[Bilimsel Haber] JOB- UNIFEM CIS: International Consultant, Women's Rights in Informal Employment Sector

[Gonul Pultar]

JOB- UNIFEM CIS: Int'l Consultant, Women's Rights in Informal Employment 
Sector

Posted by: Maira Shopayeva <maira.shopayeva at unifem.org>



Terms Of Reference
for International Consultant to develop Women's Rights in the Informal
Employment Sector in Azerbaijan

1. Background

Worldwide, informal employment is quite wide spread and stable
phenomenon with the stable growth tendency. As a rule, this portion of
workforce, both in developed and developing countries turns out to be
uncovered either by legal or social government protection; it does not
pay taxes or other compulsory assignments (pensions, insurance etc).
Work in the informal economy in conditions is the work out of
legislative and legal framework, i.e. such workers are most
vulnerable. They have insufficient social protection or do not have
such protection at all. At the best, they have limited access to
government infrastructure and preference system.  Those who work in
informal economy, very rarely embody into organizations to have
effective representation and to protect and advocate their rights.
They do not have enough votes at workplaces or on the socio-political
scene. In most cases, informal employment is unstable and weakly
protected; some types of informal employment have overtime and
sometimes extremely intensive work nature when fulfilling urgent
orders followed by "slackening" period.

However, the practice shows that this group makes a significant part
of the country economy. In those counties, where such statistics
exists, input of the informal sector of the non-agriculture employment
makes from 40 to 60 percent of GDP.

Azerbaijan is one of the countries of transition economy coincided
with a significant contraction in formal employment opportunities and
reduction in real wages, seriously undermining the Government's
ability to provide social security. Besides, the profound
socio-economic crisis, common to these countries, Azerbaijan is also
burdened by the consequences of the military conflict with Armenia.

Women constitute the majority of the population, or 51.2 %. For women
in Azerbaijan, the transition period has produced mixed and often
gendered results. Women's formal employment levels have fallen
considerably more than men's. More than one third of women in the
20-49-year-old age group are now defined as economically inactive.
With fewer opportunities in the formal sector (including in the
developing private sector), women have increasingly looked to the
informal sector to supplement family income, although such work is
usually unprotected and involves long hours for little pay. Despite
showing incentive to seek out and often create employment
opportunities in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), women have
also found it more difficult than men to access the credit, training,
and skills development support that would enable them to expand and
develop these income and employment generating opportunities. Rising
and persistent unemployment, the high costs of further education, the
absence of public child-care facilities and the high cost of private
substitutes, the lack of start-up capital to launch small businesses,
the lack of business skills and market knowledge, and the cumbersome
and often daunting procedures associated with entry into what is
perceived as the predominantly "male" formal private sector, have all
combined to push women into informal sector employment.

Although many women find fewer obstacles to their entry into informal
sector employment, such employment usually involves long hours of
work, little pay, and difficult conditions that in some cases (i.e.,
street vendors) can pose risks to personal security. Home-based work,
while providing some solution for women who cannot afford child care,
offers very poor financial returns on their labor, isolates them, and
increases their levels of time poverty as they juggle the triple shift
of home-based work, child care, and domestic tasks. Moreover, the
absence of any form of social protection, such as sick leave,
maternity leave, or pension contributions, leaves informal sector
workers extremely vulnerable to poverty in the present and in the
future. Many of the low-skilled informal activities undertaken by
women are also heavily stigmatized, where job status and education are
still very highly regarded.

Further research and analysis of the gender dimensions of the informal
economy is clearly important, not only to increase the visibility of
the sizeable percentage of women working within it, but to provide an
improved understanding of its contribution to economic growth and its
links with poverty. In addition to gathering more reliable data on the
numbers of women and men engaging in the informal sector in rural and
urban areas and across regions and their profiles (i.e., age and
income group), it is also important to better understand the drivers
behind their shift to the informal sector, what are the perceived
benefits as well as constraints and the way to improve their status.

One of the factors limiting female participation in the economic life
of the country in general, and developing small business in particular
is their exclusion from economic reforms conducted in the country and
from the development of the private sector and from the process of
privatization. Of all able-bodied women, 69.2% work in the private
sector and 30,8% in the state sector. Only 3% of those who work in the
private sector have their own business. In management positions of
different economic and social sectors women constitute 33% of those
employed. Furthermore, women business owners are highly concentrated
in micro and small enterprises with a small proportion distributed
among medium and large enterprises.

