Call for Consultant – Gender in Disaster Risk Management

Terms of Reference

Gender in Disaster Risk Management

Case Study from Australian Humanitarian Partnership Phase I

Background

Timor-Leste is an island country in Southeast Asia and Oceania with a population of 1.4 million with Dili as the capital. Tetum and Portuguese are the official languages. It became the first sovereign state of the 21st century on May 20, 2002, and joined the United Nations. (After four centuries of colonization from Portugal, declared independence in 1975 and was occupied by Indonesia for 24 years) 97% of Timorese are Roman Catholic. Timor-Leste is a full member of the Pacific Islands Development Forum (PIDF) as well as of ASEAN. It is rated at 141/189 on the human development index (compared to other low-ranked Asian countries including Pakistan (154) Myanmar (147), Cambodia (144), and Nepal (142)). Like many other countries in the region, it has extremely high rates of sexual violence and violence against children. It is estimated that 3 in 4 adults have experienced physical and/or sexual violence as children.

Timor-Leste’s vulnerability to natural disasters is high – rated #20 out of 181 countries. The country is located near one of the most active tectonic plate boundaries in the world. Consequently, the high seismic activity and exposure to frequent earthquakes cause significant damage including triggering landslides with devastating impacts on citizens’ lives, livestock, roads, infrastructure, and property. The country also counts tsunamis and tropical cyclones as threats. Its susceptibility to floods, landslides, and prolonged dry spells, can also trigger insect infestations, and diseases, and cause food insecurity. In the last decade, the country has suffered 470 disaster events, with its most frequent natural disaster being identified as flood, followed by drought and storms.

The impacts of natural disasters are not neutral to all groups in the community: men, women, boys, girls, older people, people with disabilities, poor or wealthy. In a DFAT-funded project, the Australian Humanitarian Partnership Phase I that is currently almost ending and entering the second phase, World Vision Timor is trying to achieve one of the objectives for women, people with disabilities, youth, and children’s rights and needs are being met in disaster preparedness and response at all levels. That should be achieved through the following outcomes:

• Increased representation and capacity of women, people with disabilities, youth, and children in disaster committees and planning processes, particularly at community and sub-national levels
• Humanitarian operating practices, procedures, policies, laws, and tools from community to national level incorporate and are responsive to the rights and needs of women, people with disabilities, youth, and children
• Men and boys, church and other community leaders, and government staff address the barriers that prevent women, people with disabilities, youth, and children from having their rights and needs met in disaster preparedness and response
• AHP NGOs apply more inclusive approaches in their internal and external preparedness and response planning
• Government, NGOs, the private sector, and communities coordinate more effectively for inclusive disaster preparedness and response

In the intervention, WVTL is focusing on women and people with disability and WVTL would like to take the transitional period from AHP Phase I to Phase II, to step back and reflect on what we have promoted women’s roles and leadership in disaster risk management and how we can improve it.

For example, one of the indicators that WVTL has been trying to achieve was to get 30% of the leadership assumed by women in the Suco Disaster Management Committee. After 5-year-project implementation, WVTL was able to make it only to 27%. It was close to the target, but it did not get there. Hence, WVTL would like to learn what other avenues are more strategic to promote women’s leadership by a deeper understanding of the context:

• How does disaster impact women and girls, men and boys?
• What roles that women and female youth can do, and what roles does the community perceive them to be able to do in preparedness, response, and risk reduction?
• What protection aspects that they need, differently and similarly to men and boys in preparedness and response?
• What are the strategic opportunities for women and female youth to take assertive leadership in the community (aldeia) and suco levels?

WVTL invites expressions of interest of an individual consultant to conduct a short/brief case study on Gender in Disaster Risk Management in AHP project areas.

Objectives

The mini case study is expected to meet the following objectives

1. To provide information on how disasters impact women, girls, men, and boys;
2. To provide an in-depth analysis of how women and female youth can play roles in disaster risk management, considering the barriers and challenges as well as the capacity and opportunities;
3. To provide recommendations on what strategic roles women and female youth can do in disaster risk management.

Realizing that gender norms, biases and assigned roles are very contextual, the scope of the case study is expected to be localized to the AHP project areas in the Bobonaro area program.

Methodology

The case study is expected to gather primary data from the community members, local organizations, women organizations, government, customary & cultural leaders, and religious organizations. The data collection can be done through interviews and/or group discussions, with informants representing not only the privileged but also the less privileged women and community members.

The desk study will be needed to provide the foundational knowledge in designing the research tools and questions, as well as to support and verify the findings.

Key Questions

The key questions for:

1. How disasters have affected women, girls, men, and boys?
2. What are the causes of these impacts and vulnerabilities: inaccessibility, social/cultural norms, gender bias, etc.?
3. What are the capacities they have and they are perceived in disaster risk management (in the whole spectrum of preparedness, response, and risk reduction)?
4. What are the roles that women and female youth can take?
5. How have these roles been promoted by AHP in Phase I?
6. What factors contributed to the success and setback in promoting women and female youth Leadership in AHP Phase I?
7. How can these be improved?
8. What are the strategic approaches to bring leverage to their roles, including the roles at SDMC, PADMC, MDMC, and Municipal Forum in Phase II?
9. What support do they need in order to do that?
10. What are your recommendations for Phase II?

Report

The report is intended for WVTL staff, AHP consortium members, and a wider external network, including DFAT, World Vision Australia, and the government of Timor-Leste.

Therefore, the report will be in English.

Other than the report, the external consultant is required to prepare an estimated 10 slides of the summary findings.