Historique

Terms of Reference

Update of the IASC Publication

Women, Girls, Boys and Men - Different Needs, Equal Opportunities  (the Gender Handbook in Humanitarian Action)

Context

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 between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

UN Women is committed to the achievement of equality between women, men, boys and girls as partners and beneficiaries of humanitarian action. In October 2012, UN Women established its Gender and Humanitarian Action Unit to consolidate its advocacy, coordination and capacity development role for the integration of gender equality across humanitarian action. This includes disaster risk reduction with a focus on prevention, mitigation and preparedness, humanitarian response and early recovery.

With continued population growth, urbanization, stretched natural resources, protracted conflict and the impact of climate change becoming more apparent, the number of humanitarian crises will continue to grow, as will the numbers of beneficiaries requiring humanitarian assistance.

But the impact of these crises on this increasing number of beneficiaries will not be uniform.  In any humanitarian crisis, the needs and vulnerabilities of women, men, girls and boys are distinct and often different.  Women and girls, in particular, can find themselves marginalised when it comes to accessing available humanitarian services and they are often excluded from the decision making processes that shape the response strategies that will affect their ability to recover from the ongoing crisis.

As such, it is essential that gender equality and women’s empowerment are adequately integrated into all phases of humanitarian action – including preparedness, assessment, analysis, planning and implementation – to ensure that the needs and vulnerabilities of ALL members of a crisis affected population are identified and addressed.

Recognizing this, the Inter-Agency Steering Committee (IASC) -  the primary mechanism for inter-agency coordination of humanitarian assistance - in its 2008 Gender Equality Policy Statement states that it is the responsibility of the field-level humanitarian coordination system – including the Humanitarian Coordinator, the Humanitarian Coordination Team and the Clusters, as well as the IASC member implementing agencies – to ensure that gender equality is a key facet to all humanitarian planning and response interventions.

To this end, one of the major tools developed to provide guidance on implementing gender-integrated humanitarian action was the IASC’s publication Women, Girls, Boys and Men - Different Needs, Equal Opportunities (the Gender Handbook in Humanitarian Action). The Handbook was developed in conjunction with the UN and non-UN membership agencies of the IASC to provide an overview of the principles of gender equality and women’s empowerment in humanitarian action.  It also gives practical guidance on how to integrate those principles into key humanitarian services – including education, shelter, camp management, food, health, non-food items (NFI), livelihoods, and water and sanitation (WASH).  As such, it has proved an excellent knowledge resource for humanitarian practitioners who may not necessarily have specific expertise in gender-equality humanitarian programming.

However, since the Handbook was published in 2006, it predates the IASC’s more recent humanitarian reform and Transformative Agenda processes.  As such, they do not reflect the current iteration of the Cluster System, the Gender Marker, the Humanitarian Programme Cycle and other important advances in humanitarian coordination, leadership, accountability and partnership.

Devoirs et responsabilités

As members of the IASC’s Gender in Humanitarian Action Reference Group (GRG), UN Women and Oxfam are taking the lead in the process of updating the handbook to reflect the current humanitarian system and landscape.  To this end, they are looking to commission a consultant to facilitate the process towards completing this revision, consolidating the inputs received from relevant stakeholders and drafting the updated text, as well as new content.

This process will complement the recently completed revision of the IASC’s Guidelines for GBV Interventions in Humanitarian Settings which were originally published in 2005.

Scope

If the systematic integration of gender equality and women’s empowerment is to be achieved in the planning and implementation of humanitarian response and recovery, the cadre of humanitarian practitioners need to have access to the most up to date information and examples of best practice to help guide their decision making processes.

As such, there are a number of key aspects to the handbook that need to be reviewed and revised as necessary:

The legislative and policy framework on gender equality and women’s empowerment in humanitarian action.

Update with key policy developments since the original publication – including:

• Humanitarian/development continuum in context of the post-2015 development agenda;
• Inclusion of the Sendai framework;
• IASC policies and guidelines;
• GBV AoR – Gender Call to Action, consistency with revised Guidelines for GBV Interventions in Humanitarian Settings;
• WHS outcomes;
• 1325 Women Peace and Security principles.

Humanitarian and recovery assessment and planning:

• Guidance on the integration of gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) in updated assessment methodologies and their analysis;
• Post Disaster Needs Assessments/Post Conflict Needs Assessments;
• Multi-Cluster/Sector Initial Rapid Assessment;
• Use of sex and age disaggregated data;
• Preparedness and Resilience.

