Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance Specialist

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. In addition, 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 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 and disaster resilient investments. Investing in 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. As governments in South Asia move towards a pro-active approach to disaster and climate resilience, financial planning which protects the national budget as well as reducing the human, economic, and fiscal costs of climate and disaster impacts. Scaling up the national policies and investments on climate and disaster resilience is vital to satisfactorily implement all the required components of the project. It would involve review of national, sectoral, and sub-national policies, frameworks and plans to support in development of climate and disaster resilient financial strategy and action plan, supported by tools and guides for the for the planning and finance ministries in the respective countries. Accordingly, a highly qualified and experienced Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance Specialist will be required to develop a financial protection strategy and action plan for the project countries. The consultant will be selected on competitive basis following World Bank Procurement Regulations.

The objectives of this consultancy service are to:

• Create necessary capacity within ADPC to engage on DRFI issues in South Asia.
• Review of existing policies, reports, and other literature in countries on DRFI.
• Provide overall support and technical inputs on disaster risk finance and investment review, and analysis on DRFI in South Asia through CARE.
• Ensure dialogue on disaster risk finance and investments between countries in South Asia.
• Lead in regional advocacy on DRFI through high-level dialogue using the Regional Consultative Committee on Disaster Management (RCC) as a primary platform.

Statement of Intent

The Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance Specialist will act as the institutional lead in DRFI, and will be an essential advocate and technical specialist to increase regional knowledge on DRFI through the RCC. The Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance 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 Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance Specialist shall be responsible for:

• Review literature which defines the current state of affairs which understands the current enabling environment on national insurance through DRM policies, legislations, and in the South Asia Region with available National Disaster Risk Financing Strategies.
• Promote risk layering approach and identify appropriate disaster risk financing instruments for various levels of risk, including risk retention and risk transfer instruments.
• Clearly defined hazards/risks/assets for which a government will be liable and scale of liability for each level.
• Lead the examination of current disaster risk financing landscape in each country (including both ex-ante and ex-post instruments) and associated regulatory, operational, financial, technical and institutional gaps strengthening the financial preparedness for disaster relief, early recovery and reconstruction.
• Lead the regional dialogue, provide technical inputs and build consensus for development of a framework for a regional DRFI Strategy and development of a potential Regional DRF Instrument.
• Lead consultation process with Government counterparts (Regional, National & sub- national level) and insurance industry in each country to build ownership and define rollout mechanism for a national and regional DRF strategy.
• Promote global and regional tools, guides, and practices on DRFI for RCC member countries and observers.
• Promote regional policy dialogue and knowledge exchange of DRFI in Asia with support from the DRF Forum Performing other relevant tasks as assigned by the Project Director.

Qualifications

The candidate should at least have:

• A master’s degree or higher in finance, economic governance and development, public policy, and other relevant fields.
• At least ten (10) years of experience and proven competency in conducting analysis and provide strategic guidance in the field of public finance and/or public investment planning, and macro-economic analysis.
• Minimum of eight (8) years of professional experience of working in Asia and the Pacific region.
• Proven experience with economic analysis public finance and investments in disaster risk reduction related will be an asset.
• Proven capacity building experience, and conducting trainings for public and non- public on finance and investments and/or disaster risk reduction.
• Project experience funded by the World Bank will be an asset.
• Strong analytical skills and solid understanding of climate science, global resilience frameworks, disaster risk reduction and resilience strategies including policies, and frameworks.
• Team work with strong communication skills and capacity to work under pressure and short deadlines.
• Cross cultural awareness and ability to work amongst a diverse group of staff, and partners.
• Required computer proficiencies: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Microsoft Teams, etc.
• 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. Fluency in the Nepali language is required.

Reporting Relationships

The Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance Specialist will report to the Director of Risk Governance Department and coordinate with other CARE specialist at the regional and national level to carry out relevant activities under the project.