[TimorLesteStudies] CONSULTANT: MAPPING OF WOMEN’S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT PROGRAMMES

Bu Wilson bu.wilson at anu.edu.au
Wed Apr 14 21:42:30 EST 2010 

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| CONSULTANT: MAPPING OF WOMEN’S  ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT PROGRAMMES
http://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_job.cfm?job_id=16018

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   | Location : |     | Dili, Timor - Leste, Timor Leste |   
       | Application Deadline : || 26-Apr-10 |
    | Additional  Category || Women’s  Empowerment |
    | Type of Contract : || SSA |
      | Languages Required :
 ||   English        |
  | Starting Date :
(date when the selected  canditate is expected to start) || 03-May-2010 |
   | Duration of Initial Contract : || 50 days |
  | Expected Duration of Assignment : || 50  days |
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          | Background
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        | Timor-Leste is one of the poorest countries in  Southeast Asia with both high rates of poverty and unemployment.  Currently, 73.5% of the Timorese population lives in rural areas (United  Nations Population Division 2007). The majority of Timorese work in  agriculture, 78% of all working males and 77% of all working females  work in agriculture (2004 census), and of this, 70% of women work  without an income (Initial State CEDAW Report 2008).    Women  account for 42% of the workforce; 51% of self-employed workers are  women, 47% of private industry workers are women, and 43% of subsistence  agricultural workers are women. With the exception of government  employees, where women only account for 23%, women are well-represented  in the economy as a whole. However, 70% of the total workforce is  involved in subsistence agriculture. Therefore, attention needs to be  directed to the development of strategies and mechanisms for the  expansion of the economy and the creation of industries. This would  promote true economic empowerment for both women and men.   Women  are already involved in a combination of subsistence production,  trading/street vending (e.g., of agricultural goods), and limited types  of home-based production (e.g., traditional and other forms of cloth and  craftwork). A number of microfinance and other projects are working  with groups of women in many parts of the country.   However,  women continue to face very serious barriers to the sustainability and  effectiveness of their economic activities, given the problems that  arise as a consequence of high illiteracy rates (with only a 40%  literacy rate for women, as opposed to an estimated 60% for men) and  very limited business skills (e.g., lacking skills for advance planning,  bookkeeping, product selection, and often lacking even basic numeracy  and literacy skills).   A key problem is that women face  significant social constraints to their modes of economic participation,  with individuals (as opposed to those organized into groups) generally  being in the weakest position. Women’s work is often unpaid, and unless a  cash income comes to women through their productive activities, their  work and contribution often go unrecognized (in spite of putting in long  hours, they are not considered to be doing “work”). If their economic  activities are considered to be unimportant, income from those  activities may be spent and not put back into the economic activities,  making those ventures unsustainable. There may even be opposition from  husbands to women engaging in economic activities; for this reason, the  ILO in Timor-Leste emphasizes that women’s economic activities are in  fact family endeavors (i.e., involving and benefiting the entire family  in different ways), rather than viewing them primarily or exclusively as  “women’s” undertakings.  Other organizations promote women’s economic  activities as been different from and separate from men’s, but also do  it in such a way that initial resistance will be overcome as the benefit  for all is seen.    Women also face structural barriers to  their work. For example, women involved in homebased production usually  require training and extension services that take into account and adapt  to the specific needs and circumstances of home-based production; these  types of constraints are not usually taken explicitly into  consideration when designing training programs and extension services.  Similarly, women involved in the trading of goods usually face  difficulties with respect to the transportation, storage, and marketing  of their goods, among other barriers to their economic participation.  Their needs and circumstances are likely to be very different from those  of men who are pursuing economic activities that are more public and  are perceived as “regular” work; a very different approach is required  in order to involve women on an effective and sustainable basis.  In  addition, women’s domestic responsibilities often make it difficult to  participate in employment and training programs that are not  specifically designed for women. Again, economic empowerment will only  be possible when women’s specific circumstances (including the  particular needs and circumstances of different types of informal  employment) are taken clearly and carefully into account when designing  and implementing such programs.  Furthermore, the CEDAW  Concluding Comments called on the government of Timor to address  economic empowerment of women:   - Ensure that the  promotion of gender equality is an explicit component of its national  and local development plans and programmes, in particular those aimed at  poverty reduction and sustainable development. 
 - Pay  special attention to the needs of women heads of households, widows and  older women ensuring that they participate in decision-making processes  and have full access to credit facilities. 
 - Take proactive  measures to ensure that rural women have access to justice, health  services, education, clean water, electricity, land and  income-generating projects, and are able to enjoy all other rights  fully. 
 - Take appropriate measures to eliminate all forms  of discrimination against women with respect to the ownership and  inheritance of land. 
 - Strengthen its efforts at designing  and implementing gender-sensitive rural development strategies and  programmes, ensuring the full participation of rural women in their  formulation and implementation.

