REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

Immeuble CCIA, Avenue Jean-Paul II

01 B.P. 1387, Abidjan 01, Côte d’Ivoire

Web Site: www.afdb.org

GOVERNANCE AND PUBLIC FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

COORDINATION OFFICE (ECGF)

RECRUITMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL CONSULTANT

GENDER MAINSTREAMING IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION (CAPE VERDE)

Expressions of interest are being requested for an individual consultant to provide support to ECGF in the area of Gender Mainstreaming and Public Administration in Cape Verde.

Brief description of the assignment: The Consultant will be required to provide solid relevant background information on gender equality in public administration, as well as gender insights for the upcoming reforms.

Department issuing the request: Governance and Public Financial Management Coordination Office (ECGF).

Place of assignment: Cape Verde

Duration of the assignment: 2 months

Tentative Date of commencement: June 2021

Detailed Terms of reference for the assignment: (see below)

Deadline for applications: 28 May 2021

Applications to be submitted to: [email protected]   copied to [email protected].

Please attach an updated Curriculum Vitae.

Interested Consultants should also register on the AfDB E-Consultant site at https://econsultant.afdb.org:44356/welcomedacon# and advise [email protected] on the webcode that will be issued / or the DACON number if they are already registered. Please use Internet Explorer to access the E-Consultant application.

Any questions and requests for clarifications may be sent to [email protected] copied to [email protected].

TERMS OF REFERENCE

CONSULTANCY

GENDER MAINSTREAMING IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

(CABO VERDE)

 

 

  1. CONTEXT AND JUSTIFICATION

Public administration activities have a significant impact for a country. They determine the way political and economic decisions made by governments are implemented and how budgets are allocated and spent. They are the working processes under which political and policy decisions are conveyed in practice. For this reason, the equal participation of women and men, especially at decision-making levels, is a necessary condition for inclusive and gender-responsive public

administration systems. Closing gender gaps in public administration remains crucial for inclusive development and democratic governance and enhancing the sustainability and responsiveness of public policies. This is even more important considering the fact that New Public Management type approaches in public administration are also concerned with patterns of redistribution.1. These can only strive to greater equity if the administration itself has an equitable composition.

In 2013, Cabo Verde approved the Positions, Careers and Salaries Plan (PCCS) for Public Administration, defining the bases of the Civil Service Regime. It introduced a set of new principles and rules that shaped the entire process of recruitment and professional development of Public Administration employees. It also sought to modernize the mechanisms for managing the professional development of civil servants based on the New Public Management paradigm. Ultimately, the PCCS was partially implemented highlighting important differences between what the law foresaw and what actually happened.

In 2018, Cabo Verdean authorities conducted a diagnostic study of civil service, which collected testimonies from Public Administration Managers and Employees. The study highlighted a marked general demotivation, and equally underscored the necessity to invest in the creation of key platforms. These include platforms for HR management (including an actual HR management system, or one for recruitment etc.), the design of a new HR scheme for performance evaluation, or a new unified remuneration plan to break from ongoing practices where various special regimes allowed for same job/qualifications having different salary treatments.

This situation also stems from the fact that in 2015 a frame Human Resource (HR) law was approved, but regulations neither fully prepared nor implemented. Based on the above, a new HR law was approved in 2019. However while the approval of the law is a major step in the civil service reform, it needs to be complemented by a gender-responsive series of measures including capacity building for entities rolling out the reform as per the law approved, the creation of key platforms for HR management (including an actual HR management system, a platform for recruitment etc.), the design of a new HR scheme for performance evaluation, or a new remuneration plan equal for mem and women.

The partial implementation failure of the PCCS suggests that a new scheme needs to be introduced as a core tenet of public administration reform. The new scheme, entitled Plano de cargo, funçoes e remuneraçoes (Plan for positions, functions and remunerations – PCFR) should simplify some of the recruitment procedures, introduce guidelines for recruitments, lead to an improved performance evaluation scheme and platform, rationalize some career paths, and importantly introduce a unified salary table for civil service across the board.

