Overview
The Crisis Risk Specialist provides strategic leadership and expertise to advance UNDP’s crisis risk analytics and anticipatory action agenda, with a focus on coordinating the INFORM initiative and leading INFORM Warning.
Key Responsibilities
- Provide strategic leadership and day-to-day stewardship of the INFORM initiative.
- Coordinate and convene INFORM partners.
- Lead governance, planning, and results management processes for INFORM.
- Oversee the delivery and continuous improvement of flagship INFORM analytical products.
- Lead resource mobilisation and sustainability efforts for INFORM.
- Promote and enable longer-term global, regional and national-level uptake and implementation of INFORM methodologies and products.
- Establish, maintain, and actively mobilise a global network of experts and focal points on crisis risk analytics and early warning.
- Provide strategic leadership of INFORM Warning as a core UNDP capability.
- Lead the INFORM Warning programme end-to-end.
- Direct and coordinate scientific and technical contributions to INFORM Warning.
- Ensure the quality, relevance, and usability of anticipatory insights and early warning outputs.
- Build and manage strategic partnerships related to INFORM Warning.
- Represent UNDP and the Crisis Risk Unit in inter-agency and technical fora on early warning, anticipatory action, and horizon scanning.
- Contribute to the development and refinement of a coherent Crisis Risk Unit analytics offer.
- Support the integration of INFORM products and methodologies into UNDP corporate, bureau, and regional analytical and decision-making processes.
- Translate crisis risk analytics and anticipatory insights into clear, practical inputs.
- Provide strategic inputs, as required, to the positioning and elevation of UNDP’s crisis risk analytics in global and inter-agency processes.
- Contribute to coordination, knowledge sharing, and strategic dialogue.
- Supervise 1xIPSA.
Required Experience
- Minimum of seven (7) years (with Master’s degree) or nine (9) years (with Bachelor’s degree) of progressively responsible experience in crisis risk analysis, early warning, anticipatory action, or crisis risk management, combining advanced analytical or scientific work, research and policy analysis, and senior coordination of complex, multi-stakeholder initiatives, in an international context is required.
- Demonstrated senior experience coordinating and leading a complex, multi-partner and inter-agency initiative or programme related to crisis risk analysis, early warning, or anticipatory action, including responsibility for governance arrangements, strategic direction, workplanning, results frameworks, resource mobilisation, and programme management, including financial and human resource oversight is desired.
- Demonstrated advanced analytical or scientific experience, including the ability to engage credibly with post-doctoral researchers, scientists, and technical experts on quantitative analysis, risk modelling and assessment methodologies, and analytical frameworks, and to coordinate and synthesize their contributions within applied analytical systems is desired.
- Proven experience developing or overseeing the development of composite risk indices or comparable analytical frameworks for crisis risk or vulnerability analysis, including indicator selection, methodological design, validation, and interpretation is desired.
- Demonstrated experience translating scientific and analytical research on crisis risks into operational tools, early warning products, or decision-support systems, and ensuring their practical application within organizational and multilateral decision-making processes, including planning cycles, prioritisation frameworks, and anticipatory investment or response decisions is desired.
- Experience in global policy debates and inter-agency processes related to crisis risk, disaster risk reduction, climate change, and anticipatory action, combined with demonstrated experience establishing, maintaining, and mobilising networks of experts and focal points across UN entities, donor governments, scientific institutions, and technical organizations is desired.
- Experience bridging scientific, analytical, and policy communities and communicating complex analytical concepts clearly to non-technical audiences is desired.
Qualifications
Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Climate Science, Risk Management, Data Science, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, or a related analytical or scientific field is required; or A first-level university degree (Bachelor’s degree) in the above areas, in combination with an additional two (2) years of qualifying experience, will be given due consideration in lieu of a Master’s degree. A doctoral degree (PhD or equivalent) in a relevant scientific or analytical discipline is desired, particularly where it demonstrates advanced training in quantitative analysis, modelling, data interpretation, and the rigorous application of scientific methods.
