Consultant, Flood Modeling Expert

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

18 August 2025-23:59-GMT+02:00 South Africa Standard Time (Johannesburg)

ABOUT WFP

The World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity, for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

At WFP, people are at the heart of everything we do and the vision of the future WFP workforce is one of diverse, committed, skilled, and high performing teams, selected on merit, operating in a healthy and inclusive work environment, living WFP's values (Integrity, Collaboration, Commitment, Humanity, and Inclusion) and working with partners to save and change the lives of those WFP serves.

To learn more about WFP, visit our website:
WHY JOIN WFP?- WFP is a 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.- WFP offers a highly inclusive, diverse, and multicultural working environment.- WFP invests in the personal & professional development of its employees through a range of training, accreditation, coaching, mentorship, and other programs as well as through internal mobility opportunities.- A career path in WFP provides an exciting opportunity to work across the various country, regional and global offices around the world, and with passionate colleagues who work tirelessly to ensure that effective humanitarian assistance reaches millions of people across the globe.- We offer an attractive compensation package (please refer to the Terms and Conditions section of this vacancy announcement).

Background

African Risk Capacity (ARC) is a Specialised Agency of the African Union.1 The ARC Agency leads the ARC Group, a development finance institution that provides financial tools and infrastructure to help countries manage natural disaster risk and adapt to climate change. It counts 32 AU countries as members and is supervised by a ministerial level governing board elected by its Conference of the Parties. The ARC design and establishment phase was managed by WFP, under a MoU with the African Union, and WFP continues to provide administrative services support to the ARC Agency through an administrative services agreement.
In 2014, ARC launched its initial risk insurance product for member states through its financial affiliate the ARC Insurance Company Limited (ARC Ltd). ARC Ltd is a specialist hybrid mutual insurance company and Africa’s first ever disaster insurance pool, aggregating risk by issuing insurance policies to participating governments and transferring it to the international market. ARC uses the satellite weather surveillance software Africa RiskView to estimate the impact of drought on vulnerable populations - and the response costs required to assist them - before a season begins, and as it progresses, so that index-based insurance payouts, based on Africa RiskView, are triggered at or before harvest time if the rains are poor. In 2020, ARC expanded its portfolio by adding an insurance product tailored for drought risk in pastoral areas and launching the first tropical cyclone (TC) insurance product in Africa. ARC developed a model capable of accurately estimating the risk and economic losses due to tropical cyclone events adapted to the SWIO countries such as Mozambique, Madagascar, Comoros, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Tanzania. ARC's tropical cyclone model covers hazards of winds, storm surges and waves. The first of its kind in Africa, the insurance policy will provide rapid financing and early response to countries affected by tropical cyclones. In addition, ARC has been developing a flood risk and loss estimate model to underpin a sovereign flood insurance product. The flood product demand among ARC member states has especially increased in the aftermath of the 2020 flood events in Western and Southern Africa. For countries exposed to tropical cyclones, the flood model will enrich the TC product by providing the loss estimate due to excessive rainfall peril which is not covered in the current ARC TC model. Together the tropical cyclone and flood products will prove vital tools in safeguarding lives and livelihoods and making African countries more resilient to extreme climate events.

Responsibilities

ARC Agency’s research and development programme is working to expand the insurance products offered by ARC Ltd and geographic coverage to include flood, tropical cyclone and outbreak and epidemic risk, at the same level of coverage as the drought product. The flood product is based on hydrological modelling building on existing global flood risk forecast systems, Within this context the ARC Agency seeks a highly qualified Hydrological Modelling Expert to join the Research & Development Department and contribute to the further development of the hydrological model-based flood insurance product for ARC Member States. The Expert will lead research and scientific work to adapt and improve existing hydrological model(s) to respond to specific