International Consultant on Comparative Analysis on Disaster Recovery
Background | |
The effects and impact of disasters compromise economic, political, environmental, and social systems, threaten human security and undermine progress towards the achievement of Development Goals. Disasters expose and exacerbate previous vulnerabilities such as poverty, environmental degradation, weak governance as well as discrimination, issues of land ownership, social inequity, amongst other things. Recovery, therefore, entails not only the management of direct socio –economic impact of disaster effects but it also requires the implementation of specific measures for avoiding the further consequences and socio-economic impact of disasters. When governments and societies are not prepared to address post disaster recovery challenges, there is a high risk that post crises contexts will be characterized by deeper inequalities, worsened poverty, increased vulnerabilities and higher risk of future disasters . Disasters offer unique, albeit ephemeral, opportunities for change, for transforming while repair strengthening the capacities on Disaster Risk Reduction. However, while the number of disasters and their catastrophic consequences grows, the capacity of countries to manage the recovery process restoring the functionality of the society and building back better is quite limited. Systematic action will be required to build capacities in developing countries in order to realize this post disaster aspiration to secure development gains avoiding the further deterioration of the living conditions of the affected populations. Strengthening capacities for Disaster Recovery is one of the key commitments of the management response to the Executive Board, as a response to the Evaluation of UNDP's contribution to disaster prevention and recovery. Some countries have initiated processes of developing capacities to address disaster recovery, however, most of the disaster prone countries continue to face a number of challenges including the following:(i) the insufficient awareness on the gravity of short-medium and long-term consequences of poorly managed recovery process. This is reflected in the lack of political commitment, appropriate institutional arrangements and investment in resources by Governments and International community to use recovery as opportunities to address underlying risks. As a result, there is very little body of knowledge documenting the importance of high returns and high investment in good recovery processes. It is difficult for countries to learn from each other about their experiences on preparedness for recovery due to scattered interventions and weak availability of networks and knowledge at regional and global level (ii) more specifically even in countries recurrently affected by disasters, the mechanisms for recovery rely excessively on ad hoc measures and recovery processes are often improvised, uncoordinated, and highly centralized. Recovery is usually limited to short term public investment mainly focused on repair or reconstruction of damaged infrastructure while the human development aspects needed for the restoration of the functionality of the society, is absent and invisible. It is expected that UNDP supports countries to establish an enabling environment and develop the capacity required to establish organizational arrangements and design, finance, implement, and monitor comprehensive recovery policies and plans at national, urban and local level. DRRRT requires to:
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Duties and Responsibilities | |
The aim of this consultancy is to support the preparation of strategic documents and solid evidence-based information for disaster recovery, contributing to the UNDP’s commitment with the Executive Board and providing tools to help countries on disaster recovery. The consultancy looks for identifying the main issues and challenges in establishing appropriate institutional, financial and policy mechanisms to best ensure that disaster recovery processes restore sustainable development. The consultancy will analyze pros and cons of different options and models to be presented to the governments as alternatives to find their own way to address recovery challenges and restore normalcy while enhancing resilience to future disasters. Specifically, the Consultant will undertake the following tasks:
For the development of the State of the Art:
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Competencies | |
The Consultant will contribute her/his knowledge, expertise and experience to:
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Required Skills and Experience | |
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