Background

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, humanitarian action, human rights 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.

One of the key programme areas for the agency is humanitarian action. Natural disasters affect women, girls, boys and men differently. Research shows that women and girls are disproportionally affected by disasters, are more likely to die in disasters, and have different and uneven levels of resilience and capacity to recover. In disasters, women are likelier than men to lose their lives and livelihoods. They face strong gender-specific barriers in disaster recovery and their specific needs, leadership potential and contributions are frequently ignored and unleveraged in resilience building and disaster risk reduction. This undermines the sustainability of entire communities and leaves the most impoverished and marginalized furthest behind in disaster prevention, preparedness and recovery.

Under the humanitarian portfolio, UN Women is implementing a project, the Addressing Gender Inequality of Risk and Promoting Community Resilience in Solomon Islands with partners including UNDRR, International Federation of the Red Cross. The project goal is that gender inequalities of loss of lives and livelihoods mitigated and resilience of communities to natural hazards enhanced in a changing climate in Solomon Islands. There are three outcomes of the project:

1. Government and key stakeholders generate and use evidence/data on the gender dimensions of disaster risk, particularly in terms of women’s exposure to hazards, vulnerability and capacity to inform their policy and programme interventions.
2. National and local disaster risk governance is gender responsive.
3. Women meaningfully participate in and lead disaster risk reduction and resilience building. 

The Community Based Disaster Risk Management Facilitator’s Guidebook (CBDRM Manual) was compiled by the program division of the National Disaster Management Office of Solomon Islands (NDMO) in 2014. The Manual aims at training local people and was developed based on various community-based disaster risk management tools used by NDMO over the years. The contents of the manual were simplified for people in rural and remote communities of Solomon Islands to easily follow step by step in understanding and identifying hazards, assessing vulnerability, risks and developing action plans to prepare and respond to disasters. The manual has been widely used by NDMO and other organizations working in the disaster risk reduction and management in the country.

In response to the request by NDMO, followed by extensive consultations with disaster risk management organizations, a two-day cross-learning forum was held on 15 -16 October 2019 in Honiara. This was supported by the Gender Inequality of Risk and Building Community Resilience Project (GIR) with UN Women, UNDRR and Solomon Islands Red Cross. The objectives of the cross-learning forum were: to bring together practitioners in community-based disaster risk management to explore and share gender and social inclusion issues; to identify gaps in practice and research best practices, and lessons learned, to initiate an ongoing dialogue; and to provide broad recommendations to NDMO in integrating gender and socially inclusion into the current draft of the community-based disaster risk management training manual, which is a key tool being used by a range of stakeholders in the country.

The Forum was attended by more than 30 representatives from Solomon Islands Red Cross branches, Village Disaster Committee members of Guadalcanal Province, Chairwomen of Isabel and Makira Province Protection Committee, National Protection Committee members (consisting of largely members of Disaster Ready AHP Program) including People with Disabilities Solomon Islands and Church-based Organizations, Australia Pacific Climate Partnership, Ministry of Agriculture and Livelihood, and Ministry of Women, Youth, Children and Family Affairs.

A range of recommendations were made at this Forum including inputs to the content as well as to the process of the revision. This concept paper is developed based on the ways forwards identified in the forum. It was recommended that a Task Force will be created to take forward the revision of the CMDRM Manual.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objectives of the Assignment

The consultancy has two key objectives:

• Revise the existing Community Based Disaster Risk Management Manual by integrating gender and social inclusion perspectives and international best practices and new national and international through consultations.  
• Make the manual more accessible and user-friendly to different groups including persons with disabilities.

Scope of Work/Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance of the UN Women Gender and Protection Specialist (Suva-based) and the GIR Project Coordinator (Honiara-based) working in collaboration with the CBDRM Taskforce led by the NDMO, the consultant will undertake the following tasks as outlined in the deliverable table.

Duration of the Assignment

The duration of this assignment will be up to 45 working days over three months as per the suggested schedule of deliverables below.

Expected Deliverable

The Consultant is expected to work with the national partners including Solomon Islands National Disaster Management Office, Solomon Islands Red Cross and UNDRR to deliver the following results:

The Consultant is expected to deliver the following outputs:

All the documents, including the interview tools, and transcripts, all scoping materials including images materials and reports should be submitted in written English language.  Note that all materials, including video footage and images will remain property of UN Women and cannot be used without UN Women’s permission.

