Country Project Lead

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/

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. 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, 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. The project would require the services of an experienced Country Project Lead to direct the teams in Nepal and to provide technical and management leadership required to ensure implementation of the work plan and achievement of the project development objectives for the country. S/he will be selected on competitive basis following World Bank Procurement Regulations.

The overall objectives of this consultancy service are to:

• Strengthen the presence of the CARE Project in Nepal and the implementation of its activities in the country through provision of expertise, advice and support in climate and disaster resilience;
• Lead the teams of experts based in Nepal and ensure progress towards achievement of the project development objectives in line with the annual work plan.

Statement of Intent

The Country Project Lead will be responsible for planning, coordinating and managing all the country level activities of the Project. The consultant will be based in Kathmandu, Nepal. 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 Country Project Lead shall be responsible for the following:

• Lead the development, institutionalization and supervision of the project team in Nepal to achieve project objectives more effectively and efficiently;
• Assist in the recruitment of country-level experts in line with the requirements of the local counterparts;
• Support the Project Director in the supervision of the activities of the Project, as per the objectives and overall program approved by the World Bank Group;
• Serve as a focal point to coordinate with Sector Focal Points (SFP) of the Project from participating Government departments in Nepal and other stakeholders to maximize program impacts, and deepen partnership of program stakeholders;
• Identify and mobilize financial, technical and human resources in close collaboration with the Project Director and ADPC’s experts to ensure quality outputs and deliverables;
• Take responsibility in ensuring effective coordination between various experts, including those based in the relevant ministries and departments;
• Ensure integration of gender, inclusion, community engagement and other locally relevant issues in the Project;
• Develop and maintain dynamic working relationships with country-level donors, governments agencies and partner agencies, and I/NGOs;
• Conduct dialogues with the local stakeholders, CSOs, implementing partners, and governments wherever necessary with respect to Project development;
• Produce progress reports as per M&E guidance and template under the Project Operations Manual and share with the Project Director and M&E Specialist;
• Liaise with World Bank country office team as and when required;
• Proactively participate in the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and capacity building initiatives of the Project;
• Provide technical advice to develop success stories, lesson learned documents, and other publications, in collaboration with the ADPC’s Communication team, highlighting the outcomes of the Project.

Qualifications

The candidate should at least have:

• A master’s degree or equivalent in a relevant discipline;
• At least eight years’ experience after acquiring stipulated qualification in leadership and management positions in disaster management, climate resilience, training and capacity development in international organizations;
• Demonstrated experience in leading and maintaining a policy dialogue with high-level government counterparts;
• Demonstrated experience with preparation, management and implementation of large donor-funded projects;
• Excellent writing and communications skills in the English language;
• Excellent computer skills including MS Office (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) and other relevant software and applications currently being used;
• Experience of working with Government of Nepal is highly desired;
• Only Nepali Nationals are preferred for this position.

Reporting Relationships

The Consultant will report to the Project Director and work in close coordination with the ADPC’s Country Representative.