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(Assignment: Unemployment Insurance Consultant)

Terms of Reference for National Consultants to develop Livelihoods Protection and Youth Employment Programme in response to COVID-19 (A joint UN Initiative to support Planning Commission of Pakistan)

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has gripped the entire world, with more than 22 million cases reported. The social and economic effects of COVID-19 are being felt with greater intensity across least developed, developing and emerging market economies irrespective of their income level. Most of them will experience a drop in the GDP and losses in employment and income leading to greater poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition. Concurrently, capacities and resources vary across the world to overcome this pandemic and its intertwined health, social and economic impacts.

Strategic linkages

This activity contributes to the Pakistan Decent Work Country Programme 2016-2020 (extended to 2022), Priority Area 2: “Promoting Job Creation for Youth and Vulnerable Groups”, with international Labour Standards being a crosscutting theme.

Globally, this work contributes to Outcome 3 “Economic, social and environmental transitions for full, productive and freely chosen employment and decent work for all” as envisaged in the ILO Programme and Budget for 2020–21.

In turn, the work would contribute to UN Strategic Development Framework 2018-2022 (Pakistan), Outcome 2 “Decent Work” and the SDG 8.

Socio-Economic Impact Assessment & Response Plan for COVID-19 (SEIA&RP)

The Government of Pakistan is concerned with the social and economic implications of COVID-19 and was one of the first few countries who has developed a COVID-19 “Socio-economic Impact Assessment and Response Plan” through a joint effort of the Government of Pakistan, its relevant ministries and the UN agencies. The Plan reflects both a short-term immediate response to cope with the most exigent socio-economic risks and impacts of the COVID-19, along with medium to long-term policy, regulatory and institutional measures to bring a holistic perspective to the response strategy.

This socio-economic response plan consists of five streams of work – an integrated support to protect the needs and rights of people living under the duress of the pandemic, with particular focus on the most vulnerable groups and people who risk being left behind. The five streams of work that constitute this package include: i) making essential health services available to those in need and protecting health systems; ii) helping people cope with adversity through social protection and basic services and food security; iii) protecting jobs, supporting small and medium-sized enterprises, and the most vulnerable productive actors through economic recovery programmes; iv) guiding the necessary surge in fiscal and financial stimulus to make macroeconomic policies work for the most vulnerable and strengthening multilateral and regional responses; and v) promoting social cohesion and investing in community-led resilience and response systems.

Programme for Livelihood Protection and Youth Employment in response to COVID-19

In follow-up to the SEIA&RP preparation, the Planning Commission of Pakistan has identified five (5) priority areas where specific project proposals will be developed to mobilize resources from Federal and Provincial Government and technical support from development partners will be sought. These areas include Health Systems; Health Surveillance; Education; Livelihoods Protection & Youth Employment; and Gender.

One of the priority areas identified by Planning Commission is to develop a proposal for ‘Livelihoods Protection and Youth Employment Programme in response to COVID-19’. ILO is one of the agencies participating in developing this national programme – in collaboration with other UN Agencies including UNIDO, UN-Women, UNDP, UN-HABITAT, UNHCR, FAO and UNODC. The proposed Livelihoods Protection and Youth Employment programme will focus on following five (5) sub-thematic areas:

