Consultancy - Design of a UNICEF LACRO Regional Guideline for Country Offices (CO’S) to Address Planning and Implementing Gender‐Transformative Climate Change Programmes, LACRO, Panama City

Consultant Programme & Policy

Overview

Develop guidelines for UNICEF Country Offices for gender-transformative climate change programmes

You have:

• Advanced university degree in a relevant area such as gender, climate and environment science, or related field of disaster risk management.
• Minimum of five years of proven professional experience in development and implementation of gender and climate change programmes.
• Fluency in Spanish and English is required. Knowledge of French or Portuguese will be considered an asset.
• Knowledge and technical expertise in gender equality and climate change.
• Excellent research, communication, synthesis, and writing skills in Spanish and English.
• Ability to relate and dialogue with multiple stakeholders.
• High degree of motivation, proactivity, and self-organization.
• Flexibility and adaptability to changing conditions and work demands.

Contract

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UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, innovation

How can you make a difference?

Background

The climate change crisis is no longer a purely environmental issue but, instead, a socio‐economic crisis, and a child rights crisis. There is a collective moral responsibility to scale practical solutions to climate change with real potential to make a difference for children and youth to survive, grow, and thrive. The coming years will be critical to promote concrete solutions with the potential of securing large‐scale impact, particularly through catalysing partnerships (public, private, etc.) for climate resilience.

Climate change impacts the lives of women, men, girls, and boys differently. When disasters strike, women and girls are less likely to survive and more likely to be injured due to long standing gender inequalities that have created disparities in information, mobility, decision‐making, and access to resources and training. In the aftermath, women and girls are less able to access relief and assistance, further threatening their livelihoods, wellbeing and recovery, and creating a vicious cycle of vulnerability to future disasters.

On the other hand, while boys are more likely to be given preferential treatment during rescue efforts, they are also more likely to be recruited to support with search and rescue, or help clean‐up operations, which put them at risk of physical harm. Boys and young men are disproportionately represented amongst the region’s child labour force; in highi-ncome countries, they are also more likely to have mental health problems related to climate change than girls. These problems may increase their risk of mortality.

At the same time, several regional consultations with girls and adolescents in LAC have shown that gender and climate change are the two major areas of interest for adolescent activism in the region. There is a great window of opportunity for UNICEF to accompany and respond to these needs.

UNICEF promotes the rights and welfare of all children and adolescents in everything we do. Together with our allies, we work in 190 countries and territories to transform this commitment into practical actions that benefit all children, especially focusing our efforts on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded, worldwide. The UNICEF Latin America and Caribbean Regional Office (LACRO) is based in in Panama, operating in 36 territories, including 24 country offices.

UNICEF works to put the rights and well‐being of the most disadvantaged children at the heart of the social, political, and economic agenda, in line with our equity focus, working across our organization and with our partners in government, civil society and the private sector to support shifts in public policy, fuel social engagement, and increase investment for children. For more information about UNICEF and its work. (www.unicef.org/lac)..)

The UNICEF new Strategic Plan for 2022–2025 and the UNICEF Gender Action Plan 2022‐2025 both within Goal Area 4, aim to ensure that every child, including adolescents, uses safe and equitable WASH services, and lives in a safe and sustainable climate and environment. These frameworks also promote accessible and dignified menstrual health and hygiene services, including tackling taboos about menstruation. Work under this Goal Area, including in humanitarian crises and fragile contexts, will contribute to environmental resilience and gender equality objectives of the 2030 Agenda.

The Gender Action Plan 2022‐2025 enshrines UNICEF's commitment to integrating gender equality into programming and encourages UNICEF offices to develop programmes that are gender transformative. Gender transformative programming aims to address the structural and social root causes of gender inequality and thereby promote more equitable outcomes for children in all their diversity. This means working for change in laws and policies; systems and services; distribution of resources; norms, beliefs and stereotypes; and behaviours and practices.

Technical support from regional sectoral experts is critical to strengthen programmatic strategies, increase crosssectorial integration and ensure mainstreaming of regional and global priorities, frameworks and guidelines as relevant to each country and UNICEF Country Office, during the development of several processes and products such as Country Programme Documents, Situation Analyses, key evaluations and studies (CLAC, Risk Analysis), events and local activities.

For the LACRO Gender and Climate, Environment, Energy and Disaster Risk Reduction (CEED) teams this provides a unique window of opportunity to introduce or strengthen the inclusion of programmatic work focused on gender equality and climate change adaptation; low‐carbon growth and climate change mitigation; disaster risk reduction; and environmental sustainability, including reducing pollution and safeguarding natural resources in the countries planning and implementation processes.

Recognizing the limited capacity or low technical expertise available to integrating both gender and CEED perspectives among the LAC COs, the development of standard guidelines to support the planning and implementation processes in the region could improve the knowledge and understanding of these approaches among UNICEF teams.

