Resilient Agriculture Specialist

About Asian Disaster Preparedness Center

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 societies, private sectors, 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 has six strategic themes supported by seven 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 six strategic themes, ADPC also 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 per cent of GDP. Safer communities and sustainable development through disaster risk reduction. Page | 2 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. Scaling up the regional and national resilience through climate smart agriculture is vital to satisfactorily implement all the required components and sub-component of the CARE for South Asia project. It would involve reviewing and revising the current policies, strategies and identifying entry points to scale-up strategic approaches to climate smart agriculture in Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan. Accordingly, a highly qualified and experienced Resilient Agriculture Specialist will be required to lead, manage and monitor the overall implementation of agriculture sector activities under CARE for South Asia project in Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan.

Statement of Intent

The Resilient Agriculture Specialist will provide overall leadership for implementation of agriculture sector activities under the CARE for South Asia project. The Resilient Agriculture Specialist will provide both technical and non-technical guidance to agriculture sector team under CARE for South Asia project at regional (Bangkok) and national level (Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan). The Resilient Agriculture Specialist will be based in Bangkok, Thailand. 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 Resilient Agriculture Specialist shall be responsible for:

• Leading overall agriculture sector under CARE for South Asia project by providing technical and non-technical guidance to agriculture sector team in Bangkok, 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 and non- technical reports, progress reports, presentations and knowledge products produced by ADPC regional and national team as well as by external agencies.
• Safer communities and sustainable development through disaster risk reduction.
• Leading regional and national capacity building and training activities for stakeholders under agriculture sector to increase understanding on climate smart agriculture.
• Leading regional and national dialogues related 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 zoning to address gaps in the frameworks.
• Conducting comprehensive review and assessment of agriculture sector policies, plans and guidelines alongside the needs and issues in agriculture sector to support the development of a climate-informed policy actions for the agriculture sector.
• Developing climate-smart agriculture (CSA) strategies for project countries alongside a detailed study on climate challenges for livestock sector.
• Developing a handbook on climate resilience and adaption in project countries and developing regional guidelines and country-specific chapters for regional guidelines on climate smart agriculture in the South Asia Region.
• Conducting national capacity building in project countries on agro-climatic zoning, 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 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 Director, Climate Resilience Department of ADPC and Project Director, Project Implementation Unit (PIU) of CARE for South Asia Project.

Qualifications

• An advanced degree in agriculture and agronomy or other relevant fields of study with strong background in project management, institutional capacity building. PhD in related subject areas will be an added advantage;
• A minimum of 15 years of professional experience in field of agriculture and agronomy;
• A minimum of 10 years of professional experience of working in climate smart solutions for the agriculture sector in Asia;
• A minimum of 7 years of professional experience in programme and project management in Asia;
• Experience in designing, developing and implementing projects related climate smart agriculture;
• 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, Safer communities and sustainable development through disaster risk reduction;
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English and capacity to work under pressure and 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 general audience;
• Required computer proficiencies: Word, Excel, Power Point, Microsoft Teams, working knowledge of SPSS or similar statistical software and GIS application would be preferred.

Reporting Relationships

The Resilient Agriculture Specialist will report to the Director of Climate Resilience Department and work in close coordination with the Project Implementation Unit (PIU) of the CARE for South Asia project. The specialist will manage and monitor the work of Agriculture Sector technical team in Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan by reviewing their daily and monthly activities and progress. The specialist will coordinate with the other project specialists at the regional and national level to carry out different activities under the project.