Environment and Social Development Specialist at Asian Disaster Preparedness Center

A. About Asian Disaster Preparedness Center

ADPC is an autonomous international organization with a vision to reduce disaster and climate risk impacts on communities and countries in Asia and the Pacific by working with governments, development partners, international organizations, NGOs, civil society, private sector, media, and other key stakeholders.

Established in 1986 as a technical capacity-building center, ADPC has grown and diversified its expertise across social and physical sciences to support sustainable solutions for risk reduction across a broad range of specialist areas. With over 100 staff from 19 different nationalities and a wide range of professional expertise from atmospheric scientists to social scientists with experiences from all levels of engagement typically required for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Resilience (CR) in an effective manner. ADPC is a competent regional resource center and has seven thematic departments: ADPC Academy, Risk Governance, Climate Resilience, Urban Resilience, Health Risk Management, Preparedness for Response and Recovery, Geospatial Information. These are supported by Finance, Human Resources and Administration, and Strategic Planning departments. In addition to the departments, ADPC works on three cross-cutting themes: Gender and Diversity, Poverty and Livelihoods, and Regional and Transboundary Cooperation through permanent working committees.

ADPC Strategy 2020 guides the organization in providing comprehensive risk reduction support to countries and communities in Asia and the Pacific. ADPC recognizes the importance of examining the linkages between disaster risk management, poverty reduction, gender equality, sustainability, rights-based approaches, climate change and regional cooperation.

For details please refer to ADPC website at http://www.adpc.net/

B. Background

Disasters take a huge toll on the development agenda of SAR countries. Between 2000 and 2017, disasters in South Asia incurred estimated damages of US$ 149.27 billion. Public expenditure is under stress by the repeated need to reallocate capital budgets away from long term development planning and towards reconstruction activities in post-disaster environments. For example, since 2005, Pakistan has suffered losses on the order of US$ 16 billion due to natural disasters. In Bangladesh, 2007 Cyclone Sidr resulted in damages and losses of US$1.7 billion, or 2.6 per cent of GDP.

To increase resilience and achieve climate commitments, there is a need for a transformational shift towards policies and institutions that enable climate resilient investments. Investing in more resilient infrastructure is both profitable and urgent as disruptions are extremely costly for governments, households, private sector and large ongoing investments in infrastructure assets will have long-lasting repercussions as poor maintenance, and natural disasters result in a vulnerable stock.

With the financial support from the World Bank Group, ADPC will be implementing a five-year project, titled “Climate Adaptation and Resilience Project for South Asia” (CARE). The project aims to create an enabling environment for climate resilience policies and investments across South Asia. This objective will be achieved through enhanced regional cooperation and knowledge exchange for climate resilience and adaptation and mainstreaming of resilience and adaptation in national policies, plans and investments.

Overseeing the management of environmental and social risks is vital to satisfactory implementation of the project. Managing E&S risks involve, as stated in the Project Operation’s Manual (PoM) and the Environment and Social Commitment Plan (ESCP), regular monitoring and reporting on environment and social performance, screening of project related activities for environment and social risks and impacts, ensuring labor management issues are properly handled and the stakeholders are kept informed and engaged throughout the life of the project as outlined in the Stakeholder Engagement Plan (SEP) to minimize potential environment and social risks, in compliance with the World Bank regulations, for Bank funded projects.

Accordingly, a highly qualified and experienced Environmental and Social Development Specialist will be required to manage Environment and Social risks of the project during implementation. S/he will be selected on a competitive basis following World Bank Procurement Regulations.

The objectives of this consultancy service are to:

· Lead the management of E&S risks of project activities provide technical inputs to and provide oversight in integrating environment and social risk management into relevant program activities throughout the duration of the program across the focus countries, i.e. Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan.**

· Coordinate and work closely with the Stakeholder Engagement Specialist and project team to ensure project E&S risks and impacts are screened, mitigated, managed, monitored, supervised and reported in accordance with the World Bank’s Social and Environmental Framework.**

C. Statement of Intent

The Environment and Social Development Specialist will provide technical and advisory support to screen, assess, mitigate, manage, supervise and report the Environment and Social Risks associated with project implementation by adhering to the environmental and social commitment plan (ESCP). This support will include direct advice on key E&S issues, risks and impacts pertaining to the CARE project activities.

The Environment and Social Development Specialist will be based in Bangkok, Thailand.

Note:

It is not the intent of this Terms of Reference to cover every aspect of the position requirements, rather to highlight the most important areas of personal and joint responsibilities.

D. Duties and Responsibilities

The Environmental and Social Development Specialist shall be responsible for:

Planning and Coordinating

• Leading in the implementation and monitoring of the material measures and actions and timeframes indicated in the ESCP;
• Screening project activities for E&S risks and impacts to ensure that risk mitigation measures are applied to all activities screened and found to have E&S risks and impacts;
• Leading in reviewing environment and social assessment (ESA) documents considering ADPC policy requirements, the country frameworks (political, legal and institutional), and any other relevant international practice/standards;
• Coordinating Stakeholder Engagement Plan (SEP) activities with the Stakeholder Engagement Specialist and all stakeholders indicated in the SEP.
• Advising on overall process management and implementation protocols and activities etc., including planning, budgeting and implementing key activities within the SEP and monitoring systems for contract compliance with ESCP requirements.

Quality Control

• Supporting in contract management and quality control of the International Consultants tasked with undertaking the various E&S studies
• Preparing and reviewing checklists based on environmental and social guidelines
• Supporting in screening all CARE activities and products to ensure they meet World Bank Environmental and Social Framework (ESF) requirements
• Conduct project inception meeting and session on environment and social protection framework for all relevant stakeholders in Bangladesh, Nepal & Pakistan to support validation of CPEIR reports in the respective countries.

Capacity Building

• Developing environmental training modules and periodically conducting environmental trainings for the PIU staff, technical staff and country staff and maintaining a complete record of the trainings (training modules developed, trainings conducted and beneficiaries)

· Perform other relevant tasks as assigned by the Project Director (PD).

E. Qualifications

The candidate should at least have:

· A master’s degree in Environment Science, Social Sciences, International Development, Public Administration, Project Management, or another related field

· Minimum 7 years of experience of working experience in sustainable development projects and extensive knowledge on environmental and social assessments with preferably 5 years of experience in working on projects funded by the World Bank

· Knowledge and experience of latest global standards on environment and social due diligence in development projects and understanding of current challenges in environment and social risk mitigation in the South Asia Region

· Demonstrated ability to work in a team with strong communication skills and capacity to work under pressure and short deadlines

· Cross cultural awareness and ability to work amongst a diverse group of staff, and partners

· Full professional proficiency in spoken and written English and some understanding of South Asian languages is preferred.

· Excellent communication and report writing skills.

· Required computer proficiencies: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Internet

· Demonstrated ability to train and build capacity of others

· Ability to travel especially within South Asian countries.

G. Reporting Relationships

The Environmental and Social Development Specialist will report to the Project Director. The specialist will also coordinate with the other CARE for South Asia project specialists at the regional and national level to carry out different activities under the project.

H. Contract Duration

The contract duration will be for 13 months with an equivalent input of 9 months spread over the contract duration.**

I. Selection Method

The consultant will be selected in accordance with ADPC’s recruitment process and in compliance with the World Bank Procurement Regulations.