Urban Resilience Consultant

Result of Service The expected results are: 1. Increased commitments to build local-level resilience. 2. Local Resilience and investments measured. 3. Key issues and challenges identified in linking early interventions in crisis-prone cities to long-term sustainable development inputs. 4. Capacity is built in cities and local governments to develop and implement integrated local climate and disaster resilience action plans. 5. Crisis-prone cities have enhanced capacity to develop and implement plans to increase their resiliency.

Work Location Home-based

Expected duration SIX (6) month

Duties and Responsibilities BACKGROUND

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is the agency for human settlements mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities. UN-Habitat helps the urban poor by transforming cities into safer and healthier places with better opportunities. It works with organizations at every level, including all spheres of government, civil society and the private sector.

As the main UN Agency responsible for ensuring the sustainable development of cities, towns, and other human settlements, UN-Habitat is strategically placed to coordinate the humanitarian and development efforts of multiple actors and policy makers at all levels in the common pursuit of urban resilience. UN-Habitat’s approach to strengthening urban resilience as a key determinant for ensuring the effectiveness of response interventions during times of crises, and subsequent sustainable development, is embodied in its City Resilience Global Programme (CRGP).

The CRGP goes beyond conventional approaches to ‘risk reduction’, delivering a forward-looking, multi-sectoral, multi-hazard, multi-stakeholder model for building resilience that recognizes the complexities and unique value of cities, and the inherent interdependencies of each part of an urban system.

Fast growing cities and urban areas of the world are engines of growth and wealth accumulation. This growth can have positive social, cultural and educational impacts. On the other hand, evidence demonstrates that fast economic growth, combined with fast population expansion in urban areas, also increases disaster vulnerability and exposure. The level of urbanization is far higher in the developed world; however, the annual ‘urbanization rate’ is much faster in the developing world. The primary urban agglomerations with the highest concentrations of people and economic activity mostly overlap with the areas of extreme or high risk related to disasters such as coastal areas, along rivers and in flood plains. UN-Habitat’s City Resilience Global Programme aims at improving understanding of, and capacity to, address disaster risk and build resilience at the local level. UN-Habitat focuses on supporting local capacities from crisis-prone cities, and humanitarian partners, in measuring their resilience status and have an action plan in order to build resilience. The Programme works along three complimentary streams: technical cooperation, knowledge, and advocacy and partnerships.

The Programme works with local government institutions, to plan, coordinate, implement and support the various outlined activities. The primary and most direct beneficiaries will be local stakeholders, city authorities and civil society. Women, children and other at-risk groups, as local level stakeholders, often disproportionately affected by crises situations, will be engaged and receive additional attention.

MAIN OBJECTIVES The overall objective of this project is to build more inclusive, sustainable, and resilient cities, by strengthening the capacity of key public, private and civil society stakeholders to measure, make decisions, plan and develop actions for building resilience to ensure that public and private investments are risk-informed and that early interventions in crisis-prone cities are linked to longer-term development goals in line with the actions of the New Urban Agenda. This joint initiative aims at improving local government and stakeholder understanding of, and capacity for, developing and implementing resilience action plans.

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES Under the direct supervision of Head of the City Resilience Global Programme (CRGP), the consultant will provide substantive professional support to the Programme and will undertake the following tasks: Task 1: Provide technical expertise on urban resilience in CRGP partner cities and territories, including: o Training and continued support in cities’ implementing of the Programme as well as implementation and monitoring mechanisms. o Support to the cities under implementation Focal Points in the production of reports and planning of local activities. o Provide expertise and technical capacities for carrying out resilience diagnostics on priority issues, including climate resilience, and building logical intervention frameworks to set up strategic actions for urban and climate resilience towards sustainability. Task 2: Review, reshape, and calibrate CRGP methodology and analytical framework to the context of CRGP partner cities and territories o Elaborate context-tailored implementation methodology, data collection strategies, and analytical frameworks for each partner city and territory. o Development of work plans and implementation strategy of the CRGP methodology with the partner local and regional governments; Task 3. Support the head of CRGP in proposal development, project formulation, and fundraising. Task 4. Provide training and capacity building activities for local partners and stakeholders in the areas of urban resilience, and climate adaptation. o Preparation of training materials and activities on programme implementation for municipal staff and focal points in partner cities; and facilitate the activities required for the implementation of the Project in coordination with project partners. o Engage in consultation activities, and participatory urban resilience strategies with local partners and stakeholders.

Qualifications/special skills- Advanced university degree or equivalent professional qualification in urban and regional planning, urban studies, urban geography, development studies, or public policy for the consultancy is required. - A first level university degree with two additional qualified years of experience will be accepted in lieu of the advance degree - A minimum of 5 years of experience is required in developing strategies, guidelines, toolkits or policies for effective urban environments, and in liaising with private and governmental authorities, other national/international institutions and NGOs and in working within fragile urban environments. Familiar with, and committed to the goals of International Organization. Ability to work with minimal supervision and with good sense of initiative to keep the supervisor regularly informed of progress; Good communications, reporting and representation skills Good teamwork and drive for results. Sensitive to gender issues and issues of concern to vulnerable groups. Adaptable to rapidly changing priorities and able to manage multiple deadlines and deliver high quality work products. Able to meet deadlines for reporting and all project work. Express enthusiasm and willingness to continue learning new skills and share experiences with other members of the team.

Languages - Fluency in spoken and written English is required. - Knowledge of other languages (Spanish and/or Arabic) would be an additional asset.

No Fee THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.