The promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women is central to Climate change Actions of UNFCCC and intrinsic to its development approach.  In line with the vision of the UNFCCC, the Gender Action plan (GAP) created under the Lima work programme on gender, seeks to advance women’s full, equal and meaningful participation and promote gender-responsive climate policy and the mainstreaming of a gender perspective in the implementation of the Convention and the work of Parties, the secretariat, United Nations entities and all stakeholders at all levels. The mission is to have Gender-responsive climate policy through strengthened activities concerning adaptation, mitigation and related means of implementation contribute to the eradication of poverty and a significant reduction of gender inequalities by empowering women and promoting and protecting their rights.  Gender equality is a fundamental human right and it is also an essential foundation of a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world.   

In accordance with its commitments as a non-Annex I Party and as mandated by Article 12 of the UNFCCC and subsequent CoP decisions, Samoa will prepare and submit its Third National Communication (TNC) and First Biennial Update Report (FBUR) to the Conference of Parties (CoP) of the UNFCCC. The project is implemented by UNDP and the Government of Samoa via the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.  The project aims to update the information provided regarding national circumstances, inventories of greenhouse gases (GHG), policies and measures undertaken to mitigate climate change, assessments of vulnerability to climate change and steps taken to adapt and promote increased awareness and understanding of critical importance of climate change to its sustainable development.  The project will also increase the national technical and institutional capacities in preparing the NC/BUR and assisting the Government to integrate climate change issues into sectoral and national development priorities that directly contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 13: Climate Action.

The implementation of the project objectives will support Samoa’s preparation of a high-quality National Communication and Biennial Update Report to be submitted to the UNFCCC in a timely manner. The project will take a learning-by-doing approach, to the extent possible taking into account limited staffs trained on best practices to monitor and manage findings/information from TNC and BUR project. In this way, the project intends to catalyze the institutionalization of knowledge among the national participating experts and partner institutions involved in the development of National Communication and Biennial Updated Report, to improve quality control and quality assurance of the findings from reports including inventory data.

One of the key objectives under the component 3 of the project is the mainstreaming of gender aspects into relevant NC/BUR activities, following the guidance on gender integration developed by Global Support Programme (GSP), the GEF Secretariat’s policy on gender equality and Guidance to advance gender equality in GEF projects.

Following the initial Gender Analysis and Action Plan for the TNC project that was carried out in 2022, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has requested UNDP to engage a local expert who will develop an updated Climate Change and Gender Strategy for Climate Actions. This Climate Change and Gender Strategy and Action Plan for its implementation will build on the analysis conducted last year and will require update. The Gender Consultant will work directly under the supervision of the Assistant Resident Representative, Environment Unit in consultation with the Assistant Chief Executive Officer, Climate Change and GEF Division of the MNRE and will be assisted by the TNC Project Management Unit.

The objective of the assignment is to develop the Climate Change and Gender Strategy in alignment with Global and National gender strategy for adaptation, mitigation and the Action Plan for its implementation with the following specific objectives:

1. To integrate gender where relevant.

2. To promote equal opportunities for participation by men, women and vulnerable groups in climate change planning and sustainable management at all levels.

3. To build and strengthen capacity for climate change and gender mainstreaming in key sectors and ensure that gender considerations are fully mainstreamed into all national climate change action scenarios as well as full alignment with relevant project outcomes, outputs and activities as specified under the recently developed TNC Gender Analysis and Gender Action Plan.

4. To integrate the climate change gender analysis into climate actions and project outcomes and to use the analysis to identify opportunities and gaps to help better understand and address gender concerns within the climate change context.

The consultant will work directly under the Assistant Resident Representative, Environment Unit in consultation with the Assistant Chief Executive Officer (ACEO), MNRE and will work closely with the project team to ensure that stakeholder consultations are gender responsive

The Gender Consultant will work directly with the Assistanct Resident Representative, Environment Unit in consultation with the ACEO, Climate Change MNRE and will work closely with the TNC-BUR Project Management Unit as well as technical experts, and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Gender Specialist on the following;

