Background

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.

UN Women has entered into an Agreement with Global Affairs Canada (GAC) to implement a project on women’s economic empowerment in the Eastern Caribbean. The project, “Build Back Equal” (BBE), which is led by UN Women and jointly implemented with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), is being implemented from 2022 – 2025, and will contribute to women’s economic resilience in the Eastern Caribbean by taking a comprehensive approach to addressing the barriers women face to economic empowerment and providing increased sustainable opportunities for women’s economic growth. Government and the private sector in four Eastern Caribbean countries will benefit from strengthened capacity and access to financing to sustainably alleviate women’s unpaid care work burden through subsidized quality childcare. Globally, women work 2.8 hours more than men on unpaid care and domestic work. This implies that women, and particularly the poorest and most disadvantaged, have the double burden of both paid and unpaid work, or in other words they are often more time poor than men. Women bear the multiple burdens of productive and reproductive responsibilities that severely limits their economic opportunities and remains a barrier to their engagement in paid work. Data on unpaid care work and specifically to measure SDG Indicator 5.4.1 (Proportion of time spent on unpaid domestic and care work, by sex, age and location) is sparse in CARICOM. However, the UN Women MCO-Caribbean is leading efforts to close this data gap in the region. Unpaid care and domestic work is usually invisible in policies and budgets because they are not part of the conventional definition and measurement of the economy (Sharp, 2003).

With support from the BBE project, women’s livelihoods will be made more resilient as most marginalized women, including VAW survivors and elderly women will have their livelihoods strengthened through increased access to comprehensive social protection packages (that will also have a focus on reducing unpaid care work), and reliable referral pathways which are shock responsive and include sexual and reproductive health services. Capacities will be strengthened across health care systems to ensure the availability of quality sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services to women and youth.

The project’s overall theory of change is that if women in Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, 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 climate-smart 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.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of the Deputy Representative, and day-to-day supervision by the Senior Social Worker in the Public Assistance Programme in Saint Lucia, two (2) Project Coordinators are being recruited. Project Coordinators will support the implementation of a 2-year pilot programme to provide priority access, on a strictly voluntary basis, for women beneficiaries with childcare responsibility to childcare, literacy, education support and job skills training and healthcare (including mental and sexual and reproductive health care services). They will also Collect primary data to support a baseline and endline study of women beneficiaries of public assistance access to childcare, housing and basic utilities such as water and electricity, ICTs; and level of educational attainment, employment status, skills training, and health status.

The Project Coordinators will:

• Collect primary data to support a baseline and endline study of women beneficiaries of public assistance access to childcare, housing and basic utilities such as water and electricity, ICTs; and level of educational attainment, employment status, skills training, and health status.
• Support the process for obtaining ethics clearance and approval for the baseline and endline data collection study.
• Attend a 1-day in-person training session on the abovementioned baseline study and associated research instruments.
• Attend a half-day online/virtual training session on the endline study and associated research instruments.
• Assist with identifying eligible beneficiaries to participate in the pilot programmes on a strictly voluntary basis.
• Coordinate access to identified services (e.g. childcare, literacy, education support, job skills, healthcare etc) by beneficiaries participating in the pilot programmes.
• Prepare a total of 24 reports (1 per month), on the individual status of beneficiaries participating in the pilot. This would require a minimum of 6 in-person visits to each beneficiary household and a total of 60 in-person or virtual (telephone/zoom/MS Teams or similar platform) visits for the duration of the pilot.
• Prepare a total of 6 consolidated time-bound Family Action plans (1 per quarter/3 per year) on beneficiary households participating in the pilot, that include progress of each beneficiary on priority areas of support and progress made toward beneficiary-identified goals for themselves and their families.
• Prepare 6 service-delivery reports (1 per quarter/3 per year) outlining access by beneficiaries participating in the pilot to identified services (e.g. childcare, literacy, education support, job skills, healthcare etc).

Deliverables:

• Prepare and submit time-bound workplan for the assignment.
• Obtain Ethics clearance and approval for the baseline and endline data collection study
• Attend a 1-day in-person training session on the abovementioned baseline study and associated research instruments
• Report on attendance in 1-day training session on the abovementioned baseline study.
• Compile and submit List of eligible beneficiaries to participate in the pilot programmes.
• Coordinate access to identified services (e.g. childcare, literacy, education support, job skills, healthcare etc) by beneficiaries participating in the pilot programmes
• Prepare a total of 24 reports (1 per month), on the individual status of beneficiaries participating in the pilot. This would require a minimum of 6 in-person visits to each beneficiary household and a total of 60 in-person or virtual (telephone/zoom/MS Teams or similar platform) visits for the duration of the pilot.
• Prepare a total of 6 consolidated time-bound Family Action plans (1 per quarter/3 per year) on beneficiary households participating in the pilot, that include progress of each beneficiary on priority areas of support and progress made toward beneficiary-identified goals for themselves and their families.
• Prepare 6 service-delivery reports (1 per quarter/3 per year) outlining access by beneficiaries participating in the pilot to identified services (e.g. childcare, literacy, education support, job skills, healthcare etc).
• Attend a half-day online/virtual training session on the endline study and associated research instruments
• Report on attending in half-day training session on the endline study
• Deliver 2 presentations (1 in 2026 and 1 in 2027) on overall progress of beneficiaries participating in the pilot.

Competencies

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

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

Functional Competencies:

• Strong social research and analytical skills.
• Excellent written and oral communications skills including the conveying complex concepts and recommendations, in a clear and persuasive style tailored to match different audiences.
• Ability to work independently as part of a team.
• Ability to multi-task and operate effectively in stressful situations.

Required Skills and Experience

Education and Certification:

• Minimum of an Associate’s Degree in any of the following areas Social Work, Sociology, Economics, Public Policy, Gender and Development.

Experience:

• At least three years’ experience conducting socioeconomic research and analysis in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is required.
• At least four years’ experience directly working with marginalized and vulnerable populations in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), is required.

Languages:

• Fluency in written and oral English is required.

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

• The consultant will work from the offices of the Government Ministry responsible for the Public Assistance Programmes.
• The consultancy will be home-based in Saint Lucia. No travel will be required.
• The consultant will be engaged for a maximum of 250 working days within the period, 1 August 2024 to 31 March 2027.

Remuneration

• The consultancy fee will be negotiated before contracting. Each payment will be based on a predefined and formal agreement between UN Women and the consultant and will be disbursed based on satisfactory completion of agreed deliverables.
• The remuneration for this contract type is an all-inclusive fee, the organization will not be liable for additional cost or benefits. Hence, it is the responsibility of the consultant to take out adequate medical insurance for the duration of the contract and it is recommendable that the policy includes coverage for COVID-19 related illness. The medical coverage should be international when the contract requires missions or international assignment.
• If selected for this consultancy, proof of medical coverage should be presented within the first two months of the contract.

Hardware, Software, And Communication

• The consultant must be equipped with a fully functional laptop, which must run at least Windows 7. The consultants must be reasonably accessible by email and telephone (preferably mobile). The use of reliable, internet-based (Skype or equivalent) is required.

How to Apply

• Submit a Personal CV (no longer than 5 pages) and an updated and signed UN Women P11 Form.
• The UN Women P11 Form can be downloaded from –https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form.doc.
• Submissions to UNDP Jobs are limited to a maximum of 10 MB.
• All applications must be submitted through UNDP jobs.
• Please do not send applications to UN Women personnel as they will not be accepted.

Other:

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 on the basis of 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.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)