Resilient Transport Specialist

A. 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. These are supported by 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 ADPC website at http://www.adpc.net/ 

B. 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 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 climate-resilient infrastructure strategy for rural roads plays a vital role in satisfactorily implementing all the required components of the project. It would involve development of standardized geospatial databases and other data for climate-related risk assessments on the transport sector. 

Accordingly, a highly qualified and experienced Resilient Transport Specialist will be required to provide technical support in collecting and evaluating data, conducting risk assessment and capacity building. S/he will be selected on competitive basis following World Bank Procurement Regulations.

 

The objectives of this consultancy service are to: 

• Support in the implementation of climate-resilience adaptive engineering design and solutions in transport

• Support in preparing the revision of the Construction Practices and Procedures Manual to incorporate climate-resilient design and practices for strategic and rural roads in Bangladesh. 

• Support in the development of climate inclusive risk profile for transport sector in Bangladesh

• Support in conducting consultations and workshops to finalize methodologies for rural roads

• Support in conducting capacity building and drafting training reports on rural roads. 

 

C. Statement of Intent

The Resilient Transport Specialist will work (collaboratively with the Resilient Transport Sector Specialist based in Bangkok) on the implementation of climate-resilience adaptive engineering design and solutions in transport and revision of the Construction Practices and Procedures Manual to incorporate climate-resilient design and practices for strategic and rural roads in Bangladesh. Additionally, s/he will also support Road Sector Risk Assessment Specialist (regional) in conducting climate inclusive hazard assessment and risk assessment for rural roads in Bangladesh. The Consultant will further support in mapping needs and issues on climate resilient roads to support in capacity building of relevant stakeholders, including supporting workshops and training efforts.

The Resilient Transport Specialist 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. 

D. Duties and Responsibilities

The Resilient Transport Specialist shall be responsible for:

Technical Support and Review

• Technical lead in developing/revising a climate-resilient infrastructure strategy for rural roads;

• Technical lead in revision of the Construction Practices and Procedures Manual to incorporate climate-resilient design and practices, including for strategic and rural roads;

• Support in policy and knowledge interventions for climate risk management including harmonizing climate change strategies with national and local development/investment plans;

• Additionally, s/he will assist Road Sector Risk Assessment Specialist (regional), who will evaluate the geospatial & other relevant climate-related data in conducting climate inclusive hazard assessment and risk assessment to develop risk/damage scenarios for climate extremes for rural roads. The major support includes:

a. Collecting geospatial data and other data needed for climate-related hazard, exposure, vulnerability, risk assessment for rural roads in Bangladesh to establish standardized geospatial databases needed;

b. Technical input in developing hazard-specific climate change scenarios suitable for resilient development planning in Bangladesh;

c. Technical input to mapping and prioritizing vulnerable locations along the key transport corridor;

d. Arranging consultations and workshops to finalize risk assessment and climate change assessment methodologies for rural roads in Bangladesh;

Capacity Building 

• Field lead in training arrangement and communication in Bangladesh;

• Conducting capacity building on hazard, vulnerability & risk assessment for rural roads; 

• Conducting technical workshops on the need and issues on climate resilient rural roads; 

• Support in drafting training and workshop reports. 

Performing other relevant tasks as assigned by the Country Project Lead and Transport Sector Lead (Regional).

E. Qualifications

The candidate should at least have:

• A bachelor degree in Civil Engineering and master’s degree in one or more subjects in transportation engineering, construction, disaster risk management, infrastructure, or equivalent combination of education  

• At least 5 years of experience on transportation sector development, construction and policy development related work, preferably in Bangladesh

• Experience on conducting training needs assessment and capacity building in relevant field would be an advantage 

• Strong understanding and knowledge of climate change impacts on transportation sector in South Asia

• Fair understanding in developing climate-resilient strategies 

• Fair understanding in utilizing geospatial data and other data for climate-related assessments 

• International experience would be a plus 

• Teamwork 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, Internet

• Experience in training and capacity building 

• 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 Bengali preferred.

F. Reporting Relationships

The Resilient Transport Specialist will report to Country Project Lead for the day to day activities and maintain a close coordination with the ADPC’s Country Representative in Bangladesh. The technical oversight will be provided by Transport Sector Lead (Regional) based at the Bangkok office through the PIU. The specialist would also coordinate with the other CARE project specialists at the regional and national level to carry out different activities under the project.

G. Contract Duration

The contract duration will be for 1 year. The consultant’s performance will be reviewed on a quarterly basis.

H. Selection Method

The consultant will be selected in accordance with ADPC’s recruitment process and in compliance with the World Bank Procurement Regulations.