Background
Timor-Leste faces high levels of risks associated with natural hazards. Every year, the country suffers from localized events including, floods, landslides and strong winds. Vulnerable communities have borne the impacts of such natural hazards, which often exacerbate food insecurity. The country is also prone to earthquakes and tsunamis, which could significantly affect the lives of people and have an enormous impact on economic and social infrastructure.
The Ministry of Social Solidarity (MSS) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) joint project “Strengthening Disaster Risk Management (DRM) in Timor-Leste” is geared towards helping the Government of Timor-Leste to strengthen its DRM capacity, enhance preparedness and reduce risks. The project supports the establishment of the institutional and legal systems for DRM and disaster risk reduction (DRR).
The project is being implemented in partnership with a range of stakeholders with the MSS-National Disaster Management Directorate (NDMD) assuming coordination role and pursuing the objectives of social inclusion and equality, women empowerment and dissemination of knowledge and skills.
Two main outputs of the project are revised National DRM Policy and a DRM/DRR Act/Legislation. The National DRM Policy was approved by the 4th Constitutional Government in March 2008 for a period of five years that ended in March 2013. The government assumed extension of the DRM policy till it is revised this is due in 2014.
In order to ensure regular update and implementation of the DRM policy, and more particularly to develop clarity and consensus on the structure, division of roles and responsibilities among various players and to ensure sustainable allocation of resources for DRM/DRR activities in Timor-Leste, the MSS has decided to develop a DRR Act for the Government of Timor-Leste through technical and financial support from the joint DRM project with UNDP. UNDP has envisaged procuring technical services of an individual consultant in development of the DRR Act.
Duties and Responsibilities
The scope of policy, legal and institutional frameworks encompasses all elements and steps in the risk management process including:
- Identify risks, analyze risks and evaluate risks;
- Treat risks (includes planning and preparedness, mitigation or risk reduction [reducing the
likelihood or the consequences of the risk], response and recovery, and public awareness and education). - Communicate and consult;
- Monitor and review.
The scope includes the policy, legal, and institutional frameworks at both the national and sub-national
levels, including national/district/sub-district/Suco/Aldea and non-governmental organizations. Also,
it relates to the natural and technological hazards relevant to the country, including the policies, laws, and institutions that deal with specific hazards.
These three elements—policy, legal and institutional arrangements--together form the foundation for a
Community or society’s approach to disaster mitigation. If any of the three is weak, the entire system will be prone to failure.
The consultant will build on the data and information on risk that is available through the comprehensive national risk profile and its recommendations to treat risk.
The main activities are detailed in the following section:
- Conduct the institutional mapping that should provide recommendations for strengthening the institutional and financial system for DRM/DRR. These recommendations should be circulated widely for the purpose of developing a broad consensus. It is important to ensure that the recommendations are administratively feasible, financially responsible, and legally tenable;
- Develop a short background paper (maximum 20 pages) for consideration by the CIGD around the regional experiences of institutional and legal developments in respect to DRM/DRR in South-east Asia;
- Develop broad consensus among the CIGD members on institutional arrangements of the DRM/DRR system in Timor-Leste based on the provisions of the revised DRM Policy. It should include both bilateral and joint discussion of strengths and weaknesses on institutional arrangements of the DRM/DRR system among CIGD members with MSS-NDMD in lead and facilitation roles;
- Prepare a short terms of reference and form a drafting committee (maximum 10 members) consisting of existing legal experts of the MSS, Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Environment, Ministry of State Administration & Territorial Management (Secretary of State for Local Development), Vice Prime Minister Office, Parliament, Ministry of Defense and Security, UNDP-MSS DRM/DRR/CCA and gender technical specialists and facilitate the drafting process. Preferably, the members of the drafting team need to be officially appointed by the MSS;
- The consultant with inputs form the drafting committee should draft the legislation on the basis of background documents and existing laws and development planning and budgeting at all levels in Timor-Leste. There are model legislations also available by UNDP, which could be adapted to Timor-Leste;
- The draft legislation should be reviewed through a formally organized consultations involving CIGD, public authorities, NGOs, women networks, private sector, academia, UN and other development partners etc;.
- Support the MSS in submission of the draft legislation to the Council of Ministers and Parliament and incorporate / address required modification whenever feasible and compatible with the Timor-Leste laws;
- Prepare complied report and executive summary (maximum four pages) documenting the legislation development process, consultation notes, lessons learnt and recommendations for future similar processes.
For more details, please see IC Notice & ToR at following link;
Competencies
- Able to conduct primary or comprehensive research and analysis on the issues, opportunities and challenges.
- Able to distill ideas and needs to address the gaps;
- Understands integration of DRM/DRR/CCA into development planning and budgeting processes;
- Demonstrates skills and ability to coordinate / facilitate the work of groups to tight deadlines;
- Builds strong relationships with clients, focuses on results and responds positively to the feedback;
- Shows strong consensus building skills, and is able to anticipate and resolve conflicts by pursuing mutually agreeable solutions;
- Able to deliver quality results in challenging, dynamic, low-capacity-setting and post-conflict environment in timely manner;
- Able to deliver results in multi-cultural environment and work as a team player.
- Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
Required Skills and Experience
Education:
- A Master degree in Law, DRM/DRR/CCA, Public Sector Management and/or relevant fields.
Experience:
- Minimum of five years of working experience in delivering similar legislations and/or DRM/DRR/CCA results;
- Working experience with the Government of Timor-Leste or its affiliated organizations and partner agencies is an asset;
- Familiarity with Timor-Leste administration system, policy, institutional and legislation frameworks is an asset;
- Experience of working with UN agencies or other international development agencies/programmes, funds is an asset;
- Experience of working in developing countries is an asset.
Language Requirements:
- Proficiency in Portuguese;
- Working knowledge of English is required
- Working knowledge of Tetum or Indonesian Bahasa is an asset.