National Capacity Needs Assessment Consultant (Bangladesh)

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) 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, 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 the ADPC website at http://www.adpc.net/

Background

Climate related risks and natural disasters have taken tolls on the development agenda across the of South Asian Countries. Between 1990 and 2019, over 1000 climate-induced disasters in South Asia region affected over 1.68 billion people and caused over US$127 billion in damages . 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. In Bangladesh, the 2007 Cyclone Sidr resulted in damages and losses of US$1.7 billion or 2.6 percent of the country’s 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 the 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 in select sectors and countries in 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 a National Capacity Needs Assessment Consultant in Dhaka, Bangladesh, to lead capacity needs assessment (CNA) of the CARE project activities. The overall objectives of this consultant position are to conduct the Capacity Needs Assessment of the staff within the Government’s beneficiary Departments/ Ministeries in Bangladesh on implementing technical interventions on climate-risk management solutions and support ADPC Country Office in Bangladesh in strengthening the management capacity of the country project team under the CARE project.

Statement of Intent

The National Capacity Needs Assessment Consultant will be responsible for leading the training needs assessment activities of the CARE project in Bangladesh. The National Capacity Needs Assessment Consultant 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 to highlight the most important areas of personal and joint responsibilities.

Duties and Responsibilities

The National Capacity Needs Assessment Consultant will work under the supervision of the Project Director and take advice from Capacity Development Specialist and coordinate closely with Resilient Agriculture Specialist, Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) Specialist, Transport Specialist, Climate Resilience Specialist, Climate Policy and Planning Specialist, and Climate Public Finance Management Specialist to perform the following:

• To do a stock take of existing gaps in resources and capacity across the beneficiary ministries;
• To design a survey methodology, plan, and guideline for conducting Capacity Needs Assessment (CNA) of the staff within the Government’s beneficiary Departments/ Ministeries on implementing technical interventions on climate-risk management solutions;
• To identify problems and capacity needs of selected Ministries/Departments in line with the climate-risk management solutions being developed through the project in Bangladesh by collecting, organizing, and analyzing data and information for the assessment of capacity needs in-line with the CNA design;
• To support ADPC design and conduct a validation workshop for the beneficiary Ministries and Departments to share the findings and finalize the “capacity need assessments” results;
• To develop and share CNA Report with beneficiary Ministries/ Departments and key stakeholders;
• To develop Capacity Development Plan with identified training courses for Ministries/Department based on CNA Report To develop modules on Climate Change Adaptation, on implementation of key policies related to the focus sector in Bangladesh Perform other relevant tasks as assigned by the Project Director and Capacity Development Specialist.

Qualifications

• A master’s degree or higher in climate change adaptation, disaster management, international development, organizational development, behavioral science, or any other related fields;
• Minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience in climate resilience, adaptation and mainstreaming of resilience and adaptation in national policies, plans, and investments;
• Experience working with government institutions in Bangladesh is an advantage; relevant academic experience is an advantage;
• Experience in translating the research findings into concrete recommendations and development outputs;
• Knowledge and experience in the different stages of training development and management, especially capacity needs assessment/training needs assessment;
• Thorough understanding and knowledge of climate resilience, adaptation and mainstreaming of resilience and adaptation in national policies, plans, and investments, as well as relevant international and national and other frameworks on climate resilience and DRR;
• Excellent drafting/writing ability;
• Excellent interviewing and survey design and methodology skills;
• Fluency in spoken and written English;
• Proven track record of writing training needs assessment reports including training material development; Experience with Microsoft Office programs and ICT tools;
• Experience using online collaborative platforms such as Skype, Zoom, WebEx and Microsoft Teams;
• Fluency in Bengali is preferred;
• Analytical Skills; Results-driven;
• Strong sense of commitment; Efficient;
• Capable of working under time pressure;
• Proven track record of delivering on time;
• Good interpersonal skills;
• Willingness to work in a team, respect the importance of other disciplines, and keen to learn from and contribute to various disciplines;
• and Willing to travel periodically in the country and region.

Reporting Relationships

The National Capacity Needs Assessment Consultant will report to the Project Director, CARE, and work under the guidance of the Capacity Development Specialist, along with maintaining close coordination with ADPC’s Country Office in Bangladesh. The Consultant will also work in close coordination with the PIU.