Background

UNDP is the leadng United Nations Organization fighting to end the injustice of poverty, inequality and climate change.  Working with our broad network of experts and partners in 170 countries, we help nations to build integrated lasting solutions for people and planet.  UNDP Sri Lanka has been working as the key development partner of choice since 1967 to achieve sustainable human development on economic, social and environmental fronts.  UNDP Sri Lanka has a portfolio of projects that focus on environmental sustainability and climate resilience. These projects support the government to implement climate smart solutions in critical sectors, mainstream biodiversity into landscape management approaches and production sectors and produce quality and time sensitive reports to global environmental treaties/ conventions.

 

In this backdrop, Government of Sri Lanka, with the assistance of UNDP, has secured funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) for the Project “Partnerships and Innovative Financing to Mainstream Biodiversity and Sustainable Land Management in the Wet and Intermediate Climatic Zones”.  The objective of the project is to conserve globally significant biodiversity by improving land management practices in tea and rubber production areas in the Wet and Intermediate Climatic Zones through innovative Private-Public-Community Partnerships. As per the project’s theory of change, this objective will be achieved through three components:

 

  • Component 1: Conservation and Restoration of High Conservation Value Forests (HCVFs) in the Wet and Intermediate Climatic Zones
  • Component 2: Innovative Public-Private-Community Partnerships for Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Land Management in Plantation Sector
  • Component 3: Knowledge Management, Gender Mainstreaming, Learning, and Monitoring and Evaluation.

 

To facilitate the Project and its objectives, UNDP Sri Lanka has obtained a project preparation grant (PPG) from the GEF to develop a full project document with supporting documentation for submission to the GEF for Chief Executive Officer’s endorsement with the ultimate objective of developing the project concept into a full project. UNDP Sri Lanka will be assembling a Project Development Team comprising of a highly competent team of experts from various disciplines, including a highly skilled international consultant who will head the team. The Specialist will support the Team Leader to conduct the necessary assessments to identify gender and social issues in project landscape/pilot sites; The Specialist will support the PPG team to identify and engage with relevant stakeholders at national and sub-national levels to develop an Inclusive and Responsive Stakeholder Engagement Plan and Gender Action Plan.

 

The Gender & Stakeholder Engagement Specialist will support the team and ensure that the interests of all project stakeholders, especially vulnerable groups and marginalized groups such as Indigenous Peoples and women, are adequately considered in project design and that adequate provision is made for their participation in both the PPG and implementation phases of the project.

 

The Gender & Stakeholder Engagement Specialist will report to the Programme Quality & Design Analyst of the Climate and Environment Team. The Specialist will work under the overall guidance and supervision of the PPG Team Leader and in close collaboration with the Lead National Consultant for Project Development. The intended IC should support the project formulation team to support the gender and stakeholder engagement related needs arising during the project formulation as required.

 

SCOPE AND OBJECTIVE

The consultant will ensure that gender and stakeholder participation considerations are fully mainstreamed into all relevant components of the project document as well as produce a participatory gender analysis and Action Plan for the project. The objective of the work is to explain how the project will contribute to gender equality and women’s empowerment, identify entry points for mainstreaming gender considerations into project components, ensure that the project results framework and theory of change are gender responsive and develop a gender action plan to advance women’s empowerment and promote gender equality.

Duties and Responsibilities

1) Preparatory Technical Studies and Reviews (Component A): Prepare analyses/studies, as agreed with the PPG Team Leader, including:

