Senior Specialist – Learning Initiatives & Publications At Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure

Background:

The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) is a multi-stakeholder global partnership of national governments, UN agencies and programmes, multilateral development banks and financing mechanisms, the private sector, and academic and knowledge institutions. It aims to address the challenges of building resilience into infrastructure systems and development associated with it. The vision, mission, goal, and objectives of the CDRI are explicitly linked to the post-2015 development agendas. The Coalition will also contribute to the resilience of the global infrastructure systems in an increasingly interconnected world. The outcome of such collaboration would be aimed at building resilient economies and resilient people through cross-sector commitments at all levels towards adaptation and resilience with concrete outcomes that will bring resilience action to global scale.

CDRI will support countries to upgrade their systems for ensuring disaster and climate resilience of existing and future infrastructure. It seeks to rapidly expand the development of and retrofit resilient infrastructure to respond to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) objectives of expanding universal access to basic services, enabling prosperity, and decent work. CDRI envisions enabling measurable reduction in infrastructure losses from disasters including extreme climate events.

The Government of India has established a Society in New Delhi to act as the Secretariat of CDRI. The Secretariat functions under the direction of the international Governing Council and implements the programs of CDRI. This position is being advertised for staff positions on Fixed Term Contract of three (3) years.

Objective of this position:

To support CDRI’s key learning initiatives and develop high quality publications and knowledge products relating to disaster and climate resilience of infrastructure systems.

Reporting to the Principal/Lead Specialist – Publications, CDRI, the incumbent will support CDRI’s ongoing learning initiatives, facilitate the development and publication of knowledge products and provide support for effective accomplishment of key activities under the Strategic Outcome 2: Global DRI research, Coalition-led peer engagement, and CDRI-curated and generated knowledge promote risk informed policy and practice.

Role and Responsibilities:

• Support the CDRI Fellowship Programme in terms of contributing to strategy development, programme management, and identification and leveraging of potential knowledge and learning opportunities provided by the Programme.
• Support the ongoing development and strategic deployment of CDRI’s digital engagement, learning and collaboration platform, DRI Connect.
• Support the design and implementation of CDRI’s knowledge sharing and learning modalities such as Communities of Practice and Peer Learning Visits in response to relevant learning needs emerging from the Coalition membership as part of CDRI’s sectoral and geo-contextual initiatives.
• Assist in organizational knowledge sharing and learning initiatives within CDRI.
• Assist in the development of publication material and other knowledge products including case studies, toolkits, presentations, and learnings in line with the mission of CDRI.
• Support the implementation of Editorial Quality Assurance standards within CDRI for consistency and quality in external messaging including publications and communication collateral.
• Identify best global avenues and platforms in terms of journals, blogs, international and national forums etc., for publishing and disseminating in-house knowledge products.
• Attend meetings or consultations with external stakeholders, as required.
• Any other tasks as directed by CDRI.

Competencies:

Essential:

• Experience in programme management specifically knowledge and learning initiatives catering to audiences across geographies and contexts within the international development sector.
• Familiarity and experience in use of digital platforms for knowledge sharing and learning.
• Experience in developing and publishing knowledge products such as reports, research papers, policy briefs, books, toolkits, case studies etc.
• Familiarity with international frameworks like the SDGs and the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
• Proven ability to work effectively in multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural teams and multi- national teams.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Analytical and strategic planning skills and the ability to handle multiple priorities.
• Ability to clearly articulate information and concepts including use of visuals for strategic messaging.
• Proven ability to draw inputs from multiple disciplines and synthesize them to address specific problems.
• Strong interpersonal and written and oral communication skills
• Advanced computer proficiency.

Desirable:

• Experience in supporting strategic knowledge and learning initiatives including design and deployment of digital platforms.
• Experience in anchoring or supporting Communities of Practice and other peer-to-peer learning initiatives.
• Published research papers in national/international peer reviewed publications, national and international conferences.
• Experience of developing publications on sustainable development, disaster risk reduction and climate change related issues.
• Familiarity with the global narrative on resilient infrastructure development, disaster risk reduction and climate change.

Qualifications:

Educational Criteria:

Post-Graduate in international relations, public relations, international cooperation for development, communications, social science, journalism, political science or related fields are preferred. PhD in any of the above given areas will be given additional weightage.

Experience Criteria:

Minimum 7 years of overall experience with at least 2 years of experience in supporting regional/international learning and knowledge initiatives. Specific experience in resilient infrastructure and disaster risk reduction will be given additional weightage.

Reporting Line:

The incumbent shall report to the Lead Specialist – Publications.

Language Proficiency:

• Fluency in English
• Knowledge of any of the UN official languages will be an asset.