Lead Consultant – Resilient Infrastructure Hotspot Analysis in Timor-Leste

This consultancy will deliver a hotspot analysis identifying priority areas of disaster risk affecting critical infrastructure and services in Timor-Leste, to support the Government through the Civil Protection Authority (CPA) in prioritizing investments. It will also produce a practical methodology and policy-relevant risk insights that can be used by the Government to guide future quantitative prioritisation of disaster risk reduction investments.

Home Base

6 Apr 26-28 Feb 27

Created in December 1999, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) is the designated focal point in the United Nations system for the coordination of efforts to reduce disasters and to ensure synergies among the disaster reduction activities of the United Nations and regional organizations and activities in both developed and less developed countries. Led by the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction (SRSG/ASG), UNDRR has over 150 staff located in its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, and in regional offices. UNDRR guides, monitors, analyses, and reports on progress in the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030. It supports regional and national implementation of the Framework and catalyzes action and increases global awareness to reduce disaster risk working with UN Member States and a broad range of partners and stakeholders, including civil society, the private sector, parliamentarians and the science and technology community. Timor-Leste faces a complex and evolving disaster risk landscape shaped by the interaction of multiple natural hazards, high socio-economic vulnerability, and climate change impacts. The country is regularly affected by floods, landslides, droughts, tropical cyclones, and earthquakes, with hydrometeorological hazards posing the most frequent and widespread impacts. Recent events, including Tropical Cyclone Seroja in 2021, demonstrated the severe consequences of disasters on lives, livelihoods, infrastructure, and public service delivery, and highlighted the country’s exposure to compound and cascading risks. Over the past decade, Timor-Leste has made important progress in strengthening disaster risk governance. The adoption of the Civil Protection Law and the establishment of the Civil Protection Authority (CPA) marked a shift from a predominantly reactive emergency response model toward a more preventive, multi-hazard approach to disaster risk management. The Government’s Midterm Review of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 (Sendai Framework) in 2023 confirmed gains in legal and institutional frameworks, preparedness, and coordination, while also identifying persistent gaps in risk knowledge, data integration, and the use of risk information to inform policy and investment decisions. Despite the availability of hazard maps, historical disaster loss data, and project-based risk studies, disaster risk information in Timor-Leste remains fragmented across institutions and sectors. Existing datasets are not consistently synthesised into a coherent national risk picture that can guide strategic prioritisation, cross-sectoral planning, or resource allocation. As a result, disaster risk reduction considerations are not yet systematically embedded in sectoral development planning, infrastructure investment decisions, or sub-national governance processes. There is growing recognition that disaster risks in Timor-Leste are increasingly expressed through disruptions to critical infrastructure and essential services. Damage to or failure of transport networks, health facilities, and early warning and communication systems can significantly amplify disaster impacts by isolating communities, delaying emergency response, constraining access to health and social services, and reducing the effectiveness of preparedness and early warning measures. These impacts disproportionately affect women, elderly persons, persons with disabilities, and other groups with heightened mobility and service-access constraints. In this context, UNDRR, in partnership with the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), is supporting Timor-Leste through the Infrastructure for Resilient Island States (IRIS) initiative to strengthen the integration of disaster risk considerations into infrastructure planning and investment. The CDRI/IRIS project provides a focused entry point to examine disaster risks affecting key infrastructure systems (particularly transport, health, and early warning system infrastructure), through a hot-spot analysis, and to promote risk-informed prioritisation under the data and capacity constraints typical of small island and least-developed states. In particular, the hotspot analysis supported under CDRI/IRIS is intended to generate evidence that can be used by the Council for the Administration of the Infrastructure Fund (CAFI) and relevant line ministries to strengthen the application of risk and inclusion criteria within Infrastructure Fund decision-making processes. This includes supporting more systematic consideration of disaster risk, service criticality, and social vulnerability in the identification and prioritisation of infrastructure investments. In this context, UNDRR, in partnership with the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), is supporting Timor-Leste through the Infrastructure for Resilient Island States (IRIS) initiative. This project provides a focused entry point to examine disaster risks affecting key infrastructure systems through a hot-spot analysis. The hotspot analysis is intended to generate evidence for the Council for the Administration of the Infrastructure Fund (CAFI) and relevant line ministries to strengthen the application of risk and inclusion criteria within infrastructure investment screening and prioritization. The consultant is required work home-based, under the overall supervision of the Programme Management Officer at the UNDRR Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in close coordination with the Climate and Disaster-Resilient Development Officer at the United Nations Resident Coordinator’s Office and the Civil Protection Authority in Timor Leste. Scope of Work The consultant will conduct a policy-oriented hotspot analysis to spatially prioritise areas where disaster risk, critical infrastructure, service delivery, and social vulnerability intersect, with a focus on selected priority sectors such as transport, health, and early warning systems. The analysis will support investment screening and sequencing rather than detailed engineering design. The consultant will receive technical guidance from UNDRR and relevant UN partners on gender equality, disability, and social inclusion (GEDSI) and will integrate this guidance throughout the analytical process to ensure that gender- and inclusion-related vulnerabilities and access constraints are appropriately reflected in the outputs. Design the Hotspot Analysis Framework: Develop a multi-criteria, proxy-based analytical approach appropriate for policy and investment screening across transport, health, and early warning networks. The consultant will be revisiting the conceptual and analytical framework drafted by the UNDRR team. Prioritization & Policy Translation: Clearly document prioritization criteria and rationale, and limitations, ensuring the analysis supports portfolio-level investment sequencing rather than detailed engineering design. Vulnerability Integration: Systematically integrate gender, age, disability, and service-access (GEDSI) considerations into the hotspot scoring model, informed by technical guidance from UNDRR. Vulnerability Function Scoping & Future Roadmap: Conduct a literature review of infrastructure vulnerability functions to establish analytical foundations that enable Timor-Leste to advance toward more sophisticated quantitative risk assessments (e.g., Return on Investment models) in the future. Duties and Responsibilities 1. Hotspot analysis (critical infrastructure) Design and apply a multi-criteria hotspot prioritisation framework. Produce the hotspot analysis for transport networks, health facilities, and early warning infrastructure. Integrate social vulnerability and service-access dimension 2. Consultation & validation Facilitate technical validation of the hotspot analysis with government counterparts and other stakeholders. Support policy dialogues to ensure the usability of the results for investment screening 3. Documentation & handover Prepare methodological notes in English. Identify the next analytical steps for future modelling, creating the foundation for future quantitative risk or return-on-investment models

Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in disaster risk management, geography/environmental or natural resources management, infrastructure risk and asset exposure modeling, geoinformatics/geographic information systems, mathematics, statistics, or related fields is required. A first-level university degree with at least 2 additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of an advanced university degree. Minimum 7 years of professional experience in disaster risk reduction, multi-hazard risk assessment/analytics, spatial analysis or related field is required. Experience in geospatial analysis using GIS software (ArcGIS, QGIS etc) is desirable. Experience in conducting disaster risk assessments in SIDS, LDCs, or Southeast Asian context is desirable. Experience in facilitating multi-stakeholder consultations, including marginalized and vulnerable groups is desirable.

Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of Tetun and Portuguese is desirable.

Due to the high volume of applications received, only successful candidates will be contacted.

THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.