Consultant to Support the ILO in the implementation of the initiative “Arab States and Asia Pacific Employers leaders’ network: Sharing experiences among Employers and Business Membership Organizations from Asia Pacific and the Arab States”

Background

In the constantly changing environment Employers and Business Membership Organizations (EBMOs)  continuously adapt to the shifting  business landscapes (new business models and forms of business, global trends) and  the world of work. The proliferation of diverse forms of work, partially driven by market dynamics and, partially by the personal preference for flexible working arrangements together with a mix of global trends and pandemic induced-impact is testing  the role and  the reason d’etre of intermediary bodies representing employers and workers.

During the pandemic some EBMOs have started to rethink their management and financial structure and expand their mandate to cover emerging needs of business. To maintain their relevance and grow the value-added, EBMOs will need to combine the reinforcement of the traditional cornerstones of strong EBMOs -independence, transparency, separation between governance and management, evidence-based advocacy- with new strategic choices including digitalization of services, new funding models, use of data as strategic assets, support to start-ups and representation of self-employed and greater innovation in general.

This initiative titled “Arab States and Asia Pacific Employers leaders’ network” aims at building a network of EBMOs leaders for identification and exchange of emerging good practices and peer-to-peer support to adopt solutions to reshape structure and value proposition of EBMOs.

Why a partnership amongst EBMOs in the Arab States and Asia Pacific?

From an Arab States perspective

Most of the technical support and experience sharing initiatives for EBMOs in the Arab States have been within the boundaries of the Arab Region. Getting exposure to business representation models from Asia will benefit ILO employers’ constituents in the Arab States. Particularly, exploring different governance systems and the expansion of the Chambers mandate to cover the private sector perspective beyond pure commercial interests to include social and environmental matters would be critical in future years.

From an Asia Pacific perspective

With the exception of the Asia Pacific Regional Meeting and the International Labour Conference, in a very few cases EBMOs from Asia have had opportunities  for exchanges with peer organizations in the Arab States. Many Chambers in the Arab States have been able to dramatically improve the accessibility of their services to company-members with full digitalization of services, expand their service offer considering the need of micro entrepreneurs and new forms of businesses. EBMOs from Asia and Pacific would benefit in learning how the chambers in the Arab States were able to rapidly perform such organizational changes during the pandemic.

Participating EBMOs

Arab States: Jordan Chamber of Industry, Federation of Saudi Chambers, Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Asia and Pacific:  Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry, Australia Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Singapore National Employers Federation, Korea Enterprises Federation

Key Programme Objectives

The overall objective of the programme is to provide a platform for an exchange, cross-fertilization of ideas and mutual learning between the EBMOs in the two regions.

More specifically:

a.            Identification of EBMOs practices in the following areas:

-              Governance systems

-              Representation of diverse forms of business

-              Innovation and digitalization of services

-              Policy responses to emerging issues

 b. Promote improvements and innovation based on the knowledge sharing and learning, including through twinning

Tentative programme structure

1. Launch of the initiative through a virtual meeting

1.5-hour meeting

November or December 2022

2. Development of the EBMOs leaders’ network online platform or blog for sharing best practices

November 2022 – January 2023

3. Face to face experience sharing workshop: EBMOs best practices and policy responses to emerging issues

3-day event

February 2023

Venue: one of the participating Arab States

4. Virtual meeting(s) as a follow up to the face-to-face workshop

1.5-hour meeting

March 2023

5. “EBMOs Twinning”: peer-to-peer learning through virtual meetings and, if needed, face to face exchanges

March 2023– October 2023

6. Development of compendium of good practices in the area of governance, services, communication, advocacy, representation and data management- development of booklet

March 2023– October 2023

7. Final Face to face experience meeting

Lessons learnt and launch of the compendium of good practices 

October 2023 Venue TBC in one of the participating Asian countries

Scope of consultancy

The consultant will take part in the programme activities under different functions (co designer of activities, recompilation of data and information on EBMOs best practices, co-author for blogs news and the final compendium of good practices, amongst others) and support the Senior Employers Specialists from Asia and Arab States in the overall coordination of the programme.

Description of Work

• Step 1 Preliminary work and launch of the initiative

Tasks:

• Collect information on mandates, structure and functioning of the participating organizations from ACTEMP and external sources (websites, media); 
• Design questions for semi structured interviews/calls (tentative duration 30 minutes) with participating EBMOs representatives aiming at identifying the following:

• best practices in the area of Governance systems, Representation of diverse forms of business, Innovation and digitalization of services, research and olicy responses to emerging issues;
• selected areas of interest for possible improvements/innovation, improvements in the technical (value proposition with a focus on labour related matters), governance, financial structure of the participating EBMOs.

• Conduct, in coordination with the relevant ACTEMP specialists, the calls with the 6 participating EBMOs;
• Co-design, launch and co-facilitate webinar event.

