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7 February 2022
The Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) requests Expressions of Interest from an individual consultant to provide support to the Facilitator of the Water Adaptation Community (WAC). The objective of this assignment is to provide technical, communications and administrative support to the WAC.
INTRODUCTION
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.
The GCA has an ambitious 2020-2025 business plan with three pillars:
- Programs and Action: Food Security; Using Nature for more resilient infrastructure; Water for Urban Growth and Resilience; Climate Finance; Youth Leadership
- Knowledge Acceleration: Building adaptation knowledge globally through cutting edge products such as the State and Trends in Adaptation Report and the Knowledge Exchange Platform
- Agenda Setting and Advocacy: Formulating policy messages to move the global, regional, and local adaptation agendas forward.
INFORMATION ON CONSULTANCY
The impact of climate change will be most acutely expressed through water, which hits at the very heart of human development, calling for an acceleration of water adaptation. The water crisis was already a fact before climate change entered the scene. This means that climate impacts occur in a vulnerable context, created by decades of unsustainable development, which now pushes systems across tipping points.
Accelerating water adaptation requires a collective effort across the globe, to share and scale up innovations and good practice. For this purpose, many multistakeholder platforms and networks are active. However, there are still many gaps, with a lot of networking still occurring in siloes, preaching to the converted, and key actors have lack of knowledge, adequate mechanisms, tools and capacity. While science may have many answers, there is a critical gap in translating knowledge to practical application and scaling up good practice.
The Water Adaptation Community (WAC) has therefore been developed to address these gaps. It is a multi-stakeholder platform for knowledge exchange, shared learning, collaboration, inspiration, and capacity building (Watch the video presenting the WAC). The focus is global, acknowledging that while developed countries may have more resources to adapt, developing countries may be adaptation innovators due to necessity.
More specifically, the WAC aims at:
- Sharing, developing, and exchanging insights, knowledge, and resources on the crucial role water plays in adaptation.
- Collecting knowledge on empirical good practice on water adaptation mainstreaming with the help of the network.
- Brokering solutions providers with solution seekers on good practice and inspiration, innovation and learning, and to find effective and scalable ways for impact
- Building capacity with all relevant stakeholders and actors, including the climate community at international level, to increase understanding of key issues, ensure commitment and resources towards implementing adequate water adaptation.
The consultant will be providing support to day-to-day facilitation of the Water Adaptation Community. He/she will support the GCA’s facilitator of the WAC providing the following:
- Supporting the development of webinar programs in consultation with GCA’s WAC facilitator.
- Production of knowledge outputs, such as online articles, videos, briefs and blogs.
- General support to the development of the WAC.
The duration of the consultancy is initially 4 months from February and July 2022 for an average of 4.5 days per week.
EOI TECHNICAL SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
The consultant is expected to have strong technical experience and specific qualifications with:
- At least seven years of experience in communications and program support, preferably in water, climate adaptation, and environmental management. Please provide a CV.
- Excellent knowledge of a broad range of water issues and environmental management combined with good knowledge and ability to facilitate online and hybrid meetings and events. Please provide clear evidence through an annotated breakdown of experience covering at least 5 years of experience in the water sector and involvement in 3 initiatives.
- Experience and knowledge of implementing a communications strategy including basic video editing and social media communication. Excellent organizational, communication and writing skills (English). Please provide a short portfolio containing at least 3 case studies or similar documentation.
HOW TO EXPRESS INTEREST
If you wish to qualify to submit a proposal to provide the above services, with evidence of your academic and technical qualifications, and experience in the topics listed in the “Technical Submission Requirements” 1-3 above.
The GCA looks forward to EOI submissions with the subject line “EOI No. 150 – Facilitator Water Adaptation Community Consultancy Services” to the following email address only: procurement@gca.org
The closing date for submissions is 18.00 CET, 18th February 2022. Only those who have provided the required information in their EOI will be invited to submit proposals.