International Consultant to Guide the Implementation of Time Use Survey in Georgia

Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

UN Women in Georgia supports state and non-state partners towards the achievement of substantive gender equality in Georgia. In line with national and international commitments, UN Women works on the levels of policies and legislation, institutions and grassroots, in order to achieve transformative results for increased gender equality and greater protection of the rights of women and girls.

In September 2019 UN Women Georgia with the generous support of the Government of Norway launched a three-year project “Good Governance for Gender Equality in Georgia (GG4GEG). The overarching goal/impact of the project is to ensure that governance systems are gender-sensitive and enable gender equality in Georgia. In order to contribute to the achievement of this goal, the project delivers around following three key objectives: Objective 1: Gender equality and gender mainstreaming are institutionalized at the national and local levels; Objective 2: Gender mainstreaming capacities are developed and sustained at the national and local levels; Objective 3: More and better-quality data and analysis are available to promote and track the progress of gender equality and women’s empowerment.

To respond to the data gaps to report on implementation of SDGs (SDG target 5.4. recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies, and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate) and ensure that more and better-quality data and analysis are available to promote and track the progress of gender equality and women’s empowerment, UN Women, within the framework of GG4GEG project and UN Women’s flagship programme – Making Every Women and Girl Count, is supporting the National Statistics Office of Georgia (GEOSTAT) in conducting Time Use Survey (TUS).

Time Use Survey is the essential data source for measuring not only time allocation patterns, but for measuring unpaid work, household production, including volunteering, accurate working time, gender balance in daily activities, care for children and the elderly, transport time and use, leisure and non-work activities, use of ICT, loneliness and isolation and several element of quality of life including subjective perceptions. Time-use statistics are becoming an important tool in understanding gender-based inequalities, in estimating the contribution of women’s unpaid work to national well-being and in designing policies for women’s empowerment.

Conducted for the first time in Georgia, TUS will be designed in line with internationally established standards, methodologies and best practices, including, inter alia, the Guide to Producing Statistics on Time Use: Measuring Paid and Unpaid Work produced by the United Nations Statistical Division In 2016 (United Nations Statistical Division, 2016, Guide to Producing Statistics on Time Use: Measuring Paid and Unpaid Work, Available at: https://unstats.un.org/unsd/publication/SeriesF/SeriesF_93E.pdf), the International Classification of Activities for Time Use Statistics (ICATUS2016 - International Classification of Activities for Time-Use Statistics (2016), Available at: https://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic-social/time-use/icatus-2016/) endorsed by the UN Statistical Commission for use as an international statistical classification in 2017,  the methodological guideline for “Harmonized European Time Use Surveys (EUROSTAT 2018, Methodological guideline for “Harmonized European Time Use Surveys,” Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-manuals-and-guidelines/-/KS-GQ-19-003)” (HETUS) issued by Eurostat in 2018 to facilitate the data collection process in European countries and  the Guidelines for Harmonizing Time Use Survey (UNECE, 2013,  Guidelines for Harmonizing Time-Use Surveys; Available at: http://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/stats/publications/2013/TimeUseSurvey_Guidelines.pdf) developed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) endorsed by Conference of European Statisticians in 2013.

UN Women is seeking to contract an international consultant who will provide guidance and expertise in the design and implementation of TUS in Georgia in line with the international standards and guidelines on producing time use statistics as a part of official statistics.  In close partnership with GEOSTAT and under the overall coordination from UN Women, the international consultant will lead the development of the survey methodology, render capacity development support to the TUS implementation team, provide technical guidance in the implementation of the study, analytical guidance in the data analysis process and take a lead in the report preparation and writing process.

It is important to note that, although the study will be implemented by GEOSTAT, a stakeholders’ group will be set up from the onset of the survey, which will include selected partners working on gender equality and women’s empowerment in the country (i.e. government, UN and other international organizations, CSOs, academia). This group will be involved/consulted in the definition of the objectives and scope of the YUS, as well as along other phases. This will contribute to the survey being owned by all those stakeholders working on gender equality in the country, so that the results can be used for policy and programming.

The work of the consultancy is expected to start in February 2020 and end in December 2021, when the results and final report will be finalized and presented. 

Duties and Responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities of the international consultant are:

• To be the technical and methodological lead expert in the design, implementation and finalization of the Time Use Survey in Georgia
• To review and finalize study methodology, building on international best practices and established methodologies, and through close consultations with UN Women, GEOSTAT and other relevant stakeholders
• To finalize background questionnaires as well as TUS report book and forms, in close collaboration with GEOSTAT, and UN Women and other relevant stakeholders
• To take the lead in developing the tools and the methodology for the training of interviewers and training of coders, ensuring that all methodological and ethical considerations are reflected in the data collection process, and to guide and support GEOSTAT in the implementation of the training
• To take the lead in piloting and finalizing research instruments and forms
• To provide technical support to GEOSTAT in coding, cleaning of survey data and preparing a database in line with international standards
• To provide technical support to GEOSTAT in the coding and analysis of results and to take a lead in the preparation of the Draft Report
• To trouble shoot and advice on how to overcome any challenges and difficulties in the implementation of the survey methodology and data analysis
• To take a lead in the finalization of the Final Report and to quality assure the results

