iPrepare Business Researcher

The Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC), established in 1986, is a regional non-profit foundation with headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand supporting the advancement of safer communities and sustainable development, through implementing programs that reduce the impact of disasters upon countries and communities in Asia and the Pacific. The primary geographical focus of ADPC’s activities is Asia with the South, South East and East Asia being the primary sub-regions.

ADPC has more than 26 years of working experience in Asia along with the national and local Government of its charter member countries as well as countries of the Regional Consultative Committee (RCC) on Disaster Management. ADPC addresses the region’s preparedness needs in development of capacities and promotion of learning; dissemination of information and knowledge management; provision of technical and advisory services; implementation of pioneering regional programs; preparations and follow up of global and regional mechanisms; establishment of new regional mechanisms; support for inter-agency coherence and coordination and catalytic facilitation and partnership to sub-regional mechanisms. ADPC works to build preparedness at all levels, from regional, to national, to sub-national and even to individual communities. Further details on ADPC and Programs can be found at www.adpc.net

Recently, ADPC has partnered with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) to launch a project “Strengthening Disaster Resilience of Small and Medium Enterprises in Asia”. The overall objective is to build disaster-resilient businesses in the region, by undertaking the following outputs: 1) identifying actions to strengthen resilience of SMEs; 2) providing technical assistance in strengthening resilience to selected SMEs on a demand-driven basis; 3) supporting governments in strengthening the enabling environment that promotes risk sensitive and informed investments by SMEs; and 4) facilitating knowledge sharing at the regional level.

The project will be implemented over a period of 18 months from 1 December 2014 to May 2016 by the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC), in collaboration with national government agencies responsible for SME promotion and national focal agencies for DRM.

Required Qualifications and Specification:

• Postgraduate studies in social sciences, preferably on business administration, economics, public policy or disaster risk reduction/management, with a strong research focus.
• Strong research and analytical skills and proven track record of policy research and analytical work undertaken in the field of interest (to be demonstrated with sufficient publications).
• At least 3 years of working experience in disaster risk reduction or international development in the Asia-Pacific region. Previous experience in the private sector will be positively considered.
• Capable of designing and conducting surveys (both online and field-based) and analyze survey results with appropriate statistical software. Experience with both qualitative and quantitative data analysis.
• Strong familiarity with the context of disaster risk reduction in the Asia-Pacific region and sound understanding of the context of business engagement in disaster risk management.
• Experience in developing training materials and conducting training for government officials of developing countries.
• Excellent writing skills in English. Good communicator. Basic knowledge of other languages in the region will be appreciated, particularly Thai, Tagalog, Bahasa Indonesia and/or Vietnamese.
• Proficient in the use of MS Excel and other statistical analysis software (e.g. SPSS, Eviews, Stata, etc.);

General Requirements:

• Operate within all ADPC Guidelines & Procedures/ Policies.
• Provide ongoing capacity building training & development to ADPC staff as required.

Responsibilities:

• Undertaking research in the fields of private sector engagement in disaster risk management and business resilience, including risk assessment, cost-benefit analysis, business continuity management, supply chain resilience, as well as public policies, legislation and incentives to facilitate business engagement in DRM.
• Producing capacity building materials and directly delivering, or supporting the delivery of, trainings to government officials and entrepreneurs of developing countries.
• Developing knowledge management products such as case studies or regional comparative analyses capturing project experience.
• Providing technical inputs for assignments/programs (analytical, field, experimental support, database development etc.)
• Developing project/program proposals on private sector engagement in DRM and related fields and identify potential donors.
• Drafting communication materials as needed, including speeches for senior management, newspaper or magazine articles, media releases, etc., in order to enhance the visibility and impact of the iPrepareBusiness program.

Reporting Relationship:

• Reports directly to the Department Head of the DRMS department.
• Works closely with other staff of ADPC.

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