National Consultant- Gender and Climate Change

Background

, 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. Placing women’s rights at the centre of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates the United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. UN Women provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.  

supports the government to implement commitments to international normative standards on gender equality and women’s human rights. UN Women’s strategic engagement in Bangladesh is guided by the , launched in 2021, and the corresponding UN Women Bangladesh Strategic Note (SN) 2022-2026. The country strategy focuses on strengthening the national structures and mechanisms for gender mainstreaming in policies, plans, and budgets; supporting efforts to prevent and eliminate violence against women; promoting women’s access to decent and safe work; promoting policies and government investment in women’s empowerment and resilience building in the context of climate change, humanitarian crisis as well as other threats to peace and security. UN Women works with a range of stakeholders in Bangladesh, including the government, civil society, women’s organisations, youth, UN agencies, and donors, to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment.  

UN Women is implementing projects to equip government institutions and actors with the knowledge and skills necessary to address the distinct needs and priorities of women, girls, men, boys, and gender-diverse groups in climate change adaptation and mitigation. BCO is supporting government in implementing the newly adopted Climate Change and Gender Action Plan (CCGAP) to enhance the resilience of the most climate-vulnerable groups, enabling them to better withstand and cope with future climate-induced shocks. Towards that end there would be training for government officials on gender-responsive actions, strengthening institutions to plan and monitor the CCGAP, enhancing the Bangladesh Climate Change Trust's capacity to assess gender responsiveness of climate change adaptation projects, support key sectoral Ministries to adopt CCGAP, and help women led organisations to become the most powerful agent for influencing gender mainstreaming agenda in climate change actions. Activities involve advocacy, training, developing monitoring frameworks, fostering ownership amongst target ministries through a co-creation approach and WLOs.

UN Women also co-chairs  the Gender in Humanitarian Action (GiHA) working group under the leadership of the Department of Women’s Affairs, MOWCA. The objective of GIHA is to ensure effective mainstreaming of gender equality in humanitarian action in Bangladesh. GiHA Bangladesh has supported the realization of gender-responsive programming since 2017 to ensure that the needs of all affected populations – women, men, girls, boys, gender-diverse people, and people with disabilities - are addressed equally. GiHA currently has 62 members and holds quarterly meetings. Most recently, GiHA has initiated local chapters in four of the country's most disaster-prone areas namely Khulna, Sathkira, Jamapur and Kurigram in its efforts for better localization of the humanitarian action in Bangladesh.

II. Objective:

UN Women in Bangladesh is seeking the services of a national consultant to provide technical and coordination support for monitoring, procurement, contracting, and reporting for the "Increase the Resilience of Women and Girls through the Acceleration of Gender-Responsive Climate Change Action in Bangladesh" project, and support the coordination efforts of UN Women for the gender equality and women’s empowerment agenda through GiHA Working Group.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the supervision of the Programme Specialist, and overall guidance of the Deputy Country Representative, the consultant will be responsible for the following:

1. Provide technical and coordination support for implementation of the Increase the Resilience of Women and Girls through the Acceleration of Gender-Responsive Climate Actions in Bangladesh

• Coordinate with government ministries, partner organization, and other relevant stakeholders for smooth implementation of the project.
• Develop  the project monitoring framework in close consultation with the Programme Specialist and monitor project implementation progress following the framework .
• Provide technical inputs to develop/finalise  knowledge products, tools, , and reports being produced by the project partners
• Provide technical and coordination support to partners and other service providers as per UN Women’s requirements in consultation with the Programme Manager
• Conduct background research and prepare briefing materials/talking points as required.
• Organise and facilitate meetings and training with partner organizations, including on RBM;
• Provide technical inputs to periodic internal, and donor reports as well as partner reports.

1. Support the Gender in Humanitarian Action Working Group

• Manage the secretariat of GiHA WG including liaising  and coordinating with the DWA and WG members as required and organising regular and ad-hoc meetings
• Support the development, implementation and monitoring of the annual work plan of the group
• Provide knowledge management support
• Develop background notes, thematic briefs and advocacy messages as required
• Coordinate and support production of Rapid Gender Analysis (RGAs)
• Organise capacity building training events for members
• Provide technical and coordination support to  local GiHA chapter leads to implement their work plans
• Undertake field visits as necessary

1. Support resource mobilization efforts

• Support with drafting Concept Notes/proposals, presentations, short briefing as requested.

