally the gender participation gap is 31 %.[1] One of the important causes for low participation of women in the labor market is their unequal share in the unpaid care work and the failure by member states  to recognize, reduce and redistribute the domestic and care work.[1] Globally, women continue to do 2.6 times the unpaid care and domestic work men do.
• Based on the recent assessment of causes for low participation in the labor market in the country, gender-based discrimination and unpaid care work appeared as one of the main barriers to increasing women employability and empowerment. Addressing existing care deficits and inequalities will be critical in responding to the COVID-10 pandemic and economic recovery efforts. Recognizing, reducing and redistributing the drudgery of unpaid care and domestic work is central to the progress in gender quality, poverty eradication and economic growth. Gender equality is important priority for the Government of Cote D’Ivoire/Senegal/Nigeria and so is the elimination of the barriers that hamper its achievement. Central to devising national policies that would enable women’s empowerment and their equal engagement in the national economy is the recognition, reduction and redistribution of unpaid care work. As a first step in this direction is the assessment of the costs for the institutionalization of the family care and the fiscal and employment effects on gender equality.
• Given the global recognition of the importance of investing in social care infrastructure, UN Women is engaging a team of experts (one international and one national) to assess the costs of expanding early childhood education and care (ECEC) and its potential impact on women labor participation rate. The national expert is required to support the international expert in assessing what levels of investments would be needed to expand the availability of ECEC, as well as the employment and fiscal revenue effects that these investments would produce. The team of experts will work under the supervision of UN Women office in xxx and in close consultation with the economics specialist on macroeconomics in the economic empowerment section at UN Women Headquarters.

Duties and Responsibilities
Scope of work:

• The main objective of the assignment is to support government in devising policies that will redress gender inequalities by providing data and evidence on the costs and benefits in the institutionalization of the care in the country. In order to do so, UN Women -through the work of the team of experts – will support the collection of data for cost estimation of childcare and the simulations of their impact on the employment and fiscal revenue effects.
• For this purpose, the national expert will be responsible for providing support to the International expert in collecting the relevant national data (such as for example time use data, input/output tables etc.) in conducting the meetings with the national stakeholders and in the finalization of the Assessment report.

Tasks and Responsibilities
Working in close coordination with the international expert and with the UN Women project team and under direct supervision of the UN Women Head of Office, the national expert will be responsible fro data collection and support the analysis of the country studies to be conducted in Nigeria.

S/he will have the following tasks and responsibilities:

• Assist in the development of the methodological proposal to guide the country-level work. The methodology will allow for calculating the total cost of providing childcare, based on different proposed parameters and scenarios of coverage and quality; it has to contain all the specific items for analysis, the data needs for the calculations of costs and the simulations of employment and fiscal effects;
• Assist the international expert in performing the country – level calculations. The national expert should assist the international expert in collecting the data and performing the national calculations as necessary, based on the data collected and their expertise of the local context;
• Support the International expert in drafting the Assessment report of the findings and validate it with national stakeholders. One report should be drafted that will elaborate on the methodology used, the consultations carried out, the estimate for the country as well as some reflections on the methodological and data challenges of arriving at such estimates. The national expert should develop a brief summary of the findings and/or PPT presentation of the main findings in English.
• Support the international expert in finalizing the assessment report, based on the feedback received from UN Women and stakeholders from the validation meetings;
• Submit joint final report to UN Women for the assignment.
• Key deliverables, activities and timeframe

Deliverables: Timeframe

• Methodological proposal with specific inputs/suggestions to International expert concerning the country context.:
• Delivery of a completed and validated database to the international expert: 30 November 2020
• Country-level calculations and suggestions for the first draft of the report submitted to the international expert and UN Women: 30 December 2020
• Review of the first draft of the report by UN Women and comments provided: 15 January 2021
• Review and delivery of final report on the assignment to UN Women: 15 February 2021.

Reporting:

• Under the overall supervision of the UN Women Regional Policy Advisor for Women’s Economic Empowerment, and in close coordination with the international consultant and UN Women Project team, the national consultant will deliver the above-listed outputs in accordance with the indicative timeframe.
• All deliverables of an acceptable standard and quality should be submitted to UN Women and in languages as specified above.

Functional Competencies
Knowledge Management and Learning:

• Shares knowledge and experience
• Seeks and applies knowledge, information, and best practices from within and outside UN Women
• Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more practice areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills
• Development and Operational Effectiveness
• Demonstrates excellent written and oral communication skills. Communicates sensitively, effectively and creatively across different constituencies
• Demonstrates very good understanding of and experience in communications and outreach/advocacy
• Ability to perform a variety of standard specialized and non-specialized tasks and work processes that are fully documented, researched, recorded and reported
• Ability to review a variety of data, identify and adjust discrepancies, identify and resolve operational problems
• Uses Information Technology effectively as a tool and resource

Leadership and Self-Management:

• Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude
• Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure
• Proven networking skills and ability to generate interest in UN Women’s mandate
• Identifies opportunities and builds strong partnerships with clients and partners

Requirements for experience and qualifications
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
Academic Qualifications:

• At least a Master's Degree in Economics, Statistics, Development Studies, and/or Gender Studies.

Experience:

• A minimum of 5 years of demonstrated professional experience in economic/statistics research;
• Previous experience in conducting similar costing studies on services;
• Experience in conducting gender and economics analysis in different areas and preferably in the area of women economic empowerment and unpaid care work;
• Excellent technical/quantitative skills, including the use of data simulations and econometrics software;
• Experience in designing policy recommendations in the areas of public investment, employment, and fiscal policy;
• Experience in job/s requiring ability to absorb, analyze and systematize large amount of complex information within tight deadlines;
• Previous experience working with international organizations;
• Accreditation as a researcher with the State Statistical Office is considered as asset.
• Extensive knowledge of the data and statistics environment in the country of the assignment

Language:

• Fluency in English is required.