The humanitarian coordination system:

• The Humanitarian Programme Cycle – informed by SADD and gender analysis;
• The Cluster system –Global Cluster guidance;
• Appeals and Pooled funding – How is GEWE integrated in funding and appeal mechanisms?
• Monitoring, evaluation and learning– enhanced gender and age markers.

Ensuring the representation, participation and leadership of women and girls in humanitarian and recovery assessment, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

• Ensure focus on GEWE and not just protection.

Guidance on a cluster by cluster basis

Based on the existing Cluster system, develop guidance chapters to include:

• Information required for planning and implementation;
• Best practice for gender equality programming;
• Focus of gender analysis;
• Access, participation, leadership;
• Monitoring and evaluation;
• Resources.

In addition, the consultant will develop a roll out and implementation plan for the revised guidelines once completed, including:

• Training: on line and face to face;
• Mandatory use;
• ME and Learning of their use;

Key Stakeholders:

The update process will require collaboration and consultation with – as well as final endorsement - from a number of key stakeholders.  These will include:

• The Global clusters
• The IASC Working Group and Secretariat;
• The IASC Gender Reference Group;
• GBV AoR;
• OCHA – (for Humanitarian Programme Cycle, Pooled Funds etc.);
• GenCap;
• Select donors;
• Key humanitarian implementing agencies – e.g. IRC, CARE, selected faith based group etc.

Outputs/Deliverables

Based on the above description, the consultant will produce the following outputs:

• An inception report and Detailed Annotated Outline of the proposed sections for revision in the Handbook detailing the key content to be updated or newly developed – to be presented at a stakeholder’s Experts Group Meeting for the purpose of consultation and initial endorsement (Approximately 3-4 December 2015);
• 1st working draft presented to Steering Group for comments (Approxiamtely 5th Feb 2016);
• Final draft presented to Steering Group (Approximately 21st March 2016).

Expected Outcomes

Together with the recently completed revision of the IASC’s Guidelines for GBV Interventions in Humanitarian Settings, the update of the Gender Handbook in Humanitarian Action will provide the humanitarian system with indispensable tools to ensure that GEWE and GBV protection and prevention are adequately integrated into the assessment, planning and implementation of humanitarian response and early recovery strategies.

Compétences

Core Values:

Integrity:

• Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity:

• Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff;
• Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies:

Professionalism:

• Sound knowledge of global gender equality issues, including the gender equality dimensions of strategic issues, and gender mainstreaming tools and methodologies;
• Experience in inter-agency collaboration an advantage.

Communication:

• Excellent communications skills – verbal and written;
• Strong interpersonal skills;
• Ability to prepare professional and practical published material.

Teamwork:

• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to establish and maintain effective partnerships and working relations, both within the UN system and externally;
• Ability to work in a multicultural and multi-ethnic environment with respect for diversity.

Ethics and Values:

• Demonstrating / Safeguarding Ethics and Integrity.

Organizational Awareness:

• Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.

Self-management and Emotional intelligence:

• Creating synergies through self-control.

Knowledge Sharing / Continuous Learning:

• Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others.

Functional Competencies:

• Substantive knowledge with - gender equality and women’s empowerment programming and mainstreaming in the humanitarian context, humanitarian issues and related inter-agency processes;
• Substantive knowledge with - the Humanitarian Programme Cycle, the Cluster system and other humanitarian coordination structures and processes;
• Ability to undertake gender in humanitarian action research and prepare practical and clear guidance materials for humanitarian-practitioners with and without gender expertise;
• Familiarity with and understanding of Programme Development and Results-Based Management including Monitoring and Evaluation;
• Ability to organize and complete multiple tasks by establishing priorities, to handle a large volume of work possibly under time constraints and to work independently and exercise good judgment in a stressful environment;
• Ability to work collaboratively and operate effectively across thematic areas and organizational boundaries.

Qualifications et expériences requises

Education:

• Minimum of Master's degree or equivalent in Economics, Statistics, gender studies, humanitarian, development studies or other related disciplines.

Experience:

• A minimum of 7 years of professional experience in humanitarian programme work and policy research at a national or international level;
• Experience of developing guidance tools, training materials and/or official publications;
• Proven expertise on the integration of gender equality and women’s empowerment into the development and implementation of programmes and policies;
• Knowledge of the humanitarian system and its coordination mechanisms;
• Experience with UN work highly desirable.

Language:

• Fluency in English is required;
• Proficiency in another UN working language is desirable.