Oxfam
Terms of Reference
Review of ADB’s country partnership strategies in Asia from a care lens
Background
Care work, whether it is unpaid, underpaid or paid, is a critical social and economic good. It includes taking care of oneself, each other, children, older persons, family members living with disability or illness/disease, as well as domestic activities like cooking, feeding, cleaning, washing, procuring goods and services, mending, fetching water and firewood — tasks that are critical for the survival of human beings. Without someone investing time, effort and resources in these essential tasks, families, communities, and even entire economies would come to a halt (Coffey, et al. 2020b). Much of this care work is done within households for free, or is unpaid and is mostly carried out by women and girls. However, many women who live in poverty also provide care for others, for example as domestic and health workers. These workers, part of a “global care chain”, are also often underpaid and work without the benefit of social and labour protection. They are among the most exploited workers in the world, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO) (Addati, et al. 2018).
Care work is also still largely invisible in policy and decision making. As such, there is an urgent need for policies that not only recognize care work but place it at the heart of economic thinking, planning and decision making. This will help ensure the greater wellbeing of society, sustainable human development, economic growth and prosperity for all. To realize such a vision, care practices must become a universal standard and they ought to be transformative.
Unfortunately, universal and transformative care policies are still a distant dream, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (Addati, et al. 2018). There is an urgent need to acknowledge care as a critical social and economic good and place it at the core of all development policy decisions and investments. This recognition needs to be understood in a multi-faceted way.
The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly exacerbated adverse conditions in the already neglected care sector. Overburdened health systems, successive lockdowns and the closing of many essential services such as schools, day-care centers and food services have increased the demand for care work across the board. This rising demand for care services is also likely to increase the already disproportionately high share of care work that women and girls perform, according to UN Women (2020). Emerging evidence from rapid assessment surveys conducted by the agency in many Asian countries (Bangladesh, Maldives, Pakistan and Philippines) shows that while domestic work and unpaid care have increased for both men and women, the increase in responsibilities have fallen more on women. However, the pandemic has also thrown up an opportunity to build a gender-just future. Governments all over the world are working towards a strong and resilient economic and social recovery, with significant support from United Nations (UN) organizations, development finance institutions, (DFIs), multilateral development banks (MDBs), institutional donors, international non-government organizations (INGOs) and national non-government organizations (NGOs), as well as the private sector. Women’s groups across the world have highlighted the impact of the pandemic on care work. As a result of their efforts, an understanding of the importance of the care economy is now much stronger within these institutions. There is both an opportunity and an obligation to bring unpaid, underpaid and paid care work into the frontline agenda of all recovery efforts in order to move towards a more equal and gender-just future. It is imperative that the care perspective is integrated within all development policy prescriptions, financial investments and institutions in a way that truly advances gender equality in the post-pandemic context. With this in mind, Oxfam has co-created a set of Care Principles and Care Barometer that could serve as an important advocacy tool for promoting the care agenda across all sectors. Oxfam has also co-created an IFI specific Care Barometer to enable advocacy in this area with international financial institutions which have significant influencing power within the development sector. The tools were created in collaboration with various care workers’ associations and feminist organizations, including the Bretton Woods Project, Amnesty International, International Women’s Rights Action Watch (IWRAW), Initiative for What Works to Advance Women and Girls in the Economy (IWWAGE), International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF), UNI Global Union (formerly Union Network International) and Public Service International (PSI).
Unpacking recognition of care work in a multi-faceted way involves looking at SCDs and CDSs as analytical tools, incorporating a component in them on care work is the entry point to generate that knowledge and better understanding at the country level to then inform operations and investments that follow.
The ADB has published diagnostic studies on long term care in Mongolia, Tonga, Indonesia, and Thailand. There is still a long way to go in terms of holistically addressing care in country partnership frameworks.
Through the tools developed, Oxfam is trying to push for the idea that Diagnostic studies and assessments which inform a country strategy should include care work analysis. Country strategy documents should promote and endorse care-responsive programming and investments as an important priority. Policy-based lending and fiscal reforms should encourage investments that reward care work, and not exploit unpaid and underpaid care work for fiscal consolidation. Country diagnosis initiatives, such as Systematic Country Diagnostics (SCDs) at the World Bank and Country Diagnostic Studies (CDSs) at the ADB, should include data on women’s time use and participation in care work. Oxfam is advocating for the inclusion of data on care work is for these institutions to understand better the gaps and opportunities, and to better inform the Bank’s strategies, operations and investments in a more systematic manner.
Objectives:
This research aims to uncover whether and how the ADB has addressed care work in its country approaches through its own country analytical tools and strategies.
Scope of the assignment
ADB supports projects in developing member countries that create economic and development impact, delivered through both public and private sector operations, advisory services, and knowledge support.
Strategy 2030 sets the course for the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to respond effectively to the region’s changing needs. Under Strategy 2030, ADB will sustain its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty and expand its vision to achieve a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific. ADB’s aspirations are aligned with major global commitments. To achieve Strategy 2030’s vision, ADB will focus on seven operational priority areas. ADB’s support in these areas is being delivered through both public and private sector operations, advisory services, and knowledge support.
