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.

The programme “Strengthening Gender-Responsive Disaster Management in ASEAN,” implemented by UN Women in close collaboration with the ASEAN Secretariat aims to ensure that key relevant ASEAN sectoral bodies are supported with evidence based policy research and relevant technical capacity to integrate gender and protection framework to mitigate and prevent sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). More specifically it aims to ensure that a protection (including SGBV and child protection), gender and inclusion lens is integrated in the design and implementation of the new ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response (AADMER) Work Programme 2021-2025.

Research from past disasters in Thailand have demonstrated the differential and disproportionate impact of disasters on women and girls, as well as the challenges that they face in gaining equitable access to relief and assistance.[1] In large scale events such as flooding in 2011, relief operations across provinces were male dominated, with women’s voices absent from policy making, and the assessment team did not find examples of gender-sensitive approaches employed in distributing aid.[2]

Thailand’s National Disaster Risk Management Plan (2015) highlights the importance of taking into account gender in damage and needs assessments to ensure response meets the needs of disaster affected people, however, limits the scope of meeting gendered needs to prioritization of women and children in evacuations. As part of the work to strengthen the evidence base for gender-responsive disaster risk reduction and preparedness, and to ensure evidence is available for policy-making at national and regional levels, the programme is seeking a consultant to develop a gender and disaster risk profile for Thailand. The gender and disaster risk profile developed should present evidence on gender dimensions of disaster risks (in particular exposure to hazards, vulnerability, and capacity), the root causes and structural constraints of gender inequalities and their impact on risk, and act as a reference tool for policy-making on disaster risk management as well as in designing responses that leave no one behind.

[1] APEC Gender Equality Focal Points Network (2011). “Women in Times of Disaster: The Integration of Gender Issues and Gender Perspectives in Disaster Management Thailand Study – The Case of the Indian Ocean Tsunami”.

[2] Ministry of Finance, Royal Thai Government and The World Bank (2012). Thailand Flooding 2554: Rapid Assessment for Resilient Recovery and Reconstruction Planning.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the supervision and guidance of Programme Analyst for Thailand, and in close consultation with the Strengthening Gender-Responsive Disaster Management team based in Jakarta, the consultant will undertake the following tasks:

1. Conduct a scoping review of available literature, and develop a methodology for development of the gender and disaster risk profile:
   1. The methodology should include both desk review and at least one virtual validation consultation with key stakeholders to be determined in consultation with UN Women Thailand
   2. The scoping should also propose areas of strategic linkages to UN Women Thailand’s work in the area of Women, Peace, and Security
2. Develop a gender and disaster risk profile for Thailand that at minimum:
   1. Summarizes key national policy commitments relating to gender, disaster risk reduction, and humanitarian action, including any relevant WPS commitments;
   2. Presents evidence and data on the gendered impacts of past disasters in Thailand, including identifying differential impacts by age, ethnicity, disability, and sexual orientation and gender identity where data is available;
   3. Consolidates relevant data for gender indicators in the following sectors: education (including technical and vocational education), health, livelihoods, gender-based violence, and women’s engagement in leadership and political action.
3. Organize a consultation workshop/intersectoral dialogue with representation from government, women-led NGOs and CSOs, and UN agencies to validate the findings of the gender and disaster profile and plan for next steps in integrating the findings into Standard Operating Procedures at province level in the deep South;
   1. The workshop should bring together in dialogue disaster management actors (including the DDPM), gender actors, peace and security actors, and youth actors from government, civil society, and the private sector, building upon UN Women Thailand’s existing work on WPS.
4. Finalize the gender and disaster risk profile with feedback from UN Women and partners.

Expected Deliverables 

Under the supervision of the Programme Analyst for UN Women Thailand and in close consultation with the UN Women project management team based on Jakarta, the consultant will produce the following deliverables:

[1] UN Women will cover the cost of translation from English to Thai or vice versa for the final profile.

Competencies

Knowledge and experience:

• Demonstrated knowledge of gender equality, disaster risk reduction, and the Asia-Pacific region.
• Excellent writing skills. Experience writing policy briefs.
• Previous experience with UN Women and other UN agencies an advantage.
• Fluency in English and Thai.

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

Required qualifications

• Master’s degree in 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;

• Minimum five years of progressively responsible, relevant work experience at national or international level in design, planning, implementation and/or monitoring of development or humanitarian projects relating to disaster risk reduction, women peace security, protection, and/or gender equality;
• Demonstrated experiences and understanding of research methodologies for exercises comparable to this assignment, including track record in conducting evidence-based policy research/analysis relating to gender equality and/or disaster risk reduction;
• Proficiency in both English and Thai.

Contract period and work location

The consultant will be home-based, and the contract period will be for five months (October 2020-February 2021). If travel is required, travel costs and Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) will be provided by UN Women if and when needed in line with UN standard rates applied at that time. Travel Authorization will be granted to the consultant prior to the travel date.

Submission of application

Interested candidates are encouraged to submit electronic application to hr.bangkok@unwomen.org  with -cc to salila.klongboonjit@unwomen.org , not later than 26 October 2020, 23:59 Bangkok time.

Submission package includes:

• Letter of Motivation
• Personal History Form(P11)
• Writing samples in English and Thai
• Financial proposal in THB.

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.