Job Details
The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) was established in 2010 to support gender equality and accelerate efforts towards the attainment of the rights of women globally. UN Women supports women’s equal participation in all aspects of life by working with UN Member States to develop and apply global standards and frameworks for achieving gender equality; supports national governments and the civil society to design and develop laws, policies, programmes and services needed to implement these standards. In 2012, UN Women established a Humanitarian Unit anchored within the Women, Peace and Security pillar that works to consolidate and support humanitarian work, including DRR- Disaster Risk Reduction, preparedness, risk prevention and mitigation, at the global, regional and national levels. UN Women’s engagement in humanitarian action and DRR is to ensure consistency and sustainability in addressing gender equality concerns across the humanitarian-development continuum.
Kenya faces a wide range of natural and human-induced hazards such as, drought, floods, landslides, collapsing infrastructure, human and animal disease, urban and forest fires that impact negatively on her development agenda and reduces the full realization of the benefits anticipated from Vision 2030. Kenya is also a host to thousands of refugees and suffers often from regular internal displacement. The magnitude, frequency, has become more severe aggravated by climate change and human-induced factors such as insecurity, environmental degradation, population pressure, urbanization and others. Annually, it is estimated that 2 to 3 million Kenyans are affected by these disasters. Disasters and emergencies affect and impact women, men, boys and girls differently. However, research has shown that consequent disaster losses can be substantially reduced if all men, women, boys and girls are aware of their responsibilities and are involved in developing and implementing measures that can reduce the risks.
Kenya has made significant strides in Disaster Risk Management (DRM). The constitution of Kenya (2010) integrates articles that support DRM down to the county government level and offers in it an opportunity to propagate DRR activities down to the communities. The country has developed a draft DRM policy and bill which are in the process of enactment. The creation of DRR institutions such as National Disaster Operations Centre (NDOC), National Drought management authority (NDMA), National disaster management unit (NDMU, the Parliamentary Caucus, and the National Platform for DRR are evidence of initiatives undertaken by the government. The county governments have gone further to develop County Integrated Development Plans (CIDP) that have integrated some elements of disaster risk management and peace and security while others have gone further to develop disaster management related policies and programmes. Overall, the country is making advances in creating an enabling environment for the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SF DRR 2015-2030).
UN Women works with government, humanitarian and disaster risk reduction stakeholders to achieve Resolution 1325 and provision of Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SF DRR) to ensure that women, men, boys and girls have equal responsibilities to manage disaster risks, to respond and recover from emergencies. UN Women’s Humanitarian and DRR work in Kenya seeks to advance and support the government’s efforts and priorities identified within MTP III in disaster risk reduction and humanitarian action. The objective of UN Women work is to ensure that Peace, security and humanitarian action are shaped by women’s leadership and participation in alignment with the Political Pillar of Vision 2030, and to Medium Term Plan 3 under: National Value and Ethics (Ending Drought Emergencies; Security, Peace building and Conflict Resolution) and Cross Cutting Areas (Disaster Risk Management). The objectives are also aligned to UN Women’s Global and Regional strategies that seeks to support strategies and to develop capacities of women to lead and participated reducing their risks to disasters as well in building their resilience to disasters. To achieve its objectives, UN Women provides technical and financial support to Government and CSOs to enhance gender responsive programming in humanitarian action and disaster risk reduction as well as vulnerable women and girls living in insecure and fragile environments.
