Post-Doctoral Research Fellow: Urban Fire Risk Modelling for the Tomorrow’s Cities’ Nairobi Urban disaster Risk Hub at African Centre for Technology Studies

The Nairobi  Urban Disaster Risk Hub

Disasters represent one of the greatest threats to humanity, currently and in the future. In the context of urbanization, cities are increasingly becoming hotspots for disasters with over 60% of the world’s population living in urban areas. Resilience of these cities is critical to the livelihoods and sustainability of world’s population. The Nairobi Urban Disaster Risk Hub is part of a larger research project funded by UKRI Global Challenges Research Fund known as the “Tomorrow’s Cities” programme, which is a five year interdisciplinary global research programme where the mission is “to reduce disaster risk for the poor in tomorrow’s cities”. The project works globally to bring multi-hazard disaster risk management to the centre of urban policy and practice and the focus for our research is on four rapidly developing cities: Nairobi, Kathmandu, Istanbul and Quito. In Nairobi, this exciting opportunity brings together leading researchers,  community representatives and government leaders to work towards an unprecedented resolution to influence planning and to deliver real impact through interdisciplinary research.

Floods, collapsing buildings, and fires are prevalent hazards in Nairobi. While most parts of the city experiences such disasters in different magnitude, Nairobi’s informal settlements (slums) are major frontiers of these hazards, both natural and human risks owing to a number of compounding reasons. For instance, fires are common phenomenon in slums often emerging from various sources including electrical faults (resulting from poor/illegal electrical infrastructure), poor cooking spaces among others.  The main goal for the Nairobi Hub is to provide Nairobi with the capacity and policy framework that enables a shift from crisis/emergency response towards integrated urban development and planning for enhanced disaster risk preparedness and management, through policy relevant and transdisciplinary research. The need for such a transition is recognized at the Nairobi city county government level, reflected among others in the Nairobi Disaster Management Act 2019, which is currently under review.

The Nairobi hub is managed and run by organizations with excellent track records in research, policy and community work:

1. African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS): The hub is led by ACTS as the coordinating partner – hosting the hub office. ACTS is an independent, not for profit, inter-governmental, and Pan-African development and policy research organization, working to harness applications of science, technology and innovation for accelerated sustainable development in Africa. Founded in ACTS 1988, ACTS remains one of the leading think tanks in Africa with a specific mandate to conduct research and policy analysis; to provide technical advisory services; and to undertake capacity building and dissemination of knowledge on applications of science, technology and innovation for sustainable development. Within its mandate, ACTS works on various timely research projects hosted within a variety of timely and contextually relevant programmes: Climate Resilient Economies (CRE), and STI for development and Agriculture and food security. ACTS has established itself as a centre for excellence informing green growth and sustainable development in Africa and internationally. In 2016, ACTS was ranked among the top 3 think tanks in climate change, resilience research and policy influence globally - an improvement in relation to the think tanks ranking in the past. The ranking, an authoritative and worldwide known assessment of the most cutting-edge institutions working in the field of climate change economics and policy, by the International Centre for Climate Governance (ICCG) under the “ICCG Climate Think Tank Ranking Initiative is based on organizational activities, publications and dissemination.. The 2016 ranking assessed 244 think tanks specialized in the research fields of climate change and climate policy.
2. University of Nairobi: The University of Nairobi will co-lead a number of research activities under risk modelling and community resilience planning. The Centre for Urban Research and Innovation (CURI), is a centre of excellence on urban research, and is part of a consortia formed to help plan Mukuru. CURI has continued to participate in many community-based initiatives such as informal settlements upgrading, Community Fire Response Mechanisms, Urban Learning Studios, Sustainable Urban Mobility, Land and Natural resources tenure security, Urban Development Control Policy, and Unlocking Poverty and upscaling the Respect for Rights in Informal Settlements. Other departments – Geography & Geology – will bring in key experts in physical hazards research. Further the University, is help strengthen our impact strategy through anchoring capacity building strategies, multi-hazard courses and executive trainings among others.
3. Kounkuey Design Initiative (KDI): KDI is a non-profit design and community development organization registered as a Non-Governmental Organization in Kenya since 2013. KDI partners with underserved communities to physically transform communities and in the process, improve environmental, economic and social quality of life.
4. Nairobi’s City-County Government: The City-County government is the primary authority charged with providing public services and mandated to develop the City Disaster Management Plan. The Nairobi city-county government will be the lead impact partner for the hub, and will co-host the community of practice meetings with partners.
5. Slum Dwellers International (SDI) Kenya: A key support NGO for Nairobi’s federation of urban poor groups (Muungano wa Wanavijiji), a partner in the Mukuru Spatial Planning Area (SPA) consortium, and an affiliate of Shack/Slum Dwellers International. SDI Kenya, is the non-profit technical and professional secretariat for the federation of Kenyan slum residents known as Muungano Wa Wanavijiji. SDI Kenya is part of the Kenyan alliance (with Akiba Mashinani Trust Muungano waWanavijiji), that is charged with coordination, community organization and communication. As part of SDI, the Akiba Mashinani Trust is also involved to support linkages with the Spatial Planning Area.
6. UK-based partners: to support research, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL), as well as management and leadership. These include experts from the Kings College London, University of Sussex- Institute of Development Studies, University of Edinburgh, University of Leeds, and the UK Met Office. Various physical and social scientists from these Universities have been integrated to support various research work packages taking place in the City. Other indirect partners include the Mukuru Community and a Community of Practice to be structured - who will be instrumental in the pathway to impact.
7. Global partners: the Risk Nexus Initiative (RNI), which has networks in Costa Rica, Spain, South America and India.