• Major Changes in Employment Demand in post-COVID-19: To analyse Pakistani Labour market situation and identify major changes in supply and demand of key economic sectors – along with changes in employers’ demands, new employment areas, key competencies, and skill attributes. The proposal will look into jobs for instance in the care economy (not only health care, but childcare, elderly care, etc). This can be useful for a policy level discussion to promote investment in the care sector, as sector that can generate jobs, and also support women’s labour force participation. Skills development/TVET for care professionals (childcare, elderly care, etc) should also be discussed. This will be important to minimize the risk of increasing gender inequalities. Proposal will also initiate Social Dialogue among Employers, Workers and Government to regularly identify changing trends in employment demands and how to address these changes through affirmative actions;
• Skills Development / TVET: analyse effects of COVID-19 on skills development/ TVET delivery and identify solutions to restart TVET in post-COVID-19 situation and to align it with changing labour market demands. This Section would also review the Skills-component in Government’s ‘Kamyab Jawan Programme’ and will recommend measures to align it with COVID-19 response of the Government particularly by: (a) identifying Mechanisms to reach out to population affected by economic consequences of COVID-19 and to reach out to other vulnerable communities; (b) Ensure gender equality in Kamyab Jawan Programme – particularly to achieve 25% women quota; and (c) Identify measures to improve effectiveness of Kamyab Jawan Programme in response to COVID-19;
• Enterprise Resilience and Development: analyse effects of COVID-19 on business environment after COVID-19 - both for the existing Enterprises as well as for new business start-ups, assess the new opportunities, challenges and identify solutions to support young entrepreneurs for starting their enterprising activities. Focus will be placed also on informal SMEs. These are the ones most vulnerable and intervention measures may not reach them as quickly or at the levels required for livelihood restoration and protection. The principle of “building back better” will be another issue to flag in post Covid-19. The role of green businesses and innovations and green jobs creation will also be a possible link to articulate in the development of a livelihoods protection and youth employment proposal. This Section would also review the Enterprise-component in Government’s ‘Kamyab Jawan Programme’ and will recommend measures to align it with COVID-19 response of the Government particularly by: (a) identifying Mechanisms to reach out to population affected by economic consequences of COVID-19 and to reach out to other vulnerable communities; (b) Ensure gender equality in Kamyab Jawan Programme – particularly to achieve 25% women quota; and (c) Identify measures to improve effectiveness of Kamyab Jawan Programme in response to COVID-19;
• Employments through Employment-Intensive approaches: analyse the most vulnerable groups and identify avenues to start ‘employment-intensive approaches’ in different economic sectors including construction / infrastructure, sanitary infrastructure, community service, health/education service, care-economy, disaster-mitigation, and others - for offering short-to medium term employments to the vulnerable groups.
• Unemployment Benefit Programme: to analyse the scope for a regular ‘Unemployment Insurance / Unemployment Benefit’ programme which shall be capable to provide any support to the laid-off/unemployed workers in case of any natural or human-made calamity – including benefits to the health workforce.

All above chapters will include a focus on special needs for supporting women and men from urban and rural settings particularly young women, returning migrant workers, young workers in rural economies, refugees, persons with disabilities, and other groups with special needs. Proposal will explore opportunity to work on the prevention of violence and harassment at workplaces induced due to COVID-19.

For this purpose, ILO and UN Partner Agencies would engage a team of technical consultants to provide adequate technical inputs in analyzing above thematic areas and based on these analyses, develop a comprehensive Livelihoods Protection and Youth Employment Programme in response to COVID-19– with following specific responsibilities:

• Lead Consultant to coordinate among Team of Consultants and compile final document;
• Consultant to develop chapter on ‘Major changes in Labour Market Demand and Employment trends due to COVID-19 in Pakistan’;
• Consultant to develop ‘Skills Development / TVET’ component;
• Consultant to develop ‘Enterprise Development’ component;
• Consultant to develop component on ‘Employment-intensive approaches’ for short-term employment;
• Consultant to develop ‘Unemployment Benefit’ programme;
• Consultant to focus on gender mainstreaming in the review, analyses and proposal

Specific scope of work and Terms of Reference for each of the six Consultants (Lead and four thematic Consultants) is given in Annex-1-6.

