Resilient Agriculture Specialist (Regional) 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 has been 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.

The multifaceted impacts of climate change on the agriculture sector are one of the most significant challenges in South Asia. The livelihood of many working-age populations is dependent on agriculture and associated sub-sectors such as crops, livestock, poultry, fisheries and aquaculture in South Asia. In the recent past, high temperatures and scanty rainfall during the rainy season have resulted in several hazards causing serious distress to agriculture-dependent economies such as Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan.

In the current changing climate context, there is an urgent need to promote Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) technologies and practices in order to increase agricultural productivity, create livelihood opportunities, and enhance overall food security and climate resilience. The primary and secondary impacts of climate change on agriculture and associated sub-sectors can be minimized with location and crop-specific CSA technologies and practices. Further, creating enabling policy environment for the agriculture sector and farmers, generation and dissemination of meaningful agrometeorological information including forecasting, and building capacity on adaptation to climate change can also help minimize the impacts of climate change on the agriculture sector in South Asia.

CSA practices face significant challenges in adoption across South Asia, hindering the region’s ability to effectively address climate change impacts on agriculture. In addition to lack of climate information, inadequate infrastructure and limited extension services, financial constraints pose a significant hurdle, with many farmers unable to afford the upfront costs associated with adopting CSA practices. These multifaceted challenges underscore the complex landscape that hinders the widespread adoption of Climate Smart Agriculture in South Asia. CARE for South Asia project has identified gaps in CSA, preparing policy documents, and other technical reports in support of promoting CSA in the project countries.

Further the project aims to prepare CSA implementation guidelines, pilot and demonstrate promising CSA practices, and build government capacity in scaling up CSA practices. Country Specialists are hired to oversee the country level activities in Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan.

Accordingly, a qualified and motivated Resilient Agriculture Specialist will be required to support in leading the agriculture sector activities under the project components and coordinating closely with the firms and stakeholders in the countries. S/he will be selected on a competitive basis following the World Bank Procurement Regulations.

C. Statement of Intent

Resilient Agriculture Specialist (Regional) will be responsible for overall supervision of agriculture sector activities, including formulation and review of key documents, leading dialogues, capacity building, and ensuring timely piloting and demonstration, and preparation of guidelines/roadmap/CSAIP under the CARE for South Asia Project. The Consultant will be based in Bangkok, Thailand/Hybrid.

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 Resilient Agriculture Specialist (Regional) will be responsible for the following under the CARE project:

• Leading overall agriculture sector under CARE for South Asia project by providing technical guidance to agriculture sector team in which will include firm/s in Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan,
• Managing and monitoring implementation as well as progress of agriculture sector activities and linked outputs under various components as per annually approved workplan in Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan,
• Reviewing the agriculture sector deliverables and outputs including technical reports, progress reports, presentations and knowledge products produced by ADPC regional and national team as well as by external agencies,
• Leading regional and national dialogues related to agriculture sector including climate talks,
• Leading regular interactions with stakeholders (both government and non- government) at regional and national level,
• Representing agriculture sector in monthly and quarterly progress meetings, client meetings, meeting with focal agencies, national and regional workshops and conferences,
• Analyzing and evaluating existing climate smart agriculture strategic frameworks in project countries viz-a-vis agro-climatic zones Conducting comprehensive review and assessment of agriculture sector policies, plans and guidelines alongside the needs and issues in the agriculture sector to support the development of climate-informed policy actions for the agriculture sector,
• Conducting national capacity building in project countries on agro-climatic zones, climate-smart agriculture policies and technologies for relevant ministries across focus countries, Training of Trainings (ToT) for local agriculture extension officials to disseminate locally available CSA technologies for farmers in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal and training and capacity building to disseminate climate smart agriculture technologies at three levels in Bangladesh,
• Performing other relevant tasks as assigned by the Project Director of CARE for South Asia Project.

E. Deliverables

The key deliverables are as follows.

• Technical guidelines for piloting and demonstration, along with information collection, synthesis, and analysis
• Guidelines on Farmer (Climate) Field School in CSA piloting and demonstration sites
• Feedback on roadmap, guidelines, and CSAIP prepared to ensure quality of the outputs
• Training modules and delivery of selected training sessions
• Periodic synthesis reports and documentation prepared by country team including firm/s from piloting and demonstration sites
• Monitoring and field observation reports with appropriate feedback on piloting and demonstrations, and farmer field schools
• Preparation of various technical reports such as policy briefs, guidelines, and other knowledge products
• Monthly and quarterly progress report

F. Qualifications

The candidate should at least have:

• An advanced degree in agriculture and agronomy or other relevant fields of study with strong background in institutional capacity building. PhD in related subject areas will be an added advantage;
• A minimum of 15 years of professional experience in the field of agriculture and agronomy;
• A minimum of 10 years of professional experience working in climate-smart solutions for the agriculture sector at the international level;
• Experience in providing technical guidance and advice on sustainable agriculture, climate change adaptation and mitigation through effective climate smart, climate resilient and conservation agriculture will be preferred;
• An excellent understanding of the current regional (Asia-Pacific) and global discourse related to climate smart agriculture;
• Capacity to manage work under pressure and deliver in short deadlines;
• Cross-cultural awareness and ability to work amongst a diverse group of staff, and partners;
• Experience in training, capacity building, and facilitating high-level discussions;
• Excellent English proficiency in oral and written communication, including a demonstrated track record in technical report writing and ability to communicate technical matters effectively to a general audience; and
• Required computer proficiencies: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Microsoft Teams, working knowledge of SPSS or similar statistical software and GIS application would be preferred.

G. Reporting Relationships

The Consultant will report to the Project Director and work in close coordination with the PIU. The specialist will manage and monitor the work of the Agriculture Sector in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan daily and monthly activities and progress. The specialist will coordinate with the other project specialists at the regional and national levels to carry out different activities under the project.

H. Contract Duration

The contract duration will be 12 months with a possibility of extension depending on project needs and the performance of the consultant.

I. Selection Method

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