Overview
The consultant will support ECOWAS and UNDRR in strengthening regional disaster risk reduction and preparedness planning in West Africa by analyzing existing assessments and developing a regional disaster risk overview.
Key Responsibilities
- Develop an inception report outlining the methodological approach, analytical framework, data collection tools, and workplan.
- Compile, review, and analyze existing disaster risk assessments, methodologies, and information systems across ECOWAS Member States and regional institutions.
- Assess data availability, quality, accessibility, and use in decision-making, including early warning systems.
- Identify gaps, overlaps, and inconsistencies in current approaches, as well as good practices and scalable solutions.
- Produce a structured analytical output highlighting key findings, gaps, and recommendations.
- Synthesize multi-hazard risk information across countries, integrating data on hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and transboundary risks, including gender and disabilities data.
- Produce a coherent regional risk profile to support preparedness and response planning.
- Structure outputs in formats suitable for integration into ECOWAS tools and platforms, including the MyDEWETRA system.
- Organize and facilitate a stakeholder consultation workshop to present findings and gather feedback.
- Incorporate stakeholder inputs into the final outputs.
- Deliver final outputs in line with agreed quality standards and timelines.
Required Experience
- Seven (7) years of relevant professional experience in disaster risk reduction, emergency preparedness, or related fields, at the regional or international level is required.
- Experience in risk assessment, vulnerability analysis, and the design or implementation of disaster risk management and preparedness programmes, preferably within multi country or regional contexts is desirable.
- Experience working with regional and international disaster risk reduction frameworks, with prior engagement with ECOWAS systems or African regional institutions is required.
- Technical knowledge of multi hazard risk assessment methodologies, emergency preparedness and response systems, and disaster risk governance frameworks, including familiarity with GIS based risk mapping and spatial analysis tools, particularly where such tools have been applied to support policy development, preparedness planning, or operational decision making is desirable.
- Experience in analytical and synthesis skills, including the ability to manage, interpret, and integrate multi country quantitative and qualitative data from diverse sources is desirable.
- Experience in stakeholder engagement enabling effective collaboration within complex regional and institutional environments is desirable.
Qualifications
Advanced university degree (Master's degree or equivalent) in disaster risk management, civil protection, environmental sciences, geospatial sciences, public policy, or a related field is required. A first-level university degree in any of these fields in combination with two additional years of qualifying work experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
