Terms of Reference – Short Term Consultant (STC)
Understanding Risk– Partnership Engagement
Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR)
Background/General description:
The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) is a partnership of the World Bank, United Nations, major donors and recipient countries under the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) system to support the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA). The HFA, endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly and ratified by 168 countries, is the primary international agreement for disaster reduction. HFA’s principal goal is to effectively integrate, in a coherent manner, disaster risk considerations into sustainable development policies, planning, programming, and financing at all levels of government. Launched in September 2006, GFDRR provides technical and financial assistance to help disaster-prone countries decrease their vulnerability and adapt to climate change. GFDRR works closely with UN agencies, client governments, World Bank regional offices, and other partners.
GFDRR hosts a team focused on the use of science, technology, and innovation to better empower decision-makers in the developing world to increase their resilience to disasters in a changing climate – the GFDRR Innovation Lab Team. The Lab strategy is to build partnerships and communities that utilize open data and open source technology to assist decision-making. Lab activities are designed and implemented in partnership with the World Bank’s regional DRM teams, governments and key international and local partners, which ensures that these initiatives are developed to add value in operational environments.
Part of the activities of the Innovation Lab is the management of the Understanding Risk (UR) community. UR is an open and global community of more than 6,500 experts and practitioners in the field of disaster risk identification with representatives from the public and private sector, multilateral organizations, NGOs, academia and civil society.
Every two years, the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) convenes the global UR Forum, the world’s leading conference on improving the assessment and understanding of disaster and climate risks. Previous global events brought together over 800 experts and practitioners from more than 100 countries in Washington DC, Cape Town, London and most recently Venice in May 2016. Further, UR has seen the success of smaller spinoff events at the municipal (UR Boulder 2015), the national (UR Brazil 2012, UR Haiti 2014 and UR Austria 2016) and the regional (Understanding Risk and Finance, Africa 2015).
The purpose of all UR events are three fold: 1) to facilitate partnerships across sectors and geographical boundaries; 2) to showcase best practices and the latest technical advances in the field; and 3) to share knowledge. Not only do UR events informally facilitate partnerships by providing a robust networking space at the venue, but also engage with partners globally (in-kind and financially) to contribute to the success of the event.
The next global forum is planned for May 2018, however, the location has not been determined at this time. The UR team is looking for a major partner for UR2018 who could host the forum and provide the venue for the event. The announcement for the UR2018 location is set for May 2017.
About the position
UR is only as good as its partnerships, and there is a very solid foundation of partners willing to commit time and intellectual capacity to the event. The UR team has had success in developing financial partnerships for global events in the past; however, GFDRR would like to bring the quality and quantity of partnerships to the next level to ensure the ongoing sustainability and high-quality of UR events into the future.
The Consultant will enhance the UR partnership strategy and engage new partners with a particular focus on partners who are able to financially contribute to the next UR event so that UR can remain open to all attendees (with no financial barrier to participation). The Consultant will be able to successfully pitch the benefits of partnering at UR to a wide range of organizations, with the aim of achieving written commitments from new organizations to partner for the 2018 global UR event.
The ideal candidate will have a robust network of contacts in different organizations and sectors, and have experience generating partnership engagement and commitments.
Duties and accountabilities
The activities of this consultancy will be broken up into two parts:
- Developing a partnership strategy document and partnership options
- Outreach to potential partners and securing financial commitments for partnership
Activity 1: Developing partnership strategy document and partnership options
- Partnership strategy document
The Consultant will produce a partnership strategy document. This document should include:
- Goals and strategic objectives of partnership
- Why UR is attractive to potential partners
- Strategies for enduring partnerships
- The sectors that have potential for partnership and why those sectors
- A list of potential financial partners (minimum 25). This list should detail:
- Why they would be interested
- Who is the focal point for determining partnerships within the organization, including contact information
- Why the Firm would be able to approach the organization, e.g. worked with the organization on securing a partnership for another initiative
2. Partnership package
For the 2016 Understanding Risk Forum, the UR team created a partnership package that outlined the different options and levels of partnership for that event. The document is available here.
Similar options need to be outlined for the 2018 Understanding Risk Forum (UR2018). Part of Activity 1 is to work with GFDRR to determine the different levels of partnership. These determinations include:
- Different financial commitment amounts
- Items included in financial partnership
The consultant will work with a graphic designer, identified by GFDRR, to design the partnership package for outreach to potential partners.
Activity 2: Outreach and commitments
Upon approval of the strategy document, the Consultant and the UR team will jointly agree on partners that should be approached for partnership.
The Consultant will work to secure a written commitment from organizations for a financial partnership for UR2018. By March 2018, the UR team would like to have a good understanding of the number of partnerships and the financial commitments for UR2018. Thus the Consultant should aim to generate as many partnerships as possible by March 2018.
However, the UR team expects to announce the location of UR2018 in May 2017. Thus it is important to reach out to organizations or institutions with a high potential of being able to host the event and provide a venue. Securing the venue is not solely the responsibility of the Consultant, as members of the UR team and GFDRR have already begun to actively engage governments who are interested in hosting UR2018.
Organizations have different budgetary and funding cycles, and thus it is important to understand how and when the pitch for UR partnership is made.
GFDRR recognizes that there may be different ways of approaching partners and that there may be different levels of intervention needed from GFDRR. The Consultant and the UR team will work closely together to ensure that all opportunities are responded to in the appropriate manner.
Selection criteria
- MA in Marketing, Public Relations, Fundraising, Business Management, International Relations or other related field and 5-10 years of relevant experience;
- Demonstrated experience in building partnerships to financially support communities of practice, conferences and/or other initiatives/projects
- Proven connections to a range of organizations, including multilateral organizations, government, and the private sector, and relevant, but not limited to the disaster risk identification field
- Demonstrated understanding of how financial partnerships are developed
- High degree of motivation, initiative, flexibility, reliability, and responsiveness to partnership needs
- Deals sensitively in multi-cultural and matrix environments
- Written and spoken fluency in English
- Experience with InDesign a plus
Location and Hiring Manager
The Consultant will be based in Washington, D.C., for a 100-day assignment beginning January 1, 2016. The hiring manager is Emma Phillips, Disaster Risk Management Specialist, GFDRR Innovation Lab.
How to Apply
Please send a CV and cover letter to Simone Balog sbalog@worldbank.org
Deadline: The deadline for applications is Friday, Dec. 9, 2016, noon EST.