Social Protection Capacity-Development and HDP Nexus Consultant

ILO
Social Protection Capacity-Development and HDP Nexus Consultant Call for Individual Consultants

Reference: HDPN consultant
Beneficiary countries or territories: Multiple destinations (see 'Countries' tab below)
Published on: 27-Jun-2023
Deadline on: 07-Jul-2023 00:00 (GMT 3.00)

Description

 

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION

TECHNICAL COOPERATION

 

Terms of Reference

for

Social Protection Capacity-Development and HDP Nexus Consultant

 

Project:

Multiple TC Projects

Duty Station:

Remote, with travel to countries in the Arab States region as required

Duration:

01/09/2023– 30/06/2024

Reporting to:

Senior Regional Social Protection Specialist for the Arab States, relevant ILO country teams for specific country assignments

 

  1. Project and Assignment Background

The fundamental human right to social security remains unfulfilled for a vast majority of the world’s population, including in the Arab States. Indeed, the Arab States region faces a plethora of challenges such as relatively high labour market informality, low female labour market participation, political instability, conflict, internal displacement and refugee crisis, all of which place significant strain on the capacity of national social protection systems to provide adequate protection from rising poverty and vulnerability. Most social insurance schemes in the region cover only public and private sector workers with regular contracts. Non-contributory social assistance schemes, such as cash transfers, tend to be narrow in coverage, fragmented, and weakly coordinated with contributory schemes.  Humanitarian actors play a very important role as providers of social protection to refugees and internally displaced populations, increasingly through regular cash transfers. There is a growing recognition of the need to align the humanitarian mandate of international organizations with the development of national systems of social protection, and to accelerate the alignment and integration of social protection interventions within the humanitarian-peace-development nexus (HDPN).

As part of its mandate to further social protection, the ILO is works closely with its tripartite constituents to address those the afore mentioned challenges and support its partners to move towards rights-based and inclusive social protection systems that can drive for peace and prosperity in the region. In promoting its mission of advancing international social security standards, the ILO is engaged in several regional social protection platforms and initiatives. The ILO co-convenes the Regional UN Issue Based coalition on social protection in the Arab region, which support collaboration and joint engagement of UN agencies involved in the sector. In this context and in collaboration with other UN agencies, the ILO is spearheading the TRANSFORM initiative in MENA. TRANSFORM is an innovative learning package on the administration of national social protection floors which supports capacity building and leadership development in the social protection sector in the region (for more details on the initiative consult:  https://transformsp.org/). Recently the regional office of the ILO in the Arab States also conducted a strategic assessment exercise to reflect on ILO current and prospective positioning in relation to the HDPN across the region, in line with its mandate. The sector of social protection has been identified as a critical entry point to further consolidate ILO’s engagement in the HDPN space, including through a stronger policy integrated approach that is reflected in the Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for Just Transitions. The report calls for the ILO to refine and focus its comparative advantage in the HDPN by “institutionalizing the approach using Social Protection as a leading technical sector in the HDPN”

Several development cooperation projects support the ILO engagement in the SP sector. At countries level, social protection development cooperation projects in Lebanon, Jordan, Lebanon, OPT and Iraq, as well as directly ILO supported engagement in Syria and Yemen, require support in the roll-out of capacity development efforts and provide opportunities for engagement on the HDPN nexus

  1. Purpose

The ILO office for the Arab States seeks to obtain the services of a consultant in the field of capacity development and HDP nexus in social protection to support the ILO regional office and country teams engagement on flagship regional initiatives to social protection, with a specific focus on the TRANSFORM-MENA initiative, and the strategy for the operationalization of the HDNP strategy in the social protection strategy in the region. This approach will allow to realize synergies and economies of scale in ILO engagement in this field across several countries, as well as to develop methodological innovations and public goods that can be relevant for countries as well as the region as a whole.  The consultant will work under the direct technical supervision of the ILO regional social protection specialist, while specific country deliverables will be closely coordinated with all respective national teams.

  1. Work assignment, Scope of Work, and Methodology

The scope of work has been defined on the basis of needs identified within existing technical cooperation projects in the field of social protection across the region, as well as prospective engagement of the regional office in this field, including as part of ILO’s role of co-chair of the regional UN Issue-Based coalition on Social Protection. Detail requirements and expectation for each of the assignments will be determined in coordination with country teams on a case-by-case basis.

Regional:

  1. Support ILO engagement in the TRANSFORM-MENA initiative by representing ILO in the regional coordination hub and provide secretariat functions to the TRANSFORM-MENA advisory committee. Support the implementation of the strategic actions included in workplan of the regional coordination Hub. Support resource mobilization and partnership building efforts for the TRANSFORM-MENA initiative (30 days)
  2. Development of a regional strategy for ILO medium-term engagement in HDPN relevant programming in the social-protection programming, in line with mandate, potential entry-points and value added in relation to other key actors (20 days).

Lebanon:

  1. Advise on modalities for engagement in humanitarian cash coordination groups on behalf of ILO, participate in and report on meetings as requested, support identification of strategic entry points on social protection across the HDPN nexus through research, partners’ engagement, learnings from other countries, and regular discussions with the project team in Lebanon (10 days)
  2. Support the TRANSFORM-MENA regional coordination hub activities in support to country applications, in line with planned intervention by the project team in Lebanon. Support UN country teams and constituents’ engagement with TRANSFORM-MENA initiative through the coordination hub responsibilities (10 days)

Jordan:

  1. Support the TRANSFORM-MENA regional coordination hub activities in support to country applications, in line with planned intervention by the project team in Jordan. Support UN country teams and constituents’ engagement with TRANSFORM-MENA initiative through the coordination hub responsibilities (10 days)

OPT:

