Background

Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality for women as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.  Placing women’s rights at the centre of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world.

As recognized by both global and ASEAN commitments, the impacts of disasters are not gender neutral, with women, children, the elderly, people with disabilities, and other vulnerable groups being among the most impacted. Over the past decade, Post-Disaster Needs Assessments from the region have shown that these impacts on women and girls are multi-dimensional, spanning impacts on livelihoods to education to health to unequal access to services and relief, calling for a multi-sectoral approach to systematically integrate such gender and protection considerations into disaster management. Furthermore, research led by the ASEAN Committee on Disaster Management (ACDM) with the IFRC has highlighted the urgency of acting to prevent and respond to gender-based violence in disasters[1], while research led by the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) has pointed to both existing efforts and key gaps in not only addressing women’s vulnerabilities, but also catalyzing their roles as agents of change in disaster management in the region.[2]  

The programme “Strengthening Gender-Responsive Disaster Management in ASEAN,” funded by the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) and implemented by UN Women in close collaboration with the ASEAN Secretariat, aims to ensure that a protection (including SGBV and child protection), gender and inclusion lens is integrated in the design and implementation of the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response (AADMER) Work Programme 2021-2025. It aimed to benefit the ten national disaster management organizations (NDMOs) in ASEAN, alongside regional sectoral bodies including the ACDM. The activities of the programme are grouped under two results areas:

• ASEAN bodies, including the ACDM, are equipped to develop regional policy framework on disaster management with a protection (SGBV and child protection), gender, and inclusion lens
• Evidence and good practices for gender and child protection responsive resilience building are available for ASEAN Member States to inform national level implementation of disaster laws and plans

[1] ACDM and IFRC (2017). The Responsibility to Prevent and Respond to Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in Disasters and Crises.

[2] AIHCR (2018). Women in Natural Disasters: Indicative Findings in Unraveling Gender in Institutional Responses.

Objective and Scope of the Assignment

As the end of the programme duration (July 2020-May 2022) approaches, UN Women is seeking a consultant to conduct an external review of the programme, with the following objectives:

• Analyze the implementation of the project “Strengthening Gender-Responsive Disaster Management in ASEAN,” with a focus on relevance, effectiveness, and organizational efficiency;
• Generate an evidence-based set of recommendations to contribute to future implementation of gender-responsive disaster risk reduction programming, including on application at national level,in ASEAN.

More specifically, the review aims to inform UN Women Regional Office and Indonesia on key lessons learned, including potential future opportunities from engagement with the ASEAN regional inter-governmental process and sectoral bodies (led by ACDM Prevention and Mitigation Working Group) to develop the enabling regional normative and policy frameworks, facilitate knowledge exchange and emerging good practices in the region as well as provide technical support to inform country-level efforts. It would also look into the effectiveness of UN Women’s direct support to the ASEAN Secretariat to provide insights to the extent possible on the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability and impact of the regional programme at this stage. In connection to this, the review should also analyze the extent to which UN Women has played the role in supporting the ASEAN Secretariat in facilitating the establishment of the Technical Working Group on Protection, Gender and Inclusion (TWG-PGI) that helped to institutionalize cross-sectoral collaboration between ACDM, ACW,SOMSWD, and the AHA Centre, and the extent to which this has helped to shift the dialogue and provide emerging entry points and opportunities for further collaboration and synergies between regional and country-level efforts that otherwise would have not been possible.

Furthermore, the review aims to inform ASEAN, specifically the ACDM Prevention and Mitigation Working Group as well as the Members of the TWG-PGI on what were lessons learned from the cross-sectoral collaboration and outline key challenges and opportunities to advance the collaboration to integrate gender into the ASEAN disaster management and emergency response, including key lessons learned that can help to enhance entry points to integrate gender into the ASEAN Joint Disaster Response Plan and country level preparedness and contingency planning.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision and guidance of the ASEAN Governance, Peace and Security Programme Specialist/Regional Programme Lead, the consultant will work in close coordination with the project team to undertake the following tasks:

• Based on the desk review of the 2020 ECHO HIP Call for Proposals, Project Document, budget, progress reports, and key project deliverables, develop a short inception report with a clear outline of the methodology and work plan, including finalization of guiding questions, timeline and list of key ASEAN stakeholders and relevant partners, who will be engaged in the process of review and provide critical inputs/feedback. This includes the ASEAN Secretariat, Members of the TWG-PGI, governments, civil society, relevant UN partners, among others. This will be done in close consultation with the UN Women project team with the overall guidance of the Regional Evaluation Team.

The guiding questions should include, but are not limited to the following:

• Conduct key informant interviews and/or focus group discussions with key stakeholders, using the methodology identified in collaboration with the programme team, to assess the relevance, effectiveness, and organizational efficiency of the project;
• Develop a draft review document of no more than 15 pages, inclusive of an executive summary and draft recommendations;
• Support organization of the final project review workshop, including to present the key findings of the draft review and facilitate discussion on its findings;
• Finalize the project review based on inputs provided during the validation exercise at the final review workshop.

Expected Deliverables 

Competencies

Knowledge and experience:

• Understanding of results-based management in programme planning, monitoring and reporting
• Understanding of gender and disaster risk reduction programming a strong asset.
• Excellent writing skills.
• Previous experience with UN Women and other UN agencies an advantage.
• Fluency in English, with working knowledge of Thai, Bahasa Indonesia, or Filipino an advantage.

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the United Nations' values and ethical standards.
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of the UN and UN Women.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
• Ability and willingness to work as part of a team to meet tight deadlines and produce high quality work.

Required Skills and Experience

• Master’s degree in public administration, economics, gender studies, human rights, disaster risk reduction, humanitarian affairs, and/or any relevant field directly related to gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls;
  • A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree;

• Minimum five years of relevant work experience undertaking evaluations, assessments, or reviews of programmes relating to gender equality;
• Demonstrated experience in assessing similar projects on disaster risk reduction, in particular on risk governance or on gender-responsive DRR, is an asset;
• Previous work experience with ASEAN and/or the UN in Southeast Asia is strongly preferred;
• Excellent writing skills in English.

Contract period and work location

The consultant will be home-based, with the ability to participate in virtual meetings in times compatible with working hours of ASEAN Member States, and the contract period will be for three months. No travel is anticipated as part of this assignment.

Selection criteria

The evaluation methods include desk review and/or interview.  Applications will be evaluated based on the combination of the weighted technical and financial scoring as follows:

• Technical Qualification [70%]
  • Experience aligned with the required qualification and skills
  • Writing sample
• Financial Proposal in USD [30%]

Submission of application

Interested candidates are encouraged to submit electronic application to hr.bangkok@unwomen.org  with -cc to duanglutai.khomson@unwomen.org not later than 18 April 2022, 23:59 Bangkok time.

Submission package includes:

• Letter of Motivation
• Personal History Form (P11)
• Writing sample in English (must be samples where the applicant was directly responsible for writing and demonstrating analytical skills in relation to the assignments of this consultancy TOR)
• Financial proposal: the financial proposal shall specify the lump sum fee per deliverable in USD.

Payments

Payments for this consultancy will be based on the achievement of each deliverable and certification that each has been satisfactorily completed. Payments will not be based on the number of days worked but on the completion of each stated deliverable within the indicated timeframes.

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need. 

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application. 

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)