Appel à candidature : Centre Asiatique de Préparation aux Catastrophes recherche un.e Spécialiste des transports résilients au Bangladesh.

Appel à candidature : Centre Asiatique de Préparation aux Catastrophes recherche un.e Spécialiste des transports résilients au Bangladesh.

B. Background

Disasters take a huge toll on the development agenda of SAR countries. Between 2000 and 2017, disasters in South Asia incurred estimated damages of US$ 149.27 billion. Public expenditure is under stress by the repeated need to reallocate capital budgets away from long term development planning and towards reconstruction activities in post-disaster environments. For example, since 2005, Pakistan has suffered losses on the order of US$ 16 billion due to natural disasters. In Bangladesh, 2007 Cyclone Sidr resulted in damages and losses of US$1.7 billion, or 2.6 per cent of GDP.

To increase resilience and achieve climate commitments, there is a need for a transformational shift towards policies and institutions that enable climate resilient investments. Investing in more resilient infrastructure is both profitable and urgent as disruptions are extremely costly for governments, households and private sector and large ongoing investments in infrastructure assets will have long-lasting repercussions as poor maintenance and natural disasters result in a vulnerable stock.

With the financial support from the World Bank Group, ADPC is implementing a five years’ 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.

Scaling up the climate-resilient infrastructure strategy for strategic and rural roads plays a vital role in satisfactorily implementing all the required components of the project. It involve development of standardized geospatial databases and other data for climate- related risk assessments on the transport sector.

Accordingly, a highly qualified and experienced Resilient Transport Sector Specialist is required to provide technical support in developing relevant climate adaptation strategies for the transport sector in selected countries and reviewing existing standards and guidelines. S/he will be selected on competitive basis following World Bank Consultants Guidelines.

The objectives of this consultancy service are to:

• Support in vulnerability, criticality and risk assessments of the transport sector, including review of international best practices and recommendations for the national transport sector and its adoption for the development of climate inclusive vulnerability-risk profiles of transport sector in Bangladesh
• Support in the implementation of climate-resilience adaptive engineering design and solutions in transport
• Support in conducting consultations and workshops to finalize methodologies for strategic and rural roads in Bangladesh
• Conduct training needs assessment and capacity building initiatives on climate change adaptation in the transport sector
• Provide technical input in revising guidelines on climate-risk informed design and construction in the transport sector for rural roads and road infrastructure;
• Support in the development of climate inclusive risk profile for transport sector in Bangladesh;
• Support in preparing the recommendations report for revision of the Construction Practices and Procedures Manual to incorporate climate-resilient design and practices for strategic and rural roads in Bangladesh.

C. Statement of Intent

The Consultant will provide technical support in reviewing existing climate-related hazard and risk-assessment approaches to develop inclusive risk assessment and climate change methodologies for strategic and rural roads in Bangladesh. The Consultant will further support in reviewing guidelines and standards for climate resilient transportation infrastructure focusing on rural roads and infrastructure to identify key gaps and issues to support in capacity building and development of recommendations report to update existing standards and guidelines for rural roads and road infrastructure of Bangladesh.

The Consultant will be based at Dhaka, Bangladesh

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

Review and Analysis:

