Gender Specialist

A. About Asian Disaster Preparedness Center

ADPC is an autonomous international organization with a vision to reduce disaster and climate risk impacts on communities and countries in Asia and the Pacific by working with governments, development partners, international organizations, NGOs, civil society, private sector, media, and other key stakeholders.

Established in 1986 as a technical capacity-building center, ADPC has grown and diversified its expertise across social and physical sciences to support sustainable solutions for risk reduction across a broad range of specialist areas. With over 100 staff from 19 different nationalities and a wide range of professional expertise from atmospheric scientists to social scientists with experiences from all levels of engagement typically required for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Resilience (CR) in an effective manner. ADPC is a competent regional resource center and has seven thematic departments: ADPC Academy, Risk Governance, Climate Resilience, Urban Resilience, Health Risk Management, Preparedness for Response and Recovery, Geospatial Information. These are supported by Finance, Human Resources and Administration, and Strategic Planning departments. In addition to the departments, ADPC works on three cross-cutting themes: Gender and Diversity, Poverty and Livelihoods, and Regional and Transboundary Cooperation through permanent working committees.

ADPC Strategy 2020 guides the organization in providing comprehensive risk reduction support to countries and communities in Asia and the Pacific. ADPC recognizes the importance of examining the linkages between disaster risk management, poverty reduction, gender equality, sustainability, rights-based approaches, climate change and regional cooperation.

For details please refer to ADPC website at http://www.adpc.net/

B. Background

With the financial support from the World Bank Group, ADPC is implementing a five-year project, titled “Climate Adaptation and Resilience Project for South Asia” (CARE). The project aims to create an enabling environment for climate resilience policies and investments across South Asia. This objective will be achieved through enhanced regional cooperation and knowledge exchange for climate resilience and adaptation, and mainstreaming of resilience and adaptation in national policies, plans and investments.

Disasters take a huge toll on the development agenda of SAR countries. Between 2000 and 2017, disasters in South Asia incurred estimated damages of US$ 149.27 billion. Public expenditure is under stress by the repeated need to reallocate capital budgets away from long term development planning and towards reconstruction activities in post-disaster environments. For example, since 2005, Pakistan has suffered losses on the order of US$ 16 billion due to natural disasters. In Bangladesh, 2007 Cyclone Sidr resulted in damages and losses of US$1.7 billion, or 2.6 per cent of GDP. During these disasters, it was seen that the impact of disasters varies on men, women and children depending on their coping capacity. Due to varying specific needs and coping capacities of men, women, and children, it is important to understand these at the ground level to address structural inequalities and exclusions created by gender differences.

Therefore, to increase resilience and achieve climate commitments in a wholesome inclusive manner, there is a need for a transformational shift toward policies and institutions that enable climate-resilient investments in a gender-inclusive way. This will enhance the coping capacity of the affected population and increase the uniformity of benefits to all population segments.

Under this project, several analytical studies and guidelines for best practices are being developed for the agriculture and water sectors in Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Considering the importance of gender mainstreaming to achieve the project objectives, this TOR aims to hire a Gender Specialist with the following objectives to make these studies gender inclusive:

• Support gender mainstreaming across sectors by mapping and reviewing of policies, institutional mechanisms, best practices, gaps, etc;
• Support planning, implementation and monitoring of gender and inclusion related activities under the component;
• Support knowledge generation on gender inclusion related issues.

C. Statement of Intent

The Gender Consultant will play an essential role in Nepal to provide support with regards to mapping of gender landscape vis-à-vis the water and transport sectors. The Consultant will ensure quality and timely delivery of in-country activities and outputs in mainstreaming gender in key documents. S/he will liaise with government agencies and other Nepal-based stakeholders. The Consultant will be working on implementation and/or monitoring of the component activities in Nepal, as required. The Gender Specialist will be home-based in Nepal.

Note:

It is not the intent of this Terms of Reference to cover every aspect of the position requirements, rather to highlight the most important areas of personal and joint responsibilities.

D. Duties and Responsibilities

The Gender Consultant will be responsible for the following tasks:

• Conduct a literature and desk review on gender inclusion in climate resilience initiatives in Nepal identifying the strengths, gaps and challenges.
• Support gender mainstreaming across water and transport sectors at both the policy making and implementation levels and policies in Nepal;
• Review key sectoral documents of water and transport sectors in relation to climate-resilient development;
• Coordinate consultations, discussions, forums, and conduct surveys, as necessary, to collect and share information for gender component of CARE for South Asia project;
• Provide support to capacity needs assessments and trainings for ensure gender mainstreaming related efforts in water, transport and associated sectors/sub-sectors;
• Support in-country capacity development activities on gender and climate change;
• Undertake field missions, as necessary;
• Draft reports, briefs, documents, knowledge products and other communication materials focusing on gender inclusion related aspects of project activities;
• Liaise with in-country stakeholders ranging from government and non-government sectors for effective implementation of project activities;
• Draft a chapter on gender inclusion to form a part of a guideline on climate smart agriculture
• Perform other relevant tasks as assigned by the supervisor

E. Qualifications

• Advanced degree in gender and development studies, social sciences, anthropology or a relevant field;
• A minimum of 7 years of professional experience of working in the area of gender and strong familiarity with at least two of following thematic areas: agriculture; water; climate change; infrastructure; disaster risk reduction;
• A minimum of 4 years of professional experience of working in Nepal;
• Well-versed in gender analysis of policies, strategies, plans and similar documents;
• Excellent knowledge of mainstreaming gender equality in programs, especially in DRR and CR;
• Excellent understanding of current discourse related to gender and inclusion in DRR and CR;
• Demonstrated understanding of climate policies, frameworks and other obligatory and non-binding agreements relevant to CR;
• Excellent understanding of current discourse related to gender and inclusion in water, transport and associated sectors;
• Demonstrated understanding of water, transport and climate related policies, frameworks and other obligatory and non-binding agreements;
• Demonstrated experience of successfully carrying out similar assignments;
• Excellent English proficiency in oral and written communication, including a demonstrated track record in analytical report writing and ability to communicate technical matters effectively to a variety of audience.;
• Native level fluency in Nepali language;
• Excellent research and analytical skills and capacity to work under pressure and short deadlines;
• Proven experience of coordinating training, capacity building and facilitating technical discussions;
• Ability to undertake field missions, including coordinating field-based research activities;
• Ability to work amongst a diverse group of partners;
• Proficient on Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Microsoft Teams and skilled at organizing online meetings.

F. Reporting Relationships

The Gender Consultant (Nepal) will report to the Project Director. The technical oversight will be provided by the Senior Specialist Gender and Inclusion based at the Bangkok office through the Project Implementation Unit (PIU). The consultant will also coordinate with the other CARE project specialists and staff at national levels to carry out different activities under the project.

G. Contract Duration

The contract duration will be for six months.

H. Selection Method

The consultant will be selected in accordance with ADPC’s recruitment process and in compliance with the World Bank Procurement Regulations.