National Consultant-Project coordination (ProGRESS)

Application Deadline

09-May-24 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level

National Consultant

Duration Of Initial Contract

120 working days over a period of 1st June 2024 to 31 May 2025

Time Left

16d 18h 12m

Languages Required

English

Expected Duration Of Assignment

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

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.

Duties and Responsibilities

Overall Objectives Of The Project

• To provide technical inputs to review/updating policies and strategies for gender responsive TVET and enterprises
• To strengthening institutional capacity of public and private institutions to provide gender-responsive services.

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

Competencies

Core Values

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

To Be Included As Part Of The Proposal

• A brief expression of interest: a brief narrative presenting your suitability for this assignment
• UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from: http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment.
• A relevant writing sample (on gender responsive skill development, women’s economic empowerment) with a list/links of publications
• Financial proposal: Propose per day lump sum professional fees in BDT for 120 days and indicative per day/professional fees including all relevant cost (logistics, communication and other miscellaneous cost)

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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