Procurement Notices

Terms of Reference

Labour Market Observatory Expert

Project:                                                   Funding Facility for Economic Reform – Federal

Post Level:                                             International Individual Consultant

Duty Station:                                         Homebased + Baghdad/Iraq

Duration:                                            110 days over 12 months

Estimated Starting Date:                    Dec. 2022

(Date when the selected candidate  

 is expected to start)

1. Background

The Government of Iraq (GoI) has recently published a two-volume White Paper for economic reform outlining its vision for drastic changes to the Iraqi economy, with a focus on the financial sector, public service sector and reforms targeted at decreasing expenditures and driving up non-oil revenues. Iraq’s international partners, donor countries, and international organizations are supporting the GoI with necessary technical assistance it requires to execute its reform programme.

As such, there are 64 reform projects in the GoI White Paper for economic reform which encapsulate some four hundred reform actions. These projects will require national and international expertise in order to execute and achieve the expected reform outcomes.

To support the GoI’s Ministry of Labor & Social Affairs (MoLSA) in implementing its reforms, UNDP is seeking a labour market observatory expert with a desired scope of work and qualifications as outlined below.

2. Scope of work

Generally, the objective of the Labour Market Observatory is to identify and analyse labour market information, trends and challenges, bringing added value to the national labour market synergy. it has several functions like:

• observing labour market challenges and trends;

• collecting examples of best practices;

• stimulating discussion by organising hearings with institutional and socio-professional stakeholders, civil society organisations and academia;

• producing pro-active investigative reports or studies on selected topics;

• analysing cross-cutting issues.

Its activities consist mainly of collecting data on the local marketplace, laws &regulations, organize public events, and a project to assess the implementation of policies regarding the wok and unemployed in the country.

Regarding the benefits, Labor Market Observatories are institutions that help guide job seekers and students, intermediaries, policymakers, training institutions, as well as investors and employers with labor market trends and guidance to build better careers. ¬ LMOs provide relevant and timely information on labor market trends to allow end users to make informed decisions on skills acquisition and occupations—many times they produce widely disseminated outputs highlighting “the top–10 most in-demand skills” or “20–fastest growing occupations.”

The suggested labour market observatory initiative to be implemented in the Iraqi context should provide international experiences and models. The expert will need to conduct a survey for the relevance and availability of labour market information in Iraq. The expert will need to identify the most suitable models of labour market observatory for Iraq under the MoLSA.

For the duration of this assignment, the Expert will be working in the MoLSA and will work under the overall guidance and consultation with MoLSA’s Director General of Vocational Training, as well as under the supervision of UNDP FFER-Federal Project Manager.

Key duties and responsibilities will include, but are not limited to:

1. Prepare an initial baseline report as pre-feasibility for the Labor Market Observatory– The Expert will prepare a pre-feasibility for the project to be discussed and endorsed by the MoLSA and the project main stakeholders. The initial baseline report will be prepared through interviews with relevant department and MoLSA staff. This report will then serve as a foundation for more in-depth consultation with stakeholders. This report must include, but is not limited to:
   1. A general assessment of the current preparedness for a labor market observatory and the related data and interested stakeholders.
   2. A matrix that captures global and regional best practice examples and conduct comparative assessment of effective labor market observatory initiatives.
   3. List of all necessary stakeholders required for in-depth follow up.

1. Prepare a detailed, full feasibility study for creating the labour market observatory, and identify the key strategy for development –
   1. The Expert will work with the MoLSA relevant Department staff to identify and provide a detailed assessment for the feasibility of a labour market observatory, as part of the MoLSA as well as identify the main stakeholders supporting its implementation.
   2. The Expert will provide guidance on how to assess the impact of the project and its perception by the concerned stakeholders from public and private sectors.
   3. The Expert will draft suggested structure for the labour market observatory with estimated needed financial and human resources.
   4. The Expert will support the IT specialists at MoLSA in determining the needed information systems for the suggested observatory, and how to improve the quality data on labour market.
   5. The Expert will support the identification, sharing of the labour market indicators, especially from skill development, jobs supply and demand sides,
2. Capacity Building and technical Support to Ministry of Labour & Social Affairs to develop its staff – with the aid of the initial baseline and full feasibility report to be conducted, the Expert will support MoLSA to:
   1. Conduct Capacity Building Workshops – Lead capacity building workshops with key stakeholders related to the development and establishment of a labour market observatory, with a focus on the following issues:
      1. Socioeconomic monitoring parameters of the labour market
      2. Integrate the information processing and on-line recruitment platforms
      3. Identify needed analysis scales and ability to select analysis areas that transcend the labour market
      4. Measure the degree of flexibility or rigidity of the Iraqi labour market
   2. Providing Technical Supervision support– for the recruitment of the managing staff, covering the various elements and challenges of establishing the needed links and partnership, managing, and administering the labour market observatory and supporting its success.
   3. Providing a workshop – on the partnership design and development, for the project’s managers.
   4. Supervise the process of the acquisition of the labour market monitoring and information systems to be used by the labour market observatory.

3. Expected deliverables and payments:

4. Travel and accommodation:

The specialist is expected to include the total cost of mission (per diem, flight ticket, travel cost and communication) in the financial proposal.

5. Reporting:

Overall management: The Expert shall report directly to the Project Manager of FFER-Federal and all deliverables should be provided within agreed timelines. 

6. Data and Final Reporting:

All raw data, analysis, conclusions should be submitted along with the final report. As for the database, comprehensive user and admin manual, source code of the database should be submitted with the final database.

The service provider should destroy all the data, primary, secondary and analysis, and will be responsible for the data leakage to any third party other than UNDP Iraq. UNDP will be responsible for the data and report delivery to a third party on this assignment.

7. Contract duration:

The assignment will be for over a period of twelve months (110 days over 12 months), starting in the last quarter of 2022 and to be based in Baghdad starting from the date that work is assigned to the Expert by the Project Manager. The Expert is expected to start on Dec.2022.

8. Qualifications and requirements: 

A. Education and professional qualifications:

• A Master’s Degree or equivalent in economics, development economics, business development, entrepreneurship, public administration, international relations or related field.

B. Languages:

• Fluency in Arabic and English required.

C. Experience required:

• At least 15 years of relevant working experience with labor market regulation and data, economic development and economic indicators or related fields is required. 25 points
• Expertise in conducting labor market situation analyses and needs assessments related to labor reforms in developing countries is required. 25 points
• Experience in facilitating dialogue among key stakeholders at a high political level to formulate and implement reform plans is required. 15 points
• Demonstrated ability to facilitate consultative meetings and to make presentations of technical findings to a wide audience is desirable. 15 points
• Experience of working with the government sector or providing advisory support to government is required. 20 points
• Experience of working in crisis affected countries is required. 25 points
• Experience of working with the United Nations or international development organizations is desirable. 10 points
• Experience of working in the Arab States countries is desirable. 15 points

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

9. Application:

The application should contain:

• Technical proposal (showing the candidate’s understanding of the assignment requirements, proposed approach, proposed analytical framework or analysis tools);
• Financial proposal; and,
• Updated CV to include qualifications/competencies and relevant past experience in similar projects and contact details of 2 professional referees who can certify the candidate’s competencies, professionalism, quality of presentation and overall suitability for this assignment.