Consultancy on macroeconomic policy enablers for improving female employment in the Arab region

The ultimate result of service of this consultancy is to produce a macroeconomic assessment paper that examines female employment trends and assesses the macroeconomic policy reforms that support a surge in women’s employment regionally in the Arab States and nation-wide in the SWEI Group 1 Countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia.

Remote

3 months

Background Women’s labour force participation in the Arab States has stagnated at 21% since 1990. UN Women’s Surging Women's Employment (SWEI) Initiative aims to increase women’s employment by 5% by 2030 across eight countries focusing on Green, STEM, and Care economies. The eight SWEI countries are divided into two groups: Group 1: Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia; and Group 2: Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Iraq. As part of the inception phase, the SWEI implementation plan calls for a regional analysis of potential macroeconomic policy reforms needed for expedited employment generation solutions. ESCWA and UN Women highlighted the need to strengthen macroeconomic and fiscal analysis with practical, policy oriented approaches to support the ongoing regional diagnostic. As a contribution to the SWEI initiative, ESCWA will prepare a macroeconomic assessment paper addressing these issues. Duties and Responsibilities The consultant will work in close cooperation with the project team at ESCWA. In this context, the consultant will be required to:

• Review and assess female labour force participation trends in the Arab region overall and SWEI Group 1 countries (Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia), including analysis of employment evolution by sector at the regional level as well as unemployment patterns among young women, to serve as the analytical background for the paper.
• Map macroeconomic policies across Arab countries influencing women's employment, distinguishing between policies that enable women to work and those that incentivize employer hiring.
• Analyze sectoral employment structures across the SWEI countries using ISIC-based data, with specific focus on Green, STEM, and Care economies.
• Compare the documented and evidenced impact of macroeconomic policy reforms and sectoral interventions on women's employment to provide background and evidence for the macroeconomic policy proposals.
• Identify and propose key macroeconomic policy reforms to surge women's employment in each of the four Group 1 countries, and develop quantified costing and projected impact for each proposed reform on women employment.
• Develop a methodological approach for assessing the impact of macroeconomic policy reforms on female employment and costing policy reform implementation.

A Master’s degree in economics, labor economics, econometrics, or related field is required. A PhD degree n economics, labor economics, econometrics, or related field is desirable. All candidates must submit a copy of the required educational degree. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed. A minimum of four (4) years of professional work experience in labour economics and labour market policy evaluation is required. A minimum of two (2) years of demonstrated expertise in econometric modelling and quantitative economic analysis, including construction of databases and application of regression-based techniques to model and cost policy impacts is required. A minimum of one year of experience in macroeconomic and fiscal policy analysis, including public expenditure assessment, is desirable. Publication in reputable journals in these fields is desirable. Knowledge of social and economic development issues in the Arab region is desirable.

English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat; and Arabic is a working language of ESCWA. For this position, fluency in English language is required. Note: “Fluency” equals a rating of ‘fluent’ in all four areas (speak, read, write, and understand) and “Knowledge of” equals a rating of ‘confident’ in two of the four areas.

Not available.

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.