The importance of gender integration in DRR/DRM is embedded in the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, the ground-breaking resolution, that acknowledges the impact of conflict and disasters on women, recognizing the importance of utilizing women’s contribution and active participation in conflict prevention, peace-building, relief, recovery and DRR/DRM. The March 2015 adopted Sendai Framework for DRR makes provision for the integration of gender equality, calling specifically for all related policy and practices to reflect gender provisions. With over 187 countries including Kenya committing to its implementation, the framework provides a global blue print for countries to strengthen their efforts in reducing disaster risks and in building the resilience of disaster affected communities. The framework states that governments should engage with all relevant stakeholders including women, children, youth, persons with disabilities in the design, implementation of policies, plans and standards[1]
The overall goal of SF-DRR is “the substantial reduction of disaster risk and losses in lives, livelihoods and health and in the economic, physical, social, cultural and environmental assets of persons, business, communities and countries.” The Sendai Framework” comes with four priorities; Understanding disaster Risk; Strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk; Investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience; and Enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response, and to “Build Back Better” in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction. All these priorities call for more dedicated local action and needs to be focused on tackling underlying disaster risk drivers such as, the consequences of poverty and inequality including gender inequalities, climate change and variability, unplanned and rapid urbanization, poor land management and compounding factors such as demographic change, weak institutional arrangements, non-risk-informed policies, lack of regulation and incentives for private disaster risk reduction investment, limited availability of technology, unsustainable uses of natural resources, declining ecosystems, pandemics and epidemics and others. Seven global targets and thirteen guiding principles were adopted borrowing from the previous DRR frameworks, considering national circumstances and consistency with domestic laws as well as international obligations and commitments; these will guide the achievement of the expected outcome and overall goal in next fifteen years.
The Sendai Framework makes provision for the integration of gender equality, calling specifically for all related policy and practices to reflect gender provisions. The framework states that governments should engage with all relevant stakeholders including women, children, youth, persons with disabilities in the design, implementation of policies, plans and standards. One of the key challenges to mainstreaming gender is lack of guidelines to support the efforts by DRR and humanitarian stakeholders.
To address this gap, UN Women seeks a consultant to develop an easy to use guidelines for mainstreaming gender in SF DRR in Kenya.
Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030
Duties and Responsibilities
Specific Tasks and Responsibility:
Under the overall supervision of the Peace and Security Specialist, the Consultant will be expected to undertake the following tasks:
Review the Sendai Framework for DRR and develop a clear outline of key gender issues based on the four Sendai priorities;
Develop a programme/agenda for consultation of key humanitarian and disaster risk reduction stakeholders (GoK, UN, INGOs, CBOs, Women groups etc.) at national and county level;
Organize and consult with key stakeholder on what is to be included in the mainstreaming guidelines;
Develop a draft gender mainstreaming guideline and have it reviewed by UN Women quality assurance staff;
Meet with stakeholders to validate the mainstreaming guideline;
Finalize the guideline;
Compile a final report capturing key lessons learnt.
Usage of findings:
The mainstreaming guideline will be used by government, disaster risk reduction and humanitarian stakeholders in the country to ensure gender is mainstreamed in the implementation, capacity development and reporting of the Sendai Framework for DRR in Kenya.
DELIVERABLES
A finalized gender mainstreaming guideline;
A final report capturing key lessons learnt through this process;
Successful facilitation of a validation workshop with key stakeholders.
METHODOLOGY
The assignment will be conducted through:
Review of the Sendai Framework of DRR and development of a standard gender mainstreaming guideline (14 days);
Consultation with HDRR stakeholders at national and county level – including the national platform for DRR (10 days);
Facilitation of a validation workshop with key stakeholders (1 day);
Final report writing of key lessons learnt (5 days).
Competencies
Mature judgment and initiative;
Ability to think out-of-the-box;
Ability to present complex issues in simple and clear manner;
Cultural, gender, religion and age sensitivity and adaptability;
Ability to work under pressure and deliver high quality results on time;
Initiative and independence.
Required Skills and Experience
Master’s degree in in social sciences, gender and development, Disaster risk reduction and humanitarian studies, or similar;
At least 10 years of relevant professional field experience;
Must demonstrate extensive knowledge of DRR and Humanitarian work as well as women participation in DRR and Humanitarian work;
Research experience;
Previous experience in programme designing and implementing humanitarian and DRR programmes;
Training and facilitation skills including experience in organizing and facilitating trainings and consultations with stakeholders;
Full computer literacy;
Working experience with UN system is desirable;
Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English and Kiswahili.
CONTRACT AND REMUNERATION
A Special Service Agreement Contract (SSA) will be issued in accordance with UN Women rules and regulations. Remuneration will be based on experience and qualifications and UN Rules and Regulations applying a competitive selection process and payment made upon certification of deliverables. It is estimated that a total of forty (30) working days would be required by the Consultant to complete the exercise. The assignment will be spread within a period of three months starting from 25 June to end of August 2018. The consultant will be expected to provide a final report 10 day after the validation workshop.
UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.
