Background

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

The Fiji Multi Country Office (MCO) covers 14 Pacific countries, with field offices/presence in 6 countries, and five ‘focus countries’ (Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Samoa). Each field presence is led by a national Country Programme Coordinator. UN Women, in partnership with Pacific Islands Governments, regional organizations, CSOs, donors and UN agencies, focuses on delivering within four interlinked programme areas:

• Ending Violence against Women and Girls (EVAWG);
• Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE);
• Gender and Protection in Humanitarian Action; and
• Governance and Participation in Public Life (GPPL)

UN Women MCO is implementing the Women’s Resilience to Disasters (WRD) Programme in the Pacific. Disaster risks converge with critical socio-economic vulnerabilities, environmental degradation and climate change making the Pacific a disaster hotspot.  Disasters and climate change are widening inequalities and undermining poverty reduction in the region.  Threats such as COVID-19 are further exacerbating the inequalities and hardships faced by women and girls including those with disabilities.  Women and girls face greater vulnerability and exposure to disasters, yet women remain largely ignored and their capacities unleveraged in conventional resilience building processes. As a result, women are generally absent in the development of resilience strategies and decision-making processes for prevention, preparedness, and recovery. This is compounded by significant gaps at the global, regional and country level in relation to the availability and use of sex, age and disability disaggregated data (SADDD), knowledge sharing on women’s resilience; an enabling environment for building women’s resilience (including capacities, leadership and funding); translation of commitments into action; coordination and private sector partnership; and a need for transformative change to tackle the underlying drivers of disproportionate risk.

UN Women’s WRD programme proposes a comprehensive package for building women’s resilience to disasters, climate change and threats.   The aim of the WRD Programme is to render women’s and girls’ lives and livelihoods disaster-resilient, contributing to sustainable and secure communities, by promoting gender responsive prevention, preparedness, and recovery systems, plans and tools; and by enabling targeted action to help women and girls withstand hazards and threats, recover fully from disasters, and increase their resilience to future risks.  UN Women’s key partners include UNDRR which works on risk knowledge that enhances access to quality risk data in collaboration with the national government agencies. This collaboration between UN Women and UNDRR will contribute to aggregate information on hazards, exposure and vulnerability.

UN Women Fiji MCO is looking for an individual consultant to support the Fiji National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) to strengthen collection, management, and analysis of inter-connected risk data, as well as the collection and analysis of sex, age and disability disaggregated data. The consultant will also support mainstreaming of gender and disability into existing national early warning systems in line with the UN Secretary General’s Early Warning for All Initiative.

For this purpose, the selected consultant will be based in NDMO and will work under the guidance  of UN Women and UNDRR.  He/ She will report to and be supervised by the UN Women WRD Programme Manager and the Fiji Country Team.

Duties and Responsibilities

Responsibilities

The National Risk Information and Early Warning System Consultant will be seconded to the Fiji National Disaster Management Office and is expected to:

1. Undertake a mapping exercise of what is available in house at the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) and to create a Standard Operation Procedure SOP for their management. This task will include the following:

• Review decision-making and planning processes and recommend improvement to ensure decision making processes are evidence-based and draw on risk information.
• Assess the institutional arrangements for (risk) data management, collection, access, and revision cycles and recommend steps to improve data governance framework and dissemination of risk information.
• Assess the type of information management systems in use for managing and sharing risk assessment results: data platforms for management and visualization, software systems in use, modules, analytical functionalities, automated linkages, operational architecture, etc.

1. Provide recommendations to NDMO based on the gaps and the needs identified after the mapping exercise.

1. Strengthen the current Disaster Risk Information System (DRIS) within NDMO to aggregate sector-based risk data including production, analysis, sharing and dissemination of disaster loss data to support disaster risk management and development planning in Fiji. Scope of work should include the development of a (SOP) on the use of the DRIS tool.

1. Provide technical support to the NDMO in the planning and the piloting and finalizing of the of the DRIS tool.

1. Provide technical support in the development of an on-line monitoring tool as part of the government-led monitoring and evaluation system for the National Disaster Risk Reduction Policy (NDRRP).

1. Provide technical support in the development of a centralized repository system for the access of disaggregated risk data (multi hazard exposure, vulnerability, coping capacity and   loss and damage data).

1. Collect meta-data about applicable information management systems in the country (software, models, storage, sharing, information management strategies, etc.).

1. In the event of a Disaster, the Consultant will support NDMO with mapping and other digitization needs including data analysis on gender issues and inclusivity.

The Consultant will work in close collaboration with NDMO (and relevant government agencies) to enhance the collection and management of disaster loss data. The consultant will also support the NDMO in reporting on the disaster loss data (DesInventar and Sendai Framework Monitor). Strong engagement with other the national DRR stakeholders, particularly members of the National Emergency Council will be required.

Expected Deliverables

The duration of this assignment will be to up 220 working days over 12 months.

The Consultant is expected to deliver, specifically, the following major tasks or outputs:

The assignment should be carried out within a period of 12 months, not exceeding 220 working days, with the incumbent being responsible for delivering the following outputs:

• Monthly reports on major tasks performed and the results, including related to support provided to the NDMO, inputs collection etc., as per above description of tasks.

• Monthly time sheet.

• Final report on carried out activities, achievements, and challenges.

• Information management relevant to the assignment.  

• Supporting documents of the month’s activities including any minutes, workplans, briefs, analytical work papers etc.