  
Justification: 
The  capacity needs assessment of SEPI identified economic empowerment of  women as a strategic gap and requires concerted action by SEPI.  In the  case of economic empowerment, concerted work addressing women and  gender-based economic biases does not come to fore easily.  
  At  a forum on the subject organized by SEFOPE-ILO on 17 October 2009 at  the Mercado Lama, it was apparent that there are many initiatives and  schemes that are now being planted on the ground. Some are spontaneous  schemes like women putting up revolving funds.  For example, one woman  reported in the plenary session that in their village, they contributed  25 USD to a common pot which they used to lend money to their group  members to support their livelihood activities. Payback has been good  and their funds have now grown. However, they are now at a loss because  their adviser is leaving.  This suggests the need for a strategy for  ensuring sustainability in economic empowerment programmes.   Majority  of women in Timor-Leste live in rural areas and depend on subsistence  agriculture and informal employment for their livelihood. In addition,  there are vulnerable groups, the unemployed, the youth and a good number  of female headed households who need jobs and income. Considering  these, and given the fact that Timor is still basically a rural-based  economy, the UN Thematic Working Group on Gender found it important to  explore how the combined UN capacity can be brought to bear on this  strategic development gap identified by SEPI.  The Thematic Group on  Gender noted the opportunity presented by SEPI’s new cash transfer  programme for women entrepreneurs, which can leverage innovative private  sector initiatives in order to promote women’s economic empowerment.    It is also recognized by the UN that working with Timorese women  in this area needs to be tackled in a serious and sustainable way.  It  is accepted that, based on evidence in other countries, more productive  and stable economic activities carried out by women will help strengthen  women’s social position by making their contributions more visible and  highly valued. Moreover, women’s economic empowerment can help reduce  domestic violence, strengthen the family, and contribute to a better  household environment.  These economic activities can, for example,  strengthen women’s position in the household due to the improvement in  household income, thereby also reducing the pressure on men to provide  the entire cash income under difficult economic circumstances.  These  activities can also give women the crucial economic support they need in  cases of very abusive relationships. 
For these and other reasons,  the economic component is seen as centrally important for improving both  the social and economic position of women and the social and economic  circumstances of impoverished households in Timor-Leste.   Finally,  it is important to recognize that women’s economic activities tend to  be of a very different nature than those of men, and an economic  empowerment programme will most likely succeed, in the immediate future  at least, only if it builds on and helps to augment and improve on the  activities that women are already carrying out. It is certainly possible  for women to take on new economic activities that have not yet been  “typed” as either men’s or women’s work, which allows for a widening  range of roles. Moreover, at some stage training in completely  non-traditional roles (e.g., those “typed” as or associated with men’s  roles) may be possible for women, but this must be done carefully and in  a very supportive social and economic context (i.e., not just giving  training and then expecting the women to be able to succeed on their  own).      Objectives:   - To  take stock of the results of UN, development partners and NGOs economic  empowerment programmes, particularly how these have benefited women or  failed to benefit them
 - To assess the state of these  programmes today and identify the factors contributing to their  sustainability or success as well as lessons on how these dealt with  constraints and challenges in sustaining women’s economic empowerment 
 - To provide recommendations addressed to the Government of  Timor-Leste, particularly through SEPI, on a strategy for women’s  economic empowerment based on the mapping study 
 - To  outline a UN joint programme for economic empowerment of women in  Timor-Leste 