Deliverables:

• Scheme (schedule and questions) for structured semiflexible interviews/calls with participating EBMOs or survey;
• Short report with key findings of the interview/calls – up to 2 pages per EBMO;
• Flyer and agenda of the launching webinar event.

Estimated Number of working days: 5

Expected completion date: 20 December 2022

• Step 2 Development of the EBMOs leaders’ network online platform or blog for sharing best practices

The platform would be used to compile best practices of the participating EBMOs and as a documentary diary/journey of the initiative. The expected life span of the blog / social media platform is the entire duration of the programme with possible publication of the outcomes on the websites of the ILO and participating EBMOs. Main audience / users will be the EBMOs representatives participating in the initiative – but access should be open to larger audience.

Tasks:

• Develop a concept for EBMOs leaders’ network online social media platform or blog. This would include suggesting blog space or social media platform to be used and styes of posting.
• Develop the content of the blog / social media pieces 
•  Populate the blog with best practices, cases, stories, short reports and facts about the webinars and face to face events of the initiative. Best practices should be initially drafted by the EBMOs representatives participating in the initiative, but the consultant will be responsible for reviewing and posting them, coordinating with participating EBMOs posts regularity (at least a post every two weeks) and moderating eventual discussions.
• November 2022 – November 2023

Estimated number of days: 10 days

Expected completion date: Blog platform operational as from end-November 2022 (5 days - step 2.1)

       Completion of the work by 30 September 2023 (5 days - step 2.2)

• Step 3 Participation in face-to-face events

The initiative foresees the organization of two face to face events, one in the Arab States and one in Asia Pacific. The events will be an opportunity to share emerging best practices and discuss policy issues of mutual interests. The consultant will be in charge of:

• Co-design (in consultation with ACTEMP specialists) the agenda of the event. This includes proposing to ACTEMP specialists policy issues to be discussed (examples: internal labour mobility, new working modalities, etc.) as per EBMOs interest and needs and identifying potential speakers;
• Get in touch with participating EBMOs which will present their success stories and coordinate their interventions;
• Participate in the events as co-facilitator;
• Produce final reports of the events and social media coverage.

Deliverables:

• Agendas of the two face-to-face events
• Final face to face events reports and relevant social media / blog postings

Expected number of days: 10

Expected completion date: 15 April for the first face to face event (5 days - step 3.1) and 15 October 2023 for the second face to face event (5 days - step 3.2)

Step 4 – Twinning exercises

The initiative aims at identifying potential twinning exercises opportunities among participating EBMOs. In this regard, the consultant, after the first face to face event, will:

• Suggest possible twinning exercises based on mutual EBMOs interests. The consultant, in close consultation with EBMOs, should clearly identify objectives and lines of interventions of the twinning exercise (description of the technical or governance area that the beneficiary organizations will improve as part of the exercise).

Funding of the twinning exercise by the ILO will be subject to funds availability. The funding proposals should seek to minimize the ILO contribution due to the high-income nature of the participating EBMOs.

Deliverables:

• Proposal for twinning exercises including objectives, lines of intervention, modality of intervention and other elements as appropriate

Expected number of days: 2 days

Expected completion date: 30 April 2023

Step 5 -Final Compendium

One of the final outputs of the initiative will be the development of a compendium of good practices.

The compendium will provide a set of successful practices identified throughout the initiative to share knowledge gained and to help EBMOs worldwide in finding solutions to short- and medium-term challenges by adapting and replicating the positive results achieved and developing them further.

Tasks:

• Select the best practices identified through the project by filtering the cases presented in the blog social media
• Contact with EBMOs representatives to obtain more information, elaborate on the media post and develop concepts for case studies for each identified good practices, including the learning value. Each case study should be 1 to 3 pages long possibly with pictures or infographics illustrating the practice. At least 2 practices per organization should be included in the compendium.
• Finalize and prepare the compendium for publication by adding needed introduction and conclusions sections and eventual recommendations for further collecting and/or disseminating EBMOs best practices.

 Deliverable: Word file - Final compendium of best/good practices for up to 50 pages, including at least 12 best practices from participating EBMOs

Expected number of days: 12 days

Expected completion date: 15 September 2023

Time Frame, Additional INFO

The contract will commence on November 15, 2022. All outputs should be completed no later than 30 October 2023.

The ILO will cover the costs of travel and DSA of the consultant as per ILO rules and regulations.

SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES REQUIRED

-              In-depth understanding of the role, functioning and developmental value of the EBMOs

-              Proven experience (at least 5 years) of working with EBMOs at the policy level

-              Proven experience (at least 8 years) as qualified facilitator of webinars and face to face events targeting EBMOs leaders

-              Ability to use social media for impressions and awareness and Excellent knowledge of social media platforms

-              Proven record of developing high profile publications on the EBMOs

-              Proven track record in feature long-form storytelling and data analysis

-              Excellent critical thinking, interpersonal, communication and problem-solving skills

-              Excellent command of written and spoken English

-              Advanced degree in economics, business administration, social sciences or related fields