Women’s Resilience to Disasters Consultant

Contract

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

Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

Through its focus on prevention and disaster resilience, UN Women ensures that new and existing disaster risks are mitigated by putting women at the center of disaster risk reduction, by giving them a voice, empowering them as disaster risk reduction leaders and actors, and by building their disaster and climate resilience. Evidence proves that the majority of victims and those affected by disasters and climate change are women. Due to the gendered dimensions of disaster risk, women and girls face greater vulnerability and exposure to disasters, yet women remain largely ignored and their capacities, unleveraged in conventional disaster risk reduction processes. Women also remain largely excluded from climate mitigation, with reduced access to climate finance, sustainable energy technology and decision making.

UN Women promotes gender-responsive disaster risk reduction and climate action through technical and policy support, provision of gender expertise to climate change and disaster risk reduction mechanisms and processes, and by implementing programmes and projects for gender-responsive disaster risk reduction and climate action.

This consultancy is expected to provide support to the Programme Specialist, Disaster Risk Reduction. The consultant will be supervised and guided in their daily work by the Programme Specialist, Disaster Risk Reduction.

Under the overall supervision of the Programme Specialist, Disaster Risk Reduction, the consultant will contribute to UN Women’s triple mandate in the area of disaster risk reduction and climate change, providing drafting, research, policy and technical support to the Programme Specialist and field offices and contributing to interagency and intergovernmental processes. The consultant requires experience and understanding of gender equality and climate change, including climate resilience. The work involves supporting the Programme Specialist to translate UN Women's strategic plans into effective programmes and results and to provide support on climate justice and DRR especially in the context of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction Agreement (SFA) and the Paris Agreement on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, as well as the UN Plan of Action of DRR for Resilience. It also entails supporting the development and implementation of UN Women’s disaster risk management flagship programme initiative, entitled Women’s Resilience to Disasters Program.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the supervision of the Programme Specialist, Disaster Risk Reduction, the consultant will perform the following key services:

1 - Support the Programme Specialist, Disaster Risk Reduction, in providing strategic guidance, policy and programme support on DRR and resilience building:

• Support gender mainstreaming into intergovernmental and coordination processes, interagency coordination mechanisms and meetings, and advocacy efforts.
• Support the provision of technical support on DRR to UN Women’s regional and country offices.

2 - Support the Programme Specialist, Disaster Risk Reduction, in building knowledge and capacities on gender-responsive DRR and resilience:

• Coordinate content management strategy of the WRD knowledge hub
• Contribute to the development of WRD knowledge phase 2 (including Policy Tracker update)
• Support the development and management of the WRD Community of Practice and WRD Expert group
• Research, update and maintain relevant information related to DRR and resilience.
• Develop, contribute to and implement WRD and DRR advocacy and communication and social media strategies and report on these.

Competencies

Core Values

• Integrity
• Professionalism
• Respect for Diversity

Core Competencies

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration

Required Skills and Experience

• Master’s degree in gender studies, policy, disaster risk reduction, climate change, resilience and/or any relevant field directly related to gender and disaster resilience;
• At least two years of professional experience in disaster risk reduction, climate change or development contexts.
• Experience working on and supporting knowledge hubs an advantage.
• Experience in gender in disaster risk reduction or climate change, including at regional and country levels, an advantage.
• Demonstrated knowledge of gender equality and women’s empowerment an advantage.
• Previous experience with UN Women or international work settings, including CSOs, NGOs, national governments, and other UN agencies an advantage.
• Fluency in written and spoken English is required.
• Knowledge of other UN official language especially French or Spanish is an asset.
• High level of proficiency in computer systems, internet navigation and various applications including research databases and data analysis software.
• Knowledge and experience of website development, design and content management is an asset