Background
Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality, and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls, the empowerment of women, and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace, and security. Through its programmes and projects, UN Women is providing technical assistance to national partners in the implementation of existing international and national commitments to women’s rights and gender equality, facilitates exchange of good practices, and advocates for women’s rights and gender equality in all areas of life. UN Women’s global strategic plan (2022-2026) has identified care economy transformation as a priority area with a focus on strengthening policy frameworks and increasing public and private sector investment in the care economy.
Because of its importance in achieving gender equality, SDG 5.4 calls for action beyond merely increasing the visibility of unpaid work as a policy issue to also include policies to alleviate the care burden and divide it between women and men, families and public/market services in a more balance and equitable manner and providing better and more visible employment to care workers (decent work).
Despite some progress in increasing the presence of women in public life, their participation in the labor market is still low, and globally the labor force participation rate for women is just over 50% compared to 80% for men (World Bank, 2022). One of the factors influencing women and girls low labour force participation rate is the unequal share in unpaid care work exacerbated by the failure of States to recognize, reduce and redistribute the domestic and care work. Globally, women spend 2.6 times more on unpaid care and domestic work than their male counterparts. On average, in Tanzania women spend 4.4 hours per day on unpaid care and domestic work, while men only spend 1.4 hours per day.
To address women’s disproportionate share of care responsibilities, under the Generation Equality the URT committed on specific commitments incorporating the contribution of unpaid care and domestic work into GDP, expanding coverage and provision of social protection, as well as increasing investment in physical and social infrastructures such as access to clean water, clean energy and childcare centers.
To support the Government of Tanzania’s commitment to transform the care economy, among others, UN Women Tanzania is implementing a 4-years project entitled “Strengthening women’s and girls’ meaningful participation, leadership, and economic rights at the local levels (WLER). The project is implemented in Singida, Arusha, Mtwara, Dar es salaam, Coastal and Lindi regions with financial support from the Government of Finland. The project aims at enhancing women’s economic rights by addressing women and girls’ unpaid care work, working closely with the Government and other key stakeholders at the local level. Furthermore, UN Women is implementing a joint programme on Rural Women’s Economic Empowerment, where among others UN Women interventions aims at reducing the gender gap in agriculture productivity for women farmers through addressing the unpaid care work responsibilities.
Building on this, UN Women seeks the services of an international expert to support efforts towards addressing women’s unpaid care and domestic work in Tanzania. The international consultant will work closely with one national consultant to be hired through a separate contract by UN Women. The two consultants will work as a team, with the international consultant as the lead responsible for overall quality assurance.
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