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. Placing women’s rights at the centre of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates the 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 to implement commitments to international normative standards on gender equality and women’s human rights. The UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) 2022-2026, launched in 2021, and the corresponding UN Women Bangladesh 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, women’s organisations, youth, UN agencies, and donors, to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Since 2019, UN Women Bangladesh has been implementing the “Making Every Bangladeshi Woman and Girl Count” programme (Women Count) in partnership with the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS). The programme aims to effect a radical shift in the production, availability, accessibility, and use of quality data and statistics on key aspects of gender equality and women’s empowerment. Building on the achievements of Women Count Phase I (2019-2021), Phase II aims to support BBS in regularly collecting gender statistics to reduce gender data gaps for Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicators. This partnership also aims to strengthen BBS’s institutional capacity to produce gender statistics to meet the requirements of SDGs and the 8th Five-Year Plan (8FYP).

One key intervention under Phase II of the project is to develop a Household Production Satellite Account (HPSA) based on Time-Use Survey 2021 data. A national priority accorded by the Prime Minister to value women’s unpaid work, the HPSA will be instrumental in measuring the economic importance of unpaid work by assessing its share in the extended economy, in turn, allowing policymakers to both implement and evaluate gender-responsive care policies, services and infrastructure and promoting women’s access to decent work opportunities.

In light of this, BBS and UN Women, with technical guidance from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), are collaborating to create the HPSA in 2024. Data processing and compilation work is ongoing.

UN Women is seeking a National Consultant to support the development of the HPSA narrative analytical report, working in close partnership with BBS, UN Women and the ADB.

II. Objective:

The objective of this assignment is to support the development of the HPSA narrative analytical report in a participatory manner, building on international standards and regional and global experiences and resources.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance of UN Women’s Deputy Representative and the Regional Gender Statistics Specialist and the direct supervision of the Programme Analyst-Gender Statistics, and working in close collaboration with BBS and the ADB, the consultant will be responsible for the following tasks:

• Conduct desk review of relevance and policy uses of the HPSA;
• Develop and draft an analytical report based on project documentation (in close collaboration with BBS, UN Women and the ADB) that reflects the methodology and analysis conducted to generate the estimates, including data limitations and associated methodological choices and recommendations;
• Draft an executive summary for dissemination purposes;
• Participate in meetings, consultations, and other events and prepare documentation of issues and approaches, briefing notes, minutes of various meetings/exercises, and other relevant materials and outputs as requested;
• In close coordination with the international economic writer, address any necessary revisions.

IV. Duration of the assignment:

The assignment will commence in September 2024 and be completed by December 2024. The total duration of the work would be 25 days.

V. Deliverables:

VI. Supervision & Performance evaluation:

The consultant’s performance will be evaluated based on timeliness, responsibility, initiative, communication, accuracy, and quality of the services delivered. The contract performance shall be evaluated and monitored by the Programme Analyst-Gender Statistics.

VII. Duty Station(s): Dhaka

Travel and DSA: No DSA will be paid at the duty station(s) – For this consultancy, the duty station is considered Dhaka. If unforeseen travel outside the duty station not required by the Terms of Reference is requested by UN Women, and upon prior agreement/approval, such travel shall be UN Women’s expenses, and the individual contractor shall receive a per-diem not to exceed United Nations daily subsistence allowance rate in such other location(s).

Competencies

Core Values

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

IX. Core Competencies:

• Communication – Facilitates and encourages open and effective communication.
• Inclusive Collaboration and Stakeholder Engagement – Demonstrates ability to collaborate and work effectively with stakeholders of different backgrounds.
• Accountability – Takes ownership of all responsibilities and delivers outputs in accordance with agreed time, costs, and quality standards.
• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues – Fulfils all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality, and age sensitivity and adaptability.

X. Functional Competencies:

• Technical credibility in statistical research with a strong focus on economic statistics and national accounts;
• Technical credibility in gender analysis;
• Ability to work with different stakeholders, including government;
• Strong skills and experience in communicating and presenting complex ideas/data analysis;
• Consistent approach to work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Demonstrates openness to ideas and ability to manage complexities of the situations.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in economics, gender studies, statistics, development studies, or similar fields; alternatively, a first-level degree (bachelor’s) in combination with 4 years of working experience will be accepted.

Experience:

• At least 7 years of work experience with official statistics and development indicators in economic statistics and national accounts- with a focus on gender;
• At least 5 years of demonstrated technical knowledge in the field of economic and gender equality;
• Proven experience in writing analytical statistical reports;
• Experience in writing reports to the United Nations or other multilateral institutions will be an asset;
• Previous experience working with government stakeholders will be an asset;
• Excellent English communication and writing skills (samples of previous work are required as part of the application).

Language:

Fluency in English and Bangla.

Evaluation criteria:

The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on the following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

Criteria-01; Educational Qualification – Max Point 10

Criteria-02; Number of years of work experience with official statistics and development indicators in economic statistics- with a focus on gender; and demonstrated technical knowledge in the field of economics and gender equality. Max Point 20

Criteria-03; Experience in writing analytical reports. Max Point 10

Criteria-04; Experience in writing reports to the United Nations or other multilateral institutions will be an asset. Max Point 10

Criteria-05; Experience working with government stakeholders. Max Point 10

Criteria-06; Written samples submitted and demonstrating strong writing skills in English. Max Point 10

Criteria-07; Interview. Max Point 30

Interested Individual Consultants will submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications.

The following documents should be submitted as part of the application:

• Cover letter (one to two pages max, which should include 1) a brief overview of your previous experiences that make you the most suitable candidate, 2) a paragraph on what you understand by unequal power dynamics, and 3) a paragraph/outline of how you would carry out the assignment).
• Samples (minimum 2) of previous written work (report, policy analysis, brief, or other).
• Personal History Form (P11). The P11 Form can be downloaded from the following website: http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs

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, colour, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All recruitment/procurement 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.