This consultancy aims to develop regional guidelines and tools to enable UNICEF COs to better design and implement gender‐transformative climate change programmes For more information about UNICEF and its work in the region: www.unicef.org/lac

Purpose of the Assignment

Under the overall guidance of the LACRO Gender and Development Officer in collaboration with the CEED Specialist, the consultant will develop technical guidelines and tools to encourage and support COs to integrate gender transformative approaches in UNICEF climate change programmes in LAC.

Specific Tasks

1) Compilation and review of documentation and literature on gender and climate change, with a focus on programmes targeting children and adolescents, including UNICEF documents and programmatic frameworks.

2) Develop and apply an online survey with COs about their specific needs to develop and implement gender-transformative climate change programmes. Work with the regional office and country offices to conduct interviews, identify experiences and collect documents.

3) Develop technical guidelines encompassing the conceptual foundations of and practical considerations for the integration of gender transformative approaches in UNICEF’s climate change programming with a particular emphasis on UNICEF's work with children and adolescents.

4) Develop specific tools to support the implementation of gender‐transformative climate change programmes at country level, taking into consideration UNICEF’s internal programmatic and planning frameworks.

The guidelines should describe, at a minimum, how to:

• Collect and analyse gender and age disaggregated data
• Analyse gender norms, roles, responsibilities, and relations to develop safeguards for disaster response and recovery that will appropriately respond to the vulnerabilities, needs and capacities of girls, boys and nonbinary children, young men and women in different contexts.
• Define and prioritize gender transformative actions in disaster risk assessments, planning, implementation and monitoring activities through governance policies, formal and informal protocols and programmes.
• Include actions that ensure the prevention of and response to sexual and gender‐based violence and the continuity of sexual and reproductive health services.
• Take targeted measures to strengthen women and girls’ participation and leadership, as called for in the Sendai Framework, to increase their access to resources, services, education, agency and power for understanding and managing disaster risk at all levels.
• Proactively commit to and intentionally implement programmes that promote gender equality.

Expected Results [measurable]

Document that includes technical guidelines and tools to support LAC UNICEF COs in planning and implementing gender‐transformative climate change programmes.

Deliverables

Description

Duration in days

Expected deadline

Product 1. Inception report

Includes the work plan, timeline, methodology and proposed consultation process.

10

21/08/23

Product 2 Draft guidelines (30 pages approx.)

20

18/09/23

Product 3 Draft tools (at least 5 comprehensive tools)

15

02/10/23

Product 4 Final guidelines with accompanying tools, after final

adjustments requested by UNICEF

5

09/10/23

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Minimum Requirements and Qualifications

Education

• Advanced university degree in a relevant area such as gender, climate and environment science, related field of disaster risk management.

Work Experience

• A minimum of five years of proven professional experience in development and implementation of gender and climate change programmes.
• Work experience in the development of analysis and research related to gender and climate change.
• Experience working in the UN System or LAC countries is considered as an asset.

Languages

• Fluency in Spanish and English is required. Knowledge of French or Portuguese will be considered an asset.

Technical knowledge

• Knowledge and technical expertise in gender equality and climate change.
• Previous experience in working on guidelines and knowledge tools for the United Nations.
• Familiarity with UNICEF programming on gender equality and climate change frameworks.

Other skills and attributes

• Excellent research, communication, synthesis and writing skills in Spanish and English.
• Ability to relate and dialogue with multiple stakeholders.
• High degree of motivation, proactivity, and self‐organization.
• Flexibility and adaptability to changing conditions and work demands.
• Ability to communicate effectively and work collaboratively with multidisciplinary teams.
• High level of integrity and commitment to UNICEF's mission and professional values

Administrative details

Supervision

The contractor will work under the direct supervision of the Gender and Development Officer and in close collaboration with the CEED specialist at the UNICEF LAC Regional Office.

Workplace

This is a home-based consultancy.

Duration

This contract is expected to start on 7st August 2023 with an estimated duration of 2,5 months.

How to Apply

Candidates should complete the online application, including Resume, Cover Letter and Financial proposal. Qualified candidates are requested to submit daily, monthly and total fees in their financial proposal.

Travel

Travel is not foreseen for this consultancy.

Should travel is included, it will be covered by UNICEF as per policy.

• Travel costs will be estimated and added to the contract once they are determined based on UNICEF Financial Rules and Regulations.
• For agreed country visits, the contractor/consultant will be responsible in administering their own travel. UNICEF will reimburse travel related expenses based on actual costs or on the below criteria whichever is lower and upon presentation of receipts.
• Any travel involved should be budgeted according to UN Travel Standards as a ceiling.
• UN Secretariat Administrative Instruction on Official Travel, ST/AI/2013/3: Sect. 4, para. 4.2,numerals (d) and (e)
• For information on Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA), can be found on the International Civil Service Commission website (all countries and destinations can be found by navigating on the map).

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

*****

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.

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Potential interview questions

Added 3 years ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: unicef.org