Vacancy: Gender, Water and Adaptation specialist

The Gender, Water and Adaptation Specialist will substantially contribute (around 80% of the position) to the Himalayan Adaptation, Water and Resilience (HI-AWARE) Research Initiative. HI-AWARE is a four-year programme aimed at developing climate change adaptation approaches and increasing the resilience of the poorest and most vulnerable women, men, and children in the mountains and plains of the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region. The HI-AWARE consortium is conducting integrative research across scales on the biophysical, socioeconomic, gender, and governance drivers and conditions leading to vulnerability in order to understand climate change impacts and to identify critical moments for adaptation. 

It will focus on the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra river basins, where the impacts of climate change on the livelihoods of the poor are uncertain but likely to be severe. Adaptation policies and practices, based on robust evidence, are urgently required in these basins to increase the resilience of the poorest and most vulnerable populations and improve their livelihoods in a quickly changing climate.

Under the overall supervision of the Livelihoods Theme Leader, and in direct coordination with SIF-Gender, the Gender, Water and Adaptation Specialist will be responsible for integrating gender perspectives, concepts, methodologies and action plans into research components. These research components aim at creating robust evidence and improved understanding of the potential of adaptation approaches and practices, with an explicit focus on gender and livelihoods, based on turning point analysis and socioeconomic cost-benefits analysis. Further, it intends to develop stakeholder-driven and gender inclusive adaptation pathways based on the up- and out-scaling of institutional and on-the-ground adaptation innovations that enhance the capacities of the poorest and most vulnerable to adapt to climate change, focusing on barriers and bridges to success as well as possible co-benefits. 

The Specialist will perform the following research functions:

• Develop and oversee the detailed research work-plan and budget for the implementation of the gender, water and adaptation research of the HI-AWARE Project
• Develop and integrate gender sensitive research methodologies for the above
• Undertake field research and visits 
• Synthesize vulnerability and impact information collected by other members of the team and prepare final research reports
• Ensure coordination with partners on planned and ongoing adaptation activities
• Monitor and report on the work progress
• Support in producing high-quality knowledge products on the gender dimensions of climate vulnerabilities and adaptation