Consultant - Environment & Climate Change

1.     Introduction

IRC is one of the world’s leading humanitarian and post-conflict development agencies, working with communities in over 40 developing states. The core of IRC’s mandate is to support and empower people who have been affected by conflict and disaster. IRC’s portfolio consists of government, multilateral, and foundation funding that spans short-term and protracted humanitarian response through long-term development initiatives. Alongside other thematic areas, IRC has extensive global expertise in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and is a leader in gender focused programming.

IRC has been working in Pakistan since 1980, and delivers a wide range of programming to Afghan refugees, temporarily displaced persons and other marginalized/underserved communities across the country. Programs focus on Health and WASH, Disaster Risk Reduction, Protection and Women’s Protection and Empowerment, Livelihoods, and Education.

2.     Project Description

With an overall goal of gender equitable and socially inclusive WASH services for improved health conditions of marginalized groups, this project aims to directly improve the lives of 225,000 beneficiaries in 100 villages in four districts of KP, Pakistan. Based on an in-depth understanding of social and environmental conditions in intervention districts, this project will contribute to the empowerment of women and marginalized groups through the implementation of WASH-focused programs in the target villages. Engagement of groups which have traditionally been voiceless has been shown to be effective in strengthening their position in their communities. The project will reach its goal through three pillars:

1.        Inclusive Community Level WASH I

2.         Improved WASH Governance

3.         Strengthened decision making around WASH

The project will focus on schools and health centers that serve communities, as well as community and household WASH. A process of participatory training and discussion will be utilized to strengthen women’s role in the community, and will be supported with life skills training and gender protection programming. Knowledge management and learning through ongoing monitoring, periodic evaluations and research will keep the project on track, provide evidence for advocacy for improving legislative environment, and draw learning for future programming. The project objectives and intended outcomes are;

Objective 1: Expanded inclusive and sustainable WASH services.

Intended Outcome 1.1: Increased access to WASH facilities for all

Intended Outcome 1.2: WASH services are safe and responsive to the needs of women, girls, and marginalized   groups.

Intended Outcome 1.3: Improved practice on how to use and access WASH facilities.

Objective 2: Improved inclusive WASH governance systems.

Intended Outcome 2.1: Inclusive and gender- equitable WASH policies in place

Intended Outcome 2.2: Institutions strengthened around gender equitable and inclusive WASH

Objective 3: Increased women’s, girls’, and other marginalized groups decision making around WASH.

Intended Outcome 3.1: Community structures are safe, inclusive, functional, and culturally appropriate

Intended Outcome 3.2: Women, girls, and other marginalized groups have the capacity to identify, plan, and implement WASH interventions and policies that address their needs.

Intended Outcome 3.3: Men engage in accountable inclusive and gender-equitable WASH practices.

3.     Responsibilities

This consultancy is envisaged to be filled by a highly qualified professional having strong technical competency in environmental management, risk reduction and resilience building, and climate change adaptation.  This knowledge and experience in implementation will prepare the consultant to provide strategic guidance to the IRC Environmental Health team in program design, for building sustained national capacity for environment, climate change adaptation, and disaster management including resource mobilization in the long run. 

The role of the incumbent is to provide strategic advice and guidance to development partners including LG & RDD, and IRC, as the design of the project is developed.  Guidance will include proposed methodologies and approaches, and suitable tools for achieving sustained change. 

The incumbent will work with the project team in discussing and developing approaches.  Much of the support provided will be in terms of verbal advice, feedback and discussion.  The consultant will also be expected to capture key themes and approaches in a summary document that lays out recommendations and approaches, and is to be submitted on completion of the consultancy.  However, the contents of this document are anticipated to be largely a summary of discussions conducted over the course of the consultancy.

 The consultancy will last for three weeks i.e. One week before the initial assessment/ data collection and two week after data collection. In first week the consultant will work on identifying key information/data needs and developing data collection tools with specific focus upon environment & climate change adaptation. In 2nd and 3rd week of the assignment, the consultant shall work upon devising a draft Environment & Climate Change adaptation plan for the project after analyzing responses and working with the team on design of the program approach and methodology.

4.     The Key role of incumbent (Technical)

· Providing technical advice for designing/development of Environmental & Climate Change Plan

· Providing technical support for ensuring coordination and building collaborative ownership of stakeholders on

   Environment Management. 

·   Support the identification of up-scaling opportunities and strategies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa based on the results and recommendations of the baseline

· Developing a resource mobilization plan for local level environment management and related activities in

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa establishing environment management system to support sustained implementation of      environment management initiatives in the long run.

· Providing guidance for proper implementation of Environment and Climate Change Plan.

5.     Technical competencies

· Knowledge of international, environment, climate change, good governance and disaster risk management

   Policy dialogue.  

· Experiences in resources mobilization

· Ability to provide policy and technical advices on environment, good governance, climate change mitigation

   And disaster risk management.

· In-depth practical knowledge of inter-disciplinary development issues

· Strong analytical skills and ability to provide broader context and positioning for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in

   Environment and Climate Change plan development and Operational Effectiveness

· Ability to work with minimum supervision; and

· Promotes sharing of knowledge and experiences, and activities work towards continued personals learning 

   And development.  

· Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities

· Encourages risk-taking in the pursuit of creativity and innovative solutions

· Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive constructive attitude

· Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills

· Ability to multi-task and work with right deadlines 

6.     education

Master degree (preferably PhD) in environmental science/management and climate change. Qualification in Geographic Information System (GIS) would be an advantage.

7.     experience

At least three years for PhD and five years for Master Degree of relevant work experience in programme and policy development in governmental or multilateral organization at national and/or international levels. Experience of working with government and local bodies, various donor agencies. Experience of working on climate change, environment and disasters issues. Experience of working in a multi-cultural setting as well as in a post conflict reconstruction situation and experience of uses of computers and office soft-ware’s packages (MS Word, Power-point, Excel, Arc GIS).