Responsibility Framework

• All Consultants will be responsible to:
  • Identify most relevant and recent literature and tools related to the subject;
  • Develop mechanisms to effectively consult relevant stakeholders and get adequate benefits in a respondent-friendly manner;
  • In view of travel restrictions and other SOPs due to COVID-19 pandemic, make sure to use appropriate technologies and means of communication that suits the requirements of relevant stakeholders;
  • Make a presentation on proposed strategies/programmes for validation workshop;
  • Ensure timely submission of deliverables;
  • Ensure full compliance with Planning Commission, Participating UN Agencies and other stakeholder inputs in the Report;
  • Share all important legislations, regulations, statistics, documents and information obtained during consultancy assignment, which are not available online;
  • Take all necessary measures to complete the assignment within given resources and timeframe;
  
  

• ILO/Participating UN Agencies will be responsible for;
  • Prepare a contract for the Consultants and making necessary payments on different intervals – based on deliverables;
  • Provide an introductory letter to Consultants – which will help him/her to introduce to relevant stakeholders;
  • Provide contact details of various relevant stakeholders;
  • Where possible, extend support in facilitating meetings with relevant stakeholders;
  • Provide technical inputs on outline, and draft Strategy within a reasonable time;
  • ILO will facilitate the ‘Validation Workshop’. If, due to COVID-19 lockdown situation, the workshop has to be online, UN Agencies will provide IT platform for meeting. In case of face-to-face meeting, UN Agencies will manage the entire event including content, venue, and logistics etc.

Special Provisions

• COVID-19: Consultants will be required to fully comply with applicable UN and Government regulations and SOPs for prevention against spread of COVID-19 and organize work in such a way to ensure safety of self and other stakeholders.
• Security: As per new UN regulations, if the assignment includes traveling to any city other than Islamabad, Lahore or Karachi, the Consultant will have to complete a special Security Training Course (SSAFE) preferably before starting the assignment. UN Agency will facilitate enrollment of Consultant to the course (and will pay for the course) – but these training days will not be paid by UN Agency.
• Reporting: Consultants will be required to report to ILO. All materials produced by Consultant will be reviewed by Planning Commission, ILO and Participating UN Agencies for technical quality assurance.

How to submit:

Interested individuals are requested to submit the Expressions of Interest, along with following supporting documents (duly dated and signed) through email to: islamabad@ilo.org, cc: shahnila@ilo.org by Sunday, 13th September 2020.

• Clearly mention the title of Assignment in your email subject, for which you are applying ;
• CV or profile of the individual
• Brief methodology to carry out the assignment (not more than 1 page);
• Number of workdays required to complete this assignment
• Fee per day (in PKR) – exclusive of all taxes and other expenses

Any offer received after the official closing time and date will not be accepted.

Questions and replies:

Should you have any questions, please contact us at the latest by date only by email (islamabad@ilo.org; cc shahnila@ilo.org) quoting the RFQ reference.

Scope of Work & TORs for UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE SCHEME

Scope of Work

The Consultant for ‘Unemployment Insurance Scheme’ will be responsible to produce the comprehensive Chapter on “Unemployment Insurance (UI) Programme” to become part of proposal for ‘Livelihoods Protection & Youth Employment in response to COVID-19 in Pakistan’.

‘Unemployment Insurance’ is one of the nine (9) branches of Social Protection as per ILO Convention on Social Security (Minimum Standards), 1952 (No. 102). Unemployment insurance (UI) schemes are implemented in both emerging and advanced economies to protect employed individuals against the risk of job loss. In their essence, these interventions provide income support conditional on some job-search requirement or participation in active labour market policies (ALMPs). This policy design aims to immediately tackle the risk of out-of-work poverty while at the same time creating incentives for individuals to look for a job and increase their employability. In this sense, UI schemes differ from other types of social protection programmes (e.g. cash transfers, means-tested social assistance), whose participation is not necessarily conditional on previous labour market participation and not strictly linked to future labour market re-insertion (ILO, 2019a).