  1. Support the documentation of good practices under the ILO Lead project on HDPN nexus in SP and support preparation of a policy note to inform ILO programming in the same area across the region and dissemination of lessons learned (15 days)
  2. Provide technical advice and expert peer-review to the design of the successor to the EU-Nexus project in OPT (5 days)
  3. Support the TRANSFORM-MENA regional coordination hub activities in support to country applications, in line with planned intervention by the project team in OPT. Support UN country teams and constituents’ engagement with TRANSFORM-MENA initiative through the coordination hub responsibilities (10 days)

Syria:

  1. Advise on modalities for engagement in humanitarian cash coordination groups on behalf of ILO, participate in and report on meetings as requested, support identification of strategic entry points on social protection across the HDPN nexus through research, partners’ engagement, learnings from other countries, support development of at least one country brief / concept note / project proposal related in this area (20 days)
  2. Support the national country coordinator and regional social protection specialist with technical management of ILO engagement in the social protection sector in Syria (20 days)
  3. Support the TRANSFORM-MENA regional coordination hub activities in support to country applications, in line with planned intervention by the project team in Syria. Support UN country teams and constituents’ engagement with TRANSFORM-MENA initiative through the coordination hub responsibilities (10 days)

Yemen:

  1. Advise on modalities for engagement in humanitarian cash coordination groups on behalf of ILO, participate in and report on meetings as requested, support identification of strategic entry points on social protection across the HDPN nexus through research, partners’ engagement, learnings from other countries, support development of at least one country brief / concept note / project proposal related in this area (20 days)
  2. Support the TRANSFORM-MENA regional coordination hub activities in support to country applications, in line with planned intervention by the project team in Yemen. Support UN country teams and constituents’ engagement with TRANSFORM-MENA initiative through the coordination hub responsibilities (10 days)

 

Iraq (TBC):

  1. Support the TRANSFORM-MENA regional coordination hub activities in support to country applications, in line with planned intervention by the project team in Iraq. Support UN country teams and constituents’ engagement with TRANSFORM-MENA initiative through the coordination hub responsibilities (10 days)

 

 

 

  1. Deliverables and timeline

The consultancy will begin on the 1st September 2023 and should be completed by 30th June 2024 for a total of 200 working days.

Timeframe and schedule of deliverables mentioned below will be reviewed at least quarterly to reflect progress and advancement status and priority of different files in light of regional and country contexts.

 

Deliverables

Deadlines (indicative)

  1. Overall activity plan for regional and national activities

15/09/2024

  1. Detailed workplan for implementation of support requested from TRANSFORM-MENA hub

31/09/2024

  1. Good practices paper on nexus project in OPT and peer review report of new OPT project

31/10/2024

  1. Internal note with advice on modalities for engagement in humanitarian cash coordination groups in Lebanon, Yemen and Syria

30/11/2024

  1. HDP strategic entry points country brief / concept note / proposal for Lebanon

31/12/2024

  1. Report of TRANSFORM-MENA supported applications in 3 countries

31/01/2024

  1. HDP strategic entry points country brief / concept note / project proposal for Syria

28/02/2024

  1. Report on implementation of social protection activities in Syria
  1.  
  1. Report of TRANSFORM-MENA supported applications in 3 countries

30/04/2024

  1. HDP strategic entry points country brief / concept note / project proposal for Yemen

31/05/2024

  1. Implementation Report of support requested from TRANSFORM-MENA hub

30/06/2024

 

 

 

 

  1. Payment Terms

Payments will be made against submission of deliverables, subject to the approval of the project manager as per the ILO quality requirements, in accordance with the following breakdown:

 

Deliverables

Payment

  1. Overall activity plan for regional and national activities & Detailed workplan for implementation of support to TRANSFORM-MENA hub

5%

  1. Good practices paper on nexus project in OPT and peer review report of new OPT project

7%

  1. Internal note with advice on modalities for engagement in humanitarian cash coordination groups in Lebanon, Yemen and Syria

13%

  1. HDP strategic entry points country brief / concept note / proposal for Lebanon

8%

  1. Report of TRANSFORM-MENA supported applications in 3 countries

12%

  1. HDP strategic entry points country brief / concept note / project proposal for Syria
  1.  
  1. Report on implementation of social protection activities in Syria

10%

  1. Report of TRANSFORM-MENA supported applications in 3 countries

12%

  1. HDP strategic entry points country brief / concept note / project proposal for Yemen

10%

  1. Implementation Report of support requested from TRANSFORM-MENA hub

15%

 

 

 

 

  1. Qualifications and Selection Criteria

Education

  • Advanced degree in economics, statistics, or development and social studies, social protection, education or public policy.

Experience

  • 10 or more years of experience in social protection, including in crisis contexts.
  • 3 or more years of experience in capacity development, training and/or adult education, ideally in the field of social protection
  • 3 or more years of programming work in the HDPN space, ideally in the field of social protection
  • Experience in planning, project management, reporting and technical assistance in the field the assignment.
  • Experience working with a UN agency or other international development organization preferable.

Skills and knowledge

  • Extensive knowledge of social protection ILO frameworks and standards
  • Excellent written and spoken English and presentational capacities. Fluency in Arabic language is an advantage.
  • Excellent inter-personal skills and communication skills
  • Knowledge of the development context in the Middle East and North Africa region.

 

The consultancy can be performed remotely, though presence in the region will be preferrable. Missions to relevant countries will be arranged as required on the basis of the activity plan.

 

 

  1. Qualifications and Selection Criteria

Suppliers are invited to share the following documents by July 7th 2023 with the ILO Regional Social protection team at: fawaz@ilo.org and pellerano@ilo.org

  • A cover letter outlining fit for the assignment
  • CV
  • An example of previous work on a similar assignment
  • Financial proposal (Daily Rate)