Call for Interest for Consultants – Gender Transformative Mechanism (GTM), ECG
JOB DETAIL
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is an international financial institution and a specialized United Nations agency dedicated to eradicating rural poverty and hunger. It does so by investing in rural people. IFAD finances programmes and projects that increase agricultural productivity and raise rural incomes, and advocates at the local, national and international level for policies that contribute to rural transformation.
The GTM IFAD has established the Gender Transformative Mechanism in the context of Climate Adaptation (GTM) to help countries achieve gender transformative changes in their agricultural and rural development programmes. The GTM is a financing facility that aims at achieving systemic and sustainable gender transformative change and climate resilience at scale. The goals of the GTM are to incentivise government to invest in and scale up the capacities and activities needed to achieve gender-transformative results in their agricultural programmes. Through the GTM, IFAD leverages the scale of its loans and grants, and builds on its experience of practices that have achieved gender transformative changes in rural development.
The GTM in India consists of a grant that will expand the scope of work on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) within the framework of the already ongoing IFAD-funded investment, Maharashtra Rural Women’s Enterprise Development Project (Nav Tejaswini). The Nav Tejaswini project aims to enable one million poor rural households overcome poverty sustainably while improving rural women’s capacity to develop sustainable enterprises, engage in remunerative employment, and access markets. The project has three inter-related components: (i) Component 1: Market driven enterprise development, (ii) Component 2: Enabling support services and (iii) Component 3: Institutional Strengthening and project management. The project has key mainstreaming features i.e. gender transformative, nutrition, youth and climate change. The Nav Tejaswini project support Self-help groups (SHG), mostly composed by women, to evolve into Community Managed Resource Centers (CMRCs) as a model of grassroots institution building in rural areas.
In the context of the Nav Tejaswini project, the GTM will pursue an institutional strengthening approach by supporting the development of a high-impact, influential Centre of Excellence (CoE) for gender transformative results and women’s empowerment housed within the government implementing partner for Nav Tejaswini (Mahila Arthik Vikas Mahamandal, MAVIM). By sharing MAVIM’s expertise and good practices with other ecosystem actors, a CoE will help to sustain and scale the GEWE impact of Nav Tejaswini within Maharashtra and India, and the extent to which its lessons are applicable elsewhere.
Building upon a foundation of MAVIM’s continued excellence in programmatic implementation the CoE will leverage four core pillars of activities—technical and advisory services, knowledge and evidence, advocacy and policy, and partnership promotion. Three CoE objectives, which signify the change the center will seeks to achieve with targeted actors, will be prioritized under the GTM: (1) Actors in other states and countries leverage MAVIM’s best practices, lessons learned, and expertise to support the achievement of gender transformative results in their locality; (2) the GoM’s policies and programmes support the achievement of gender transformative results by better integrating GEWE in planning, design, and implementation; and (3) the GoM’s budgeting supports the achievement of gender transformative results by better allocating and disbursing funds for GEWE.
Adding climate lenses to Nav Tejaswini and CoE work GTM intends to work at the nexus between gender equality, women’s empowerment, and climate change. Through the CoE, GTM will focus on building capacity of government and key stakeholders on gender transformative approaches and climate resilience. GTM will support CoE to generate evidence through research, documentation, development of knowledge materials, tools and technological innovations at the intersection of gender transformative approaches and women’s resilience to climate change. In order to do so, it will ensure that adequate knowledge, capacities and tools are in place to mainstream climate in the work of MAVIM, the CoE and the Nav Tejaswini project.
Job Role
IFAD is looking for a qualified consultant who can support the Gender Transformative Mechanism (GTM) in its objectives to:
- Support capacity development of MAVIM and CoE staff in understand key climate-related risks to different actors and promote tailored climate adaptation and climate smart agriculture in its work;
- Facilitate the integration of climate adaptation and climate smart agriculture in the work of the CoE and of the Nav Tejaswini project. The Nav Tejaswini project aims at supporting farm and non-farm projects to promote the economic empowerment of rural women: the GTM aims to add climate lenses to the assessment and support of such projects.
Consultancies play a critical role in the execution of IFAD’s mandate and our impact on the ground. Rosters are designed for junior and senior experts whose skills are required for specific project assignments. Given the different technical and time-duration nature of assignments, IFAD is looking for consultants of varying ability and experience.
Consultants may be contacted for specific assignment throughout the year and the remuneration will be commensurate with candidate’s qualifications, experience and skills as well as the nature of the assignment in terms of:
- Responsibilities and complexities of the assignment.
- The degree of specialization required.