Besides low rate of property ownership by women and limited access to
information resources, socio-economic barriers in the country
complicate the access of women to production resources (credit and
finance), available markets, business opportunities and advanced
technology. Certain stereotypes, such as the traditional role of being
responsible for the household, as well as the low level of confidence
and self-esteem, prevalent in society in general, discourage women
from entering into business.

In general, most women-oriented organizations focus on advocacy and
political lobbying and only small interventions have been made in the
fields of women's entrepreneurship support, education and training,
advisory services and research on issues related to women employment
in general and women entrepreneurship, in particular. Still a lot
should be done in these economically important areas in order to
improve the situation with business development in Azerbaijan.

In addressing these and other related to the topic issues there is a
need to develop and implement special programme to support the social
security level and to protect the human rights of the self-employed
population, in particular of women. Such programme is required to
create conditions when the majority of the self-employed could be
"legalized" and thus, get the opportunity to enjoy benefits and
services of the national social security system.
To respond to the given challenge, UNIFEM CIS SRO decided to design a
programme aimed at improving status of women engaged in economic
activities with previously commissioned context analysis. In this
regard UNIFEM CIS SRO is looking for a highly professional
International Consultant who will provide consultancy within the given
scope of work.

Goals and Tasks of the Study:

The main goal of the consultancy is to define challenges and
opportunities for protection of women's rights in informal sector.
This major goal is closely linked to another correlated goals, in
particular: identification of key employment types that women as a
practice engage in Azerbaijan, problems (social benefits, pensions,
medical coverage, taxation, right for organization, etc) and rights
violations that women in self-employment sector of informal economy
have to face, institutional and legislative gaps with the aim to
address those issues.

As a result, the study recommends the following tasks to be fulfilled:

  * Mapping of institutions and capacities dealing with informal
    employment issues;
  * Determination of legislative/policy gaps in regulating labor
    relations and in ensuring social protection to women working in the
    informal sector;
  * Determination of key types of employment characteristic for women
    (trade, service providing, housework etc) and main types of women
    working in that sector;
  * Determination of positive and negative consequences from
    involvement of women in informal employment for the women themselves
    and for their families and for the state;
  * Review of needs of women engaged in informal employment sector
    including main types of discrimination that women suffer in this
    sector of employment, and the mechanisms of their rights protection as
    well as the level of awareness of women of that mechanisms;
  * Determination of main factors impacting growth of the
    self-employed, particularly women.

The study results will be discussed in the course of multi-lateral
consultations with broad involvement of government structures and
bodies responsible for regulation of labor market and social
protection of citizens and public organizations advocating rights and
interests of workers. As a result of such consultations, the
International Consultant is supposed to develop 2 products, in particular:

1. Develop policy/legislation/institutional analysis to support the
informally employed (women-workers) including work to improve
statistics based on gender differentiation;
2. Develop project document on economic empowerment for women engaged
in informal sector in Azerbaijan which is supposed to reflect
consolidation of informally employed women (women-workers) into
associations and trade unions in order to seek for legal and social 
protection;
3. Develop resource mobilization strategy for raising funds for the
elaborated programme document.

Ultimately, the study findings will serve as a baseline for
development of a programme intervention. Moreover it could be further
used as a reason for fund raising government organizations to develop
measures to improve the social protection system with special accent
to women involved in the informal employment sector; as well as to
more effectively regulate labor relations that facilitate decent work
in the employment sector in Azerbaijan.

UNIFEM CIS Sub-regional office plans to hire a short-term
International Consultant, who will work under the general guide of the
Regional Programme Director (RPD) and in close cooperation with
Programme Specialist. The Consultant will be responsible for providing
consultancy to conduct analysis of women in informal sector with
development of a programme document. Besides, it's planned that the
International Consultant will be assisted by national expert/NGO which
will be subcontracted specially for the given purpose.

