Project Description:
Unpaid care work has important implications for gender equality and economic growth. Care responsibilities are a key determinant of women’s low participation in the labour force and are therefore a major contributing factor to gender gaps in employment. Provision of care services can unleash economic growth through increased labour force participation of women, expanded consumption in two-income households, and job creation in the care sector.
The private sector can contribute to the agenda of recognising the value of care work by responding to the needs of workers in innovative ways. In that sense there is an opportunity for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the “EBRD”, the “Bank”) to explore the role of the private sector as an employer of both men and women when they have care responsibilities.
The current assignment will help the EBRD to identify and promote best practices on the issue of care and to include these in the design of its investments. With the right information and incentive, EBRD clients can be supported to improve their Human Resources practices, inter alia, by looking into options of child care, family care, and work/life balance provisions, so as to allow women to access programmes, trainings and meetings, or the introduction of paternity leave or shared paternity leave in order to retain women in the workforce and in turn foster equal care-giving responsibilities.
The study will help to define the scope and variety of relationships between private and public bodies in relation to the delivery of care in support of women’s equal access to labour market opportunities through examples of good practice, including: efficient ways of establishing and funding care solutions in industrial zones; ways in which corporates already implement innovative ways of responding to the needs for care provision, not only for child care, but also for elders and/or people living with disabilities; as well as sustainable policies, measures and mechanisms. Those good practices will help to understand how and why care can be “smart economics”, ie, economically effective for both public and private sector entities, and in partnership. Existing certification schemes on work-life balance could also be explored and illustrated.
The Bank now wishes to engage a consultant (the “Consultant”) to carry out a study (the “Study”) on ‘Care and Competitiveness: Enhancing business performance and economic growth through addressing unpaid care by women’ (the “Assignment”).
Assignment Description:
The objective of the Study is to find out the ways in which discrimination connected with women’s heavy and unequal unpaid care responsibilities intersect with private-sector planning and operations, and what can be done to address these.
The Study will identify operationally relevant insights and recommendations for EBRD clients and host governments to strengthen women’s access to labour market opportunities by addressing care capacity and provision.
To achieve the above, the Study should develop a dual-focus on the:
a. Enabling environment to facilitate private sector led care provision (ie., how can legislation facilitate or impede private sector engagement in care provision – theoretical discussion followed by examples of good practices in legislation and fiscal policy in EBRD Countries of Operation supporting care provision by the private sector)
b. Impact and mitigation of women’s unpaid care work on the private sector (bulk of the study)
- In what ways does women’s unpaid work impact companies’ performance (explain mechanisms by which this happens. Each mechanism would be accompanied by a case study);
- By which measures (costs etc) does unpaid work impact companies’ performance (estimations developed via 4-8 case studies).
The link to the Terms of Reference for the Assignment is as follows: http://www.ebrd.com/documents/procurement/tors-70473.docx
Status of Selection Process: Interested firms or groups of firms are hereby invited to submit expressions of interest.
Assignment Start Date and Duration: The Assignment is expected to start in October 2017 and has an estimated overall duration of 10 months. No extension to the Assignment is envisaged.
Cost Estimate for the Assignment: EUR 185,000 (exclusive of VAT).
The Consultant must determine whether any VAT would be chargeable on the services and the basis for that determination, without taking into consideration the special status of the Bank as an IFI and state this to the Bank in their response to the Invitation for Expressions of Interest. To the extent that a Consultant incurs input VAT on goods and services purchased in connection with the provision of services (e.g. VAT on airline ticket) which is not otherwise recoverable by the consultant from the local tax authority, the gross cost to the consultant of such expenses shall be treated as a reimbursable expense.
Funding Source: It is expected that the Assignment will be funded by TaiwanBusiness EBRD Technical Cooperation Fund. Please note selection and contracting will be subject to the availability of funding.
Eligibility: There are no eligibility restrictions
Consultant Profile: Corporate services are required. The Consultant will be a firm or a group of firms with previous project experience related to the preparation of world-class research studies based on strong qualitative and quantitative research skills and demonstrated history of amplifying and extending research results to ensure applicability and influence (for example, through development of policy briefs, data visualisations, toolkits, or other innovative knowledge and communications products). Consultants should provide reference to examples of previous relevant deliverables in their proposal.