  Scope of the Consultancy 
As  noted above, there are already a number of pilot projects and other  programmes that involve women in Timor-Leste.  Moreover, information  regarding which projects have had an economic component, of what nature,  and with what successes (or lack of success), has not been widely  shared.  It would be very useful to have a much clearer idea  of the needs and economic opportunities potentially available to women  in different parts of the country. It is also very important to pool and  share information regarding ideas that appear to be sustainable and  have important lessons for women – and women’s groups – that were not  part of those pilot projects and programs.   The proposed  consultancy is to use existing contacts and networks to gather  information about economic activities and economic empowerment.  Gender  focal points and contacts in different parts of the country have to be  contacted in order to obtain a better sense of needs and possibilities,  and existing projects and programmes. 
In addition, existing women’s  networks can be used to gather and spread information regarding economic  activities and economic empowerment – e.g., through the Office of the  Secretary of State for the Promotion of Equality (SEPI), REDE  Timor-Leste Women's Network; a separate network in Timor-Leste of  Catholic organizations that deal with women (Progressio, Catholic Relief  Service (CRS), CARITAS and others); the NGO Forum; and through other  sources of information. Information can also be pooled from the  knowledge and experiences of international agencies that work in  Timor-Leste (UN-related organizations, ADB, World Bank, EU and others).    In view of this, the consultancy will collect, analyze, discuss  with all key stakeholders, and disseminate information regarding the  economic needs and opportunities available to women in different parts  of Timor-Leste. This will involve a survey of existing projects  (including those coming to an end of their funding period) that have an  economic component for women, and a detailing of what has “worked” and  “not worked as well” in those economic projects.   The  consultant can thus help decide which of these activities are working  well, which are not working out as anticipated, and why they seem to be  working well or are not working as anticipate (along with whether they  can be improved, and how this might be done most effectively). 
Regarding  the information-gathering work noted above, the lists of programs that  have been registered with government offices in Timor-Leste can  certainly be consulted, but much more detail about the participation of  women and the success and failures of the program will need to be  gathered and then disseminated. In this, quantitative indicators of  success and failures are needed, but they may not give an adequate view  of what is happening from a gender and household perspective; for this,  qualitative research is needed as well. 
For this reason, qualitative  as well as quantitative information about the experiences of existing  programs will need to be gathered by the consultant from contacts,  gender focal points, and others throughout the districts.  Based on this  information, it will be possible to develop much more systematic and  sustainable approaches to the economic empowerment of women in  Timor-Leste. The consultant can use this information to draw up an  outline for a joint programme –– that can be implemented with other  agencies and organizations
The consultancy will be for a total of 40 –  50 working days to be spread over five months beginning May to October  2010  
       
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         | Duties and Responsibilities
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        |  - Conduct a desk review of various UN,  development partners’, government’s and civil society programmes related  to economic empowerment particularly designed for women
 - Meet  with relevant UN agencies, development partners and civil society
 - In coordination with UNMIT Human Rights and Transitional  Justice Section, UNDP, UNIFEM, SEPI and other stakeholders, design a  questionnaire for data collection to be carried out by UNMIT Human  Rights and Transitional Justice Section Cooperation, if and as needed,  with technical inputs to identification of districts and survey  beneficiaries. 
 - Together with UNDP, UNIFEM, SEPI and other  stakeholders assess the responsiveness of these programme to empower  women economically 
 - Present and validate the programme  concept to an audience of stakeholders, first internally with the UN  Inter-agency Working Group on Gender and then externally with government  ministries, donor agencies, UN agencies, and potential project partners  
 - Produce a mapping study report for documentation and  publication purposes (editing up to publication will be done by UNDP and  UNIFEM outside this contract)
 - Develop an outline of a new  UN joint programme on women’s economic empowerment for funding purposes