Consultants are not considered staff of IFAD. Consultancy assignments do not carry any expectation of employment, extension or conversion to another type of contract with the Fund. Consultants can be recruited for a maximum of 240 days in 1 calendar year and 960 days in 5 calendar years.
Key Functions and Results
The consultant will be in-charge of following activities:
- Review the GTM scope of work on climate, MAVIM strategies, policies, and initiatives with respect to climate, and assess the degree of inclusion of climate adaptation lenses in the work of the Nav Tejaswini.
- Assess the vision and aspirations of MAVIM management team with respect to the integration of climate change resilience aspects into organizational policies and programmes, in particular the Nav Tejaswini and GTM.
- Conduct a rapid assessment of:
- MAVIM’s knowledge and capacities of climate change adaptation and mitigation in the context of its mandate and in the Nav Tejaswini/GTM implementation in particular.
- CMRC and SHG needs, knowledge and capacities for climate change adaptation and mitigation in the context of their work.
- Develop an action plan to address the gaps identified by the rapid assessment, with differentiated sets of actions for the three key audiences: a) MAVIM; b) the CoE as institutions, and c) CMRCs / SHGs in their capacity as MAVIM/Nav Tejaswini partners.
- Develop or customize training materials, modules, and tools to address the gaps identified in the rapid assessment, with a focus on capacity building, environmentally sustainable and climate-resilient technologies, gender responsive climate change adaptation, and climate smart agriculture. The training materials should be three different sets tailored to the needs of three different audiences: a) MAVIM; b) the CoE as institutions, and c) CMRCs / SHG as MAVIM/Nav Tejaswini partners.
- Deliver 2-3 capacity building trainings to the three different audiences (a total of 6 trainings). Logistics costs will be covered by IFAD.
- Review MAVIM’s implementation arrangements for the Nav Tejaswini project (e.g., criteria and tools for assessing and selecting farm and non-farm-based enterprises supported) in order to make them climate responsive.
- Propose also a set of programmatic interventions that could boost CMRC and SHG’s ability to promote climate adaptation and climate smart agriculture practices and technologies.
- Develop vulnerability profile (key climate-related risks and impacts on different aspects) of the enterprises and prepare mapping of risks, disaggregated by gender.
- Develop policy briefs on the intersection of gender transformative approaches and climate actions in rural development strategies and projects.
- Any other task given by the supervisor.
Working Relationships
The consultant will work under the overall guidance of the Lead Technical Specialist on Gender and Social Inclusion in IFAD Headquarters as well as the Senior technical specialist on Gender and Social Inclusion / GTM coordinator. S/He will work in close coordination with MAVIM and CoE management team, the GTM India team and the Nav Tejaswini Programme Management Unit (PMU).
Job Profile Requirements
Education:
Master’s Degree in the field of Natural Resource Management/Environmental Science/ Climate Science/ Agriculture / Rural Development or related disciplines.
Work Experience:
- At least seven (7) years of professional experience of supervising and advisory role in the fields of climate change adaptation, rural development and natural resource management.
- Experience of conducting participatory climate change vulnerability assessments and providing technical expertise on climate change adaptation and mitigation measures in rural development projects.
- Experience of working on gender equality, women empowerment, and social inclusion in the context of climate change.
- Experience of working with Government, institutions, and actors at the interface of rural development, climate change, natural resource management, gender equality, women’s empowerment, and social inclusion.
- Experience of developing training courses, modules, and tools on climate change and gender to build the capacity of government departments, grassroots level institutions, and other relevant actors.
- Outstanding communication, management, and organizational skills.
- Experience with the UN or other international development organizations is highly desirable.
Languages:
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English. Good knowledge of Hindi or Marathi will be an asset.
Other Information
It must be noted that Consultants are not Staff of IFAD, and that a Consultancy does not carry any expectation of employment with the Fund. Remuneration will be in line with the standards set for UN Consultants.
Applicants to this call for interest will undergo a first level screening and those candidates meeting the minimum requirements will undergo a more in-depth assessment.
In the interest of making most cost-effective use of funds and resources, we are only able to respond to applicants who are shortlisted for interview. The number of days in which services can be rendered in any 12-month period is limited to 240, and the number of days in which services can be rendered in any 60-month period is limited to 960.
IFAD is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of ethnic, social or political background, colour, nationality, religion, age, gender, disability, marital status, family size or sexual orientation.
Please be aware of fraudulent job offers. IFAD does not charge any fees at any stage of the recruitment process. Official communication from IFAD will always come from e-mails ending in @ifad.org
