National Consultant to conduct Gender Audit of the Labor Practices Law of Liberia

Background

UN Women is the United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls. The entity was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide.

UN Women supports UN Member States as they set global standards for achieving gender equality and works with governments and civil society to design laws, policies, programmes and services needed to ensure that the standards are effectively implemented and truly benefit women and girls worldwide. It works globally to make the vision of the Sustainable Development Goals a reality for women and girls and stands behind women’s equal participation in all aspects of life, focusing on four strategic priorities:

Women lead, participate in and benefit equally from governance systems
Women have income security, decent work and economic autonomy
All women and girls live a life free from all forms of violence
Women and girls contribute to and have greater influence in building sustainable peace and resilience, and benefit equally from the prevention of natural disasters and conflicts and humanitarian action

UN Women also coordinates and promotes the UN system’s work in advancing gender equality, and in all deliberations and agreements linked to the 2030 Agenda. The organization works to position gender equality as fundamental to the Sustainable Development Goals, and a more inclusive world.

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and the International Labor Organization (ILO) in collaboration with the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection (MGCSP) want to support the Ministry of Labor (MoL) to conduct a gender audit of its Labor Practices Law (LPL) to help generate evidence on its gender-responsive implementation.

The audit will provide MoL and its stakeholders with information on the achievements, lessons learned, best practices, and challenges as it relates to the implementation of the LPL. It will also provide information on the extent to which the LPL promotes equal opportunities for people to obtain decent work.

The audit’s overall goal is to identify gender related existing and emerging challenges and opportunities in the implementation of the LPL and its impact, especially focusing on lessons learned and accountability, through an inclusive and participatory process.

Considering the above, UN Women Liberia is seeking a National Consultant to support with conducting and reporting on the gender audit of MoL’s LPL.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objectives of the assignment

To assess MoL’s programmes and Gender Equality commitments - identifying best practices, opportunities, challenges and gaps in policies, processes and practices.
To determine sample MoL staff’s level of understanding, attitudes and behavior regarding gender equality and women’s empowerment and the implications thereof on institutional and programmatic effectiveness.
To identify benchmarks for prioritized GE focus areas.
To assess the status of integration and promotion of GE in implementing the LPL and related policy instruments and strategies through a participatory process.
To assess the institutional culture and extent to which MoL has achieved its goals of gender equality/equity in the labor sector along with an understanding of factors and commitments behind it, such as, targeted actions to increase women’s participation in the labor market, opening-up new opportunities for women/men in non-traditional work areas.

Scope of work and tasks

The results of the gender audit should provide the Ministry of Labor with three useful outputs, namely:

A broad scoping and reflection of the status of understanding and implementation of gender equality/equity practice with the Ministry of Labor as an institution and with its LPL.
A collective discussion and analysis on future prioritization of Gender Equality (GE) interventions with the implementation of the LPL; and
A position paper on participatory processes that build MoL’s institutional ownership for gender responsiveness of its LPL.

Under the overall guidance of the Deputy Country Representative of UN Women Liberia and direct supervision from the Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme Manager, and in close collaboration with the International Labor Organization, the Ministry of Gender Children and Social Protection, and the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection, the consultant will perform the following tasks:

Task 1. Desk Review and development of the consultancy plan

Conduct a desk review of the Liberia LPL and other existing and relevant documents.
Conduct preliminary consultations with Ministry of Labor, Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection, and other key stakeholders for development of a consultancy plan.

Task 2. Conduct a gender audit of the LPL to help generate evidence on its gender-responsive implementation in Liberia.

Data collection: conduct desk review and interviews to gather data on the gender responsive implementation of the LPL.
Lead and manage data processing and analysis.
Develop a well-structured report that comprehensively outlines the audit findings, methodology, challenges, recommendations, list of persons interviewed and workshop participants

Task 3. Develop 3 key knowledge based on findings from the gender audit

Based on the gender assessment/gender audit results:

Develop 1 position paper on MoL’s institutional capacity for the gender responsive implementation of the LPL, 1 policy brief, and 1 factsheet (factsheet should in an infographic format.)
Develop a detailed Costed Action Plan with clear goals and targets to further support/strengthen the gender-responsive implementation of the LPL in Liberia. The plan should further state roles and responsibilities for concerned stakeholders and outline a monitoring and reporting framework and include an indicative budget.
Develop a concept note to organize the validation workshop for the report from the gender audit of the LPL.
Organize and facilitate the validation workshop.
Incorporate recommendations from the validation workshop into the key knowledge products and the Costed Action Pan.
Submit the gender audit report.

Expected Deliverables

The local consultant will produce the following deliverables:

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Deliverables

Indicative Deadline

Number of days

1

Consultancy work plan

4 working days

2

Report on the Gender Assessment/Gender Audit of the LPL

11 working days

3

Validated draft gender audit report, knowledge products, and costed action plan. The costed action plan will incorporate goals and targets and will further describe tasks and responsibilities, monitoring and reporting frameworks and have indicative budget

4 working days

4

Submit the final gender audit report, knowledge products, and costed action plan. The costed action plan will incorporate goals and targets and will further describe tasks and responsibilities, monitoring and reporting frameworks and have indicative budget

4 working days

All the deliverables, including annexes, notes and reports should be submitted in writing in English. Upon receipt of the deliverables and prior to the payment of the first installment, the deliverables and related reports and documents will be reviewed and approved by UN Women in close collaboration with ILO, MoL, and MGCSP. The period of review is one week after receipt.

Inputs
UN Women, ILO, MoL, and MGCSP will provide the Local Consultant with background materials relevant to the assignment.
The Local Consultant is expected to work using his/ her own computer.
The Local Consultant will be based at MoL.
MoL shall facilitate consultations/meetings between the local consultant and relevant stakeholders.

Required Skills and Experience

Required experience and qualifications

The Local Consultant should fulfill the following requirements:

Education

Master’s degree is required, but PhD would be an added advantage in Gender Studies, Social Sciences, Political Science, Governance, or other related fields.

Experience:

At least 3 years of proven experience in gender and research.
Proven exposure/experience in gender and emergency including the design/development/implementation of capacity development support programmes
Proven experience in leading and facilitating workshops.
Previous experience in conducting gender audits and developing gender policies would be an asset.
Familiarity with the UN system would be an asset.

Language and other skills:

Proficiency in oral and written English
Ability to effectively utilize computer software (i.e., MS Excel, Access, oracle, SPSS etc.) for database development and management.
Excellent facilitation and training skills