Global Technical Advisor – Disability Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction
About CBM
CBM (registered as CBM Christoffel-Blindenmission Christian Blind Mission e.V.) is an international development organisation committed to improving the quality of life of persons with disabilities in the poorest communities of the world. Based on their Christian values and more than 100 years of professional expertise, CBM addresses poverty as a cause and a consequence of disability. CBM works in partnership to create an inclusive society for all.
About the Role
CBM integrated Disability Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction (DIDRR) activities into its multi-year Community-Based Inclusive Development (CBID) and humanitarian projects. Consequently, disaster preparedness is a cross-cutting theme of CBM’s CBID Initiative, supported through a DIDRR framework, guiding the way forward in geographic scope alongside key actions defined from community to global levels. There are ongoing DIDRR interventions across over 15 countries in national, regional and global projects, spread across Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
Working under the supervision of the Specialist Technical Advisory Lead, the Global Technical Advisor on disability-inclusive DRR will team up with the current global DIDRR advisor and co-lead on technical advisory, strategic leadership, and overall management of the DIDRR portfolio.
Purpose of the Role
The Global Technical Advisor on disability-inclusive DRR will team up with the current global DIDRR advisor and co-lead on technical advisory, strategic leadership, and overall management of the DIDRR portfolio. They will provide technical expertise to field staff and support the implementation of the global DRR strategy. They will also ensure the following of standards in planning and implementing activities, including accreditation staffing for the technical area. The Global Advisor also acts as a key resource and representative to the identified alliances, including developing support materials, guides and publications according to the needs of the field.
Duties and Responsibilities
Technical programmatic support:
- Identify specific project needs of the high-risk countries in disaster risk reduction and draw on global support to meet those needs
- Contribute to developing and reviewing concept notes and programme/project proposals for donors on disaster-resilient community-based inclusive development (CBID) projects.
- Lead assessments, planning, monitoring and evaluation exercises (at partner, country, regional, global levels) for ongoing stand-alone and integrated DRR projects and programs.
- Provide and reflect DIDRR inputs into internal planning mechanisms, plans and reports.
Capacity building and innovation:
- Lead capacity building initiatives based on multi-year mapped needs of country offices and partners on a range of DIDRR topics, including anticipatory financing mechanisms, e.g. disability-inclusive crisis modifiers.
- Train, coach, and mentor DIDRR focal points in country offices and partners, including standards and tools.
- Proactively support and further develop the internal sharing and learning network of DIDRR experts.
- Diversify the organisational portfolio by integrating DIDRR in various interventions.
- Pilot new interventions such as inclusive early warning systems anticipatory financing mechanisms to enhance inclusivity of DRR interventions suitable to contexts.
Knowledge Development:
- Knowledge and understanding of the concepts, principles, and approaches to disaster risk reduction.
- Analyse DRR research, policies and trends and translate these into inclusive practices around disaster preparedness, risk assessments and other areas in collaboration with key academic and research partners.
- Contribute to the development of research and evidence-based material, support documentation of good practices and model programmes.
- Facilitate collaboration with other technical areas, internal teams, regional hubs as required to coordinate programmatic activities.
Positioning and partnerships:
- Contribute to the international development of DRR through representing CBM in relevant international alliances and fora, and have a global network of external expertise
- Identify critical opportunities for collaboration and partner with like-minded organisations for joint programming.
- Ensure internal and external communication about CBM’s activities in the areas of DIDRR.
- Represent CBM in relevant international associations/networks and have a global network of external expertise
Management of consultants:
- Identify work packages that can be delegated to consultants in line with CBM’s quality standards.
- Identify suitable short-term consultants (evaluations, studies, advisory support) and long-term tasks (recurring advisory work, additional fields of expertise).
Skills and Experience
Knowledge and Professional Experience:
- Several years of experience in disaster risk reduction or disaster-resilient programming in high-risk contexts or in broader development and humanitarian contexts.
- Excellent knowledge of global CBID frameworks.
- Experience working with governments and key international development stakeholders in disaster risk reduction or disaster response.
- Experience managing multidisciplinary and multi-cultural project teams.
- Background in development cooperation, project cycle management, participatory approaches and community mobilisation
- Experience in systematically including persons with disabilities and OPDs in disaster risk reduction, community resilience building, relief, recovery, and development (advantageous).
- Knowledge and experience in additional topics such as conflict, WASH, accessibility, gender and climate change are advantageous.
Languages:
- English (professional proficiency)
- French (highly desirable)