Consultant VAM

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Org. Unit: Research and Development Department (R&D), ARC
Duty Station: Remote
Contract Type: When Actually Employed Consultancy
Duration: 11.5 days within 2 months with possibility of extension.
Reporting to: R&D Director

Background and assignment
African Risk Capacity (ARC) is a Specialised Agency of the African Union.1 The ARC Agency leads the ARC Group, a development finance institution that provides financial tools and infrastructure to help countries manage natural disaster risk and adapt to climate change. It counts 38 AU countries as members and is supervised by a ministerial level governing board elected by its Conference of the Parties. The ARC design and establishment phase was managed by WFP, under a MoU with the African Union, and WFP continues to provide administrative services support to the ARC Agency through an administrative services agreement.
In 2014, ARC launched its initial risk insurance product for member states through its financial affiliate the ARC Insurance Company Limited (ARC Ltd)2. ARC Ltd is a specialist hybrid mutual insurance company and Africa’s first ever disaster insurance pool, aggregating risk by issuing insurance policies to participating governments and transferring it to the international market. ARC Ltd uses the satellite weather surveillance software Africa RiskView, to estimate the impact of drought on vulnerable populations – and the response costs required to assist them – before a season begins, and as it progresses, so that index- based insurance payouts, based on Africa RiskView, are triggered at or before harvest time if the rains are poor. In 2020, ARC expanded its portfolio by adding an insurance product tailored for drought risk in pastoral areas and launching the first tropical cyclone insurance product in Africa.
Since its creation in 2012 the ARC Agency has been working towards establishing and mainstreaming its operational procedures and in-country work programme with ARC Member States. At the country-level the ARC Secretariat of the ARC Agency supports ARC in-country technical working groups on several technical work-streams as they progress towards making an informed decision on risk financing and participating in the ARC Ltd insurance pool.

Responsibilities
One of the core elements of the ARC Agency’s research and development programme is now to expand the products offered by ARC to include flood and outbreak and epidemics risk, in addition to its on- going work to improve the drought and tropical cyclone models and the Africa RiskView (ARV) software. With ARC expansion of activities (reaching more member states and with more products), there’s a strong need to ensure smooth operational procedures, high-quality documentation of the models and tools developed by ARC, as well as controlling the quality of input and output data. The expert will be integrated in the Research and Quality team of the R&D department and contribute mainly to the quality assurance and documentation of the current ARC models and tools building on feedback from the in-country customization workshops and internal model reviews. As required and on request from the R&D Director, the expert will also support the development of the flood risk modelling and provide scientific and technical support to the country engagement teams for their work related to the flood product. Having very good technical and scientific skills on the one hand, and a very good understanding of the in-country Technical Working Groups (TWG) and of the ARC tools (ARV, TCE) on the other hand, the expert will support the TSD team with quality assurance of in-country customization reports.

Reporting to the ARC Director of Research & Development and working closely with other teams within the department, the expert’s tasks will include to:
➢ Review and improve Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for quality assurance of ARV new releases;
➢ Develop Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the validation and, where possible, customisation of the flood model by in-country Technical Working Groups and the ARC Secretariat Technical Team;
➢ Draft user guides and documentation of the ARV modules (crop and rangeland drought, tropical cyclone explorer and flood explorer when it will be available);
➢ Coordinate the translation of the ARV documentation into French and Portuguese. The translation will be subcontracted to an external service provider;
➢ Coordinate with the Technical Support Division to improve the quality of input data in ARV;
➢ Provide expert advice and technical support in GIS and remote sensing data analysis to the technical support team for their engagement with in-country TWGs;
➢ Contribute to the design and update of worksheets and tools for in-country customisation
➢ Conduct specific testing of new ARV releases, document the outcome and advise on possible solutions;
➢ Contribute to the flood model development with review and assessment of the key input data (rainfall, DEMs, hydrological data);
➢ Contribute to the development of the reference dataset for a scientific-sound validation of the flood risk model;
➢ Provide expert advice to improve the drought model with regards to issues identified by the in- country Technical Working Groups (TWG);
➢ Coordinate the preparation of technical reports and scientific papers to document and communicate on ARC innovation in drought risk modelling;
➢ Prepare and conduct general trainings on ARV and contribute to the development of the ARC Technical Team’s training programme;
➢ Provide support and input to collaborations with partners in the field of drought and flood risk modelling in the interest of ARC's involvement and access to technology, data and expertise. Attend relevant conferences and missions as required.
➢ Support the development of alternative indices and explore additional datasets for use in the ARC models, and implement a system for detecting data errors.
➢ Support the anticipatory insurance pilot projects with proposal development and product improvement in collaboration with institutions working on seasonal forecasts.
➢ Support the review of the country risk profiles developed by consultants to address the backlog of finalizing country risk profile documents
➢ Participate in team meetings; perform other tasks as requested by the Director of Research & Development, senior ARC staff and working closely with the ARC Secretariat Technical Team and ARV users, as required.

The consultant is expected to produce at least the following key deliverables:
➢ SOPs for testing and validating for distribution new ARV releases;
➢ SOPs for the validation and, if possible, customisation of the flood model by in-country Technical Working Groups and the ARC Secretariat Technical Team;
➢ Up-to-date documentation of the 3 ARV modules (crop, rangeland and tropical cyclone) in 3 languages (English, French and Portuguese);
➢ Up-to-date training material (PPT) for the crop and rangeland products;
➢ Testing reports of new ARV releases (the number of reports will depend on the frequency of releases);
➢ Improved input data (calculation masks, GIS layers, etc.) in ARV depending on the TSD requests;
➢ Updated worksheets for in-country customisation of the drought and rangeland models;
➢ Report on drought model improvements in response to issues identified by in-country TWGs.

Additional deliverables will be defined in the course of the contract as the institution's needs arise.

Qualifications and experience required
Education:
Advanced university degree in natural resources and environmental sciences, hydrology, geography, engineering or other related discipline with a strong component of GIS, Remote Sensing and data analysis or an advanced university degree in GIS, Remote Sensing, Geomatics or related discipline with a strong environmental background.
Experience:
Minimum of 12 years of international experience working on agricultural, environmental, hydrological, disaster risk management or climate-related issues, with specific experience with applications to natural disaster risk insurance mechanisms. Experience in standardisation and developing procedures to streamline the organisaiton’s operations and ensure high quality outputs. Experience in Africa, working with African governments, is a strong asset.
Knowledge & Skills:
Strong GIS and remote sensing skills, data management and statistical analysis software knowledge. Strong analytical and statistical skills to manage and analyse data and model results as required. Excellent technical writing, presentation and team working skills, with the ability to follow, develop and deliver timely a given scope of work. Demonstrated ability to deliver complete
and high-quality products (reports or datasets). Ability to adapt to new tasks and to align smoothly with the organisation strategic objectives.
Languages:
International Professional: Fluency (level C) in English and French.

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