All the deliverables should be agreed with the UN Women’s Humanitarian & Resilience Programme Team provided in English hard and electronic copy. 

Note that all materials, including any video footage and images, will remain property of UN Women and cannot be used without UN Women’s permission.

Upon receipt of the final deliverables and prior to the payment of the instalment, the deliverables, related reports, and documents will be reviewed and approved by UN Women at least within 10 business days of submission.

All the documents and materials utilized need to be returned to UN Women in electronic format. Any printed materials utilized to be referenced and returned.

Input

• The NDMO, UN Women and UNDRR will provide the Consultant with background materials.
• UN Women will only cover Consultant’s travel and within Suva should the need arises and upon prior approval by the Ministry and UN Women.
• The Consultant is expected to be based at the NDMO with frequent meetings with UN Women and UNDRR for technical inputs. 
• The Consultant may access the either the Ministry or the UN Women Office for printing of relevant documents or should he/she be required to work on-site at any point during the assignment.

Management Arrangements

The National Consultant will work under the overall coordination of the Director of NDMO and direct supervision of the UN Women, Gender, and Resilience Programme Specialist.  The National Consultant workspace will be provided by the NDMO with the necessary information, materials, and logistics, as well as office space.  The selected candidate will be provided with a laptop, while NDMO will provide access to other equipment for the fulfilment of his/her tasks (such as printer, copier).

Performance Evaluation

The Consultant’s performance will be evaluated based on timeliness, responsibility, initiative, communication, and quality of the products delivered.

Financial Arrangements

Payments will be disbursed to the consultant in instalments, upon submission and approval of deliverables, monthly timesheets aligned with actual days worked and certification by the UN Women Programme Specialist for the Humanitarian & Resilience Programme that the services have been satisfactorily performed.

Travel

UN Women will not cover transportation cost within Suva.  Travel costs outside Suva are not envisaged and if needed will be covered separately by UN Women with prior approval.  During the consultancy assignment’s related missions, UN Women will cover travel cost for the Consultant for the agreed upon routing and in conformity with UN Women applicable rules and regulations.  The position is based at the NDMO, Suva.  

No outside Suva travels are envisaged under the current assignment.  The Consultant will be responsible for all administrative and travel expenses associated with undertaking this assignment to be based in Suva.  

In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between NDMO and UN Women and the National Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Required Skills and Experience

The Consultant should fulfil the following requirements:

Education:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in Information Management System, Geospatial Science, Management and Public Administration, Gender Studies, Development Studies, Social Science or other related field is required. 
• A first-level University Degree in combination with two (2) additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience and Skills:

• A minimum of two (2) years (with Masters’ Degree), or minimum of four (4) years (with first-level University Degree) of progressively responsible experience in the field of information management, data science, development, adaptation and resilience capacity building, disaster risk reduction, climate resilience or other closely related fields.
• Minimum of 3 years’ relevant national/regional/international experience both in the field and headquarters in disaster response, recovery, or development work.
• Demonstrating ability to support development of communication products and with good communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to support and contribute to the development of reports (cluster or assessment reports, etc) required for the cluster.
• Experience in working with stakeholders, civil societies organisations, donor agencies, and international organizations.
• Experience in the Fiji Islands.
• Experience in Geographical Information System is an asset.
• Experience in the UN system related to disaster risk reduction, emergency preparedness, humanitarian-development-peace collaboration, response, and recovery is desirable.
• Experience in training and building capacity of both government and UN representatives is desirable.
• Computer literacy and ability to effectively use office technology equipment, IT tools, ability to use Internet and email.

Language and other skills:

• Excellent skills and fluency in verbal and written English is required. 
• Fluency in Fijian language is an asset.

Additional Information:

UN Women Statement on Diversity Inclusion

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law.  All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.  If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.  

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination.  

All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check).

Evaluation

Initially, individual consultants will be short-listed based on the following minimum qualification criteria:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in Information Management System, Geospatial Science, Management and Public Administration, Gender Studies, Development Studies, Social Science or other related field is required.  A first-level University Degree in combination with two (2) additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
• A least two (2) years (with Masters’ Degree), or minimum of four (4) years (with first-level University Degree) of progressively responsible experience in the field of information management, data science, development, adaptation and resilience capacity building, disaster risk reduction, climate resilience or other closely related fields.

Technical evaluation of shortlisted candidates will be done through desk review of applications on the basis of responsiveness to the Terms of Reference (TOR) as per table below.  Interviews and/or written tests will be organized if needed only, depending on the short-listed candidates’ qualifications.

Technical Evaluation Table:

The consultancy recruitment process will be governed by the rules and regulations of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women).

Submission of application

Interested candidates are requested to submit fully completed application on the UNDP Vacancy Site. 

Submission Package:

1. Cover letter explaining the suitability of the consultant: applicants are encouraged to address experience and qualifications listed in the ‘criteria for technical evaluation’.
2. Duly filled Personal History Form (P11) and/or Curriculum Vitae (CV) of consultant including records of past experience in similar assignments and specific outputs obtained; P11 can be downloaded at: https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment

Failure of candidates to submit a duly completed P11 form, as well as false representations on this form, shall constitute sufficient grounds for withdrawal of further consideration of the application. Information provided in the P11 form will be treated with confidentiality.  Applications without a complete set of the required documentations will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment. UN Women reserves the right to accept or reject any bid.