Crisis Risk Specialist [open To All Applicants]

Organizational Context

The UNDP Crisis Bureau (CB) supports countries in building resilience to anticipate, prevent, respond to, and recover from crises, aiming to reduce reliance on humanitarian aid and integrate risk-informed development planning. The Crisis Risk Unit (CRU) within the CB generates decision intelligence for anticipatory development actions, working across the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus to shift from reactive to proactive risk management.

Job Purpose

The Crisis Risk Specialist will provide 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 as a key UNDP capability. This role ensures high-quality, policy-relevant anticipatory insights are delivered, sustainably resourced, and integrated into UNDP's analytics offer. The specialist will translate complex risk analytics into actionable decision intelligence, enhance corporate and inter-agency positioning of UNDP's crisis risk analytics, and foster partnerships to strengthen the organization's ability to anticipate risks and protect development gains in complex environments.

Responsibilities

The role involves global coordination and strategic leadership of the INFORM initiative, including managing partnerships, governance, planning, and results. This includes overseeing the delivery and improvement of INFORM analytical products (Risk Index, Severity Index, Climate Change Risk Index) and leading resource mobilization efforts. Additionally, the specialist will provide strategic and operational leadership for INFORM Warning, a core UNDP capability for anticipatory risk analysis, managing its end-to-end program cycle, coordinating scientific contributions, and ensuring the quality and usability of early warning outputs. The position also contributes to integrating UNDP's crisis risk analytics across corporate and country-level processes, facilitating knowledge sharing, and enhancing the visibility of anticipatory and preventive risk analytics.

Work Experience

A minimum of seven years of progressively responsible experience in crisis risk analysis, early warning, anticipatory action, or crisis risk management is required, combining advanced analytical work, research, policy analysis, and coordination of multi-stakeholder initiatives. Experience coordinating complex, multi-partner initiatives, developing risk indices, translating research into operational tools, and engaging in global policy debates is desired.

Skills

Core Competencies: Achieve Results, Think Innovatively, Learn Continuously, Adapt with Agility, Act with Determination, Engage and Partner, Enable Diversity and Inclusion. Cross-Functional/Technical Competencies: System Thinking, Knowledge Generation, Portfolio Management, Risk, Early Warning and Anticipation, Crisis Project Management/Programming, Innovation for crisis response and recovery, Innovation ecosystem curation.

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