  Expected Products  
The inception report, to  be presented to UNDP and other stakeholders, is expected after the  preliminary literature review. The consultant will proceed further upon  approval of the inception report by UNDP.  The inception report should  include:   - Summary of literature review 
 - Identification  of stakeholders to be involved/targeted for the assessment
 - Methodology  for gathering information and data
 - Proposed work plan 

  Following the finalization of the testing phase of the  survey, the consultant is expected to provide a brief mid-term report  (max. 10 pages) outlining the activities conducted thus far.  The  presentation of the inception and mid-term reports provides an  opportunity for UNDP and other stakeholders to redirect the work of the  consultant in case there is any ambiguity or misunderstanding of the  contents or emphasis of the term of reference.   The first  draft of the mapping study report is expected 10 days prior to the  stakeholder workshop.  It will be submitted to UNDP and stakeholders  involved in the assessment.  Comments collected from UNDP and other  stakeholders through the validation workshop will incorporated in the  second draft of the mapping study to be shared with UNDP for  finalization.       The outline of the mapping  study report should be as follows:   - Executive  Summary
 - Narrative of methodology of the assessment 
 - Comprehensive narrative and quantitative analyses of evidence,  findings and case studies
 - Outline of a new joint programme  document on women’s economic empowerment 

 
       
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          | Competencies
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        |  - Demonstrated excellent written and  oral communication skills;
 - Strong negotiating and  managerial skills to be able to work both independently and as a member  of a team;
 - Excellent networking with a demonstrated  ability to build and maintain professional relationships; 
• Cross-cultural  management experience and sensitivity;
 - High level  planning, organisational and time management skills, including  flexibility, attention to detail and the ability to work under pressure  to meet changing deadlines
 - Well developed interpersonal  skills , including the ability to liaise effectively at senior levels
 - Analytical and problem solving skills of a high order,  including the ability to formulate recommendations and policy advice  desirable
 - Demonstrated capacity to work both independently  and in a team environment


 
   
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         | Required Skills and Experience
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        | Education:   - Masters Degree  in development-related field; Post-graduate studies especially in  development field an asset. 

  Experience:   - At least five (5) years of relevant experience for programming  geared to support women’s empowerment and rights; 
 - Demonstrated  knowledge of programming issues within the field of social protection,  employment and livelihood and related training and education service  provision;
 - Excellent report writing and presentation  skills
 - Knowledge of civil society, government and  development partners work in Timor-Leste 
 - Ability to work  under pressure a multicultural and complex environment. 

  Language  Requirements:   - Excellent command of written and  spoken English is essential. 
 - Knowledge of Tetum or Bahasa  Indonesia an advantage; 

  Additional Information:   Please upload your application letter together with: Curriculum  vitae, financial proposal with a workplan and P11 form in one single  document through this link.  Individual consultants must  submit the financial proposal with a workplan. The financial proposal  should include all necessary fees and cost related to the assignment,  except the travel cost at the beginning and at the end of the assignment  which UNDP will pay. UNDP will not cover any other additional expenses  outside of the financial proposal. The financial proposal should be  reasonable based on the TOR and proposed workplan. |
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Bu V.E. Wilson
ARC Centre of Excellence in Policing and Security  CEPS  | Regulatory Institutions Network  RegNet  | The Australian National University | Canberra ACT 0200 | AUSTRALIA | Mob: 0407 087 086
http://ceps.anu.edu.au | http://regnet.anu.edu.au



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