Service Provider to Support Data Collection in ILO Survey and Qualitative Research on Employment

• Country: Lebanon
• Summary: Service Provider to Support Data Collection in ILO Survey and Qualitative Research on Employment
• LBT Ref No: 55261392
• Deadline: 29 Jul 2021
• Financier: Self Financed
• Purchaser Ownership: Government
• Tender Value: Refer Document
• Notice Type: Tender
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• Description:
• Tenders are invited for Service Provider to Support Data Collection in ILO Survey and Qualitative Research on Employment in Home-Based Care in Lebanon. Female migrant workers have for many years formed the backbone of the care economy in the Arab States particularly in the context of providing a broad range of home-based services related to cooking, cleaning, childcare, care of the elderly and the disabled. Demographic changes and shifts in gender and working partners in the region have brought about an increasing need for quality, accessible and affordable home-based care. In parallel, due to an increase in female labour force participation and in the absence of comprehensive, integrated social care and welfare systems, households with young children, the elderly, sick and disabled, often have had little choice but to employ a live-in migrant domestic worker to provide ongoing support. This need to rely on migrant domestic workers for various forms of home-based care has been particularly acute in Lebanon, given a lack of policies to ensure state-provided or funded care. For example, although half (56 per cent) of the population is covered by social insurance, which is provided through the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), public-sector schemes and various mutual funds, the amount available is woefully inadequate to provide adequate health care in old age and in case of disability. In particular, even for those eligible for the NSSF (which excludes workers in the informal economy and the unemployed), there is no payment of regular, predictable monthly pensions, and instead only an end-of-service lump payment, which was already insufficient to support care in the period after retirement even before the currency devaluation. While government programs may provide free or subsidized care for those requiring acute and palliative care, most elderly health care (including management of chronic conditions) will be up to the individual (or his or her family) to finance without government subsidy. Those with financial resources may be able to access institutions which provide specialized services to older adults in Lebanon, but in many cases, families will not have such resources, or prefer not to place elderly relatives in institutional care. A similar issue in terms of a lack of government-funded and provided support exists for those living with disabilities. An estimated 15% of the population, around 900,000 individuals, live with a disability in Lebanon and yet only a fraction (around 10%) are eligible for government support. While in both cases, home based care may include in-home nursing for more wealthy families, in all cases there will likely have been a migrant domestic worker performing indirect care including food preparation, cleaning, etc. For the vast majority of households which could not afford specialized care (whether in institutions or at home), migrant domestic workers, often with limited skills training or support, were an indispensable source of affordable labour, including in some cases in the provision of direct care including giving medicine, providing exercise, bathing, dressing, etc. A reliance on migrant domestic workers was also critical for families with young children, particularly where both parents were employed, given the expensive cost of crèches and limited maternity leave available for female workers. As a result of these structural needs for care workers, but limited ability to pay for skilled national workers, combined with lax migration rules, engaging migrant domestic workers was ubiquitous across socio-economic classes. Prior to 2020 domestic workers numbered more than 250,000, largely coming from Ethiopia, with significant numbers of workers from Philippines and South Asia. Such workers, who were required to be live-in, full-time workers, constituted more than 80% of work permits for migrant workers in Lebanon, though this data did not capture the full range of domestic worker relationships, as domestic workers were also employed as hourly/part-time ‘freelance- workers or under a ‘false kafeel-.
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