UNDP Jobs - 58517- International Consultant: Gender and Climate Chan

International Consultant: Gender and Climate Change, Training of Trainers (ToT) - LECRed Project

Location :

Male, MALDIVES

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

22-Aug-2015

Application Deadline :

31-Jul-15 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

5 Weeks

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

5 Weeks

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

Organizational Context:

The Republic of Maldives is highly vulnerable to climate change due to its low-lying geography that makes it susceptible to flooding and inundation, and its dependence on economic activities that are sensitive to climate change, such as fishing and tourism. It is also highly dependent on imported fossil fuels for its energy supply and this represents a major source of greenhouse gas emissions for the country. Consequently, the Maldives has made significant commitments to the pursuit of a low emission climate resilient development agenda. However, ongoing decentralization reforms, fiscal crisis and low capacity at the sub-national level, mean that local planning is not reflective of national level commitments.

The three year, US$9.2 million UN Joint Program, "Low Emission and Climate Resilient Development" (LECReD), responds to the United Nations Development Assistance Framework Outcome 9: “Enhanced capacities at national and local levels to support low carbon life-styles, climate change adaptation, and disaster risk reduction” and builds on the comparative strengths of United Nations Organizations including UNDP, UNICEF, UNOPS, UNFPA, UN WOMEN, WHO and FAO. The program is innovative and represents a pioneering initiative of bringing together the wealth of diverse development-oriented expertise from these United Nations Organizations with equally diverse national and local partners to address this multi-faceted socially inclusive development challenge.

The program will assist the Laamu Atoll and its islands to realize low emission and climate resilient development (LECReD). The program seeks to mainstream LECReD issues into local level development planning and service delivery ensuring that gendered perspective for greater inclusive community-level ownership and sustainability of program benefits. Towards this objective, the program will support local councils, Women Development Committees, civil society, private sector and other local stakeholders to establish platforms for stronger partnerships, improved coordination, and enhanced participation in local planning for LECReD; it will strengthen data and knowledge systems for LECReD; improve local level gendered LECReD development planning and management of service delivery; and through a learning-by-doing approach establish early lessons and build demand for LECReD planning and management for replication and scaling-up.

The aim is that the local development plans will evolve from stand-alone action plans into more strategic and evidence-based instruments, which are climate smart and able to mobilize public and private investment. This program will be closely linked to the existing national development planning cycle and will build capacity of local and national partners engaged in these local processes. The rationale being that lessons learned will be used to inform replication throughout the country and directly support the national agenda.

The 52nd session of the Commission on the Status of Women’s Interactive Experts Panel in 2008 noted that women make up a large number of the poor in communities that are highly dependent on local natural resources for their livelihood and are disproportionately vulnerable to and affected by climate change. Women’s limited access to resources and decision-making processes increases their vulnerability to climate change. But it was also recognized that women are also effective agents of change in relation to both mitigation and adaptation. Women have a strong body of knowledge and expertise that can be used in climate change mitigation, disaster reduction and adaptation strategies. However, despite this knowledge, women are often excluded from climate change decision-making processes. Integrating gender dimension is important to realize Government commitment in responding to impact of climate change, especially by recognizing women’s vulnerability and potential as agents of change.

In this regard, UN Women seeks the services of an international consultant to support the capacity development of national and local government climate change practitioners through trainer of trainers. The consultant will work under the guidance of the Representative for UN Women Multi-Country Office India, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka and UN Women Program Analyst housed in Maldives Resident Coordinators Office. Additionally, the Consultant will work closely with other UN Agencies and LECReD Program Coordination Unit. UN Women, which is a non-resident agency in the UN Country team in the Maldives, is a crucial implementing partner of LECReD to ensure gender responsive climate change and resilience planning and budgeting is integrated in the implementation of LECReD program in Laamu atoll.

Objectives

UN Women aims to develop the capacity of national and local level to design and implement gender-responsive climate change policies, strategies and programs, effectively mainstream gender equality in the LECReD program. Towards this, UN Women plans to support the following:

Develop a comprehensive Training of Trainers (TOT) Manual on gender responsive climate change/resilience planning and budgeting implementation and monitoring;
Deliver training of trainers based on the training manual developed to create a pool of trainers who can conduct series of sessions on gender responsive climate change and resilience planning and budgeting for the project stakeholders on a continuous basis.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of the Representative, UN Women Multi-Country Office for India, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka, and the direct supervision of the LECReD Working Group, the Consultant (Gender and Climate Change) will undertake the following activities:

Assess existing gender and climate change capacity needs assessment reports if any on gender responsive climate change and climate resilience planning. And if required, conduct a comprehensive assessment of the training needs of the diverse range of key stakeholders on mainstreaming gender into climate change programming (including LECReD Program staff including Program Coordination Unit and concerned Ministries and Laamu Stakeholders such as Local Council, Women Development Committees) in consultation with LECReD participating UN Agencies;
Develop a Training of Trainers Manual on gender responsive climate change and climate resilience planning, implementation and monitoring through a consultative process, which will include at least one dialogue session presentation and discussion with relevant LECReD stakeholders. The Manual on Gender and Climate Change must be based on the observations, local knowledge and consultation process, and adapted to the local context;
Conduct a Pilot test of the Module and incorporate the relevant feedback for finalization;
Undertake initial sensitization on gender and climate change/resilience programming for LECReD program staff from all the UN Agencies, LECReD program Coordination Unit, Technical Working Group, Technical Committee and LECReD Program Board;
Conduct a Pre and Post Questionnaire Tools to assess the impact and effectiveness of the Training for each category of the training participants and present a detailed analyses as part of the TOT Training Report of Training of Trainers (ToT) based on the Training Module developed;
Develop a Roadmap for subsequent rollout of the training program after completion of TOT, including recommendations for the way forward.

Methodology:

The Consultant/s will carry out the following suggested steps to complete the tasks:

The consultant will have a joint meeting with UN Women and LECReD CTA and PCU for a briefing on the assignment;
The Consultant will conduct a desk review of relevant documents;
Develop an Inception Report which will lay out the detailed scope of work and plan including a proposed schedule of tasks, activities and deliverables, frameworks and tools;
The Consultant will make a presentation on the ToT Module and monitoring indicators for feedback from UN Women and the LECReD UNTG;
The Consultant will submit a draft Report on the assignment towards the end of the reporting period. The draft report will be circulated for comments to both UN Women and Partners for finalisation.

Time Frame:

The Consultancy is expected to begin in August 2015 and will be for a period of 25 working days, starting from 22nd August to 30th September.

Deliverables

Manual on Gender and Climate Change/Resilience Planning;
Criteria for selection of TOT participants;
Capacity assessment report of TOT participations and knowledge assessment of LECReD agencies Program staff , Technical Working Group on gender and climate change and gender mainstreaming in the programmatic interventions;
Two trainings of the national and sub-national government and project staff;
TOT Training Report;
Strategy document of roadmap for subsequent rollout of the training program after completion of TOT, including recommendations for the way forward.

Reporting:

The Consultant will report to the UN Women Representative and/or Programme Analyst and work in consultation with the LECReD Team, Maldives.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
Treats all people fairly without favoritism;
Fulfills all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Functional Competencies:

Inter-personal skills;
Exceptional analytical skills, solution oriented program design skills;
Research and evaluation skills including ability to synthesize information;
Excellent oral, and effective presentation and report-writing skills;
Ability to work under with minimum supervision, while meeting deadlines;
Demonstrated ability of timely completion of assignments;
Excellent social and communication skills;
Strong facilitation skills;
Ability to work in multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural settings;
Excellent computers skills required.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Relevant academic qualifications, preferably in disciplines such as Gender Studies, Development Studies, climate change, Social Sciences and Economics.

Experience:

Work experience of five years of gender mainstreaming within the discipline of climate change, disaster risk reduction and other relevant areas, including training;
Demonstrated analytical and professional experience related to gender equality;
Understanding of gender equality in the specific context of climate change and resilience planning;
Demonstrated ability to develop training modules and undertake gender trainings;
Demonstrated ability to work in strategic partnerships across diverse and multiple stakeholders;
Experience in community mobilization and trainings is a requisite;
Experience of working in the Maldives and/or other island nations will be an added advantage.

Language:

Fluent in written and spoken English is required;
Excellent research, analytical and communication skills, both oral and written.

Application:

Scope of the financial proposal and schedule of payment:

The consultancy fee will be in lump sum inclusive of DSA and most direct economy class ticket.

The payments will be made in tranches based on the deliverables:

10% upon delivery of the final inception report
20% upon completion of field visits
40% upon delivery of draft evaluation report
30% upon delivery of final evaluation report

Required Documents:

The application must include a letter of interest to undertake this task, the CV, proposed time-line, P-11, and a financial proposal for the assignment. To download P11, kindly please visit the link: http://www.mv.undp.org/content/maldives/en/home/operations/jobs
Please combine all the documents into one single file, as the system will allow for only one document to be uploaded.