The Consultant will submit drafts of all reports and documents to UN Women for review and comment. UN Women will review all documents and reports within one week of submission. The Consultant will then submit final documents that incorporate and respond to UN Women feedback.

Upon receipt of the final deliverables and prior to the payment of the installment, the deliverables, related reports and documents will be reviewed and approved by UN Women within one week.

Inputs

• UN Women will provide the Consultant with background materials for the desk assessment.
• UN Women will cover the costs for translation of printed materials as required throughout the duration of the assignment.
• UN Women will cover Consultant’s travel and DSA fees (accommodation, meals and incidentals for travel to Solomon Islands).
• The Consultant is expected to work remotely using her/his own computer but may access 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.

Performance evaluation

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

Travel

During assignment related missions, UN Women Fiji Multi Country Office will cover travel cost for the Consultant for the agreed upon routing and in conformity with UN Women applicable travel rules and regulations.  Daily subsistence allowance will be paid to the Consultant at the applicable rate:

• Flight costs will be covered at economy class rate as per UN Women policies;
• DSA applicable for nights spent in the country of travel at UN standard rates.

Financial arrangements

Payments will be made in 3 (three) instalments and will be authorized upon submission and approval of deliverables and certification by the Gender and Protection Specialist that the services have been satisfactorily performed.

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.

Functional Competencies

• Ability to think conceptually, strategically and analytically;
• Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills;
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Results oriented, flexible and problem-solving skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education

• Advanced degree in Social Science (International Development Studies, Gender/Women’s Studies, Sociology and/or a closely related discipline).

Experience and Skills

• At least 5 years of experience of relevant work in the disaster risk reduction and management;
• Proven expertise in resilience/DRR programming;
• Knowledge of gender equality and social inclusion;
• Experience in working with international organizations (successful experience in working with UN agencies is an asset);
• Knowledge of the Pacific context or experience in the region;
• Ability to produce well written documents demonstrating analytical ability and communication skill;
• Computer literacy and ability to effectively use office technology equipment, IT tools, ability to use Internet and email.

Language and other skills

• Fluency in verbal & written English is a must. Working knowledge of Pijin will be considered an advantage.

Evaluation

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

• Advanced degree in Social Science (International Development Studies, Gender/Women’s Studies, Sociology and/or a closely related discipline).
• At least 5 years of experience of relevant work in the disaster risk reduction and management.

The shortlisted individual consultants will be further evaluated based on a cumulative analysis process, with a total score being obtained upon the combination of weighted technical and financial attributes.

Cost under this method of analysis is rendered as an award criterion, which will be 30% out of a total score of 100 points.

Evaluation of submitted offers will be done based on the following formula:

where:

Technical evaluation will be represented through desk review of applications. Interviews and/or written tests will be organized if needed only, depending on the short-listed candidates’ qualifications.

Technical Qualification Evaluation Criteria: The technical part is evaluated on the basis of its responsiveness to the Terms of Reference (TOR).

Financial Qualification Evaluation Criteria: In the Second Stage, the financial proposal of candidates, who have attained minimum 70% score in the technical evaluation (at least 49 points), will be compared.

WINNING CANDIDATE

The winning candidate will be the candidate, who has accumulated the highest aggregated score (technical scoring + financial scoring).

Submission of application

To enable you with your application submission, the requirements for the position can be accessed on the following site: http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/about-us/jobs

Interested candidates are requested to submit fully completed application electronically to:

• https://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_jobs.cfm?cur_categ_id=9  

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. Curriculum Vitae (CV) of Consultant including three references.
3. Personal History Form (P-11 Form).

http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-p11-personal-history-form.doc?la=en&vs=2740 

1. Copies of certified academic certifications.
2. At least one example of recent written work
3. Financial proposal with total lump sum quotation based on professional daily fees.  Payment will be made upon certification by the designated official that stated deliverables have been achieved. As noted above, travel costs to Suva, Fiji to take up the assignment should be included in the overall financial proposal.

Applications without a complete financial proposal will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.  UN Women reserves the right to accept or reject any bid.

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

Deadline of all submissions: no later than Friday 31st January 2020 (5pm Fiji time).