Duties and Responsibilities
Background In Palestine, prolonged socioeconomic challenges, conflict, displacement, and growing pressures on public institutions have heightened the vulnerability of older persons, particularly those living in poverty, experiencing disability, living alone, or requiring long-term care. In the West Bank, older persons continue to face multiple vulnerabilities associated with the prolonged occupation, including movement restrictions, increasing poverty, unequal access to essential services, and mounting economic pressures. In the Gaza Strip, the ongoing humanitarian crisis has further exacerbated these challenges, severely disrupting access to healthcare, social services, income security, and community support systems. The Ministry of Social Development has undertaken important reforms to strengthen the national social protection system through the implementation of its Strategy (2025–2027), the National Strategy for Older Persons (2021–2026), and broader initiatives related to the national social registry, case management systems, and multidimensional poverty reduction. Within this evolving policy landscape, cash assistance programmes and care services constitute two critical but complementary pillars of social protection for older persons. While cash transfers provide essential income security, their effectiveness depends on the availability, accessibility and quality of healthcare, long-term care and social services that enable older persons to maintain their dignity, independence and quality of life. Yet, evidence remains limited regarding the extent to which existing programmes effectively respond to the multidimensional needs of older persons, the adequacy of benefits and services, institutional coordination, and the overall impact of social protection interventions on their well-being. Against this backdrop, ESCWA is hiring a consultant to prepare a study to assess the effectiveness, adequacy, accessibility and responsiveness of cash assistance and care services for older persons in Palestine -including the West Bank and Gaza. The consultancy will generate evidence to inform future reforms and improvement of social protection policies and programmes for older persons. Duties and Responsibilities of the Consultant In close coordination with ESCWA and the Ministry of Social Development in Palestine, the consultant will: 1. Prepare an inception report for the study outlining the refined methodology, detailed workplan, sampling strategy, analytical framework, and proposed data collection instruments, including questionnaires, focus group discussion guides and key informant interview protocols. The inception report will also identify the key informants to be interviewed in West Bank and Gaza. 2. Conduct a comprehensive desk review of relevant literature, legislative and policy documents and administrative data. 3. Provide a snapshot of the demographic and socio-economic situation of older persons in Palestine –West Bank and Gaza. 4. Design and conduct quantitative and qualitative data collection processes including surveys, focus group discussions, key informant interviews and, where appropriate, interviews with caregivers in West Bank and Gaza. 5. Analyze and triangulate quantitative and qualitative findings and assess the effectiveness, adequacy, accessibility and responsiveness of cash assistance and care services in West Bank and Gaza. 6. Identify policy, institutional and operational gaps affecting programme implementation, coverage, targeting, coordination and service delivery in West Bank and Gaza. 7. Prepare the first draft of the study, including all annexes, references and data tables used in the analysis. 8. Revise the draft report based on comments received from ESCWA and the MoSD. 9. Present the main findings and policy recommendations during technical meetings, validation workshops or consultation sessions, if requested. 10. Coordinate closely with ESCWA and the Ministry throughout the data collection process to ensure methodological consistency, quality assurance and appropriate adaptation of fieldwork modalities to the operational context. 11. The consultant shall ensure full adherence to ethical research standards and compliance with stringent confidentiality and data protection standards.
Qualifications/special skills
A Masters degree or equivalent degree in Social Policy, Public Policy, Development Studies, Sociology, Economics, Public Health, Statistics, Social Work, or another closely related discipline or related area is required. All candidates must submit a copy of the required educational degree. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed. A minimum of 7 years of professional work experience in Social Policy, Public Policy, Development Studies, Sociology, Economics, Public Health, Statistics, Social Work, or another closely related discipline is required. Experience working with national ministries, United Nations agencies or other international organizations is desirable. Knowledge of the Palestinian social protection system or previous work in the Palestine is highly desirable. Strong analytical and research skills and demonstrated experience analyzing quantitative and qualitative datasets is required. Ability to synthesize complex findings into concrete policy recommendations and excellent report-writing skills is required.
Languages
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 Arabic is required. Knowledge of English is desirable. 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.
