Research in support of parental leave policies amendments
This project is funded by the U.S. Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) for the purpose of strengthening the relationship between existing civil society organizations and elected officials to increase government accountability and impact reform on gender related issues.
The project's overall objective is to promote universal parental leave and progressive childcare policies among Lebanese working parents as an entry point to achieving greater gender equality in Lebanon.
This call for papers responds to the first objective of the project, formulated as follows: improved foundation for an enabling legal environment that promotes gender equality in parental leave policies as well as the second objective of the project, formulated as follows: Improved parental leave policies in the internal bylaws of private sector companies and NGOs.
Through this call, AiW aims to advance research related to labor force participation and gender rights with a focus on maternity and paternity leave in Lebanon. It also strives to generate empirical data and evidence that will serve in producing policy papers to be submitted to the Lebanese parliament that will feed into draft laws with the aims of advocating for the amendment of the maternity and parental leave policies in Lebanon. In addition, the research papers will help in the accumulation of scholarly knowledge on the subject matter and in the design of future projects on the subject. In addition, the content of the research papers will be used in the argumentation process with the targeted private sector companies to reform their internal policies concerning parental leaves and childcare.
Researchers are encouraged to submit research proposals on topics including but not restricted to the following:
- The role of media in promoting parental leave policies: This query can investigate the impact that media, including social media, has on promoting the idea of parental leaves and the extent to which it has the ability to bring about real change in policies
- The impact of parental leaves on productivity and efficiency: This query can investigate how parental leaves affect productivity and efficiency and thus reflect on the private sector’s performance
- Parental leaves and their effect on wellbeing: This query can discuss how parental leaves influence the physical and psychological wellbeing of the father, mother, and child
- Parental leave and women’s economic empowerment: This query can discuss how parental leave policies affect women’s empowerment and support women’s participation in the labor force
- Parental leave and sustainable solutions for parents after the maternity, paternity or parental leave
- A comparative review of the "cost" of parental leaves on companies as well as the provision of government subsidies to support these leaves
- The assumptive logic underlying the parental leaves: this query would look into the legal frameworks and the legislative basis upon which parental leaves are supported in each country (e.g., Sharia's vs colonial (civil and common laws) vs modern Arab employment laws)
- The legal genealogy of the various formulations of the parental laws in the Arab MENA states.
- Employer perceptions of integrating parental leaves and the uptake of such leaves by male vs female employees disaggregated by sector.
How to apply
Proposals, as per set requirements henceforth, are required no later than 22 July 2020, 15:00hrs (Beirut time). When proposals are due by email, the system-generated timestamp will be considered the time of submission.
LAU will not cover the cost of any pre-award costs related to the preparation of proposals under this bid and therefore any applicant presenting a financial offer requesting the coverage of pre-award costs will be rejected.
Technical elements that are not costed in the financial proposal will be considered as free of charge. LAU reserves the right to reject the offer. The financial offer must clearly reflect and detail each deliverable distinctly and separately.
A. Changes to this Call for papers
LAU reserves the right to cancel this call for papers at any time. Such cancellation will be made through the Office of the Provost.
Furthermore, LAU reserves the right to modify this call for papers at any time prior to the submission deadline. A notice through the Office of the Provost will be released to that effect as well and LAU may consider, up to the discretion of the University, an extension of the deadline for the proposals submission.
B. Eligibility of Applicants
Applicants to this request for proposals may be:
Individuals or group of individuals.
All bidders must ensure that at the time of the submission of their proposal they are not bankrupt, suspended, debarred, sanctioned, and/or subject to legal proceedings that may affect their course of business or their insolvency. Offerors/bidders with proven conflict of interest will be disqualified.
Individual applicants (if individual application is allowed) must clearly indicate their Ministry of Finance (MOF) Tax ID number and provide a copy of their registration at the MOF, specify their full street address, phone number and submit a copy of their ID. Firms must present a copy of their commercial registration, commercial circular and VAT certificate as applicable.
Other documents required:
- Most updated CV
- Cover letter outlining relevant experience and qualifications
- Financial offer in Lebanese pound in PDF format duly signed, dated and stamped by the service provider, with detailed cost breakdown per deliverable.
- Filled-in biodata sheet
C. Required Qualifications
LAU is looking for qualified eligible applicants who demonstrate the following experience:
- At least a Master’s degree, preferably PhD in a relevant field of study, (law, legal studies, gender studies, labor…) with proven records of projects/reports/consultancies.
- At least 8 years of experience working on legal and gender issues
- Demonstrated experience in developing and writing research papers
- Demonstrated experience in research and data collection methods
- Proven proficiency in spoken and written English and Arabic
- Excellent communication and editorial skills
- Understanding of the Lebanese legal framework and gender context is essential.
D. Proposal Requirements, Submission & Language
The offeror is expected to present two proposals separately, a technical one, and a distinct financial one (each proposal through its separate submission). The technical proposal must not contain any budgetary or financial information. The financial proposal must be put on official letterhead of the offeror and duly signed and stamped. The financial proposal must include all information confirming the eligibility of the offeror including the Ministry of Finance Tax Number, VAT Number, registration number and date and any other documents listed under B3 as applicable. The financial proposal must clearly show costs distinctly and clearly related to Taxes, VAT, overheads, etc.
Only one offer may be submitted by a single offeror.
All proposals must be developed in English unless otherwise clearly specified under particular sections. The proposals must be sent electronically by email to [email protected]
Please check the the RFP for research papers attached for all required details. Attached is also the bio-data sheet that needs to be filled-in and submitted with the proposal.
Expired