• Identifying and mapping the governance of rural road agencies/authorities/entities and rural road/related activities in Bangladesh. Business allocation for rural roads construction and maintenance. Existing Policies and guidelines related to these agencies/entities supporting rural road construction and maintenance. Yearly budget allocation and works programs (categorized) for past five years/ to the extent possible, needs to be identified as part of the activity;
• Existing scenario of climate considerations of these identified entities in rural road construction and maintenance;
• Institutional and public expenditure review of rural road sector including activities by Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) and Local Government Institute (LGIs) i.e. Upazila &Union Parishad, Disaster Management Department, etc.;
• Technical support in developing/revising a climate-resilient infrastructure strategy for rural roads;
• Support in reviewing national guidelines, as well as the context of best practice, on climate resilient transport infrastructure to identify needs and issues in transportation sector (roads) and support in drafting a report on gaps in current standards and guidelines for climate resilient transport infrastructure at the regional level;
• Provide inputs in national guidelines on resilient transport (roads) infrastructure, based on above review;
• Support Regional Transport Expert by providing technical input in developing Framework and Principles for climate resilience in planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance of strategic and rural road and road infrastructure throughout its design life period.
• Undertake stocktaking of key barriers at national level towards operationalizing climate resilient roads strategy in Bangladesh specifically;
• Provide technical input in revising national guidelines on climate resilience for roads in Bangladesh, based on above-mentioned stocktaking exercise;
• Support in drafting the scoping report on gender in climate change to map and assess gender landscape in relation to climate resilient development in finance and planning and key sectors;
• Provide inputs in developing an action plan to mainstreaming gender into budgeting, planning and sector development processes;
• Support in policy and knowledge interventions for climate risk management including harmonizing climate change strategies with national and local development/investment plans;
• Additionally, s/he will assist Regional Specialists to evaluate the geospatial & other relevant climate-related data in conducting climate inclusive hazard assessment and risk assessment to develop risk/damage scenarios for climate extremes for rural roads. The major support includes:
  • Collecting geospatial data and other data needed for climate-related hazard, exposure, vulnerability, risk assessment for rural roads in Bangladesh to establish standardized geospatial databases needed;
  • Technical input in developing hazard-specific climate change scenarios suitable for resilient development planning in Bangladesh;
  • Technical input to mapping and prioritizing vulnerable locations along the key transport corridor;
  • Arranging consultations and workshops to finalize risk assessment and climate change assessment methodologies for rural roads in Bangladesh;
• Review the existing GIS and Road and Structure Database management System (RSDMS), Rural Bridges Improvement and Management System (RuBIMS) systems/functions of LGED to identify the possibility of linking/incorporating the geospatial data and other data (relating climate-related hazard, exposure, vulnerability, risk assessment for rural roads in Bangladesh) in the existing version. A series of discussion with the ICT/GIS/Bridge unit of LGED is recommended.
• Identify the gaps/improvement requirements for the existing GIS and Road and Structure Database management System (RSDMS), Rural Bridges Improvement and Management System (RuBIMS) systems/functions of LGED specific to such data (relating climate-related hazard, exposure, vulnerability, risk assessment for rural roads in Bangladesh) inputs in next upgrades of these software/systems. This task doesn’t include the upgradation/alterations of these systems/software.

E. Qualifications

• A bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and master’s degree in one or more subjects in transportation engineering, construction, climate change, disaster risk management, infrastructure, or equivalent combination of education is preferred
• At least 5 years of experience on transportation sector development, construction and policy development related work, preferably in Bangladesh
• Experience on conducting training needs assessment and capacity building in relevant field would be an advantage
• Strong understanding and knowledge of climate change impacts on transportation sector in South Asia
• Fair understanding in developing climate-resilient strategies
• Fair understanding in utilizing geospatial data and other data for climate-related assessments
• International experience would be a plus
• Teamwork with strong communication skills and capacity to work under pressure and short deadlines
• Cross cultural awareness and ability to work amongst a diverse group of staff, and partners
• Required computer proficiencies: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Internet
• Experience in training and capacity building
• Excellent English proficiency oral and written communication, including a demonstrated track record in technical report writing and ability to communicate technical matters effectively to general audience;
• Experience on conducting training needs assessment and capacity building in relevant field would be an advantage.

Interested Candidates can submit the completed ADPC application form, (downloadable from www.adpc.net), resume, and copy of degrees/certificate(s) together with a cover letter to: [email protected] , to the attention of Dr. Saswata Sanyal, Project Manager.

Female candidates are especially encouraged to apply.

Closing date : 30 May 2023