Research consultancy on: Examining vulnerability to environmental and biological disasters in Itogon, Philippines, from gender equality and human rights perspectives

SEI Asia is seeking a team of researchers to conduct a field study that examines vulnerability to environmental and health disasters in Itogon, Philippines, from gender/social equality and human rights perspectives.

Background

The Philippines is one of a few countries in the Asia region that articulates the commitment to address root causes of vulnerabilities to disasters and respect human rights of vulnerable groups in its legislation. The Philippines Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010 declares that the country disaster risk reduction (DRR) efforts shall “uphold the people’s constitutional rights to life and property by addressing the root causes of vulnerabilities to disasters, strengthening the country’sinstitutional capacity for disaster risk reduction and management and build the resilience of local communities to disaster” (Congress of the Philippines 2010). The Act also aims to ensure that DRR is respectful of human rights in relation to gender and Indigenous groups. The National Disaster Preparedness Plan highlights the importance of identifying needs (and locations) of the most vulnerable people – the elderly, children, infants, pregnant women and persons with disabilities - including in risk assessments, though no specific approaches or measures are put forward (NDRRMC 2015). Additionally, popular disaster risk assessment frameworks, such as Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment (VCA), focus on assessing disaster impacts at community level but they do not help explain why different social groups are impacted differently by the same hazard, neither do they explain in which way intra-household power dynamics, intersectional identities and structural social, economic and political systems exacerbate vulnerability and exposure.

The COVID-19 pandemic compels us to rethink about disasters. They are not only geological, meteorological, or hydrological, but also biological. However, the conceptualization of DRR and related policy frameworks have yet taken into account biological hazards. This research includes biological hazards (specifically the Covid-19 pandemic) in the framing of disaster risks.

In Itogon, the Building resilience through inclusive and climate-adaptive disaster risk reduction in Asia- Pacific (BRDR) program has been supporting the municipality to pilot a new approach to disaster risk assessment that anchors on equality and human right standpoints. Furthermore, the new approach addresses shortfalls of current approaches to disaster assessments i.e. examining structural causes of vulnerability, techno-centric view of disaster risks and power dynamics in relation to intersectional identities (elaborated in section II).

This TOR explains overall framework, working progress and the roles of consultants for this research. This research comprises two phases: 1) desk review of literature and policy in 2021; and 2) field study in 2022. Results of the deskreview is summarized in section IV. This consultancy is for the field study in phase 2 of the research.

Research objectives:

• To examine plural knowledge on drivers of vulnerability to environmental and health disasters in Itogon
• To provide evidence for the development of more inclusive and equitable risk-management policies in Itogon
• To improve the current framing on disaster risk by testing new methods on assessing root causes of vulnerability

About the research consultancy

In 2022, SEI plans to conduct a field study to address the remained questions for disaster risk assessment based on the FIRE, and to validate the key findings from the literature review. The field research will focus on: 1) gathering more evidence on the implementation of DRR and its impacts on different social groups, 2) understanding perception of risks, 3) power dynamics within household and community levels that create priviledge and exclusion, 4) ways in which disadvantaged groups could effectively influence structural causes of their vulnerability. Based on such understanding and in reference to the literature review, the field study should draw recommendations that address the following questions:

1. What lessons can be learned on reducing risks, including biological hazards (such as the COVID-19 pandemic)?
2. How can the lessons improve public policies and processes, including master social economic development plans and disaster risk reduction strategies to address structural causes of vulnerability and risks in Itotgon?

SEI is looking for a team of researchers to conduct this field study in Itogon (Benguet Province, the Philippines). The researchers should be based in the Philippines.

Responsibilities of the consultant team:

• Develop research proposal that explains data collection methods/tools to address the afore- mentioned questions, budget as well as demonstrates the team’s capacity to conduct the research
• Propose 3 study sites and work with SEI to finalise the sites
• Design data collection tools, that include, but are not limited to, key informant interviews, semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions (FGDs)
• Identify, arrange and conduct interviews with key informants, targeted communities and respondents (in-person or online, depending on COVID-19 safety and participant availability/access)
• Transcribe and translate notes from interviews and FGDs to English
• Work with SEI team to analyse data and write research report
• Update SEI regularly on the work progress and comply to SEI research ethics

Scope of the field study: 3 research sites in Itogon that represent the 3 major risks in Itogon

The expected deliverables:

• Research proposal
• Data collection tools
• Data collection (key informant interviews, semi-structured interviews and FGDs etc)
• English and Tagalog transcriptions of key informant interviews, semi-structured interviews and FGDs and other data collection tools (if any)
• Research report

Budget: 9,000 US$ including direct costs. Please propose a budget with a clear breakdown of personnel and direct costs.

Timeline: June – July 2022