The first part of the assignment includes an analysis of operational priorities I and 2
i. Addressing remaining poverty and reducing inequalities. ADB will increase the emphasis on human development and social inclusion to address the non-income dimensions of poverty. It will help facilitate quality job creation, including by small and medium-sized enterprises and inclusive businesses. ADB will support DMCs to improve education and training outcomes, achieve better health for all, and strengthen social protection systems and service delivery for those in need.
ii. Accelerating progress in gender equality. ADB will support targeted operations to empower women and girls, gender mainstreaming that directly narrows gender gaps, and operations with some gender elements that incorporate a few gender equality actions in the design and implementation of ADB projects and programs. At least 75% of the number of ADB’s committed operations (on a 3-year rolling average, including sovereign and non sovereign operations) will promote gender equality by 2030
Further, the country partnership strategy (CPS) is ADB’s primary platform for designing operations to deliver development results at the country level. ADB works with each developing member country to map out a medium-term development strategy and a 3-year country operations business plan (COBP) to implement it.
Oxfam is attempting to promote the idea that Country strategies of IFIs should incorporate care as an important cross-cutting issue or mainstream it through the Bank’s operations. A focus on care infrastructure and care services should be promoted and endorsed as an important sectoral and investment priority in country strategy documents such as Country Partnership Frameworks (CPFs) at the World Bank and Country Partnership Strategies (CPSs) at the ADB. A care-responsive economy should be promoted and endorsed as an important criterion when establishing loan conditionalities, particularly so as to not undermine ADB’s own efforts to promote gender empowerment. Civil society organizations, especially women’s rights groups, and care workers and care workers’ associations should be adequately represented in consultations planned during the preparation of a country strategy.
To aid the move towards care responsive country partnership strategies of the ADB, the consultant will be required to review three country partnership strategies and relevant available diagnostic studies of the ADB of selected countries from a care lens.
The consultant will be required to analyse ADB’s country partnership strategies care-related diagnostic studies of the following countries.
· Indonesia
· Philippines
· Nepal
This research will aim to uncover whether and how the ADB incorporates care work in its country approach through its country analytical tools and strategies. The analysis should include how the strategies are already addressing care. It will also highlight the gaps and practical recommendations to ensure the inclusion of the issues and solutions to the challenges caregivers face. The consultant will be required to draw upon ILO’s Decent Work 5 R framework , and Oxfam’s care principles and Barometer tools to undertake the development of the research framework/ approach and conduct analysis.
The consultant will also be required to draft recommendations on what kind of diagnostic tools (SCDs and CDSs) can help improve ADB’s knowledge and ways of working on care work and how the tools can be improves. The consultant also needs to scope out recommendations on how civil society organisations can better partner with ADB on a Care agenda.
Lastly, the assignment will include analysis an analysis of 2-3 selected gender mainstreaming projects of the Asian Development Fund to unpack what are some of the challenges around putting care on the governance agenda. This analysis will be part of the CPS review in the form of brief case studies.
Primary audience and language
The primary audience of this piece of work will be ADB’s management, policy makers, and decision-makers at the country and head office level who develop and review the country partnership strategies. The research should include tailored high-level messaging to suit the needs of these stakeholders.
Another set of audience are the sector specialists within the ADB. These are technical experts so the CPS analysis should also delve into the technical details to enable their future work.
A secondary audience includes Bank’s shareholders including government representatives and civil society organizations working closely with IFIs.
The overall tone will be pragmatic and evidence-based with constructive recommendations.
Methodology:
- Literature review of how care is addressed by the ADB.
- Literature review of the range of diagnostics currently being used including assessing their perceived quality and impact on the negotiations and agreements for their respective CPFs.
- Review of the operational priorities
- Drawing up an objective framework for analysing the country partnership strategies and care-related long-term diagnostic studies based on the care principles, care barometer, and ILO’s 5 R framework.
- Desk based review of the country partnership strategies based on the framework developed, deep dive on the knowledge and technical assistance sections.
- Analysing publicly available project documents of gender mainstreaming projects.
- KIIs with:
o ADB staff members
o ADB’s gender secretariat
o Decision makers at the country level
o Team leaders of CDSs on long term care
o Project officers of TAs on care work
o ADB country directors
o Gender and social units within countries.
o Organisations working on care in the countries.
o Drafting practical recommendations
Deliverables
· 1 inception report with detailed methodology and timeline
· 1 review document analysing the Operational priority 1 and 1 of ADB’s strategy 2030
· 3 reviews of the country partnership strategies including deep dive analysis and a set of recommendations
· 1 policy brief on strengthening operational priority 1 and 2
· 1 policy brief per country
· 1 consolidated factsheet to draw an Asia wide analysis
· 1 presentation on key findings
Timeline
The consultant will be required to complete the assignment within 80 days of signing the contract. The timeline will be spread across the following activities:
· Literature review
· Drawing up framework for analysis
· Conducting interviews
· Drafting reviews and recommendations
· Comments and Edits round 1
· Comments and Edits Round 2
· Development of final report and summaries, presentations etc.
