UN Women inviting Research Firms Working to Enhance Social Protection

Deadline: 31-Oct-22

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) MCO Caribbean hereby invites prospective Research Firms to support a Gender-Responsive Analysis and Research on Institutional, Policy and Service-Delivery Frameworks for Social Protection in three (3) Eastern Caribbean countries.

The project’s overall theory of change is that if women in Dominica, Grenada and St. Lucia, especially the most marginalized, have increased access to subsidised childcare, reliable sexual and reproductive health services, to climate and shock-responsive social protection which includes gender-based violence services and opportunities for and access to innovative financing, digitization and climatesmart and environmentally-friendly practices to grow their businesses; then they will experience economic resilience and their countries will benefit from their increased productivity to Build Forward Equal from COVID-19.

Objective

UN Women is seeking to contract a Research Firm to

• Conduct a gender gap analysis of the policy and legislative frameworks of the social protection systems in three Eastern Caribbean Member States, in order to assess the responsiveness of these system to narrowing inequalities between women and men;
• Undertake a gender aware beneficiary assessment (GABA) of public assistance programmes in three Eastern Caribbean Member States1 to assess and strengthen responsiveness of service delivery to both women and men; and
• Informed by the results of the gender gap analysis and GABA, prepare Strategic Planning Frameworks for promoting gender equality in these three countries. NB: These three frameworks should address the provision of priority access to childcare, sexual and reproductive health services, continuing education, job skills/readiness training at a minimum to beneficiaries of the programmes.

Scope of Work

• The Research Firm is expected to:
  • Undertake a gender gap analysis of the policy and legislative frameworks of the social protection system in three Eastern Caribbean Member States to ensure responsiveness of these systems to narrowing inequalities between women and men: The research firm is expected to do this by applying a robust and gender-responsive analytical tool to undertake this assessment of social protection policy and legislative frameworks and social protection systems in these countries. UN Women recommends the following approach as outlined in the document Toward Gender-Responsive Social Protection Strategies: A FourStep Checklist that includes defining the overarching framework for assessing genderresponsiveness; identifying gender-specific risks and vulnerabilities (such as early marriage, maternity-related risks, teenage pregnancy, single parenthood, widowhood, oldage among others); programme design; and monitoring and evaluation.
  • Undertake a gender aware beneficiary assessment (GABA) of two public assistance programmes in the Eastern Caribbean countries to assess and strengthen the responsiveness of these programmes, service delivery to both women and men: The research firm will assess gender-related barriers in beneficiaries’ interaction with public assistance programmes in these countries to determine the differentials that might exist between women and men. The GABA will also provide recommendations for strengthening these programmes’ capacity for gender-responsive service delivery with the results informing policy, legislative and institutional strengthening interventions. The GABAs are mainly intended to provide data and information on the gender dimensions of the procedural and operational limitations that beneficiaries experience in accessing the services of public assistance programmes. Effective approaches and good practices currently employed in service delivery systems will be highlighted in the analysis. The beneficiary analyses will also support governments with exploring opportunities and bottlenecks for women to access decent work. The GABA will identify and map the entire cycle of the beneficiaries’ interface with the public assistance programmes in order to rigorously assess the gender dimensions of the bottlenecks in policies and operations. The GABA will clarify beneficiaries’ experiences in engaging with these programmes, starting from the application stage and/or the initial point at which the beneficiaries interact with the programme. The impact of conditionalities/co-responsibilities that may be actively implemented or seriously considered for introductions will be assessed to determine possible differences in their impact on women and men beneficiaries, including differentials associated with unpaid care work. Programmes/services/projects that may have direct institutional links with these public assistance programmes as the education grants and bursaries; and others to be identified will be included in the GABA. Finally, recommendations for procedural and operational reform will be put forward, based on the results of the GABA.
  • Strategic Plan and Results Framework: Promoting Gender Equality in the three Public Assistance Programmes: Guided by results of the GABA and national priorities, three draft Strategic Plans and Results Frameworks (i.e. one per country) to promote the genderresponsiveness will be developed by the research firm. NB: These three frameworks should address the provision of priority access to childcare for children aged five and younger, sexual and reproductive health services, continuing education, job skills/readiness training at a minimum to beneficiaries of the programmes.

Time-Bound Work Plan for the Assignment – 9 December 2022

Selection Criteria

• Team Composition
  • The consulting firm must:
    • Demonstrate its understanding of social protection systems
    • Demonstrate its understanding and experience in undertaking robust gender gap analysis of policy and legislative frameworks of social protection systems
    • Demonstrate its understanding and experience in undertaking robust gender aware beneficiary assessments of social protection systems
    • Demonstrate an understanding of drafting Strategic plans and Results Frameworks
• Relevant Experience of Organization
  • The Team Leader for the assignment must possess the following:
    • At least five years direct experience on gender analysis of social protection systems
    • A minimum of 2 years of experiencing leading gender-sensitive/gender-responsive beneficiary assessments of social protection/social assistance/social welfare programmes
    • At least five years conducting socioeconomic research and analysis on gender and poverty
    • Experience working in small island developing states of CARICOM or the Pacific is an asset, but not required
    • Demonstrate experience implementing projects within an International Development resultsbased monitoring framework, similar in scope and complexity to the current mandate.
•  The team of specialists tendered should include:
  • Professional in the area of social sciences or humanities, with at least 3 years of specific experience in the execution of programs and projects related to social protection systems
  • Understanding of the gender equality environment in the Caribbean region
  • Experience in gathering and systematizing large amounts of data, evaluation of public policies and other related issues
  • 2-3 years’ experience in quantitative or qualitative research and data analysis
  • Very strong qualitative and analytic skills; keen attention to detail and data accuracy
  • Experience coordinating and liaising with government agencies and/or donors is an asset
  • Demonstrated competence with using standard data software packages (MS Excel, MS Access, etc.)
  • Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages, experience in handling of web-based management and knowledge management
  • Experience with a UN organization/agency is preferable but not mandatory.
• Organizational Requirements
• Legally registered firm or possession of a business certificate
• Experience:
  • Technical knowledge and demonstrated experience in Caribbean related to social protection systems
  • Experience in developing and undertaking gender gap analysis
  • Experience in developing and undertaking gender aware beneficiary assessments
  • Technical knowledge and demonstrated experience in Caribbean related to data collection methods, data analysis and reporting
  • Experience in participatory methods
  • Documented experience in the field of qualitative and quantitative research
  • Experience in conducting data analysis and reporting
  • Documented experience of at least 3 projects of gender gap analysis and gender aware  beneficiary assessments
  • Demonstrated experience in working successfully as a multidisciplinary team
  • Understanding of diversity, including cultural and gender awareness
• Skills:
  • Language skills (English is mandatory)
  • Interviewing skills, especially in interviewing different target audiences
  • Facilitation skills, especially in working with groups of different target stakeholders (i.e. beneficiaries, including women and men, adolescents, national and sub-national and local government officers; non-governmental organisations; civil society and UN agencies);
  • Data analysis
  • Report writing
• Personal Ethics:
  • Respect the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) Code of Conduct
  • Be sensitive to beliefs, manners and customs and act with integrity and honesty in their relationship with all stakeholders, in accordance with human rights norms
  • Protect the anonymity and confidentiality of institutions and individual informants
• Provisions for Monitoring And Evaluation Of Performance
  • All deliverables produced will be assessed prior to release of each payment.
  • At the end of the contract period, the overall performance of the Research Firm will be undertaken to determine if services were rendered satisfactorily

For more information, visit https://caribbean.unwomen.org/en/stories/news/2022/10/rfp-brb30-2022-07046