Consultant – What Works Diversity, EECARO

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), is an international development agency that works to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every child birth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled. UNFPA is the lead UN agency that expands the possibilities for women and young people to lead healthy sexual and reproductive lives. Gender equality as a prerequisite for the health and development of families and societies, is a driver of economic growth and a key contributor to sustainable development. In order to ensure women’s autonomy and ability to live with dignity, good health and adequate support, central to achieve universal access to reproductive health and reaching the goals and targets of the ICPD agenda in the region, gender-responsive family policies will provide a policy framework for that. These policies address in particular parents roles by helping them to balance work and family life as well as addressing desired fertility so every pregnancy is wanted. Gender Responsive Family Policies are increasingly being recognized as an important part of national social policies and social investment packages aimed at reducing poverty, decreasing inequality and promoting positive parenthood behavior and gender equality on the household level and society overall. UNFPA has been promoting and supporting the implementation of family-friendly policies in the private sector and the national legal framework, as a means to support women to fulfill their career and fertility aspirations. To that end, UNFPA has been implementing two pilot projects, the Parentsmart Employers’ project in Belarus, and the Expanding Choices project in Albania, Kosovo and Moldova. With support from the Austrian Development Agency, UNFPA is implementing Expanding Choices, a three-year programme which focuses on gender-responsive family friendly policies through private sector and government engagement in Kosovo, Moldova and Albania. Specifically, the programme works towards the following four outcomes: 1. Targeted governments, private sector actors and CSOs at regional and country/territory levels have increased knowledge, evidence and tools on gender-responsive family policies so that good practices can be replicated in government and private sector activities. 2. The private sector has improved understanding of the value of gender-responsive family policies, the link to gender equality and business outcomes. Champion companies in each focus country commit to/start implementing gender-responsive family policies and actions. 3. An increasingly supportive enabling environment for gender equality and genderresponsive family practices through public campaigns, communications and engagement with business associations. 4. Improved understanding and commitment to gender-responsive family policies by Governments. Governments and the private sector are increasingly looking at how to provide family friendly policies and initiatives to support people in balancing their work and life responsibilities and to help redistribute the share of unpaid care work more equally. However, family structures and formations are evolving, and family friendly policies and initiatives are not always adapting quickly enough to these changes. It is against this background that UNFPA is seeking to engage the services of a consultant to develop a technical brief on how to mainstream diversity and intersectional issues within family-friendly workplaces initiatives.

The technical brief will consist of two parts:
(1) Overview/analysis of the trends and practices in family formation, family relationships and roles and the care and domestic work practices in the 3 countries.

(2) develop recommendations to adapt or design the current family-friendly workplaces practices in the private sector in the region to create more inclusive family friendly initiatives that are adapted to people’s changing family, care and life circumstances. The technical brief should cover the eastern europe and central asian region, with a focus on the three Expanding Choices countries (Albania, Kosovo and Moldova).

Part 1: The overview/analysis:
Examine the concept of family friendly workplaces and policies from a life-cycle life-course and gender equality perspective, looking at different types of families, care responsibilities, and work environments.

Analyze the trends and practices in family formation, family relationships and roles, and care and domestic work practices (including demographic changes, migration trends, labor market participation rates, gender equality, etc). The following factors could be considered for the analysis:

Characteristics of the employee (age, gender, disability status, socio-economic status, seniority level at company, etc)

Characteristic of their family/care responsibility (size of family, intergeneration vs nuclear, single parents, LGBTQI family, number and age of children, disability status of family members, etc)

Characteristic of the company (multinational vs national, sector, existence of family friendly initiatives, formal vs informal sector)

Environment (rural vs urban, family policies at national level, access to services, importance of gender equality for the country, gender norms, migration level, economic and labor market growth, etc)

Part 2: practical models:
Based on the review/analysis identify best practices for mainstreaming diversity within family friendly workplaces

Explain the effectiveness and impact of specific policies or combination of policies (types of parental leave, male involvement, family-friendly working conditions to support, child care services, etc.) on ensuring inclusion, gender equality and benefits to the company.

Develop social and economic arguments for investment into inclusive and gendersensitive family friendly initiatives and policies for the private sector.

Review the Family-Friendly Workplace model (to be provided by UNFPA) and provide recommendations on how to ensure the model covers changing forms of families and care responsibilities.

The consultancy will take place during the period between October 2021 and March 2022, for the total of 30 work days.

The Consultant is expected to deliver the following deliverables, which are to be produced and submitted to UNFPA EECARO in electronic format within the timeframe of this assignment: Methodology and workplan – by November 15th (15 work days) Overview/analysis – by January 15th (8 work days) Practical models – by February 28th ( 7 work days) The Consultant works in narrating and ensuring the quality of texts (structure, coherence of content, syntax, style, presentation) and will be responsible for editing of the document with a view to ensure clarity and continuity of the narration, internal consistency, including terminological accuracy, as well as general readability and accessibility to broad users. Payment will be made as a will be paid in 2 installments upon submission of deliverables and certification by UNFPA, after receiving the methodology and workplan and after receiving the final products.

Education & Experience:
Master’s Degree in Economics, International Development, Gender Studies, Social Studies or related field

Minimum of 10 years of relevant academic and research experience related to family policy, social policy and welfare, gender equality, economics, or related fields

A strong publication record relating to the above themes and proven experience of development of technical brief, context analysis,

Excellent writing and analytical skills and ability to convey complex ideas simply and cogently;

Cultural and gender sensitivity;

Previous experience in delivering similar assignments;

Experience of work with the UN is an asset.

Experience of working in the region is an asset. Language Requirement

Excellent spoken and written skills in English

Knowledge of Albanian, Romanian or Russian is an asset Corporate Competencies

Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;

Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;

Treats all people fairly without favoritism.

Interested candidates must submit their applications, including a CV and one-page cover letter, in an e-mail to [email protected] with “Application – What Works Diversity” in the subject line by 30 September 2021. Due to the volume of applications, only short-listed applicants will be notified.