  1. Ensure full engagement with local communities and all stakeholders during the PPG phase, and ensure that these are adequately and comprehensively documented;
  2. Organise and carry out participatory gender responsive stakeholder consultation sessions in order to solicit inputs and ensure both male and female stakeholder involvement and buy-in to the project. Guide the project development team in using participatory techniques that involve both women and men in assessments and discussions;
  3. Assist the PPG TL and National coordinator with livelihoods and socio-economic studies to establish baseline and proposed interventions;
  4. Support development of strategies that are gender balanced and will enable the full and effective participation of key stakeholders such as government institutions, small holder farmers, landowners, private sector plantation companies;
  5. Support, maintain and update information and tools that will facilitate effective stakeholder participation such as, stakeholder and network mapping and analysis;
  6. Produce a participatory gender analysis that 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.) given a project’s context, and appropriate measures taken to address these and promote gender equality; collect gender responsive baseline data relevant to project planning and monitoring; identify the share of female and male direct beneficiaries;
  7. Develop a Gender Action Plan for the project with annual outputs to facilitate implementation of activities that promote gender equality and women’s empowerment;
  8. Ensure that all aspects of the project documents are gender responsive: work with the project development team to devise the projects results framework and theory of change: develop gender-responsive outcomes, baselines, targets, and indicators for the project results framework and ensure that all applicable indicators are disaggregated by sex and other relevant, intersecting forms of identity; ensure that gender considerations are integrated into the project’s theory of change, including in the discussion of impact, assumptions, evidence and risks;
  9. Assist the TL with the collection of socio-economic data and studies for baselines and target setting on beneficiaries;
  10. Provide inputs to the UNDP Social and Environmental Screening Procedure including assessing potential negative impacts of the project on gender equality and specific activities to mitigate and/or minimize them;
  11. Assist the project development team in identifying and developing partnerships with gender equality/women’s governmental institutions, local women’s NGOs/CSOs and relevant national stakeholders; and
  12. Provide support for the preparation of the project budget ensuring that resources are in place to address the gender and stakeholder participation activities.

 

2) Formulation of the ProDoc, CEO Endorsement Request and Mandatory and Project Specific Annexes (Component B): Prepare inputs and support the development of final PPG deliverables, as agreed with the PPG Team Leader.

  1. Provide relevant text sections od required quality for the ProDoc/ GEF CEO Endorsement Request package on socio-economic and gender analysis;
  2. Prepare the comprehensive Stakeholder Engagement Plan, working closely with other consultants;
  3. Using the findings from the gender analysis, provide inputs to the project’s results framework and theory of change; ensure gender considerations are integrated into the project’s theory of change; Ensure that all aspects of the project documents are gender responsive: work with the project development team to devise the projects results framework and theory of change: develop gender-responsive outcomes, baselines, targets, and indicators for the project results framework and ensure that all applicable indicators are disaggregated by sex and other relevant, intersecting forms of identity; ensure that gender considerations are integrated into the project’s theory of change, including in the discussion of impact, assumptions, evidence and risks;
  4. Prepare the Gender Action Plan, with appropriate budget and identification of appropriate project interventions to ensure gender mainstreaming including at project demonstration sites;
  5. Prepare the Grievance Redressal Mechanism for the project; and
  6. Support the agreements on project management arrangements and ensure that gender is adequately incorporated into these arrangements.

 

3)  Validation Workshop (Component C):

  1. Contribute to the validation workshop; and
  2. Support all necessary revisions that arise during the workshop, as appropriate.

 

The above deliverables are subject to adjustments depending upon partner needs and emerging priorities. Any changes will be discussed and agreed to, with the consultant. Consultant’s duty station during the contract will be Colombo (home based) with travel to outstations as required.

 

Expected Outputs/Deliverables

The following results are expected from the work of the consultant:

  1. Draft Participatory Gender Analysis: This deliverable will be fully integrated into the project document and used to inform the process of developing the results framework and theory of change / 10 days/ 16th October 2020
  2. Appropriate inputs to the final UNDP-GEF project document based on guidance from the PPG Team Leader; a) Contribution to the problem analysis and contributing to the RRF with socio economic/gender baselines and data, & b) Inputs to the risk analysis and Social Environmental Risk Screening / 10 days/ 15th November 2020
  3. Prepare any other annexes required in the project document/ 03 days/ 20th November 2020
  4. Addressing comments from GEFSEC and UNDP-GEF experts at HQ on gender action plan and gender incorporation in the RRF/ 02 days/ Until 30th April 2021

 

Timeframe

25 days of work within a 7-month period is estimated for the above described deliverables/tasks. The envisaged time frame of the consultancy is October 2020 – April 2021.

 

Competencies

Consultant Profile

The prospective consultant should, as a minimum, have the following competencies and qualifications;

 

Technical

  • Proven ability to undertake development work in programme/ project management
  • Solid experience in working on the national or international level in setting up and maintaining information management systems
  • Ability to engage effectively with other implementing agencies supporting the respective UN agencies, development partners, the private sector, etc.
  • Good understanding of the governance structure and systems in Sri Lanka, including the current political economy context.
  • Proven analytical skills: ability to conduct independent research and analysis, identify issues, and recommend appropriate solutions.

