Background
The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), established in 2006, is a multi-donor partnership and grant-making financing mechanism. The Facility supports on-the-ground technical assistance to help developing countries integrate disaster risk management and climate change adaptation into development strategies, policies and investment programs, including post-disaster recovery and reconstruction.
GFDRR implements most of its activities in countries through the World Bank, in partnership with national, regional, and other international agencies. To support country engagements, GFDRR maintains eight thematic initiatives that provide grant recipients with specialized knowledge and quality assurance in the design and implementation of activities. These initiatives allow GFDRR to collaborate with a broad array of partners, facilitate global engagements and capacity building, and produce innovative knowledge. These are: GFDRR Labs, Hydromet, Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance, Resilient Recovery, Inclusive Community Resilience, Urban Resilience, Safer Schools, and the Small Island States Resilience Initiative.
The GFDRR Secretariat is hosted within the Climate Change Group at the World Bank in Washington D.C. with satellite offices in Brussels and Tokyo. The Secretariat is responsible for awarding and managing grants, reporting on results, and carrying out outreach and partnership development. It also acts as the support hub for a decentralized network of disaster risk management experts in the World Bank and provides a global platform for knowledge-sharing and capacity building.
GFDRR Labs
The GFDRR Labs team applies the most promising and innovative developments in science, technology, communication, and design to the challenges of disaster risk management.The team has expertise in disaster risk modelling, geospatial technology, international development, open source software, data science, risk communication, community engagement.
The Labs team manages the follow products and services: the Understanding Risk (UR) Community; the Open Data for Resilience Initiative; the Challenge Fund program, and Thinkhazard! tool, and provides technical support to operational teams on disaster risk assessment and risk communication.
About the Position
GFDRR Labs is looking for a motivated consultant to support the following projects:
- GFDRR Labs online and social media presence:
The consultant will work directly with the GFDRR Labs lead to roll out the team’s strategy to enhance and improve the online and social media presence of the team’s programs and products.
Responsibilities include:
- Reviewing all online content related to GFDRR Labs products
- Implementing a strategy to standardize the look and feel of all online information about the Labs team
- Linking and enabling discoverability of the Labs products and services though a redesign and update of the Labs team webpage
- Delivering a menu of Labs team products and services
- Assisting with a social media campaign to build the brand and reach new communities
The consultant will work closely with the communications team of GFDRR in this process.
Deliverables:
- Easily discoverable / recognizable Labs team products and services online
- Updated and relevant information online
- Updated Labs team webpage and menu of Labs products and services
- Events and partnership support
The consultant will work directly with the Labs team to support activities related to partnership activities and logistics around partnership events. The Labs team has multiple partnerships with external organizations that it tries to manage and actively maintain. To actively maintain these relationships, GFDRR Labs will hold workshops or Brown Bag Lunches (BBLs) from time to time to share knowledge and identify ways of further collaborating.
Responsibilities include:
- Assisting with the logistics around partnership workshops, BBLs and other events
- Working with multiple WB staff members to identify schedule overlap with partner organizations
- Supporting the 60-minute Resilience Dialogue event, planned for some time during the WB Spring Meetings (April 9-14, 2019)
- Managing the logistics of a forthcoming workshop (date tbc) with NASA’s Disasters Program
- Managing the logistics of a BBL with IBM’s The Weather Company around their new global forecasting model
Deliverables:
- Successful workshop with NASA that includes ~8 WB representatives and ~8 NASA representatives
- BBL with The Weather Company
- Resilience Dialogue event support, particularly around creative elements on stage
- Ad hoc support to events as needed
- Challenge Fund Launch:
The consultant will work with the Labs team lead to launch the new GFDRR – UK DFID funded Challenge Fund program, which will focus on delivering innovations in the South Asia region for hydro-met and climate information services.
Responsibilities include:
- Assisting with the logistics of the Challenge Fund problem definitions process, including facilitating a workshop to define the problem statements
- Setting up the online application portal for the Challenge Fund
- Launching the call for proposals for the new Challenge Fund
- Managing the social media and communications campaign to ensure broad reach
- Project managing the various challenge fund winners
- Creating a community of practitioners around the Challenge Fund
- Reviewing the online content of the Challenge Fund to ensure it is up-to-date and current
Deliverables:
- Problem definitions for the new Challenge Fund defined
- Launch of the new Challenge Fund with good social media campaign
- Community of practice created around the Challenge Fund
- Up-to-date information on the Challenge Fund online
- 2020 Understanding Risk Forum promotional activities
The consultant will work with the manager of the 2020 Understanding Risk Forum (UR2020) to produce and deliver promotional materials for the event, which is set for May 2020 in Singapore. The ten-year anniversary of the UR Forums will require a large outreach campaign in the region to entice DRM experts and practitioners to UR2020. It is anticipated that there will be a main communications focal point based at the National University of Singapore (UR2020 co-organizer with GFDRR), and this Consultant will work closely with him/her, the UR manager and the UR2020 event production lead to deliver a promotional campaign.
Responsibilities include:
- Executing the promotional strategy developed by the National University of Singapore
Deliverables:
- Promotional strategy execution
Selection Criteria
- BA (MA a plus) in International Relations, Journalism, Marketing, Geography or other related field and 2-3 years of relevant experience;
- Social media and communications skills
- Proficiency in InDesign and WordPress a plus
- Attention to detail and advanced organizational skills
- High degree of motivation, initiative, flexibility, and reliability, and responsiveness to changing environments
- Deals sensitively in multi-cultural environments and is able to capture sentiments of people in many different cultures
- Written and spoken fluency in English
- Strong writing skills; able to prepare and edit communication products and develop drafts in a clear, concise, reader-friendly style
- Able to work independently with minimal supervision to produce high-quality deliverables within tight deadlines
- Team player and ability to work towards a collective vision within a team setting.
- Familiarity with Asia, and fluency with various languages from Asia a plus
Location and Hiring Manager
The Consultant will be based in Washington, D.C., for a 60-day assignment beginning March 2019 through June 2019. This position will report to the head of the GFDRR Labs team, Emma Phillips, Senior Disaster Risk Management Specialist.
How to Apply
Please send a CV and cover letter to ephillips@worldbank.org and sbalogway@worldbank.org
Deadline
The deadline for applications is March 6, 2019
Organization: Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) Labs
Deadline to Apply: March 6, 2019