Climate Policy and Planning Specialist (Bangladesh)

About Asian Disaster Preparedness Center

ADPC is an autonomous intergovernmental 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 the Finance, the Human Resources and Administration, and the 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/

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 percent 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 and 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 years’ 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. Gender mainstreaming is vital to satisfactorily implement all the required components of the project. It would involve planning, implementation, and monitoring of gender and inclusion across the project and in sectoral planning. Accordingly, a highly qualified and experienced Gender and Inclusion in Climate Change Specialist will be selected to support in providing technical inputs to strengthen the mainstreaming of gender-sensitive and inclusion approaches across project interventions.

The objectives of this staff position are to:

Mainstream gender across sectors and policies Plan, implement and monitor all gender and inclusion activities across sectoral planning as well as in national and regional activities Develop action plans, national guidelines, and capacity building initiatives that ensure gender mainstreaming across sectors and three focus countries, as well as at the regional level.

Statement of Intent

The Climate Policy and Planning Specialist will play an essential role in Bangladesh to ensure National expertise is available with a strong understanding of the processes in developing development policy and plans to mainstream climate change. The Climate Policy and Planning Specialist will work closely with the Climate Policy and Planning Specialist (Regional) based in ADPC, Bangkok, and the Climate Public Expenditure Specialist in Bangladesh. The Climate Policy and Planning Specialist will be based in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

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

Duties and Responsibilities

Technical Review and Support:

• Assist and coordinate in organizing inception meetings/consultations/workshops in Bangladesh related to public policy and planning for climate resilience.
• Support in review, update and revalidation of the Climate Public Expenditure and Institutional Review (CPEIR), and the Climate Finance for Sustainable Development with the MOP, and the Ministry of Finance (MoF), and Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and identify gaps and challenges.
• Support the preparation and conduct of a National Policy Dialogue on Climate Change.
• Lead in the development of an action plan for climate and disaster risk-informed investment supplemented by a National Appraisal and Approval Framework.
• Lead in the conduct of a technical review of the Climate Public Finance Tracking in Bangladesh and lessons learned from the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan BCCSAP.
• Perform other relevant tasks as assigned by the Project Director, Country Project Lead, and Climate Policy and Planning Specialist (Regional).

Qualifications

• A master’s degree in Climate Change, International Development, Political Science, Public Administration or a relevant social science degree.
• Minimum 7 years of experience in climate change and resilience and development policy analysis, and at least 3 years’ experience in policy and planning for resilient development.
• Strong analytical skills and a solid understanding of climate science, global frameworks, climate adaptation/resilience strategies, climate-informed policies, and planning frameworks and sectoral interventions, global and national framework of climate services.
• Knowledge of latest climate policies, frameworks such as Bangladesh Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC), National Adaptation Plans (NAPA), and other compliance and obligatory documents in the country relevant to climate adaptation and resilience.
• Knowledge of national laws and government.
• Proven research and analytical work.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills and capacity to work under pressure and short deadlines - A professional relationship with the MoP and the MoEFCC is an advantage.
• 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. Fluency in Bengali preferred
• Required computer proficiencies: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Microsoft Teams.

Reporting Relationships

The Climate Policy and Planning Specialist (Bangladesh) will report to the Director of Risk Governance Department. S/he will maintain close coordination with Country Project Lead for the day to day activities and with the ADPC’s Country Representative in Bangladesh. The technical oversight will be provided by the Climate Policy and Planning Specialist (Regional) at the Bangkok office through the PIU. The specialist will also coordinate with the other CARE project specialists at the regional and national level to carry out different activities under the project.

Contract Duration

The contract duration will be for 1 year.

Selection Method

A staff member will be selected in accordance with ADPC’s recruitment and/or capacity assessment process.