Short-Term Consultant for Communication

A. About 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 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.

With financial support from the World Bank Group, ADPC has been implementing a five-year 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.

For details, please refer to ADPC website at http://www.adpc.net/

B. Background

In order to ensure that policies, decisions, and commitments related to climate change are of the highest quality, it is crucial to establish effective communication and knowledge management systems. Such systems must provide a consistent and reliable flow of information about how climate change affects the most basic human needs, such as water, food, shelter, health, education, economy, security, mobility, and the overall progress of a country. This information is essential to change people’s perception of the threat posed by climate change and motivate them to act to mitigate the risks.

To this end, an awareness-raising campaign will run, with a particular focus on four key sectors: agriculture, integrated water resource management, road infrastructure, and climate finance planning. The campaign aims to stimulate dialogue on climate adaptation and resilience in South Asia by promoting a deeper understanding of the key challenges and solutions in these sectors.

The communication and knowledge management systems established through this campaign will cover a range of topics and sectors, including climate-smart agriculture, integrated water resources management, resilient transport infrastructure, policy, planning and finance, as well as gender and diversity. The campaign will leverage a variety of communication channels, including social media, print media, broadcast media, and face-to-face interactions, to reach a wide and diverse audience. It will also engage with community leaders, policymakers, and other key stakeholders to promote a more holistic approach to climate change adaptation and resilience.

By promoting effective communication and knowledge management, this campaign will help to enhance the public’s understanding of climate change and its impacts on human well-being. It will also foster greater resilience in the face of this global challenge, promoting sustainable development in South Asia and beyond.

As part of the ongoing communication and knowledge management of the project, a series of products have been developed that include, Knowledge Management Platform, blog posts from experts to promote dialogue on climate initiatives and investments, climate talks, newsletter and social media campaign. The Short-Term Consultant (STC) for communication will assist in carrying out tasks related to ongoing activities such as identification of knowledge resources for SAR-Climate platform, news, reports, case studies, and social media posts. In this setting, a qualified and motivated individual is required to assist ADPC in supporting the communication-related aspects of the project.

C. Statement of Intent

The Consultant will be responsible for implementing the communication plan to engage stakeholders, raise awareness at regional and national levels under the CARE for South Asia Project.

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 consultant will be responsible to undertake the following specific tasks in order to be able to produce deliverables as listed.

• Implement the communications and knowledge management strategy of the project that will include effective positioning, messaging stakeholder engagement, and awareness-raising at regional and national levels;
• Support in maintaining climate change knowledge hub/website for South Asia.
• Implement the strategy for the collection of publicly available information (including the required due diligence for such collection) as per thematic areas of the CARE for South Asia project from relevant sub-regional, regional, and international organizations and partners. Documents may include but are not limited to legislation, policies, strategies, plans, best practices, guidelines, tools, frameworks, agreements, case studies, research papers, and reports in the region;
• Support the implementation of the communications strategy to promote knowledge hub (http://sar-climate.adpc.net/) through ADPC and partners’ social media channels and formulate social media messages.
• Implement project’s social media plan and generate compelling content (blogs, videos, infographics, and photo features, etc.) for website, newsletter and social media;
• Provide assistance in developing knowledge products to populate the knowledge hub. This includes collecting regional news on climate change adaptation, best practices, and updates on the implementation of the Paris Agreement and writing sectors climate adaptation profiles, blogs, videos, news sections, and training opportunities, etc.);
• Research, analyze, organize and share information and good practices from around South Asia and beyond about climate change adaptation;
• Research and organize updated climate change policies, plans, guidelines and other relevant materials from South Asian countries with an initial focus on Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan;
• Plan and organize virtual knowledge-sharing events focusing on climate change adaptation and resilience in South Asia;
• Coordinate and gather information and content for the quarterly newsletter of the project;
• Arrange, organize and maintain all the knowledge products produced under the CARE for South Asia project (technical reports, guidelines, manual, modules, research reports, articles, etc.);
• Maintain a list of regional and national academic institutions and organizations that are focusing on climate change adaptation and resilience in South Asia;
• Develop annual knowledge sharing and regional awareness raising action plans;
• Support in organizing national and regional knowledge-sharing events with relevant stakeholders;
• Facilitate South-South learning among CARE-focused countries; and
• Perform any other tasks assigned by the supervisor.

E. Expected Output/s

The consultant will be expected to produce the pre-determined deliverables in accordance with this assignment’s Terms of Reference, specifically related to CARE project. The Consultant is expected to deliver the following outputs.

• Develop bi-annual CARE newsletter
• Develop weekly social media posts for CARE
• Develop monthly blog posts for SAR climate portal
• Identify South Asia climate change news items to be uploaded on SAR climate platform
• Identify South Asia climate change knowledge products including best practices, policy documents, frameworks, case studies for SAR climate platform
• Support in planning and organizing knowledge sharing events
• Developing communication materials for events
• Maintain separate sector-wise folders for different outputs (technical reports, guidelines, manual, modules, research reports, articles, etc.)

F. Qualifications

• The candidate should at least have Master’s degree in communications, public relations, journalism, or other relevant fields;
• At least five years of relevant working experience
• Excellent English language writing skills;
• Proven experience in website and social media management;
• Proven experience in advocacy and awareness-raising;
• Advanced computer literacy – including presentation software, publishing, MS Office;
• Experience of working in an international non-profit organization is an advantage;
• Experience with WordPress, Campaign monitor, video editing, and other similar applications.

Preferred Qualifications

• Ability to work independently and in a team and be service-minded and detail-oriented;
• Possess excellent problem-solving and analytical skills;
• Good planning and organizing skills;

G. Reporting Relationships

The communication Consultant will report to the Project Director and work closely with the Project team members at the regional and national levels.

H. Contract Duration

The time-based contract duration will be ten (10) months.

Start Date: TBD

End Date: TBD

I. Selection Method

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