Disaster Risk Management Consultant

Contract

This is a National Consultant contract. More about National Consultant contracts.

Background

The Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Unit within the UNDP Lebanon Country Office – a coordination structure established in the Prime Minister’s office (PMO) in 2009 with the support of UNDP, has been the focus of recent efforts to strengthen and institutionally anchor Disaster Risk management and Crisis Coordination Capacities in the Government of Lebanon (GoL). Particularly, in the context of the compounded crisis that Lebanon is facing (COVID 19, Beirut Blast, wildfires, etc.), it is important that the DRM unit can support the GoL in pursuit of more collaborative and coordinated disaster risk management and crisis response efforts considering the increasingly limited resources. With no single entity mandated to coordinate government disaster and crisis actions in a comprehensive way and responses lying within the responsibility of several institutional entities with sometimes overlapping directives relevant to the nature of the crisis, the DRM unit has been the platform that brings various stakeholders together to build Lebanon’s DRM capacities and ensure national ownership, and a whole of Government approach. Within this context, several official structures were established to develop, implement, and monitor Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) efforts in Lebanon, including: - A National Technical Committee (established in 2010 PMO decision no.103/2010 and decision no. 68/2018) mandated to develop Lebanon’s DRR strategy, Lebanon’s Response and Recovery Frameworks. - A National Decision-makers Committee (established in 2013 PMO decision no. 41/2013) mandated to assist to the management of national crisis once the National Operations Room located at the Presidency of the Council of Minister is activated. - Regional DRR Committees headed by the Governors involving representatives of all government administrations in addition to key local actors that work on the four pillars of DRR and activate the regional operations rooms during crisis. - Sectoral DRR Committees established at the Ministries level involving key divisions and departments at the Ministry. During the last two years, the DRM Unit was directly engaged in the management of COVID-19 Crisis, seasonal forest fires and flooding, Beirut Port Blast and lately the coastal oil spill. In response to COVID-19, the DRM Unit has coordinated the development of the National COVID-19 response plan in collaboration with WHO, established monitoring and evaluation dashboards, coordinated the activation of the National Operations Room, coordinated the response of the Regional Operations Rooms, generated daily situation reports, supported the development of business and safety continuity plans for key ministries, coordinated the development of a manual to initiate and operate isolation centers, developed manual for municipal COVID-19 response plans and contributed to the development and dissemination of awareness material with national partners. In response to Beirut Port blast, the DRM Unit activated the National Operations Room, activated the EU mechanism of support, coordinated shelter and evacuation with field agencies and governorates, developed the early response plan, coordinated the debris and waste management of the blast, published a weekly situation report and contributed to the development of awareness material about debris removal. Despite the advanced role the DRM unit continues to play in response to Lebanon’s multifaceted crisis, Lebanon’s DRR and Crisis Management capacities still require support and further strengthening in the context of compounded shocks. As such, the proposed project of UNDP’s Programme is designed to lay foundations for early and long-term recovery, resilience, and sustainable development. When governments and communities are supported by well-designed and timely interventions, both nations and communities are assisted to “build forward better”. The UNDP post-crisis approach aims to build capacities within national and local institutions and facilitate partnerships between government, civil society, the private sector, and local communities. This humanitarian-development nexus approach enables local social, economic, institutional, and physical assets to be strengthened and made more resilient in the future. One of the main objectives of this project is empowering national and local stakeholders to further assume their disaster management mandate based on the most recent priorities and needs at the national and international levels. More specifically, through national, regional, and sectoral interventions, the project will assess the roles and responsibilities being implemented in the last few years to withstand the different crisis and disasters in Lebanon and building and implementing a comprehensive capacity building plan. As such, under the strategic guidance of UNDP senior management, the Consultant will work in close collaboration with the DRM Unit located in the Presidency of the Council of the Ministers to undertake the below tasks

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the supervision of the Project Manager the consultant will: 1. Prepare an inception report with detailed plan to execute the consultancy. 2. Assess the national and regional DRR interventions, roles, and structures in response to the events that occurred in Lebanon during the last five years with: 1) the National technical Committee; 2) the National Decision Makers Committee; 3) key Ministries, and 4) Governorates. To achieve the assessment, the consultant will: 2.1 Conduct a desk review of the existing DRR strategy, Response frameworks, decisions and legal status of the various committees, projects, and actions being implemented at the central level, regions, and sectors. 2.2. Develop an assessment tool to identify and evaluate the role of: National Technical Committee and National Decision Makers Committee, two Key Ministries (TBD with the DRM Unit), two Key Governorates (TBD with DRM Unit) in response to the different types of events that hit Lebanon during the last five years such as fires, floods, COVID-19, and Beirut Port Blast 2.3. Conduct at least 3 meetings with the national technical committee to explain the process and the objectives of the review and assessment and present the assessment tool and provide their comments. 2.4. Conduct bilateral meetings with the DRR committees in the selected Governorates and Ministries to explain the process and present and discuss the assessment tool and get feedback. 2.5. Share/distribute the capacity assessment tool with the partners and stakeholders and elicit their feedback and inputs. 2.6. Consolidate the responses and have preliminary internal discussions with the DRM team as well as with members of the National Technical Committee and Governorates and Ministries representatives. 2.7. Conduct at least 3 workshops with each of the stakeholders: the National technical committee and National Decision makers Committee, the two key Ministries, the two key Governorates to present and discuss the findings of the assessment and recommendations. 3. Develop recommendations at the national, sector and Governorate/local level for a comprehensive capacity building program to enable the different stakeholders to resume their roles and responsibilities in DRR. The consultant will: 3.1 Disseminate the draft recommendations together with the results of the assessment and consolidated results to the decision-makers at the ministries to collect their feedback. 3.2 Conduct bilateral meetings with high decision-makers to present the recommendations and get feedback. 3.3 Consolidate the recommendations for an improved DRR in general and focused response to be integrated within the updated response plans: National, Ministry and Governorate levels. 3.4 Submit a final report with findings and recommendations that should contain concrete actions for way forward, including resource mobilization approaches to realize the recommendations.

Competencies

• Excellent command of written and spoken English and Arabic. • Demonstrated ability to work independently and with a team to meet deadlines. • Ability to listen, adapt, persuade, and transform. • Ability to capture, develop, share, and effectively use information and knowledge. • Ability to lead and facilitate large group of stakeholders. • Ability to process big amount of information with analytical eye. • Strong knowledge of the Lebanese context (administrative, economic, social, etc.).

Required Skills and Experience

I. Academic Qualifications: • At least Master's degree in social policy, public policy, politics, economics, environment, development studies or any related relevant area. II. Years of Experience: • A minimum of 7 years of progressively responsible experience in the field of disaster risk management, involving implementation of community-based activities, working closely with Governments and national agencies. • A minimum of 3 years of experience in addressing issues connected with disaster management and capacity building in this context; experience of disaster mitigation, prevention, preparedness, response, recovery, and risk management activities/projects; coordination with partner organizations; dealing with national/regional organizations/institutions. (at least 3 projects showing experience in DRM). • A minimum of 3 years of experience in local governance systems and institutions, decentralizations policies and laws, basic service delivery and recovery planning and ability to apply to strategic and/or practical situations. • A minimum of 3 years of experience in methodologies, assessment tools, systems and apply practical experience in planning, monitoring, evaluating, and reporting and ability to apply to practical situations (at least 3 projects showing experience in assessments).