About the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center:

The Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) is an autonomous international organization established for scientific, educational, developmental, and humanitarian purposes with a vision of safer communities and sustainable development through disaster risk reduction and climate resilience in Asia and the Pacific.

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 has six strategic themes supported by seven departments: ADPC Academy, Risk Governance, Climate Resilience, Urban Resilience, Health Risk Management, Preparedness for Response and Recovery, and Geospatial Information. These are supported by Finance, Human Resources and Administration, and Strategic Planning departments. In addition to the departments, ADPC also 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/

The Preparedness for Response and Recovery (PRR) Department of ADPC focuses on enhancing the preparedness, response management capacities of governments, response organizations, volunteers, non-governmental organizations, the private sector, communities, and other traditional and non-traditional actors of the Disaster Risk Management Ecosystem. It also strives to strengthen the capacity of institutions and at-risk communities for faster and efficient disaster recovery. The department works with the above-stated actors to ensure that the regional, national, sub-national, and local disaster preparedness, response, and recovery frameworks and implementation plans are in place well before disaster strikes.

ADPC has been implementing a range of disaster risk reduction activities in Bangladesh over the years. Bangladesh Resilience Advancement in City Ecosystems (BRACE) Program is a two-year initiative funded by USAID’s Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance (BHA). BRACE seeks to enhance the policy environment for urban resilience while enabling communities to undertake risk assessments and identify priority interventions for enhancing their resilience. It engages with at-risk urban communities, Ward Disaster Management Committees (WDMCs) in selected wards of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) and Cox’s Bazar Municipality (CBM) and government institutions to drive urban resilience in Bangladesh.

The primary objective of this consultancy assignment is to facilitate effective management of knowledge emerging form program implementation.

Purpose and Objectives:

The consultant will primarily contribute to the implementation of the BRACE Program in Dhaka South City Corporation and Cox’s Bazar Municipality in Bangladesh. A consultant is required to work with BRACE team of staff and consultants in Bangladesh to capture the BRACE experience through usable knowledge products to support further program development, effective learning, reporting and informing further programming on urban risk reduction in Bangladesh.

Expected Outputs:

• URA reports for nine wards across the BRACE program areas using the unique URA methodology developed by BRACE.
• Concept notes for 18 PIPs identified for DSCC and CBM through the URA process.
• 06 case studies
• 01 process document
• 02 after action reviews

Responsibilities and Tasks:

To deliver the above outputs, the consultant will undertake the following tasks:

• Participate and support the URA process in 05 wards of DSCC and 04 wards of CBM and document the same as reports integrating and synthesizing quantitative and qualitative information.
• Work with the BRACE team of staff and consultants to validate and finalize the URA reports for the 09 wards covered by BRACE.
• Work with the BRACE team of staff and consultants to Identify and detail out the 18 PIPs (02 per ward) recommended by the BRACE communities through the URA process.
• Develop brief concept notes for each of the 18 PIPs to elaborate in detail the objectives, methodology, deliverables, institutionalization and sustainability plan as well as any other specific details unique to each PIP for mobilizing various stakeholders and technical resources required for the success of the PIP.
• Conduct After Action Reviews (AAR) and document lessons learned from any disaster events during the course of BRACE program in order to improve future emergency operations.
• Identify and develop case studies and impact stories highlighting good practices and new knowledge generated on urban and community resilience in Bangladesh.
• Develop the process document for BRACE to highlight lessons for urban community resilience so that other local governments and city corporations can learn from good practices and the process to initiate similar programs.

Working Principles:

In performing the duties and responsibilities indicated above, the Consultant will be supervised by the Technical Lead- Resilient Recovery of PRR Department of ADPC and liaise with Senior Project Manager based in the Dhaka office and Filed Coordinator, Cox’s Bazar Municipality for day-to-day coordination.

Qualifications: Master in Relevantdiscipline with a specialization in Disaster Management, Development Studies, Social Sciences, Rural and Urban Planning, and any relevant discipline. At least 3 years of experience of developing technical reports, monitoring & evaluation, donor reports, process documents, case studies and other knowledge products with national and international organizations is expected.

Experience of having worked in USAID-funded projects will be an advantage. Excellent command of English and Bengali is expected. Understanding of the local dialect of Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar will be an added advantage.

Duty Station: Home-based. Field Work and Stakeholder Consultation will be conducted in Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC), Cox’s Bazar Municipality (CBM), and any other locations as required.

Duration: The assignment is expected to be completed between 15 July 2024 – 31 May 2025.

Conditions of payment:

Payment shall be made based on the satisfactory completion of the outputs.

The payment will be made in three installments based on approval and acceptance of the deliverables by ADPC as mentioned above.

All costs related to field arrangements for meetings / workshops in the field as well as official travel outside Dhaka shall be covered by ADPC with prior approval before travel.

All taxes, duties, and government charges imposed or levied in connection with this contract will be the sole responsibility of the Consultant. No other terms or benefits except those mentioned in this statement of work will be provided, expressed, or implied unless stated in a written agreement between ADPC and the Consultant.