BACKGROUND

The EPA is Liberia's principal authority for environmental management. It coordinates, monitors, supervises, and consults with relevant stakeholders and sector Ministries, Agencies, and Commissions (MACs) on all activities related to protecting the environment and sustainable use of its natural resources.

The Government of Liberia (GoL), through the EPA and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and with funding from the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), received funding for the project “Enhancing Resilience of Vulnerable Coastal Communities in Sinoe County of Liberia (ERVCCS).” EPA is the project's Executing Entity. It is financed by a GEF Trust Fund grant and co-financed by UNDP and the GoL.

The project aims to build on existing projects to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable coastal communities and their livelihoods to the impacts of climate change, focusing on women and youths. Specifically, project interventions include 1) Strengthening Institutional Capacity for Climate Change Adaptation Planning, 2) Supporting Innovative Technologies for Climate Information and Communication Management, 3) Introducing Hybrid Adaptation Solutions, and 4) Supporting Resilient Livelihood Diversification through Training and Improved Access to Finance. The majority of the above interventions will target all coastal counties in Liberia. In contrast, hybrid adaptation interventions will be explicitly implemented in Sinoe County, one of the country’s most vulnerable coastal counties.

The impacts of climate change, combined with non-climatic drivers, such as sand mining, the expansion of agricultural areas, unsustainable fishing, pollution, and inadequate drainage systems, compromise the resilience of Liberian communities' ecosystems along the coastline. Consequently, local communities and ecosystems are experiencing increased coastal flooding and erosion, saltwater intrusion into groundwater supplies, waterlogging of inland areas, and sedimentation of rivers and freshwater resources due to Sea Level Rise (SLR) and higher-intensity rainfall events. The vulnerability of communities and ecosystems occurs through I) inundation and consequent damage of coastal infrastructure, II) loss of fishery and agriculture-dependent livelihoods, III) decrease in stable income generation for coastal communities,

OBJECTIVE

This consultancy aims to mainstream gender considerations, promoting gender equality in the Sinoe, Grand Bassa, and Maryland Counties Resilience Plans by developing one Gender Action Plan (GAP) for each of these selected counties. These CRPs will include an assessment of climate change priorities and challenges for the country, and country-specific plans to ensure the climate resilience of these selected counties by incorporating the implementation of ICZM, adaptation options, and gender responsiveness measures. Accordingly, national and county-level stakeholders will be contracted to develop gender-responsive CRPs. Hence, a national gender specialist must work closely but independently to develop accompanying Gender action plans for each CRP parallel to its objectives.