Gender and Inclusion in Climate Change Specialist 227 views

About Asian Disaster Preparedness Center
ADPC is an autonomous intergovernmental 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 the Finance, the Human Resources and Administration, and the 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/

Background
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 percent of GDP.

To increase resilience and achieve climate commitments, there is a need for a transformational shift towards policies and institutions that enable climate-resilient investments. Investing in more resilient infrastructure is both profitable and urgent as disruptions are extremely costly for governments, households and private sector and large ongoing investments in infrastructure assets will have long-lasting repercussions as poor maintenance and natural disasters result in a vulnerable stock.

With the financial support from the World Bank Group, ADPC will be implementing a five years’ 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.

Gender mainstreaming is vital to satisfactorily implement all the required components of the project. It would involve planning, implementation, and monitoring of gender and inclusion across the project and in sectoral planning.
Accordingly, a highly qualified and experienced Gender and Inclusion in Climate Change Specialist will be selected to support in providing technical inputs to strengthen the mainstreaming of gender-sensitive and inclusion approaches across project interventions.

The objectives of this staff position are to:

• Mainstream gender across sectors and policies
• Plan, implement and monitor all gender and inclusion activities across sectoral planning as well as in national and regional activities
• Develop action plans, national guidelines and capacity building initiatives that ensure gender mainstreaming across sectors and three focus countries, as well as at the regional level.

Statement of Intent
The Gender and Inclusion in Climate Change Specialist will provide technical inputs on policy review and strategic formulation, climate-smart innovation, and capacity building across sectors from gender and inclusion perspective. The specialist will further provide technical oversight to review deliverables (policy, strategy, guidelines, handbooks, training programs, etc.) and provide technical comments to improve the deliverable to be gendered and inclusive.
The Gender and Inclusion in Climate Change Specialist will be based in Bangkok, Thailand and report to Director, Risk Governance Department.

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

Duties and Responsibilities
The Gender and Inclusion in Climate Change Specialist will be responsible for providing technical inputs on:

• Mainstreaming gender across sectors and policies across the three project countries
• Mapping and assessing the current gender landscape in relation to climate-resilient development covering finance and planning and key sectors to support in the development of an action plan with clear entry points for mainstreaming gender into budgeting, planning and sectoral development processes across the three focus countries
• Developing curriculum and implementing other capacity development activities in partnership with national and regional organizations across the three focus countries
• Providing technical inputs to support training and development of e-learning courses on gender and climate change adaptation, public policy development and public financing across three focus countries
• Integrating Climate Change Gender Action Plan into developing resilient road networks and into protection measures of Nepal
• Identifying, reviewing and assessing the current status of existing country guidelines on local climate and disaster resilience developed for Nepal complementing the federalization process
• Developing inclusive provincial adaptation plans through involving and coordination with relevant stakeholders
• Developing a strong understanding of the program/project development and implementation processes of ADPC’s thematic departments as well as the operations of Finance, and Human Resources and Administration departments, identify entry points and develop an institutional framework for mainstreaming gender equality in DRR and CR covering the project management cycle in addition to using other tested techniques
• Work with each department of ADPC and develop a department-specific framework that ensures the mainstreaming of gender equality across all functions and operations of the department by linking it with the institutional framework
• Work with the ADPC’s M&E team and develop indicators with regard to mainstreaming gender equality and measuring the institutional progress on a regular basis linking it with the ADPC Strategy and other key strategic documents
• Develop a plan for ADPC staff including the senior management and support its implementation for enhancing technical capacities on mainstreaming gender equality in technical and operational work on a regular basis
• Performing other relevant tasks as assigned by the Director, Risk Governance Department

Qualifications

• A master’s degree in gender and development studies, social sciences, anthropology or a relevant field
• A minimum of 8 years of professional experience of working in the area of Gender and Diversity and at least 5 years of experience in gender and diversity within disaster risk reduction and climate resilience in an international setting
• A minimum of 4 years of professional experience of working in Asia and the Pacific region
• Demonstrated experience of designing strategies and plans for mainstreaming gender equality in programs, especially in DRR and CR
• An excellent understanding of the current regional (Asia-Pacific) and global discourse related to gender and inclusion in disaster risk reduction and climate resilience
• Experience of working with the UN Common System, international organizations, Red Cross/Red Crescent, or international NGOs is desirable.
• Proven research and analytical work
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills and capacity to work under pressure and short deadlines
• Cross-cultural awareness and ability to work amongst a diverse group of staff, and partners
• Experience in training, capacity building and facilitating high-level discussions
• Excellent English proficiency in oral and written communication, including a demonstrated track record in technical report writing and ability to communicate technical matters effectively to a general audience.
• Required computer proficiencies: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Microsoft Teams

Reporting Relationships
The Gender and Inclusion in Climate Change Specialist will report to the Director of Risk Governance Department.

Contract Duration
The contract duration will be for 1 year initially with a possibility of extension based on performance and technical requirements of the position.

Selection Method
A staff member will be selected in accordance with ADPC’s recruitment and/or capacity assessment process.