VACANCY TITLE: Senior Program Officer Urban Resilience South-Asia 

LOCATION: Rotterdam (Netherlands) or Dhaka (Bangladesh)

TERM: Initial contract duration 1 year with possibility of extension 

INTENSITY: 40 hours per week, 5 days per week

ANTICIPATED START DATE: As soon as possible

APPLICATION DEADLINE: 16-12-2022; 10 pm CET

ABOUT GCA

The Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) is an international organization that works as a solutions broker to catalyze action and support for adaptation solutions, from the international to the local, in partnership with the public and private sector, to ensure we learn from each other and work together for a climate resilient future. Adapting to impacts of climate change provides a “win-win” for health, livelihoods, food security, water supply, human security and economic growth. The work of the GCA elevates the visibility and political importance of climate adaptation and facilitates solutions, such as smarter investments, new technologies and better planning to become more resilient to climate-related threats. GCA is a rapidly growing organization with offices in Abidjan, Beijing, Dhaka, Groningen, and Rotterdam.

ABOUT THE ROLE

Profile

The Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) seeks a dynamic and experienced Senior Program Officer Urban Resilience South Asia to join the Water and Urban team and help drive forward GCA’s role as a solutions broker in the field of urban climate adaptation. The individual will actively engage in and provide leadership on policy advocacy and programs for urban climate adaptation as well as provide technical, content-focused support to advance GCA’s overall policy and advocacy work. This person is responsible for cultivating and managing relationships with external partners and parties as well as supporting the team’s ongoing work around implementation of the Water and Urban program.

Responsabilities

Under the oversight of the GCA Water and Urban Lead the incumbent will carry out the following:

• Support (and operationalize) the conceptual development of GCA’s City Adaptation Accelerator (CAA) in Bangladesh specifically and South Asia generally, particular in relation to scaling up and acceleration of adaptation, and locally-led adaptation.

• Develop and implement a pipeline of technical assistance projects in the urban climate adaptation and urban resilience sectors that shapes and expands GCA’s partnerships with leading Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) such as Asian Development Bank (ADB) and World Bank – to drive, scale up and accelerate on-the-ground urban climate adaptation. This will include established adaptation practice while creating the space and energy for innovation as well.

• Closely collaborate with MDB task teams to support the integration and implementation of climate adaptation in urban development projects that may include urban water management, housing, spatial planning, informal settlements, urban flood management and associated planning tools. This work will be done in collaboration with other GCA Water and Urban team members involved in integrated water resource management (IWRM), irrigation, urban service delivery, and so on.

• Take a proactive role in the conceptualization, design, implementation and supervision of highly innovative and transformative technical assistance to urban climate adaptation and urban resilience building investment projects and programs of MDBs, in particular the ADB. This will include frequent and in-depth interactions and coordination with task team leaders/managers of MDBs.

• Drive a multi-faceted program, in coordination with regional and international partners, to build capacity of national and local government and non-governmental stakeholders.

• Support the operationalization of knowledge development related to urban water resilience and participate in relevant workshops and meetings to keep abreast with ongoing trends in climate adaptation, urban development and their implications on the GCA agenda and strategy.

• Further expand and maintain GCA’s network of international, national and local stakeholders in the water-urban adaptation sector.

• Support the procurement of external expertise (individual consultants, firms).
• Support the preparation of knowledge products (e.g. policy briefs, news stories, reports) on GCA’s activities.

• Support on-the-job strengthening of capacity of GCA staff and partner organizations.

• Perform other related duties as assigned.