Background

Under the Global Environment Facility Cycle V,  the UNDP was entrusted by the Ministry of Environment and Renewable Energy (GEF Focal Point in Sri Lanka) to develop a project under the theme/title “Enhancing Biodiversity Conservation and Sustenance of Ecosystem services in Environmentally Sensitive Areas.” The project will be designed for national implementation involving a range of stakeholder agencies and the GEF Council has approved and provided funds to UNDP to develop the project document and other necessary documentations in line with GEF guidelines.

The project is expected to strengthen the national governance framework on Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESAs) in Sri Lanka. Government legislation already provides for the creation of ESAs but there is an unmet need (addressed through this project) to operationalize the contents of the legislation. While doing so the project would contribute towards safeguarding globally significant biodiversity on production lands of high interest for conservation.

The project development approach assumes that the Protected Areas (PA) alone will not be able to secure the effective conservation of globally significant biodiversity partly due the high biodiversity of the country outside PA’s. However PA’s can be a good entry point towards identifying and piloting a number of special provisions/interventions. Moreover, the loss of habitat on production lands adjacent to PAs is also progressively exposing the ESAs to additional pressure. As such the project proposes to use land use planning and management framework as the key entry points to optimize land management in ESAs in order to ensure conservation of biodiversity and other natural resources while allowing the ESAs for sustainable economic activities under proper management.

 The purpose of the PPG is to fully design the activities, outputs, and outcomes of the project and to fully develop a full set of project documentation for submission to the GEF Secretariat and approval. Normal rules for development of medium-sized GEF projects apply. Copies of the GEF templates and guidelines can be found at: http://www.thegef.org/gef/guidelines_templates.

The purpose of this consultancy is to provide substantive technical input to project design on gender and social inclusion aspects of ESAs and participatory natural resources and ecosystem management. The expert will work in close collaboration with the Team Leader and the International Consultant to provide expert inputs towards a sound gender analysis within the project design. The expert will also work closely with the Participatory NRM Expert to ensure that field level gender and social inclusion aspects are adequately addressed through local consultations. The Gender and Social Inclusion Expert will contribute significantly to the design of the pilot ESA and ensure gender and marginalized community concerns are adequately built in to the participatory ESA management model that will be field tested through the project.

The expert’s primary responsibility is to carry out a detailed analysis of gender and marginalized communities  to identify roles, responsibilities and access related to natural resource management. He or she should have strong analytical skills in the area of expertise (gender, social inclusion and participatory natural resources management) and have a deep understanding of gender relations in the communities and concerns of marginalized communities especially in relation to managing ecosystems. 

Duties and Responsibilities

The Gender and Social Inclusion Expert is expected to play an important role in defining strategies and approaches to ensure greater gender parity and inclusion of marginalised communities in project implementation. He/she will support the Lead consultant and International Consultant to identify key areas of intervention, activities and indicators to monitor inclusive gender-equal participation in natural resources management in the ESA context. Most importantly the Expert will consult with local resource persons knowledgeable about gender relations in the communities and marginalized communities themselves to inform design of project activities especially at the community level so that project interventions do not negatively affect gender equality. Specifically the Expert will be responsible for;

• Carrying out a detailed gender and social inclusion analysis to identify roles, responsibilities and access related to natural resource management;
•  In collaboration with Participatory NRM Expert design and carry out community consultations with adequate focus on gender and marginalized communities, especially in the pilot ESA location;
• Provide adequate analysis for the international consultant to develop the GEF project document, especially on the situation analysis and project activity design;
• With the Participatory NRM Expert, analyse the key project stakeholders, including NGOs/CSOs; assess their capacity and identify capacity building needs, in relation to gender roles and marginalized community roles in ecosystem management;
•  Explore the opportunities and ways for cooperation with other relevant initiatives, nationally and in the pilot project location.

The key products to be delivered are as follows:

• Gender and social inclusion aspects included in the situation analysis of the Project Document (3 days);
• Report on analysis of gender and marginalized communities informing the design of the project strategy, activities, indicators and stakeholders (10 days);
• Gender and social inclusion aspects built in to the participatory NRM strategy and field consultations (1 day);
• Report of field –level gender and marginalized community concerns covering local community, local institutions and local governance structures for NRM (5 days);
• Gender and social inclusion inputs in to the capacity assessment for the project, and pilot ESA implementation plan (2 days).

Competencies

Technical work

•  Strong expertise in  Gender Relations, Social Inclusion, Environmental Management, Conservation, and Biodiversity IWRM etc.;
• Familiarity with the International Conventions addressing Climate Change, Desertification and Biodiversity Conservation;
• Ability to pick up new terminology and concepts easily;
• Demonstrated strategic technical and intellectual skills in the substantive area;
• Excellent communication (both oral and written) and partnership building skills with multi-dimension partners, people skill for conflict resolution and negotiation;
• Familiarity with GEF policies, templates and requirements for MSP.

Required Skills and Experience