3. Tasks and responsibilities:

Once contracted the Consultant will be expected to:

  * Undertake the desk review of past and ongoing activities in
    informal employment in Azerbaijan including all relevant
    documents/researches/assessments;
  * Liaise with the national partners for collecting/structuring the
    information on relevant concerned actors;
  * Following to the structure of the draft identify
    information/data/resource materials to be collected during mission to
    the field;
  * Undertake the mission to Azerbaijan to define priority areas in
    informal employment sector for possible programme interventions;
  * Based on the desk review and the findings of the mission
    prepare/finalise 1) a context analysis which should mainly contain
    three key parts: a) legislative/policy/institutional level measures;
    b) gaps and opportunities and c) needs of women engaged in informal
    employment sector; 2) the draft outline of the programme document in
    UNIFEM format;
  * Undertake the review of donor countries, their mandates,
    requirements, specific and provide links;
  * Based on donors' review elaborate resource mobilisation strategy
    for fund raising ensuring that the programme document is aligned with
    the requirements of each donor;
  * Propose list of donors which could be considered as resource
    mobilisation strategy for raising funds.


4. Deliverables:

  * Develop a policy/legislation/institutional analysis which contains
    identification of the main trends and the specific situation of women
    engaged in informal employment sector in Azerbaijan as well as
    examination of current legislation/strategies related to the given
    thematic area; assessment of the role of support organizations that
    assist women; and finally examination of women's participation in
    business and in civic organizations, their needs and challenges they 
faced;
  * Develop the project document on economic empowerment for women
    engaged in informal sector in Azerbaijan which is supposed to reflect
    consolidation of informally employed women (women-workers) into
    associations and trade unions in order to seek for legal and
social protection;
  * Develop resource mobilization strategy for raising fund for the
    given programme.

Timeframe:
  * Undertake the desk review of past and ongoing activities in informal
    employment in Azerbaijan including all relevant
    documents/researches/assessments (5 working days);
  * Undertake the mission to Azerbaijan to define priority areas in
    informal employment sector for possible programme interventions with
    prior liaise with the national partners for collecting/structuring the
    information on relevant concerned actors and identification of
    information/data/resource materials to be collected during mission to
    the field (7 working days);
  * Based on the desk review and the findings of the mission
    prepare/finalise 1) a context analysis which should mainly contain
    three key parts: a) legislative/policy/institutional level measures;
    b) gaps and opportunities and c) needs of women engaged in informal
    employment sector; 2) the draft outline of the programme document in
    UNIFEM format (10 working days);
  * Based on donors' review elaborate resource mobilisation strategy for
    fund raising ensuring that the programme document is aligned with the
    requirements of each donor (5 working days);

5. Competencies:

Technical/Functional:
  * Excellent analytical skills, ability to synthesize and clearly
    present complex processes and issues to service the information needs
    of diverse audiences;
  * Proven ability to undertake self-directed research;
  * Excellent writing skills, ability to write in a structured, lucid
    and concise manner, without losing the depth of the substance;
  * Results orientation and commitment to producing high-quality products;
  * Thorough understanding of development-related issues;
  * Ability to work under tight deadlines
  * Fluency in written and spoken English.
  * Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages
    and in handling of web-based management system;

Corporate Competencies:
  * Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN's values and ethical 
standards.
  * Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age
    sensitivity and adaptability.

6. Required Skills and Experiences:

  * Minimum Master's Degree or higher in economics, social sciences
    with strong background on gender equality;
  * Minimum 7 years of relevant experience in the field of gender
    equality, social sciences;
  * Previous similar work experience at the international level
    (including UN organizations) concerning related field.

7. Type of Contract:

Short term Special Service Agreement (SSA).

8. Location:

Baku, Azerbaijan.

9. Duration Schedule:

The total contract duration would be 27 working days starting with the
date of the issuance and signature of the Contract.

10. Honorarium

Honorarium is based on the candidate's skills and experience and will
be negotiated with the short listed candidates only. Travel expenses
including DSA, tickets, for field visit will be covered separately.

11. Language Requirements:

English, Russian

12. Application Process:

Applicants are requested to submit: 1) CV, outlining their relevant
professional experience; 2) Cover letter, stating their interest in
and qualifications for the post; 3) List of publications/researches in
similar field/of similar nature; 4) one or two their most recent
publication/research in similar field/of similar nature in full text
in PDF or Word and 5) two references by July 8, 2010 to Maira
Shopayeva via e-mail maira.shopayeva at unifem.org.

Only short listed candidates will be contacted after the deadline with
respective guidelines. Due to the large number of applicants, UNIFEM
regrets that it is unable to inform unsuccessful candidates about the
outcome or status of the recruitment process.



Distrib. by: Central-Eurasia-L - Announcement List for Central Eurasian 
Studies