The 2018 study, as well as the Government’s aim to transform public administration for a more inclusive, effective and efficient service delivery have given to a dialogue between the African Development Bank and authorities on the matter. In this conversation, the Bank has emphasised the importance of gender mainstreaming – without which the equality fixes that the reform intends to achieve cannot be made.

The Bank has decided to accompany Cabo Verde in this reform through a budget support operation – the E-governance and Public Administration Reform Program (E-PARP). Key measures of the budget support will integrate gender responsive strategic interventions in public administration.

See H. George Frederickson (2015). Social Equity and Public Administration: Origins, Developments, and Applications, Taylor & Francis.2

  1. OBJECTIVES

The Consultant is expected to contribute through (i) setting up a baseline that will provide key sex-disaggregated data and establish the benchmark to monitor progress towards gender equality goals in the context of Cabo Verde’s public administration reform; (ii) help improve the gender mainstreaming of planned measures of the budget support, and (iii) provide insights on how the reform itself can be more gender responsive. The latter two points are closely interlinked as the measures prepared under the budget support are expected to help shape and support the realisation of the reform.

The consultant is expected to provide solid (i) relevant background information gender equality in public administration, as well as (ii) gender insights for the upcoming reforms across the areas below:

  • Civil service composition
  • Salaries
  • Recruitment
  • Career development

DESCRIPTION OF TASKS

Tasks are divided in two parts. First, a baseline study should be conducted. Second, a prospective analysis should be made with concrete recommendations on how to best streamline gender for a successful public administration reform.

Part I: The consultant is expected to provide solid relevant background information on gender equality in public administration, as well as gender insights for the upcoming reforms across the areas below:

  1. Civil service composition: how is it structured? Where do women work most?
  2. Salaries: wage gap analysis.
  3. Recruitment: overview of men/women recruitment as well as retention and exit over the past 5 years (ratio, ranks, sectors).
  1. Career development: explore hierarchical ranks per years of service for men and women.
  1. Retirement pension: discriminatory texts and practices.
  1. Evidence of organizational culture factors hindering women
  1. Measures and practices dealing with (sexual) harassment, etc.

Quantitative and qualitative data analysis on the above should provide both a baseline as well suggest avenues for discussion.

Part II: In addition, the consultant should complement with further qualitative analysis (and hold interviews with key reform stakeholders) to understand how the reform will explicitly mainstream gender. This analysis combined that of part I should (i) highlight gaps in how gender is to be mainstreamed in the civil service reform, and eventually (ii) set quantitative targets on gender equality based on the 7 identified themes of the reform. As guidance, exploration of gender mainstreaming in the reform should focus on

  • Human Resource Policy
  • The Plano de cargos, funçoes e remuneraçoes
  • The remuneration framework
  • Civil servants’ recruitment processes
  • The new guidelines for Functional Mobility Management across the public sector
  • The gender equality plan including gender-responsive indicators
  • The retirement pensions
  • The access to higher jobs

  1. DELIVERABLES

The Consultant is expected to deliver a report not exceeding 25 pages (excluding annexes) based of the objectives described above.

The Consultancy will be paid as a lumpsum as per the following sub-deliverables

  • Inception report with a methodological description (15%)
  • Draft report on part I above (30%)
  • Draft report including parts I and II (30%)
  • Final report (25%)

  1. TIMELINE

The consultancy is expected to have a two months duration following the contract signature.

  1. CONSULTANT’s PROFILE
  • Degree in economics, public administration, gender studies, law or political sciences.
  • 6+ years proven experience in the field of governance reforms and/or public administration.
  • Proven experience in statistical analysis.
  • Proven experience in gender mainstreaming in governance.
  • Spoken Portuguese and one of the two AfDB official languages (English or French).
  • Experience in Cabo Verde is a plus.
  • Direct work with public administration, civil service, HR reforms, and change-management with gender are a plus.