Regional Expert, Integrated Water Resources Management At Asian Disaster Preparedness Center

Climate Adaptation and Resilience for South Asia Project

Countries in South Asia face different levels of water stress. The United Nations Water Development Report 2020 suggests that snowmelt and the loss of glacial buffering in the Hindu Kush–Himalayas will affect the seasonal water supply for a significant proportion of South Asia’s population. Making up 23.7% of the global population, South Asia has only 4.6% of the world’s renewable water resources. According to the World Bank, the key challenges include reliable supply of water for daily life while ensuring that the consequences of extreme hydrometeorological events are better managed. In addition to regional challenges in the water sector, climate change is likely to exacerbate water stress in the region unless current practices to manage and govern water are improved. As water management policies have profound societal impacts, they should be based on scientific information underpinned by socio-political and economic considerations focusing on marginalized regions and segments of society.

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.

In the above context, ADPC is aiming to establish positions for Regional Experts that provide an advisory and mentoring role to the sectoral teams and Project Implementation Unit (PIU) of ADPC based at the regional level in Bangkok, Thailand. Regional Experts will provide guidance and oversight for each of the project core sectors 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’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 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 will support the project’s sustainability by strengthening in-house technical capacities of ADPC teams in 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, Integrated Water Resources Management are expected to include:

1. Advisory and consultative support

⁃ Review and ensure that project outputs and reports are delivered to the required quality standard, in line with agreed specifications of the Work Plan and other commitments.

⁃ Provide strategic advice on the implementation of the water sector’s activities and achievements of the project’s goals and objectives.

⁃ Undertake review of the water sector’s implementation strategies, identifying potential gaps and solutions and ensuring incorporation of lessons learned into ongoing implementation.

⁃ Function as a source of advice in technical updates, including new technology and innovations, tools and approaches related to Integrated Water Resources Management that can be rolled out in the region.

2. Regional level capacity and relationship-building

⁃ Provide technical guidance to the project team on institutional coordination and technical capacity development plans at the regional level.

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

⁃ Participate in relevant regional/global meetings, where required, and expand exposure, disseminate impact and lessons learned, and involve in the promotion.

⁃ Establish effective communication channels and develop close ties with existing and instrumental regional and international partners and initiatives.

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) in Water Resources Management and have 15 years of professional experience in Water Resources Management/ Spatial Hydrology gained in international and multi-cultural environments.

Professional record should include experiences in:

· Design, management and technical coordination of complex multi-stakeholders projects and programs;

· At least 8 years’ experience in innovative research in water resources, implementation of multi-country projects in the water sector;

· High quality research publications in peer reviewed international journals and/or lead author in reports related to water resources sector published by UN organizations, international associations and international donors like World Bank and ADB; and

· Liaise with central agencies, local administrations and representatives of the donor community.

Reporting Relationships

The Regional Expert will report to the Project Director and work in close coordination with the Climate Resilience Advisor and Integrated Water Resources Management Specialist. The Expert will also coordinate with the other CARE for South Asia project specialists at 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 120 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.