Union Project Officer, GCA Project

Duty Station: Khulna and Satkhira district (Dacope, Koyra, Paikgacha, Assasuni, Shyamnagar Upazilas in the Unions)

Contract Duration: 3.5 Months (Possibility of Extention)

Contract Type: Contract with E-Zone

Contract Start Date: 15 September 2023 to 31 December 2023

Reporting to: Upazila Livelihood Officers, GCA and Project Coordination Specialist, GCA

A.    Background:

Climate change, manifesting in the form of intensified cyclones, storm surges, and sea-level rise (SLR), is accelerating saltwater intrusion into the freshwater resources of the coastal belt of Bangladesh. Climate change-induced soil and water salinity is projected to adversely impact freshwater dependent agricultural livelihoods (leading to loss of productivity or livelihoods) as well as the availability and quality of drinking water in the vulnerable coastal communities. Among the vulnerable coastal com- munities, the women and socio-economically marginalized groups such as Indigenous groups are more vulnerable given their specific livelihood circumstances, their socio-political isolation perpetuated by unequal power dynamics, and related information asymmetry and constraint in decision making processes.

A large portion of the coastal population of Bangladesh is highly exposed to climate change impacts. Particularly, climate-induced increases in the salinity of soil and freshwater aquifers (through sea level rise and cyclone-driven saltwater inundations) pose a significant threat to agriculture-based livelihoods. Both Khulna and Satkhira experience extreme and increasingly common weather phenomena such as tropical cyclones, storm surges, floods and droughts on regular basis. These events severely impact the agriculture sector, drinking water supply, homes and infrastructure in both districts, putting people’s lives, livelihoods and assets at risk. The vulnerability of coastal communities to these changes in their environment is shaped by the topography, by virtue of being low-lying and pervaded by river networks, due to pervasive poverty, and due to limited enabling environment to allow the shift to- wards alternative, climate change resilient livelihoods. Between 16 and 35 percent of people living in Khulna and Satkhira are extremely poor. Gender inequality prevails in these districts through various social and cultural norms that shape women’s day-to-day activities as well as their capacity to adapt to climate change. For example, women have less decision-making power within the household and the workplace and are expected to manage the household and care for the family. Compounding these factors, climate change aggravates the burden of unpaid care work, creating a cycle, which undermines their climate change resilience.

The project is targeted to support an estimated 245,516 people directly from 56,264 households including 1,009 indigenous households /ethnic minority households (0.19% of the total households) and seeks to offer targeted support to women and adolescent girls in two coastal districts - Khulna and Satkhira in Bangladesh, by

# Providing skills training and assets for a selected number of fisheries and agriculture-based climate-resilient livelihoods and promote market linkages for these livelihood options.

# Providing potable water solutions for a selected number of most salinity-affected wards within the districts, not currently covered by other interventions, through Rainwater Harvesting System (RWHS) at the institutional, community and household levels and pond-based system with filtration treatment technologies at the community level; and finally

# Strengthening institutional capacity, knowledge and learning on the climate-risk informed management of livelihoods and drinking water security.

By improving the water security and livelihood options of women in the target districts, the project aims for gender-responsive results regarding women’s access to resources and decision-making power and support women in taking the lead in building community adaptive capacity.

GCA project’s selected 8 livelihood options are - (i) crab farming and trading (ii) crab nursery (iii) aqua- geoponics (iv) hydroponics (v) plant nursery (vi) sesame cultivation (vii) homestead gardening (viii) crab and fish feed processing. A total of 1017 groups (details breakdown are provided in Table 1) have been formed with 10-35 members in each group and each group will be trained on 3 livelihood options out of eight and will be given input support for 3 production cycles for 2 selected livelihood options based on beneficiary preference.

Table 1: Upazila and livelihood wise breakdown of the project targeted beneficiaries

NB: SE=Sesame, HG=Homestead Gardening, HY=Hydroponics, AG=Aqua Geoponics, PN=Plant Nursery, CN=Crab Farming, FP= Fish Feed Processing, CN=Crab Nursery

The Ministry of Woman and Children’s Affairs (MoWCA) leads the project and UNDP serves as the key technical partner. For the livelihood component, Department of Women Affairs (DWA) and for safe and resilient drinking water provision interventions, Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) serves as the lead implementing partners. Other strategic stakeholders include GoB institutions like Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute (BFRI), Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock (MoFL), Local Government Institutions (LGIs) as well as full participation of non-government organizations and community members, including marginalized groups in the intervention areas.

