Grants Management Specialist (GMS)

About Asian Disaster Preparedness Center

ADPC is an intergovernmental regional 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/

Background

The World Bank has recently approved the project on Climate Adaptation and Resilience (CARE) in South Asia, a $39.5 million initiative that will be jointly implemented by the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) and the Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System for Africa and Asia (RIMES). The overall aim of the project is to build resilience to climate change risks by sharing regional data and knowledge, developing regional standards and guidelines for infrastructure, and promoting climate-resilient policies and investments.

The key target sectors under this project such as agriculture, transport, water, planning, and finance will be piloted in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan. ADPC is entrusted for the component 2 focusing on Enabling Climate Resilient Policies and Standards for Development with the following sub-components:

1. Advisory services for policy and investment interventions;
2. Promoting Climate Resilient Design and Standards;
3. Implementation Support to Climate-Risk Management Solutions;
4. Innovation for Climate Adaptation and Resilience.

The sub-component “Innovation for Climate Adaptation and Resilience” is implemented as part of the World Bank’s Program for Asia Resilience to Climate Change Multi Donor Trust Fund (PARCC TF Grant). This is financed by DFID which will crowdsource innovative and disruptive technology solutions for resilience through grant awards, matchmaking and pilot-testing. This involves a number of actions (e.g. formulation of resilience innovation, call for proposal, judging, award, presentation of results, documentation, and outreach) in phases and is expected to stimulate innovators to explore more climate-smart approaches to development in the region.

The resilience innovation is further divided into two categories:

1. Climate Innovation Challenge (CIC) will promote innovation in the South Asia Region (SAR) through award of grants to eligible and qualifying innovators. This would include problem statements around Climate Data and information including short-term EWS and longer-term climate outlook data. The Climate Innovation Challenge will, therefore, aim to facilitate innovative solutions for their application and scale-up across different sectors, and tiers (national, sub-national and local/community) for greater impact.
2. TechEmerge Resilience India Challenge will be undertaken in India in collaboration with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) as a technical partner with an aim to crowd in private-sector expertise and market-based innovation for resilience through the use of disruptive technologies to address climate and disaster resilience challenges. After a comprehensive needs assessment, an open global call will be launched to source relevant proven well-tested solutions, that can be customized for the region. With the support of a network of technical advisors, the most relevant innovators will be selected and matched with beneficiary users to adopt and implement local pilot projects and form new partnerships. CARE project will provide grant funding to winning innovators and provide appropriate support for field testing/pilot activities.

Scope

Grants management plays a vital role in successfully promoting innovation and adoption of disruptive technology in South Asia region (SAR) for climate resilience through award of grants to eligible and qualifying solutions, as envisaged in the CARE project. The role of this consultant would entail the coordination of grants to facilitate innovative solutions and monitoring of subsequent pilot-testing for application and scale-up across different sectors for resilience. The consultant will ensure efficient and effective use of the allocated grants to the innovators from the South Asian region. S/he is also expected to support the grant allocation mechanism, release of the grants and monitoring progress of the innovators who are assigned the grant. The consultant will ensure efficient and effective use of the allocated grants to the innovators. S/he is also expected to be instrumental in drawing up the grant allocation mechanism, release of the grants and monitoring progress of the innovators who are assigned the grant for piloting solutions. S/he will seek technical advice from the ADPC’s Deputy Executive Director and conduct technical appraisal and performance assessment of the innovators, as well as regular administration of the grant. The consultant will be based in Bangkok, Thailand and report to Project Director. 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 Grants Management Specialist shall be responsible for:

Program Implementation

• Lead the implementation of the Grant that includes the grant process (including eligibility and selection criteria, jury constitution, application forms, guidance notes, systems for fund disbursement, governance, transparency, and performance monitoring).
• Work with ADPC Finance and HRA teams and CARE PIU for operations and compliance to incorporate and adapt relevant parts of ADPC’s financial, procurement and human resources manual into sections of the resilience innovation grant.
• Manage the grants process — including assessment and oversight — emphasizing due diligence, value for money, and cost effectiveness; manage the competitive selection process; screen and appraise grant applications for funding from the concept note stage to the award stage.
• Work with the ADPC’s communications team to promote the sub-component through print and social media, and events to attract grant applicants.

Budgeting and Planning

• Undertaking financial and implementation appraisal of all proposals (including budgets and log frames).
• Maintaining a comprehensive database of financial and performance records and integrating it in the overall financial management system of ADPC.
• Work closely with the Finance Department to ensure proper and timely disbursement of funds to the sub-grant awardees, in accordance with ADPC procedures and the Operations Manual.

Monitoring and Evaluation

• Work with the monitoring and evaluation team of ADPC and the implementation monitoring firm to ensure that progress towards Innovation Grant’s objectives is measurable and reported at all stages.
• Draft periodic reports on the Grant implementation for the Project Director’s review and submission to WB.
• Ensure that grantees’ policies meet WB’s requirements by overseeing due diligence checks on grantees that evaluate their financial management and accounting practices and systems, environmental protection, and other relevant activities.

Qualifications

• Education Master's in Finance, economics, or related field with experience, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• A relevant first-level university degree in the above fields with demonstrated capacity in climate and disaster resilience-related subjects may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Work Experience

• At least 5-7 years of professional experience in managing grants for donor-funded programs.
• Demonstrated knowledge and skills in designing grant allocation mechanism, monitoring grants and evaluating outputs from the allocated grants to grant holders.
• Experience in DFID and/or World Bank grants management is desirable.
• Experience of working on innovation challenges or hackathon is an advantage.

Personal Qualities

• Maintains collaborative relationships within the ADPC’s Department.
• Works effectively with diverse colleagues in own and other Departments.
• Creates knowledge products endorsed for wider distribution based on lessons and multi-country experience.
• Independently amends and clarifies messages and documents.
• Actively supports work improvement and/or organizational change by work and deed.
• Develops and adopts change plans to support Department initiatives.
• Considers current and future client needs in proposing ideas.
• Vocalizes early support for change.
• Recommends inputs to new policies, systems and processes in immediate work area.

Languages

• English is the working languages of ADPC.
• For the post advertised, fluency in English is required.
• Knowledge of another language is an advantage.

Project Team, Reporting Relationships

The Consultant will be a team member of the ADPC’s CARE Project Implementation Unit (PIU) and assist in the overall implementation of the CARE project sub-component 2.4 technically and operationally. The Consultant will report to the CARE Project Director. We encourage diversity in our 5 workplace and support an inclusive work environment. The expert’s performance will be reviewed on a quarterly basis.