Result of Service

The incumbent will be responsible to deliver the following: • The report prepared should be in Arabic and in electronic format. • The report submitted should not be less than 30 pages and should include a 2 to 4 pages executive summary. • The completed parts should be edited and saved in MS-Word (*.docx file) or an alternate compatible format. PDF format will not be accepted. It should include a table of contents to be automatically updated followed by a list of all tables and figures. The various parts should be submitted in electronic form and sent to the email address of the designated focal point. Attention is kindly drawn to the need to ensure that the final draft of the outputs be thoroughly reviewed prior to submission and to indicate the sources of tables and diagrams. References to reports and other substantive material should be clearly indicated within the text and noted at the end. It is also essential to send, with the completed output, photocopies or scans of at least the first page of books, reports and bulletins, used as reference material as well as copies of the pages quoted. The consultant shall keep in mind that UN-ESCWA routinely checks all deliverables for plagiarism, using readily available electronic tools. All previously published content, even if written by the selected consultant, must be clearly referenced where required within the text and end-noted at the end of the report. The report submitted by the consultant must not contain quoted and/or previously published text equalling more than 20 per cent of the total number of pages. The consultant shall not publish or announce or reveal the content of the report, partly or entirely, on social media or any other public channel, without ESCWA and OGERO permission. The content of the generated document shall be the sole property of ESCWA.

Work Location

Lebanon

Expected duration

16 Weeks

Duties and Responsibilities

Background: ESCWA, as a regional commission of the United Nations, implements a technical cooperation program in partnership with its member states. This program includes providing advisory services to public entities in the Arab region and conducting capacity-building workshops in partnership with these entities. In the field of digital inclusion, there is a need to develop national policies to identify the vision, objectives, and focus areas to enable all individuals, regardless of their capacity or location in the country, to using technology devices in their daily life and to ensure the surrounding environment deploys technology and innovation efficiently to ease their access, and to enable all from acquiring the needed digital skills. The expected outcome of such plan will be visible on national level: raised awareness among senior policymakers, launch of specific projects/initiatives to improve digital inclusion, development of world-class accessible government services and websites, and monitoring the progress in achieving the identified objectives/targets. In addition, this national policy, once developed and adopted, will ensure the increase of participation of all persons including persons with disability and elderly people in socio-economic development, therefore increasing national GDP, improving education and health conditions, and hopefully this will contribute to poverty reduction. In 2020, ESCWA launched the Arab Digital Inclusion Platform (ADIP) to support policymakers in developing and improving their national policies and guidelines for enhanced e-accessibility, so as to bridge the digital divide and enable all people to access and use ICT. ESCWA developed two templates, namely the ESCWA template on national policy of e-accessibility for the Arab region: and the ESCWA template on technical guidelines of e-accessibility for the Arab region. These templates have been converted to interactive online tools, easily accessible by policy makers and interested users. Also, ESCWA produced in 2024 two reports on enhancing digital accessibility for elderly and on the accessibility of emerging technologies. Recently, the OGERO (Lebanon) requested the technical assistance of ESCWA to develop digital inclusion policy. The provision of this advisory service is the subject of these terms of reference. This consultancy aims to support ESCWA in developing the national digital inclusion policy in Lebanon. The main objectives of this consultancy are: • Review international and regional best practices in developing digital inclusion policies and strategies; • Reviewing current policies, strategies, legislation and international reports related to e-accessibility and digital inclusion; • Discuss with main national stakeholders involved in digital inclusion and e-accessibility issues their main priorities and needs; • Draft a suggested policy based on national needs, gap analysis and best practices, • Discuss the draft policy with OGERO team and national entities in an enlarged meeting or workshop; • Update and enrich the suggested draft based on the comments received during the workshop and public consultation from ESCWA and OGERO. Duties and Responsibilities: The consultant shall propose to the designated ESCWA focal point a detailed version of the national digital inclusion policy in Lebanon. To produce the draft policy, the consultant is requested to conduct, among others, the main following tasks: • Review the national documents and the existing policies and strategies in Lebanon related to digital transformation, innovation, digital technologies, and other related national development plans; • Review and make use of the ESCWA e-accessibility templates and tools as well as selected regional and international best practices in the field of digital inclusion and e-accessibility strategies and policies (at least 2 selected regional and 3 international cases). • Identify main stakeholders, hold interviews and meetings with the main national stakeholders and realising a summary of their remarks and observations; • Suggest the needed digital inclusion policy based on best practices, gap analysis and national needs; In addition, the consultant would also ensure the following activities: • Present the draft policy in a national workshop (physically or remotely) and capture the main comments and findings of the discussions; • Update the draft proposal according to all received feedback and comments during workshop and the reviewing process by ESCWA and OGERO. ESCWA promotes gender equality and integration of youth through its publications and therefore the consultant should pay attention, with the help of ESCWA staff, to gender considerations and youth dimension throughout the research work and thereby ensure that the narrative language should be gender sensitive.

Qualifications/special skills

An advanced university degree in ICT, engineering or a related field is required; a Ph.D. is desirable. All candidates must submit a copy of the required educational degree. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed. At least 5 years of experience and research in Technology related issues is required. A concrete knowledge in the domain of planning, drafting, reviewing policies and strategies is required.

Languages

English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat; and Arabic is a working language of ESCWA. For this position, fluency in Arabic and knowledge of English is required. Note: “Fluency” equals a rating of ‘fluent’ in all four areas (speak, read, write, and understand) and “Knowledge of” equals a rating of ‘confident’ in two of the four areas.

Additional Information

Recruitment for this position is on a local basis. The incumbent is required to have the legal right to live and work in the specified working location.

No Fee

THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.