IMPORTANT NOTES
· The selected consultant will report to and coordinate with the Policy Advisor at Oxfam in Asia.
· The contract period for this assignment will be 80 days.
· Oxfam in Asia will have the right to use the communication product whilst attributing the consultant’s credit.
· All the deliverables need to be approved by the project team before being finalized.
· The Consultant will seek the team’s feedback and incorporate it to improve the quality of the deliverable. Oxfam has the right to suggest changes to the deliverables at any time during the period of this consultancy.
· All content produced will be a property of Oxfam and may not be used for other commercial purposes without permission. The consultant will work in close collaboration with Oxfam’s Communications team to ensure delivery of the required products on pre-defined standards, using Oxfam’s branding guidelines. The final products will be subject to approval by Oxfam.
· The consultant is expected to deliver two rounds of edits of the report during the process of completing the consultancy.
Qualification of the consultant
· Demonstrated knowledge and experience of working research on care work
· Understanding of ADB’s ways of working and country partnership strategies
· Knowledge of research methods, especially qualitative data collection, and conducting studies based on secondary reviews
· Excellent in written communication and presentation skills in English
· Excellent writing precise and detailed information on the collected data
· Experience to maintain data security for research purpose and ensuring data protection requirement in place
· Desirable: Previous contacts with key ADB staff members
Proposal requirements
Consultants are required to submit a narrative and financial proposal. The narrative proposal should include a detailed methodology, example of previous work, and timeline.
Annex I: Exploratory research questions to frame the analysis:
· How can the ADB conduct assessments on care to inform its multi-year country investment plans (i.e. methodologies as well as any strategic approaches followed in order to secure approval and funding to incorporate such an assessment in the process)?
· What could be the decision-making process to include an assessment on care? What could be the modes of data collection and analysis?
· Are there any internal/external incentives in place?
· Are there any internal/external challenges and/or obstacles, political as well as technical in terms of steering a focus on care?
· (When applicable) How did the decision to focus on long term care come about? What were the motivating factors? What has been the role of country leadership in this process?
· What type of tools, data, or incentives are needed for a more systematic approaches to require and perform a care work assessment within the SCD?
· Where in the Bank would the mandate to address care work (and the authority behind the mandate) be?
· What analytical tools have been vetted and are being used by actors/institutions external to the Bank that could add to the Bank’s tool kit to better unpack care?
Annex II: Country level indicators in the care barometer (to inform the framework)
· Country diagnostic (SCD/CDS) includes gendered analysis of time use, work patterns and infrastructure usage
· Country gender assessments include statistical information on and analysis of paid and unpaid care work
· Country partnership documents (CPF/CPS) endorse the need for reforms and investment in care-related sectors
· Country partnership documents (CPF/CPS) emphasize care related infrastructure and services as a key priority for investments
· Country partnership documents (CPF/CPS) include a valuation of the care economy and the need for labour regulations and social protection for care workers
· Women’s groups and care workers’ associations (collectives and unions) are consulted in stakeholder engagement processes for development of the country partnership strategy/framework
Annex III: Checklist items on Country partnership frameworks
· Do the country partnership documents (CPF/CPS) include the need for universalization and public provision of care services (early childhood education, primary education and/or healthcare)?
· Do the country partnership documents (CPF/CPS) include the need for universalization and public provision of care services (childcare, care for older persons and persons living with disability)?
· Do the country partnership documents (CPF/CPS) include the need for labour reforms and decent working conditions for care workers?
· Do the country partnership documents (CPF/CPS) include the need for reforms related to care work to promote women’s participation in the workforce?
· Do the country partnership documents (CPF/CPS) include the need for investment in care infrastructure (water, sanitation, energy and transport), with a view to reducing the care workload as a foundational and/or key priority for action?
· Do the country partnership documents (CPF/CPS) include the need for investment in care services (childcare, early childhood and primary education, healthcare, care for older persons and persons living with disability) as a foundational and/or key priority for action?
· Do the country partnership documents (CPF/CPS) include the need for social protection of workers in the care sector as a foundational and/or key priority for action?
· Do the country partnership documents (CPF/CPS) include demographic information on numbers of persons in need of care?
· Do the country partnership documents (CPF/CPS) include demographic information on numbers of care workers?
· Do the country partnership documents (CPF/CPS) include a valuation of paid and unpaid care work as a percentage of GDP?
· Do the country partnership documents (CPF/CPS) include labour reforms for care workers?
· Do the country partnership documents (CPF/CPS) include social protection measures for care workers?
How to apply
To apply Send your proposal by 15 August 2022 to [email protected] (**Please DONOT send the queries in this email id as it will be administered after the deadline only).
For any confusion or EOI related queries, please contact Myrah Nerine: [email protected] (**Please DONOT send the proposal in this email id)
NOTE: Only complete applications will be considered in this cost-competitive process.