Deliverables

• Inception Report: Existing survey methodology (including the workplan) reviewed and finalized and inception report containing detailed work-plan of the consultancy specifying activities and timelines as well as survey methodology (including the questionnaires) agreed with GEOSTAT and UN Women –submitted to UN Women by March 23, 2020 (5 working days);
• Training of Survey Personnel: Training materials developed, and a comprehensive training conducted for survey analysts, interviewers, field supervisors, coders and data processors, pilot study supervised and methodology updated based on the pilot results (requires travel to Georgia for 8 working days) by May 29, 2020 (12 working days);
• Guidance in the Data Collection, Coding and Data Cleaning and Weighting Process: Data collected, cleaned and weighted by GEOSTAT with technical support and guidance from the International Consultant –by November1, 2021 (8 working days);
• Data Analysis and Draft Report: TUS data analysed in close collaboration with GEOSTAT, Draft Report prepared (requires travel to Georgia  for 5 working days) – by November 27, 2021 (15 working days);
• Final Report developed and Presented: Finalization of the report in close collaboration with GEOSTAT and UN Women and relevant stakeholders in English, with relevant annexes in same language as the report and presented to relevant stakeholders in Tbilisi (requires travel to Georgia – 2 working days) by December 10, 2021 (10 working days);

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Effective Communication
• Creative Problem Solving
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Functional Competencies

• Strong problem-solving skills
• Excellent writing, presentation/public speaking skills
• IT literacy

Please, visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf?la=en&vs=637

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced degree (PhD) in Social Sciences, Gender Studies, Development Studies, Human Rights, Sociology or related field, and/or senior academic experience

Experience:

• A minimum of seven years’ experience in the quantitative household surveys design and implementation at national and/or regional level. Prior Time Use Survey methodology development and/or survey management experience is required;
• A minimum of seven years of progressively responsible and relevant experience in the fields of human rights, social inclusion, and/or Gender equality;
• Good knowledge and experience in leading and designing statistical capacity on times use statistics or other quantitative household surveys;
• Strong knowledge of international standards recommendations on production of time use statistics;
• Proven experience in the use of statistical softwares (STATA, SPSS) for the analysis of Time Use Surveys;
• Previous professional experience with development agencies and/or the United Nations is an asset.

Language:

• Excellent command of written and spoken English.

Evaluation Procedure:

The candidates will be evaluated in three stages: according to minimum qualification criteria; technical and financial evaluation.

The candidates must possess following minimum qualification criteria to be eligible for further technical evaluation:

• Advanced degree (PhD) in Social Sciences, Gender Studies, Development Studies, Human Rights, Sociology or related field, and/or senior academic experience (max 30 points);
• A minimum of seven years’ experience in the quantitative household surveys (including Time Use Surveys) design and implementation at national and/or regional level (max 80 points);
• A minimum of seven years of progressively responsible and relevant experience in the fields of human rights, social inclusion, and/or Gender equality (max 50 points);
• Good knowledge and experience in leading and designing statistical capacity on times use statistics or other quantitative household surveys (max 30 points);
• Strong knowledge of international standards recommendations on production of time use statistics (max 80 points);
• Proven experience in the use of statistical softwares (STATA, SPSS) for the analysis of Time Use Surveys (max 30 points);
• Previous professional experience with development agencies and/or the United Nations is an asset (max 20 points);
• Excellent command of written and spoken English. (max 30 points).

Maximum total technical score amounts to 350 points. Only candidates who have passed over the minimum qualification criteria and have accumulated at least 245 points out of maximum 350 under technical evaluation will qualify for the next stage i.e. evaluation of their financial proposals.

Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 150S – score received on financial evaluation;Fmin – the lowest financial offer out of all the submitted offers qualified over the technical evaluation round;F – financial offer under consideration.

The winning candidate will be the candidate, who has accumulated the highest aggregated score (technical scoring + financial scoring).

Management arrangements:

The contractor will report to and work under direct supervision of UN Women Governance Programme Analyst and UN Women Gender Data Specialist

Financial arrangements:

Payment will be disbursed upon submission and approval of deliverables and certification by UN Women National Programme Officer that the services have been satisfactorily performed as specified below:

• Deliverable 1, 2– (17 days) 35%
• Deliverables 3,4,5 – (33 days) 65%

Application submission package:

• CV;
• Dully filled Personal History Form PHF11 that can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment
• Financial Proposal - lump sum proposal/offer* in USD (including breakdown of this lump sum amount indicating all necessary costs to complete this mission: total remuneration, travel expenses (per diems, tickets, lodging and terminal expenses, if applicable)

*The applicants are required to submit an aggregated financial offer: “aggregated financial offer” is the total sum of all financial claims of the candidate, including travel costs (ticket, DSA etc.) for accomplishment of all tasks spelled out in this ToR .

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

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