Gender and Diversity Consultant

About Asian Disaster Preparedness Center

ADPC is an autonomous intergovernmental organization with a vision to reduce disaster and climate risk impacts on communities and countries in Asia and the Pacific by working with governments, development partners, international organizations, NGOs, civil society, private sector, media, and other key stakeholders. Established in 1986 as a technical capacity building center, ADPC has grown and diversified its expertise across social and physical sciences to support sustainable solutions for risk reduction across a broad range of specialist areas. With over 100 staff from 19 different nationalities and a wide range of professional expertise from atmospheric scientists to social scientists with experiences from all levels of engagement typically required for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Resilience (CR) in an effective manner. The Risk Governance department of ADPC aims to ensure that policies and practices driving development in Asia and the Pacific include effective measures to reduce disaster and climate change risks equitably and transparently. ADPC’s Risk Governance framework puts gender and diversity at the heart of DRR and CR and promotes the use of sex-age-disability-disaggregated data for formulating policies and designing plans and programs. For details, please refer to ADPC website at http://www.adpc.net/

Background

The Building resilience through inclusive and climate-adaptive disaster risk reduction in Asia-Pacific (BRDR) program is a five-year program that aims to protect development gains and to enhance regional cooperation on inclusive and gender-equal risk reduction approaches. The program focuses on establishing evidence-based methods, tools and practices for building the resilience of the most vulnerable communities in the pilot countries - Nepal and the Philippines, and on sharing the lessons learned at regional forums in order to replicate the approaches developed under BRDR across the region. At the institutional level, the BRDR program is supporting in strengthening APDC’s capacity for integrating gender-equal and rights-based approaches across institutional and programmatic focuses. Guided by the Gender and Diversity Framework, the BRDR program is focused on implementing a series of collaborative processes to ensure systematic and sustainable implementation of gender-related actions to support ADPC’s agenda for institutional transformation. With this in focus, a Gender and Diversity Consultant will be engaged to help in the implementation of BRDR’s institutional component as well as additional technical inputs to support the national-level activities.

Statement of Intent

The Gender and Diversity Consultant will facilitate in mainstreaming gender and diversity across ADPC’s thematic areas and organizational management and mechanisms in line with the institutional Gender and Diversity Framework. The consultant will coordinate and implement capacity building on gender and diversity covering thematic and operational areas, organizational management, human resources and internal mechanisms; facilitate learning activities, advocacy, and develop knowledge management materials; and guide the development and implementation of relevant policies and guidelines for support in the process of institutional transformation. The Gender and Diversity Consultant will work from home or be based in Bangkok, Thailand, if the pandemic situation allowed, and will report to Director, Risk Governance Department. Note: It is not the intent of this Terms of Reference to cover every aspect of the position requirements, rather to highlight the most important areas of personal and joint responsibilities.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Gender and Diversity Consultant will be responsible for:

• Work closely with each department of ADPC and BRDR consortium partners to review ADPC policies and internal mechanisms, and provide technical inputs and coordination to develop and operationalize guidelines for mainstreaming gender and diversity in DRR programmatic areas as well as the Human Resources Department, including gender-responsive recruitment guidelines, and mechanisms on Preventing Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment (PSEAH);
• Coordinate Gender and Diversity Working Committee meetings and workshops to gain members’ insights and buy-in on BRDR policies and activities;
• Facilitate institutional gender and diversity mainstreaming;
• Conduct a Gender Audit to establish a baseline for monitoring and evaluating gender, diversity and inclusion in the organization;
• Capacity building of Gender and Diversity Working Committee, senior management and ADPC staff, including providing technical inputs to develop training materials, and an induction module, organizing and facilitating learning activities, to enhance technical capacities on mainstreaming gender equality in programmatic and operational work;
• Provide technical guidance on mainstreaming gender and diversity in DRR policies, plans and interventions, and stakeholder engagement in project countries, including policy and strategy review, identifying entry points, and streamlining BRDR interventions with pilot country priorities;
• Provide technical inputs on capacity development of government counterparts and country stakeholders, including local stakeholders and women organizations, regional capacity development activities, advocacy, learning/knowledge sharing on gender and diversity mainstreaming;
• Provide technical oversight to review deliverables (policy, strategy, guidelines, handbooks, training programs, etc.) and provide technical comments to improve the deliverables;
• Work with the ADPC’s M&E team to review BRDR Program Theory of Change (ToC), develop indicators to support in mainstreaming gender equality and measure institutional progress on a regular basis, in line with the ADPC Strategy and other key strategic documents;
• Performing other relevant tasks as assigned by Director, Risk Governance Department.

Qualifications

Education

A master’s degree in gender and development studies, social sciences, anthropology or any other related qualifications.

Work Experience

• Minimum of 6 years of professional experience of working in the area of Gender and Diversity and at least 4 years of experience in gender and diversity within disaster risk reduction and climate resilience in an international setting.
• A minimum of 4 years of professional experience of working in Asia and the Pacific region.
• An excellent understanding of the current regional (Asia-Pacific) and global discourse related to gender and inclusion in disaster risk reduction and climate resilience.
• Experience of working with the UN Common System, international organizations, Red Cross/Red Crescent, or international NGOs is desirable.

Functional Competencies

• Possesses thorough understanding of the norms and issues in gender equality, social inclusion and rights -based approaches in disaster risk reduction.
• Demonstrated strong coordination, facilitation and engagement skills with strong interpersonal communication ability to initiate discussions with regional entities, government officials, peoples’ organizations and communities.
• Demonstrated technical competency in conducting technical review of policies, strategies and plans from gender and diversity perspectives, and developing technical guidelines, tools, training materials, advocacy briefs and knowledge products.
• Experience in training, capacity building and facilitating gender and diversity discourse among DRR technical specialists from multiple disciplines.
• Ability to conduct comprehensive analysis of policies, strategies, and practices, and provide strategic guidance to mainstreaming gender and diversity into disaster risk reduction and climate resilience, and governance.
• Proven research and analytical work with demonstrated ability to prepare and present comprehensive reports.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills and capacity to work under pressure and short deadlines.
• Demonstrated ability to work in a complex, multi-stakeholder team environment.

Language Proficiency

Excellent English proficiency in communication, presentation skills and report writing.

Reporting Relationships

The Consultant will report to Director, Risk Governance Department. The consultant will work in close coordination on a day-to-day basis with the BRDR and other teams.