The chapter on Unemployment Insurance will include necessary narrative/analytical description of benefits of UI in case of job-loss and major challenges and opportunities for UI Scheme in Pakistan, strategies on how to adopt UI Scheme and how to create fiscal space for a sustainable UI Scheme in Pakistan. Chapter will also include Federal and provincial disaggregated stakeholders analysis, and identify workable solutions to address specific challenges for vulnerable communities to access UI Scheme. The Consultant for Unemployment Benefits will closely coordinate with and assist the Lead Consultant in developing his/her contribution to the Proposal.

Specifically, the Consultant will:

• Coordinate with Lead Consultant for effective inputs to the proposal;
• Review and synthesize existing literature, statistics, existing analysis of vulnerabilities and identify existing UI Schemes in other countries, identify relevant institutions and global/regional good practices.
• Review existing programmes of Government and development agencies (UN, Donors, etc) in the area of Social Protection to support UI Scheme – and see how collaboration can be developed with these projects/programmes;
• Identify any incentives package that could be offered to female health workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic;
• Coordinate with other Consultants in the Team to develop a comprehensive proposal for UI Scheme in response to COVID-19 – with effective exchange of information and ideas.
• Coordinate with the overall UN Team – for taking their inputs inclusion in the Proposal and coordinate for removing any anomalies in the statistics and analysis;
• Compile and submit to the ILO/Lead Consultant a draft Chapter on UI Scheme and strategies for adopting this branch of Social Protection in Pakistan – with break-ups for Federal and Provincial Governments;
• Present the findings of the Unemployment Insurance Scheme Chapter at a tripartite validation online meeting (date to be confirmed), and participate as a resource person at that event
• Provide any other support necessary to complete this assignment within time.

Terms of Reference for Technical Consultants

The Consultant will be required to undertake following assignments:

• Desk review of existing literatures, statistics, global good-practices, damages due to COVID-19, ongoing UI Schemes in other countries, and identifying key stakeholders in Pakistan;
• Develop an outline of Chapter on starting an Unemployment Insurance Scheme to reduce effects of COVID-19 on Unemployed workers – adequately covering all areas mentioned above;
• Undertake individual or group consultations with all relevant stakeholders (Federal Ministries, Provincial Governments, relevant Institutions, Employers and Workers’ Organizations,; existing Institutions, Academia / Experts; and Civil Society Organizations);
• Develop a draft Chapter on basic Design of Unemployment Insurance Scheme in Pakistan – along with identifying effective strategies to maximize benefits of proposed UI Scheme for vulnerable workers as well as identifying key stakeholders and institutional analysis;
• Participate in a validation workshop with all tripartite-plus stakeholders and get feedback on the Chapter;
• Finalize the Chapter in line with the inputs received from all stakeholders, UN Agencies and ILO technical experts.

The above outputs may be completed within _____ days of time (final product to be delivered by 15th October 2020) – with following break-up of workdays:

• Literature review __ days
• Develop Chapter outline __ days
• Data collection and meetings with stakeholders __ days
• Developing draft Chapter __ days
• Validation workshop __ days
• Finalizing Chapter __days

Deliverables

Consultant will be required to deliver the following:

• After literature review, share draft Outline for ‘Unemployment Insurance Chapter’ for technical review and inputs by ILO;
• After completing stakeholders consultations, share draft ‘Unemployment Insurance’ for technical review and inputs by ILO;
• Provide a final Chapter after incorporating all inputs by stakeholders (in validation workshop) and ILO.

Required Qualification and Experience

The Consultant should have the following qualification and experience:

• Post-graduation in social sciences or subjects related to Economics, Labour Laws, Industrial Relations, etc.
• Minimum 10 year experience of dealing with matters related to social protection, employment, labour and/or industrial relations - either in Pakistan or abroad;
• Must be well aware of institutional and organizational situations of social protection and labour issues in Pakistan;
• Previous experience of designing social protection programme or activities will be added advantage;
• Previous work experience with UN System in general and with ILO in particular, will be added advantage;
• Strong competence to use computer and office-related software.