Background

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (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 provides support to Member States’ efforts and priorities in meeting their gender equality goals and for building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, the UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality are translated into action throughout the world.

The Asia-Pacific region is the most disaster prone region globally. The negative impact of disasters causes human, material and economic loss and damage to hundreds of millions of people in the region every year. China is not sheltered from this, and due to its vast geographic coverage and varying climates, the country is exposed to multiple forms of disasters.

UN Women believes that climate change, gender equality, poverty and sustainable development are highly interrelated. It is therefore essential that climate change and disaster risk reduction (DRR) policies and measures are designed in a way that ensure that women become full and equal partners as well as beneficiaries. In this context, UN Women China commissioned a research study on Chinese people’s gendered vulnerabilities to climate change impacts. Based on a desk review, over 3400 survey responses and 84 interviews, the research findings show that Chinese women’s limited access to loans, off-farm jobs, information, training and decision-making makes it harder for them to build resilience to the negative impacts of climate change. The research report was launched in December 2016.

Informed by the research findings and consultations with national stakeholders, UN Women has started designing a new multi-year programme on gender, climate change and DRR in China. Now, UN Women wants to procure an international consultant, who will finalize the programme document and provide overall support to UN Women’s gender and climate change planning, reporting and resource mobilization in China and the region. In this way, the consultant will partly fill the UN Women China office’s human resources gap between the departure of the office’s current JPO and the recruitment of the next JPO. The office’s current JPO will finish her assignment in the China office at the end of May 2017.

Purpose

The purpose of the assignment is to support UN Women to advance its gender and climate change programming in China, including by mapping potential donors and having meetings with relevant agencies, finalizing UN Women’s draft programme document on gender, climate change and DRR in China and providing inputs for UN Women’s reporting and work planning in China. 

Duties and Responsibilities

The part-time work is expected to span over a course of eight months, starting at the end of May 2017. The consultant will be based at the UN Women China office in Beijing. If needed, UN Women will directly cover and handle travel to and from duty station (one round trip). UN Women will not pay DSA for the assignment.

Specific Tasks

1. Conduct a literature review of UN Women’s past and ongoing work on gender, climate change and DRR in China and the region.
2. Have meetings with relevant stakeholders to identify potential areas of collaboration and map potential donors.
3. Produce proposals/concept notes on gender and climate change/DRR in China.
4. Finalize UN Women’s draft programme document on gender, climate change and DRR in China.
5. Provide inputs for UN Women China Q3 and Q4 reports, 2017 annual report and 2018 Annual Work Plan on climate change outcome, outputs and activities.
6. Liaise with UN Women’s Regional Gender and Climate Change Advisor and provide inputs for UN Women global and regional programme documents, as requested.
7. Produce a final report of the accomplished assignment, including a handover document and recommendations for next steps.

Management

The consultant will be under contract with UN Women. All the work conducted by the consultant will be managed by the UN Women China office over the course of about eight months.

Timetable

It is estimated that the consultant would need max 75 working days to complete all tasks.

Remuneration

The consultant will be paid according to UN Women guidelines. The payment will be made in 4 installments as per the abovementioned deliverables. The consultant is requested to provide a financial proposal as follows:

Competencies

Please note that this is a UN Women consultancy position, and be guided by below application instruction:

Application

• CV
• Cover Letter, which includes the requested daily rate.
• Full financial proposal (as per the table provided above)

The application needs to be submitted in English.

Application to be sent to: unwomen.china@unwomen.org

Required Skills and Experience

Education

• Master’s degree in a relevant discipline (e.g., gender, development and social studies, sociology, political science, etc.).

Experience and skills

• At least five years of relevant working experience, with particular expertise in gender equality and women’s rights;
• Understanding of the interlinkages between gender, climate change and rural development in China;
• Experience in programme design and implementation at the UN and/or other international organizations is preferred;
• Familiarity with Results Based Management methodology;
• Experience in relationship building with government and non-governmental agencies;
• Excellent drafting and writing skills to produce and present concise and analytical documents in English;
• Excellent communication, analytical and interpersonal skills; and
• Ability to meet deadlines on time.