Organization: UNECA
Location: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Closing Date: Apr 18, 2022
Result of Service
Ultimate results
a) Increased capacity of national statistical authorities, policy makers and other trade stakeholders in the beneficiary countries to develop a conceptual framework that would address the data needs on trade and gender
b) Enhanced technical capacity of national statistical authorities to collate data and statistics and formulate plans to improve the availability of data needed for gender-responsive trade policies
Work Location
Addis Ababa
Expected duration
The consultancy will be for 6 months , starting from 1st May 2022 and ending not later than 30 October 2022.
Duties and Responsibilities
I – Background
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes international trade as a driver for inclusive economic development and poverty reduction, and an important means to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As major source of economic growth trade can significantly impact the social structure of society, including gender equality, identified by SDGs not only as a gaol but also as a mean of achieving the other SDGs. The interlinkage between gender equality and economic development is well documented and available evidence show that while Women are key actors of trade, as traders , workers and consumers, they have benefited less trade opportunities compared to men due to existing inequalities. In contrary they are more exposed to negative impact of trade liberalization and trade policies.
This shows clearly that trade, trade policies and agreements are not gender neutral, as they are correlated with the structure of societies that usually benefit men more than women, including the structure of market and institutions. However, this interrelation remains complex and different from a society to another. That is why it is important to understand the gender dimension of trade, identify the drivers of gender bias in trade and trade policies and agreements as well as actions needed at policy, institutional and market levels to meet gender equality and women empowerment in trade and trade policies.
The achievement of such objective requires collection, analysis and use of quality gender related data and statistics in the areas of trade, including sex disaggregated data and statistics for evidence based decision making and policy. It is a requirement for the measurement of progress towards SDGs trade related goal and targets promoting inclusive trade policy and equitable economic development. It is in line with the 2017 Buenos Aires Declaration on Trade and Women’s Economic Empowerment, countries that called for the sharing of methods and procedures for the collection of sex-disaggregated data, and the analysis of gender-focused statistics related to trade.
However, evidence has shown that data on gender and trade are missing in many countries, particularly African countries, as trade and gender statistics stakeholders lack statistical capacity and tools required to measure the interrelation between the two areas. An assessment of the databases of five African Regional Economic Communities (RECs), undertaken by ECA in 2010 showed that While the REC databases largely contain detailed formal trade statistics these are not disaggregated by sex. In addition, information on women informal cross border trade (ICBT) has not been collected beyond some ad-hoc studies. Consequently, important data on women’s contribution to trade is missing from national and regional statistics in Africa.
Strategies needed to address this limitation was the focus of various meetings organized in African region recently. A common recommendation from these meetings was the need to improve data and capacity to measure and mainstream gender and trade in trade policy in the ECA region. This shows clearly the need to strengthen the capacity of African countries to collect, analyze and disseminate trade data that take into account gender issues in order to improve their capacity produce timely and comparable quality gender related trade data for evidence based inclusive trade decision making and policy formulation. This is particularly important now as member states have established the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) that is expected to bring significant benefits in terms of increasing intraregional trade, developing regional value chains, creating decent jobs and, consequently, reducing poverty. The achievement of AfCFTA objectives will depend on the ability of member states to fully integrate gender dimension into all aspect of its implementation.
In order to address this issue, ECA in partnership with UNCTAD and ECE are implementing a project aiming to develop a coherent approach to measuring the interplay between gender equality and trade policy with official statistics. The project aims to enhance technical capacity of national statistical authorities to collate data and statistics and formulate plans to improve the availability of data needed for gender-responsive trade policies. In the longer term, the project will enable a more coherent review of progress towards inclusive trade policy and equitable economic. To this end, UNCTAD has developed a conceptual framework for measuring gender and trade in consultation with national statistical offices, trade policymakers and international organizations. The framework provides common definitions and concepts for measuring entrepreneurship from the gender perspective. The framework for trade considers four elements that are the followings:
i. Preconditions for the participation of women and men in trade: motivations and aspirations, resources and constraints.
ii. Outcomes reflecting the degree of participation and roles of women and men;
iii. Impacts including the effects of trade on employment, division of labour, income, empowerment and wellbeing etc;
iv. Trade policy and other government interventions that may influence gender equality.
In order to adapt the framework to the African context, ECA is planning to organise an Expert Group meeting in October 2021 to review the methodology, provide inputs aiming to contextualise it for the African situation, and validate the proposed conceptual framework before applying in pilot countries . Based on the EGM outcomes, a lead consultant will revise and adapt the conceptual methodological framework to the African context and prepare statistical guidelines and other material for the compilation of trade and gender statistics that will guide the national work on the issue.
In this regards, ECA is looking for a national consultant, in each of the following countries: Cameroon, Kenya, Senegal and Zimbabwe, to work directly with the member states in the pilot countries (National Office of Statistics (NSO), gender and trade machinery) to implement/test the methodology and adapt it to the local context.
II – Duty and responsibility:
Under the supervision and guidance of the African Centre for Statistics (ACS) Director and/or Regional Integration and Trade Division (RITD) Director of the Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the national consultants will deliver the following:
• Attend the Expert Group meeting that will review methodology and provide inputs aiming to contextualise it for the African situation, and validate the proposed conceptual framework,
• Based on the revised and adapted the conceptual methodological framework as well as statistical guidelines and other material prepared by the lead consultant, work with the national entities (NSO, gender and trade machineries and other stakeholders) to:
¿ Review in detail data availability and gaps and proceed with experimental calculation of gender-in-trade statistics.
¿ Collect data and statistics.
¿ Pprepare action plans to generate the required evidence for gender-responsive trade policy.
¿ Provide a training session to NSO staff and trade policy makers, and
¿ Organize a national workshop with stakeholders to bring statisticians, gender and trade policy makers together.
¿ Submit report of the various trainings and workshops undertaken at national levels,
¿ Submit report on gender and trade that highlight availability of gender related trade statistic in the country, challenges experienced by the country during the test and implementation of the methodology and its adaption to the local context with concrete recommendations on a way forward for the improvement of genre relate trade statistics in the countries.
¿ Participate in a debrief session to discuss lessons learned and take-aways from pilot countries with lead consultant and other national consultants.
Qualifications/special skills
Academic Qualifications: .An advanced University degree (Masters Degree) in Statistics, Economics, Gender Statistics, trade or any other relevant field of study is required.
A first level university degree in combination of additional two years of work experience may be accepted in lieu of the master’s degree.
Experience: A minimum of five years of progressively responsibilities in the field in Statistics and gender issues,experience with mainstreaming gender perspective into national statistical system, including trade statistics is required.
The Consultant shall have a proven working experience with African countries especially on gender statistics issues, including and methodologies required for the integrating gender issues into trade statistics and/or must have proven abilities to prepare reports on gender statistics issues in a clear, concise and compelling manner s advantageous.
Language: English and French are the working languages of the UN Secretariat. For this consultancy, fluency in English or French is required.
No Fee
THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.