The assignment of Union Project Officer will primarily facilitate, monitor and support the day-to-day field level. They will assist the Women Livelihood Groups, Cooperative Groups, Water Management Committees, and Adolescent Groups to implement the planned activities and provide support for capacity building of the groups. They will be based in Upazila level offices and implement field activities by travelling to unions, wards and village levels.

Also, this position-holder will be engaged with the climate extreme impacts and adaptation strategies, group-based livelihood action plans, risk and mitigation plan and capturing new scope of climate resilient livelihoods. They will organize meetings at various frequencies and document discussions. They will ensure project interventions from gender lens and perspective, help making livelihood and project interventions gender-responsive and gender transformative.

B.    Minimum Qualifications for Union Project Officer-26

C.    Duration of assignment, parties involved and places of implementation:

Duration of the assignment will be Four (4) months from the date of the contract signing. The duty station will be at any of the five working Upazila of GCA, Bangladesh. The position holder also needs to participate in virtual and in-person meetings with GCA staffs and key stakeholders at different stage of the deliverable development.

D.     Key Deliverables:

Following are the key deliverables from the position holder:

• Strengthening capacity of women livelihood groups/cooperatives on 8 climates resilient livelihood options.
• Maintain coordination with the Adaptive Livelihood Expert to transfer inputs to WLGs for 1st and 2nd production cycle.
• Pay regular monitoring, follow up visits and advise WLGs to implement the adaptive livelihood activities.
• Facilitate Social Audit Committee and Volunteer Groups in 101 wards under 39 unions.
• Find out the gaps in implementation of activities, input sourcing from local suppliers and linkage with market actors and provide possible solutions.
• Facilitate Community Groups (CG) for smooth operation of production tasks of climate resilient livelihood options
• Conceptualization of different training manuals on adaptive livelihoods, financial inclusion, business planning, value chain and market linkages and adaptive learning
• Provide appropriate support to CGs and UNDP staffs on quality implementation of intervention of livelihood component.
• Maintain close collaboration/coordination with all relevant types of stakeholders including GoB.

E.     Communication channel and progress controls

The Union Project Officers will be based in Upazila level offices potentially headed by the Upazila Focal and implement field activities travelling to unions, wards and village level. They’ll be reportable to respective Upazila Focal and work closely with the Upazila Livelihood Officers and WASH Engineers of GCA Project. The Project Coordination Specialist, relevant UNDP Country Office Programme Manager and National Project Director (NPD) will provide overall strategic guidance. The progress will be monitored based on the timelines and milestones indicated and agreed in the agreement.

F.    Criteria for selection of the best offer/ technical evaluation criteria

The criteria which shall serve as basis for evaluating offers will be:

• Educational qualification.
• Relevant work experience.
• Year of experience.
• Partnership management.
• Knowledge on Hydroponics, Aqua-geoponics, Sesame Cultivation, Homestead Gardening, Plant Nursery, Crab Nursery, Crab and Fish Feed Processing and Crab farming.
• Knowledge on gender responsiveness and gender transformation.
• Knowledge on climate resilient technologies transfer of Agriculture and Aquaculture based livelihoods.
• Mobilization of cooperatives and community-based women group

G.     Deliverables and schedule of payment

Monthly and timesheet basis

H.     Supervision and performance evaluation

The Union Project Officers will be based in Upazila level offices potentially headed by the Upazila Focal and implement field activities travelling to unions, wards and village level. They’ll be reportable to respective Upazila Focal and work closely with the Upazila Livelihood Officers and WASH Engineers of GCA Project. The work will also be guided and reviewed by the sectoral experts and Project Coordination Specialist of the Project.

I.    Consultancy Cost:

The Officers’ salary range will be between BDT 25,000-27,000 per month as a consolidated package which includes lumpsum travel cost in duty station.

This position is open for Bangladeshi Nationals only. All candidates, irrespective of gender, religious and ethnic backgrounds can apply for the vacancies. 

The UN Agency prides itself as fostering a multicultural and harmonious work environment, guaranteed by a zero-tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse, and on any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment and discrimination. All selected consultants will undergo rigorous reference and background checks. 

Candidates with the required profile and proven experience, who meet these qualifications, are invited to submit their application in English clearly mentioning the Job Title along with a meaningful cover letter, updated CV, recent PP size photograph to E-Zone Job Portal.  

Last Date of Application: 07 September, 2023

No phone calls please. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted. All applications will be treated according to the merit and with strict confidentiality.