The team shall comprise:
Key Experts:
1) A team leader with:
• Preferably 10 years’ experience in coordinating researches/studies/surveys on gender related issues, research methodologies and planning
• Sound skills in managing a team of experts, enhancing complementarities among consultants’ diverse expertise and providing tailored supervision and support to consultants in their individual tasks
• Good problem-solving attitude
• Ability to work under pressure and deliver tasks in tight deadlines
• Experience in researches/studies on EBRD’s CoOs
• Strong qualitative and quantitative research skills and good report writing skills, assuring quality of the final deliverables
• Fluency in English.
2) A senior economist (preferably expert and/or national of one of the selected countries) with:
• Preferably 7-10 years’ experience in conducting time surveys and preparing methodologies to estimate the economic value of care work and its related value in terms of GDP loss;
• Preferably 5 years’ experience carrying out applied research on issues on gender equality and women’s economic empowerment;
• Strong qualitative and quantitative research skills and good report writing skills;
• Fluency in English;
• Fluency in any of the national languages of EBRD’s CoOs will be valued (in particular Arabic, French, Russian, Turkish).
3) Senior specialists with:
• Preferably 7-10 years’ experience carrying out applied research on issues on gender equality and women’s economic empowerment
• Good knowledge of the concept and application of care economy in the selected regions
• Strong qualitative and quantitative research skills and good report writing skills
• Fluency in English, in addition to fluency in at least one national languages of the selected countries, e.g. Arabic, French, Russian, Turkish.
Non-key experts:
4) A professional editor with preferably 7-10 years experience proof reading and editing similar studies and knowledge of private sector, labour and/or gender issues.
5) A designer (to be selected from a pool of EBRD preferred bidders) with preferably 7-10 years experience in similar assignments
Submission Requirements: In order to determine the capability and experience of Consultants seeking to be selected for this Assignment, the information submitted should include:
1. A full Technical Proposal, comprising methodology, proposed work plan and approach to the assignment as described in Annex 1 of the TOR (Max 10 pages)
2. Company/group of firms’ profile, organisation and staffing (max. 2-4 pages).
3. Details of previous project experience or similar assignments particularly undertaken in the previous five years, including information on contract value, contracting entity/client, project location/country, duration (mm/yy to mm/yy), expert months provided (if different from duration) , main activities, objectives. Please list as an annex all relevant publications / research papers / studies in which the consultant and/or its experts have been involved, with hyperlinks.
4. CVs of key experts who could carry out the Assignment detailing qualifications, experience in similar assignments, particularly assignments undertaken in the previous five years, including information on contracting entity/client, project location/country, duration (mm/yy to mm/yy), expert months provided, assignment budget, main activities, objectives.
5. Completed Consultant Declaration Form and Contact Sheet, the template for which is available from the following web-link:
http://www.ebrd.com/pages/workingwithus/procurement/notices/csu/contact_sheet.doc.
The above information should not exceed 25 pages excluding CVs and contact sheet.
The complete expression of interest (including CVs, Consultant Declaration and Contact Sheet) should be submitted, in English electronically through e-Selection, to reach the Bank not later than the closing date. The expression of interest shall be one file (pdf). The EBRD reserves the right to reject applications of firms submitting more than one file. Only if the permissible file size is exceeded (4MB), the Consultant may split the expression of interest into further files.
Bank Contact Person:
Georgia Vasiliadis (Ms)
Technical Co-operation
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
One Exchange Square
London EC2A 2JN
Tel: + 44 20 7338 7750
Email: VasiliaG@ebrd.com (submissions should be sent through eSelection and NOT to this email address)
Notes:
1. The selection will normally be made from responses to this notification based on materials requested within the TOR. The highest-ranked Consultant will be selected from a shortlist and be invited to negotiate the contract, subject to availability of funding.
2. Up to the six highest-ranked firms after evaluation of expressions of interest against selection criteria (a) and (b) may be invited to an interview with the evaluation committee members to discuss their approach to the Assignment. The highest-ranked Consultant following the interviews will be selected from a shortlist and invited to negotiate the contract, subject to availability of funding.
3. The selection criteria are as follows:
a) Firm’s relevant project experience – 25%
b) CVs of key experts – 25%
c) Methodology, proposed work plan and approach to assignment – 30%
d) Interview – 20%
