Head English

Centre for Disaster Protection: Interim Head of Evidence
The Centre for Disaster Protection works to prevent disasters devastating lives, by helping people, countries, and organisations change how they plan and pay for disasters. We focus on disaster risk financing to help ensure that money and plans are in place before a disaster strikes, so that the poorest and most vulnerable people are better protected. We are committed to work in partnerships across sectors and geographies to drive more impactful and more equitable disaster risk finance that leaves no one behind. Delivering excellent client outcomes and promoting lasting disaster risk finance expertise: We provide clients with impartial and evidence-based advice, quality assurance and training that meets their needs and drives more effective disaster risk finance.
Quality evidence and learning: We work to strengthen the evidence base for prearranged financing and document and share what shows the greatest potential to achieve system change.
Impactful communications and global policy engagement: We seek to engage and influence through evidence-led policy and inclusive policy dialogue that bridges both ‘local to global’ and the humanitarian development climate nexus, targeting the bottlenecks key to effect transformative change of the international crisis financing architecture.
Additionally, we are focused on building effective systems and processes for people and operations that support the Centre to rapidly, yet strategically, scale and grow in a way that supports our people to do their best work through safe challenge, promoting and integrating diversity, equity and inclusion.
The Centre is funded with UK aid through the UK government. Under these terms of reference, we wish to appoint an interim Head of Evidence who will be contributing to portfolio delivery, reporting, and planning for the Centre’s work on one of our four goals:
Quality evidence and learning: We will fill in areas of white space in what we know about what works and what doesn’t in the disaster risk financing landscape, translating, and deploying learning and insights through our advisory and engagement, and to inform and shape the global policy agenda.
with a focus on two evidence-led programmes: ‘Operational learning’ and ‘Effective international support for disaster risk financing’.
The interim Head of Evidence will report to the Centre Director and be expected to work closely with the Evidence Program Manager and wider team on the following activities, to be prioritised based on need and the interim Head of Evidence’s availability:
# Programme management for two evidence-driven programmes:

# Review evidence-related project concept notes submitted under these programmes.
# Prepare project concept notes under these programmes.
# Recommend the formation of project teams to deliver specific evidence projects.
# Provide recommendations for short- and medium-term options for investment in evidence under each of these programmes, building on inputs from the evidence team.
# Provide assessments on the performance of Project Leads for projects within these programmes, to be submitted to line managers.

# Quality enhancement:

# Work planning and strategy refresh:

# Synthesise own inputs and inputs from evidence team to proposed 1-year programme of work for the two evidence-driven programmes for workplan year July 2025 – June 2026 for inclusion in the Centre’s 2025/26 workplan, to be submitted to the Board in June 2025.
# Synthesise own inputs and inputs from evidence team to proposed 5-year programme of work for the period July 2025 – June 2030 for inclusion in the Centre’s 5-year workplan, to be submitted to the Board in June 2025.
# For all these deliverables the interim Head of Evidence will be required to:
Contribute to building the Centre’s external reputation through delivering excellent technical work and the development of innovative solutions.
Relevant professional experience managing complex evidence projects and portfolios.
Significant expertise (and where relevant, professional qualifications) in disaster risk financing or a relevant field, such as public financial management, insurance, risk management, risk modelling, actuarial science, economics, or humanitarian finance.
Relevant experience delivering evidence projects in low- and middle-income country contexts.
A credible understanding of actors, incentives, and institutional and policy environment of multilateral and bilateral international development.
Excellent written and oral communication skills in English.
The role is expected to be between six and nine months, with a level of effort between 8 and 16 days per month to be agreed on a quarterly basis in advance, at the mutual agreement of the interim Head of Evidence and the Centre Director. The work is expected to start on 1 January 2025.
As such, we are open to tailoring the responsibilities and to offering this position on a fixed-term contract basis, either as full-time employment or on a call-down arrangement. Remuneration will be based on individual experience and skills while, as the Centre is a UK aid-funded project, all rates for consultants and staff are subject to controls. The remuneration package, whether as a fixed salary or call-down rate, will be negotiated accordingly and will depend on the type of contract and scope of responsibilities agreed upon.
This includes travel related expenses and others as relevant and mutually agreed. Indicative gross daily fee rate expectations.
This includes vetting of the organisations in line with terrorism checks, company history of improper conduct, any legal acts against the organisation(s) and initial vetting of proposed personnel. Successful individual(s) will be subject to detailed vetting analysis and relevant reference checks, and, in the case of organisations, also a due diligence assessment through DAI’s Management Capacity Assessment Tool (MCAT). Safeguarding policies, procedures, and systems.
Financial management policies, procedures, practices and systems.
Modern Slavery policies and procedures.
Final award of contract will not be confirmed until these checks are complete.
Intellectual Property Any Foreground Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) arising out of the performance of project will belong to the Managing Agent of the Centre for the purposes of awarding to the Centre perpetual, irrevocable license to use, sub-license or commercially exploit such IPRs in the delivery of its mission and likewise to the Centre’s funder, the UK FCDO. The Management Agent, on behalf of the Centre, will provide the Service Provider with the right to use such IPRs and other Centre IPRs to the extent needed to fulfil their obligations under this project. IPRs relating to any background intellectual property drawn upon by the Service Provider in delivery of the assignment shall remain with the Service Provider, who will provide the Centre (through its Managing Agent) and FCDO rights to use such intellectual property to the extent it is integrally required to enjoy their rights to use the results of the Project and the foreground IPRs.
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