 

Partnerships

  • Maturity and confidence in dealing with senior members of national and private sector institutions,
  • Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
  • Excellent written communication skills, with analytic capacity and ability to synthesize relevant collected data and findings for the preparation of quality analysis for the development of the report.
  • Excellent coordination skills and result oriented collaboration with personnel with different subject expertise.
  • Excellent communication (both oral and written) and partnership building skills with multi-dimension partners.

 

Results

  • Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP.
  • Builds strong relationships with clients, focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to feedback.
  • Good team player who has ability to maintain good relationships.

Required Skills and Experience

Education

  • Master’s degree or higher in a relevant field, such as Development Studies, Environment, Sociology, Anthropology, or Gender Studies.   

 

Experience

  • At least 5 years of practical working experience in gender mainstreaming, women’s empowerment, stakeholder engagement, and sustainable development;
  • Demonstrated understanding of issues related to gender, sustainable development, indigenous people, etc,
  • Experience carrying out participatory gender analysis; experience collecting and formulating gender responsive indicators and sex-disaggregated data and preparing gender responsive project analysis; stakeholder analysis; developing gender/stakeholder engagement plans,
  • Prior work experience in Sri Lanka’s plantation sector or project landscape is an added advantage; and,
  • Excellent analytical, writing, advocacy, presentation, and communication skills in English.

 

Languages/ Other

  • Excellent English language skills, working knowledge in Sinhala/ Tamil.

 

HOW TO APPLY

 

The application should contain:

  • Cover letter explaining why you are the most suitable candidate for the advertised position and a brief methodology on how you will approach and conduct the work.
  • Updated CV to include qualifications/competencies and relevant experience in similar projects and contact details of 3 professional referees who can certify your competencies, professionalism, quality of writing, presentation and overall suitability to this TOR
  • Individual consultants will be evaluated based on a combination of factors including cover letter, the credentials on offer and brief interview (optional) and the offer which gives the best value for money for the UNDP.
  • Please send the Financial Proposal separately to the following e-mail address: consultants.lk@undp.org  stating the vacancy number/position  in the subject line.

 

FINANCIAL PROPOSAL  

All Inclusive Lump Sum Fee: LKR (_______________________________________)

Or

All Inclusive Daily Fee: LKR (_____________________________________)

Amount in words:

(Rs._______________________________________________________________)

 

Note: Payments will be based on invoices on achievement of agreed milestones i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR and certification of acceptance by the UNDP. The applicant must factor in all possible costs in his/her “All Inclusive Lump Sum Fee” including his/her consultancy and professional fee, travel (economy class flights is required to and from the Duty Station) honorarium, board and lodging, and any other foreseeable costs in this exercise. No costs other than what has been indicated in the financial proposal will be paid or reimbursed to the consultant. UNDP will only pay for any unplanned travel outside of this TOR and Duty Station on actual basis and on submission of original bills/invoices and on prior agreement with UNDP officials. Daily per diem and costs for accommodation/meals/incidental expenses for such travel shall not exceed established local UNDP DSA rates.

 

For an Individual Contractor who is 65 years of age or older, and on an assignment requiring travel, be it for the purpose of arriving at the duty station or as an integral duty required travel under the TOR, a full medical examination and statement of fitness to work must be provided.  Such medical examination costs must be factored into the financial proposal above. Medical examination is not a requirement for individuals on RLA contracts.

 

PAYMENT FOR SERVICES

Payments will be based on the completion of deliverables and submission of written reports specifying the achievement of the deliverables outlined above. The payments will be verified by the Lead National Consultant for Project Development.

 

1)  16th October 2020 - 25% of the total payment on submitting the Deliverable 1;

2)   20th November 2020 - 50% of the total payment on submitting Deliverables 2 & 3;

3)   30th April 2020 – 25% of the total payment on submitting Deliverable 4.

 

UNDP is committed to achieving diversity within its workplace, and encourages all qualified applicants, irrespective of gender, nationality, disabilities, sexual orientation, culture, religious and ethnic backgrounds to apply. All applications will be treated in the strictest confidence.