Regional Expert, Communication and Knowledge Management At Asian Disaster Preparedness Center

Climate Adaptation and Resilience for South Asia Project

South Asia has experienced a long period of robust economic growth, which has translated into declining poverty and impressive improvements in human development. However, these long-term development gains are increasingly threatened by the staggering social and economic impacts of climate-related hazards. A recent World Bank study[1] concluded that 800 million (or 44 percent) people in South Asia today live in locations that would become moderate or severe climate hotspots by 2050 without climate action. Therefore, investing in resilience is both profitable and urgent as disruptions are extremely costly for public and private sectors and households. South Asia could preserve and enhance its social and economic growth by investing in climate-resilient development.

With the financial support from the World Bank Group, ADPC and the Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (RIMES) are jointly implementing a five-year (2020-2025) project, titled “Climate Adaptation and Resilience (CARE) for South Asia”. The project aims to create an enabling environment for climate resilience policies and investments in Climate Resilient Agriculture, Integrated Water Resources Management, Resilient Transport Infrastructure, and Policy, Planning and Finance sectors. Through its regional portfolio, ADPC will also facilitate high-level dialogues for institutional cooperation and knowledge exchange, develop climate-resilient guidelines, and promote innovation and adoption of disruptive technology at national and regional levels. The national-level activities will initially be implemented in Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan.

Despite being extremely vulnerable to climate change, all stakeholders in South Asia are not fully informed about the fundamental nature of risk and adaptation measures they can take at the individual and policy levels. Reinforcing the importance of climate change adaptation can stimulate a chain of actions, mobilize resources, and transfer knowledge. Carefully designed communications strategies and models can play an essential role in engaging people who promote, develop, approve and implement adaptation policies. Awareness-raising is hence a crucial component of CARE for South Asia project. The objective of awareness-raising in this context is to enhance meaningful engagement with targeted audiences, promote regional dialogue, create knowledge-sharing platforms in South Asia to change their behavior leading to an enabling environment for climate adaption and resilience.

In the above context, ADPC is aiming to establish a position for Regional Expert on Communication and Knowledge Management that provides an advisory and mentoring role to the Communications team and the Project Implementation Unit (PIU) of ADPC. The Regional Expert will provide guidance and oversight for the project’s communications and knowledge management strategies, and awareness-raising related components on a part time basis, in addition to participating in national, regional and global events to highlight best practices and learning of the CARE for South Asia project as part of wider knowledge-sharing.**

The Regional Expert on Communication and Knowledge Management’s primary role is twofold:

· Providing expert advice and consultative support to the members of project key sectors, especially to the Sector Leads, to maintain state-of-the-art technical standard of interventions and approaches in the project; and

· Supporting the capacity and relationship building to meet the wider needs of the stakeholders to be reached out and to benefit from the existing climate adaptation institutions and initiatives in the region.

Statement of Intent

The Regional Expert, Communication and Knowledge Management is expected to help with an improved output performance that will show emerging impact to the stakeholders and beneficiaries and increased quality of the technical products and outcomes based on standards set by the World Bank.

It is also expected that the Regional Expert, Communication and Knowledge Management will support the project’s sustainability by strengthening in-house technical capacities of ADPC teams in the key sectors and facilitate wider dissemination of the project outputs and outcomes beyond the geographical confines of the project.

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.

Duties and Responsibilities

The detailed functions of the Regional Expert, Communication and Knowledge Management are expected to include:

1. Advisory and consultative support

⁃ Provide input and strategic advice on the development and implementation of communication strategies and models to achieve the project’s goals and objectives;

⁃ Ensure that there is an effective communications strategy and campaign for awareness-raising;

⁃ Prepare publications for the members of relevant government ministries, media and civil society to carry out information campaigns and to use other tools to increase engagement and awareness;

⁃ Function as a source of advice and support in technical updates, including new technology and innovations, tools and approaches in knowledge sharing and communication.

2. Regional level capacity and relationship-building

⁃ Provide strategic guidance on promoting regional dialogues and knowledge sharing among relevant stakeholders regularly;

⁃ Provide technical guidance and practical support to engage with different stakeholders who promote, develop, and approve adaptation policies;

⁃ Facilitate relationships with media in a strategic and positive manner, identify key messages and positive media opportunities to enhance the visibility of the project,

⁃ Provide technical inputs to the project regional activities and initiatives such as regional policy dialogues, thematic fora, and other outreach events and missions.

⁃ Establish communications and knowledge sharing partnerships with existing and instrumental regional and international organizations.

3. Regional Expert Meetings

a) Convening meetings

Regular Regional Expert meetings will be convened to undertake monitoring and review of the project implementation status and strategies. The PIU of the CARE for South Asia project will be the convener of the meetings and provide the Secretariat to the Regional Experts ensuring the preparation and storage of relevant documents/minutes. All Regional Expert meetings will be held virtually.

b) Frequency of the meetings

Two Regional Expert meetings per year are foreseen during the course of the project.

Qualifications

· The candidate should hold a Master’s degree (Ph.D. is desired) and have 15 years of professional experience in developing communications strategies and awareness-raising/advocacy campaigns.

· Professional record should include experience in developing awareness-raising campaigns, communications strategies, knowledge management models and high-level and result-oriented stakeholder engagement plans.

Reporting Relationships

The Regional Expert will report to the Project Director and work in close coordination with the Communication and Knowledge Management Lead. The Expert will also coordinate with the other CARE project specialists at the regional and national levels as necessary to carry out different activities under the project.

The expert will submit a time-charging sheet every month explaining the type of inputs and a summary of deliverables every quarter to ascertain the level of efforts.

Contract Duration

The contract duration will be a maximum of 100 days stretched over a period of 1 year. It will be a time-based contract.

Selection Method

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