Short Term Consultancy – ThinkHazard! project with GFDRR Innovation Lab

Location: Washington DC
Duration: 50 to 100 days
Application deadline: July 31, 2018 (extended)

Background 

The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) is a partnership of the World Bank, United Nations, major donors and recipient countries. Launched in September 2006, GFDRR provides technical and financial assistance to help disaster-prone countries decrease their vulnerability and adapt to climate change. GFDRR works closely with UN agencies, client governments, World Bank regional offices, and other partners. 

The GFDRR mission is to facilitate implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, and to contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement, by ensuring that all development policies, plans, and investments—including post-disaster reconstruction—are designed to minimize disaster risks and build the resilience of people and economies to climate change. 

GFDRR implements the majority of its activities in countries through the World Bank, in partnership with national, regional, and other international agencies. It is organized along three tracks of operation to achieve its development objectives at the global, regional and country levels. In addition, GFDRR also has thematic tracks to support country engagements. They are: the Innovation Lab, Hydromet, Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance (DRFI), Resilient Recovery, Inclusive Community Resilience, Urban Resilience, Safer Schools, and the Small Island States Resilience Initiative (SISRI). These provide grant recipients with specialized knowledge and quality assurance in the design and implementation of activities. The thematic tracks allow GFDRR to collaborate with a broad array of partners, facilitate global engagements and capacity building, and produce innovative knowledge.

GFDRR is currently seeking a Short-Term Consultant (STC) who will work primarily in the GFDRR Innovation Lab (www.gfdrr.org/innovation-lab) on the ThinkHazard! project. 

Innovation Lab and ThinkHazard! 

To meet the needs of a rapidly changing world, GFDRR Innovation Lab supports the use of science, technology, and open data in promoting new ideas and the development of original tools to empower decision-makers in vulnerable countries to strengthen their resilience. Recent innovations in the field have enabled better access to disaster and climate risk information and a greater capacity to create, manage, and use this information. Innovation Lab activities are designed and implemented in partnership with government institutions and key international and local partners, ensuring that all activities add value in planning, operational, and recovery activities.  

GFDRR has developed a hazard screening tool, ThinkHazard! (www.thinkhazard.org) to help mainstream disaster risk in World Bank and wider international development projects. ThinkHazard! has been successful in helping professionals who are not experts in natural hazards and risk, to understand the range and level of 11 hazards in their project areas, along with exploring risk reduction recommendations to manage the disaster risk. The development team has established a methodology for communicating hazard levels and risk reduction actions, and collated a wide range of data sources to inform this, but is continually seeking to improve ThinkHazard! and its utility in disaster risk management through classification of new data, enhancement of current features, and implementation of new features.  

Duties and Responsibilities

The successful consultant will work under the supervision of the ThinkHazard! task team lead and report to the Innovation team lead. S/he will work in close coordination with other Innovation Lab colleagues and relevant colleagues in GFDRR and the World Bank. 

The consultant will take a leading role in the ongoing development of ThinkHazard! and engagement with its users, to promote the use of this open source risk communication tool in disaster risk management activities within and outside the World Bank. Specific activities will include but are not limited to the following: 

  • Identification of new sources of regional and national hazard data for inclusion in ThinkHazard! 
  • Execution and/or oversight of data procurement and classification, including developing relationships with new and existing data providers 
  • Planning and implementation of feature enhancements and links to complementary tools 
  • Management of ongoing development, liaising regularly with external software developers 
  • Management of user feedback processes 
  • Development of a spatial analysis tool for the internal testing and classification of hazard data 
  • Coordination of the use of ThinkHazard! data in other GFDRR, World Bank, and external projects 

There may be related opportunities to work on other projects alongside ThinkHazard!. 

Selection criteria  

  • Demonstrated experience working with disaster risk data and geospatial technologies. 
  • Demonstrated experience in disaster risk management and risk communication. 
  • A minimum of Master’s degree or equivalent in a related field such as geospatial technology or disaster risk management.  
  • High degree of motivation, initiative, flexibility, reliability, and responsiveness to changing demands. 
  • Capacity for effective multi-tasking with demonstrated ability of being an independent starter with minimal supervision, and a high capacity to persevere for results. 
  • Strong communication and advocacy skills, including ability to write concisely and clearly and synthesize complex documentation and ideas for a range of audiences. 
  • Excellent inter-personal skills and proven ability to work in a team and intercultural environment. 
  • Written and spoken fluency in English. 

To apply 

To apply, please send a CV and cover letter including any online resources you wish to be considered, to Vivien Deparday (vdeparday@worldbank.org).