Consultant for development and delivery of measures to reduce precarious works and empower migrant women

Background of the MEG programme

Migration is a global phenomenon contributing remarkably to the development of socio-economy in both the countries of origin and destination. The United Nations and the International Labour Organization estimated in 2017 that globally 164 million people (4.7% of all workers) were migrant workers and in 2020 this number has increased by   281 million  in which women account for nearly 50%. Regular migration often brings a wide of benefits namely provision of skilled labour in destination countries and diaspora’s support through volunteer activities, business engagement, remittances, and investment. On the other hand, there are some risks associated with migration such as social isolation, precarious work, discrimination, forced labour and exploitation, sexual abuse and violence.

According to the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM), regular migration can have significant effect if migrants are provided on sufficient and accurate information and the international standards ensuring the protection of human rights and the provision of effective linkage to national employment policies are available.

In line with the objectives of the GCM, German Development Cooperation focuses on shaping migration ensuring opportunity creation for both migrants and origin and destination countries. A specific aim is on the empowerment of women who act as agents of change and strengthening international cooperation in this policy field.

Approach:

The Global Programme “Shaping development-oriented migration” (MEG) assists partner countries in leveraging the benefits of regular migration and engaging diaspora for sustainable development. Working on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, the MEG is active in up to 15 partner countries around the globe. It contributes towards implementing the GCM and is part of a comprehensive approach to migration and development.

The MEG contributes to the following objectives:

• Supporting partner countries in shaping their migration policies based on the GCM and in contributing their best practice and recommendations to international or regional forums;
• Enhancing the protection of migrant rights;
• Promoting policy coherence, gender equality and cooperation with civil society; 
• Promoting investment, knowledge exchange and innovation in partner countries by supporting the development- oriented engagement of the diaspora in Germany; 
• Strengthening partnerships with multilateral and international organisations. 

Four fields of actions.

The MEG programme concentrates on 4 fields of actions as below:

1. Regular migration
2. Diaspora cooperation
3. Mitigating precarious situations and enhancing the protection of migrants
4. Global partnerships

Context of the field of action 3 “Mitigating precarious situations and enhancing the protection of migrants”:

Migrants can be exposed to various types of risks. Those are unregulated employment, precarious working conditions without access to social security, occupational health and safety and labour rights. This is particularly true of the care sector, especially for women who migrate from low and middle-income countries to do paid care work and domestic work in richer countries. Even the regular migrant workers who work in domestic or care sector might be vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, as they are highly dependent on recruiters and employers, work in isolation and lack social networks. The resulting global care chains often lead to care gaps in the families left behind, affecting children and youth as well as the elderly in need of care.

In Viet Nam, the data shared by the Department of Overseas Labour (DOLAB) of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affaires (MoLISA) in 2017, the major destinations for Vietnamese domestic workers are Taiwan (China), Saudi Arabia, Macau (China) and Cyprus. In this year, there were about 20,000 Vietnamese domestic caregivers in Taiwan with 113 recruitment agencies sending workers there, and nearly 2,300 domestic workers working in Saudi Arabia through 26 agencies. The vast majority of migrant domestic workers are women. They are particularly vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, as they are highly dependent on recruiters and employers, work in isolation and lack social networks. However, it also witnessed the high number of irregular woman migrant domestic workers who live in rural area of provinces in the Central Viet Nam or northern border provinces.

Assignment

The programme is looking for a Civil Society Organisation (CSO) who has comprehensive working experience with migrant domestic workers or migrant care workers to develop and deliver measures in order to empower migrant women ensuring our below mentioned objectives:

1. Preparing an information and awareness raising toolbox that includes a handbook on safe migration and a video clip on prevention and response to precarious situations, for female migrants, especially domestic care workers. The focus is the protection of migrant rights and empowerment of migrant women;
2. Using the toolbox to organise sensitisation and awareness-raising sessions for the potential migrant women and their families and disseminate the toolbox, e.g. in the pre-departure training course for migrant workers;
3. Engaging with relevant stakeholders to present and exchange on the methods uses and lessons-learned in formats such as peer-to-peer, workshop, dialogues, panel discussion;
4. Proposing recommendations to the relevant government agencies on the improvement of gender-responsive policies and measures.

The proposed activities expect to be carried out in one of below provinces: Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh and Quang Tri

Period of assignment: from 12/2023 until 01/2025.

Application process

• Interested consulting firms (Local Civil Society Organizations that have strong experiences in supporting woman in international labour migration) are invited to send their company/organisation profiles to the Programme “Reform of TVET in Vietnam’’ at [email protected]  by 17:00 December 14, 2023
• Shortlisted candidates will be invited to submit their proposals in December 2023 – January 2024
• Please state “Application for the position of Consulting Firm for MEG” in the subject line.