IV. Duration of the assignment:

The assignment will commence in October 2024, for a duration of about 3 years with maximum 18 days of engagement per month.

V. Deliverables:

Respective deliverables and documents will be reviewed by UN Women before processing payment. The consultant will be expected to submit a monthly work plan at the beginning of each month with an indicative list of tasks and deliverables to be completed. The deliverables will include the following (this is not exhaustive):

Payment will be made on a monthly basis on the submission of a monthly report with all the completed deliverables and the total number of days worked.

VI. Supervision & Performance evaluation:

The consultant will work under the supervision of the Programme Specialist DRR/CCA of UN Women Bangladesh. Performance of the consultant will be evaluated based on timeliness, responsibility, initiative, communication, accuracy, and quality of the services delivered.

VII.  Duty Station(s): UN Women Country office, Dhaka, (with occasional field visit as needed).

VIII- Travel and DSA: No DSA will be paid at the duty station(s) – For this consultancy, the duty station is considered Dhaka. Travel outside the duty station, Dhaka upon prior agreement/approval of the line manager(s), shall be UN Women’s expenses and the individual contractor shall receive a per-diem not exceeding United Nations daily subsistence allowance rate in location(s) of destination.

Competencies

Core Values

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Communication – Facilitates and encourages open and effective communication.
• Inclusive Collaboration and Stakeholder Engagement – Demonstrates ability to collaborate and work effectively with stakeholders of different backgrounds.
• Accountability – Takes ownership of all responsibilities and delivers outputs in accordance with agreed time, costs, and quality standards.
• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues – Fulfils all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality, and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Functional Competencies:

• Excellent knowledge of DRR/CCA/HA issues and coordination; 
• Partnerships building with government and non-government organizations;
• Strong skills and experience in writing concept note/project proposals;
• Strong report writing skills;
• Skills to review and edit relevant technical reports;
• Demonstrates openness to ideas and ability to manage complexities of the situations.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced university degree (At least Master’s) in Disaster Risk Management, Gender/Women Studies, Development Studies, Sociology, Anthropology, or other relevant disciplines.

Experience:

• At least 3 years of experience in related fields
• Demonstrable experience working on GEWE, especially gender responsive DRR, climate change policy context in Bangladesh

• Proven experience in developing high quality analytical reports, research papers, and background papers.
• Previous track record in coordination with multi-stakeholders, including government, donors, academia, and civil society organizations on DRR and Gender Equality.
• Excellent communication and writing skills (samples of previous work is required as part of the application).

Language:

Fluency in English; knowledge of French would be an asset.

Evaluation criteria:

The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on the following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

Criteria-01; Educational Qualification  - Max Point 10

Criteria-02; Proven experiences working in the fields of gender equality, especially, climate change, humanitarian action in Bangladesh.  Max Point 20

Criteria-03; Proven experience in developing high quality analytical reports, research papers, and background papers. Max Point 20

Criteria-04; Demonstrable track record in coordination with multi-stakeholders, including government, donors, academia, and civil society organizations on DRR, humanitarian, and Gender Equality. Max Point 20

Criteria-05; Interview. Max Point 10

Interested Individual Consultants will submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications.

The following documents should be submitted as part of the application:

• Personal CV and  P11 (P11 can be downloaded from: )
• A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page) 
• 1-2 samples of previously written work (such as analytical reports, research papers, briefing notes, and/or background papers)

How to Submit the Application:

• Download and complete the UN Women Personal History Form (P11)
• Merge your UN Women Personal History Form (P11), CV and Cover Letter into a single file. The system does not allow for more than one attachment to be uploaded;
• Click on the Job Title (job vacancy announcement);
• Click 'Apply Now' button, fill in the necessary information on the first page, and then click 'Submit Application’;
• Upload your application/single file as indicated above with the merged documents (underlined above);
• You will receive an automatic response to your email confirming receipt of your application by the system.

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, colour, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All recruitment/procurement is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity, and organizational need. 

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.