• Conduct an updated climate change and gender responsive consultations with stakeholders. The Consultant must prepare questionnaires and/or interview questions and work together with UNDP Samoa, ACEO, CC MNRE and the Project Management Unit to organize consultations, solicit inputs and ensure both male and female stakeholder involvement and buy-in to national climate change actions.
• Build on the Gender Analysis from 2022 to prepare a Climate Change and Gender Analysis Report for the key sectors involved to guide on gender integration through the NCs and BURs developed by the Global Support Programme (http://www.un-gsp.org/news/gender-responsive-national-communications-toolkit). Gender analysis is a fundamental component of gender mainstreaming and is used to fully consider the different needs, roles, benefits, impacts, risks and access to/control over resources of women and men (including considerations of intersecting categories of identity such as age, social status, ethnicity, marital status, etc.), and appropriate measures taken to address these and promote gender equality; collect gender responsive baseline data relevant to national climate change actions implementation and monitoring; identify the share of female and male direct beneficiaries.
• Consult the Ministry of Women, Community and Social Development (MWCSD) as the national Gender Focal Point on National Gender Policy integration of Climate Change Disaster Risk Management (DRM)
• To facilitate Stakeholder consultations with key players (inclusive of at least 10 Government Ministries, at least 5 Private Sector Partner and NGOs as well as the key Divisions of the MNRE to gauge their perspectives on gender issues that are impacting their roles in CC actions (Mitigation, Resiliennce, Post Disaster Response etc) and to draw and map out resolutions for improvements.
• Guide the Division of Climate Change and Global Environment Facillity, MNRE and project team in using participatory techniques that involve both women and men in assessments and discussions.
• Develop an updated National Climate Change Gender Strategy based on the updated Gender Analysis. A National Gender Strategy plans out responsive elements of national climate actions.
• Develop an updated Action Plan for the Climate Change gender strategy.
• Assist the Division of Climate Change and Global Environment Facility, MNRE and project team in identifying and developing partnerships with gender equality/women’s governmental institutions, local women’s NGOs/CSOs and relevant national stakeholders
• Assist with capacity building  and facilitate the final workshop for relevant stakeholders on the updated Climate Change Gender Analysis and National Strategy.

Note: By performance of each above points, the materials/reports should be submitted to UNDP Samoa, ACEO, UNDP Gender Specialist and relevant experts for commenting.  In case of comments, the expert has to finalize the materials in compliance with the comments and/or to discuss these comments via e-mail and forward the final ones to UNDP Samoa.

Expected Outcomes and Deliverables and payment schedule:

Deliverables:

Deliverable 1: Updated Inception Report – to clarify objectives, methodology and timeframe for the consultancy based on inception report carried out by the international consultant in 2022

Deliverable 2: Updated Participatory Climate Change Gender Analysis

The updated Climate Change Gender Analysis will consist of:

•         An updated Analysis to understand the national and local climate change context and issues around gendered division of labour and time use, access and control, power and decision making, and knowledge and capacities.  A review of national gender statistics, time-use surveys, national action plans, and qualitative data generated through policy and academic research and participation assessments should be used to inform the analysis; (examples of which include gender studies carried out by the National University of Samoa, University of the South Pacific and Samoa Bureau of Statistics)

•         Stakeholder consultation analysis, interviews, and relevant information;

•         A baseline survey on women’s participation in project activities/ meetings; women’s participation in national/ local planning processes; women’s livelihood and economic activities; women’s specific adaptation needs; women and men’s participation in decision making processes; men and women as project beneficiaries; roles of men and women in collection and use of biomass fuels; gender differences in water access and use; roles of men and women in ecosystem management / community adaptation; differential impact of climate change / chemicals / POPS / on women; etc.].

Deliverable 3: Updated Gender and Climate Change Strategy: An updated Gender and Climate Change Strategy with an Action Plan for all key sectors with concrete outputs to facilitate implementation of activities that promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in national Climate Change related activities.

Deliverable 4: Gender Workshop and Report:

A national validation workshop to present the Updated Gender and Climate Change Strategy and a Final Workshop Report.

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates commitment to the UNDP mission, vision and values.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability

Functional Competencies:

Knowledge Management and Learning

• Shares knowledge and experience
• Actively works towards continuing personal learning, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills

Development and Operational Effectiveness

• Ability to perform/advise on (as appropriate) a variety of specialized tasks related to administrative support, including project data management support, reporting, and logistics for project implementation.

Leadership and Self-Management

• Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude
• Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure
• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities
• Good inter-personal and teamwork skills, networking aptitude, ability to work in multi-cultural environment

Education

• Minimum Post-graduate university degree in Social Sciences or Natural Sciences or other relevant discipline, preferably with a specialization in gender and project cycle management.

Experience

• A minimum of 3 years practical experience in the field of social sciences, gender equality, gender mainstreaming and sustainable development.
• Proven experience of 2 years in carrying out participatory gender analysis; experience collecting and formulating gender responsive indicators and sex-disaggregated data and preparing gender responsive project analysis; developing gender action plans.in mainstreaming gender in projects and programmes.
• Demonstrated understanding of the links between sustainable development, social and gender issues;
• Demonstrated experience working on policy and programmatic issues with national and local governments and civil society organizations including community organizations.
• Proven experience in providing professional trainings on gender analysis and gender action plan
• Proven experience in working with international or local organizations on similar assignments.  Experience in working with UN agencies is an asset.
• Full proficiency in English both written and verbal including advanced ability to draft, review and edit the required project documentation

HOW TO APPLY?

This specific tender is managed via the new supplier portal system of UNDP which will in the future replace the online eTendering system currently in use. If you are interested in submitting a bid for this tender, you must subscribe following the instructions in the user guide. If you have not registered a profile with this system, you can do so by following the link for Supplier Registration.

If you already have a supplier profile, please login to the Supplier Portal, then search for the negotiation using the reference number UNDP-WSM-00024, following the instructions in the user guide.

IMPORTANT NOTE: DO NOT USE "APPLY NOW" LINK/BUTTON. 

Please apply through the link: https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_negotiation.cfm?nego_id=3801

Apply before: 10 April 2023, 16:59PM Samoa local time.