Specific Objectives of the Nairobi Urban Disaster Risk Hub

Nairobi Hub will adopt a transformative approach that seeks to utilize interdisciplinary research evidence as a tool for convening various stakeholders to achieve the specific objectives listed below;

1. To apply interdisciplinary research evidence to convene and strengthen the emerging community of practice around Disaster Risk Reduction, enabling it to work to reduce multiple risks in a more coordinated and collective fashion, and creating awareness on multi-hazard thinking collective action;
2. Support the incorporation of co-produced disaster risk reduction measures in new pro-poor action planning initiatives in low-income (informal) settlements; risks from the city’s multiple and interacting hazards, particularly for more vulnerable residents;
3. To support the design of a more risk-sensitive policy framework built on the multi-hazard thinking particularly in relation to more proactive management of risk accumulation currently associated with the city’s urban growth and expansion;
4. Provide compelling examples of multiple interacting risks and how they can be co-managed by state and non-state actors;

We are seeking a qualified candidate for the position of a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow: Urban Fire Risk Modelling to engage and support research in the area of urban disaster risk management.

Purpose of the position

This position is aimed at supporting the risk analysis and mapping, as well as DRR policy development for the Nairobi City, based on the work articulated under the Nairobi Hub work programme and the Theory of Change.  The candidate will focus on fire risks within informal settlements of Nairobi, specifically the Mukuru Special Planning Area (SPA). Using state of the art research techniques, the candidate will develop robust fire risk and hazard mapping techniques on Mukuru and assess the potential interventions being proposed as part of the SPA. Additionally, these techniques and maps need to be compatible with other hazard mapping techniques such as flood and earthquake hazard/risk mapping. 

The candidate is also expected to have an appreciation of the fact that an integrated and informed risk management approach requires a clear understanding and presentation of the physical risks which forms part of the holistic narrative of risk that also involves the socio-cultural, political and economic contexts and drivers of risks.

Ideally, the candidate is expected to play a fundamental role in facilitating appropriate decision making for the Mukuru SPA to reduce their multi-hazard risk-scape. Additionally, the individual will be expected to support the establishment of a community of practice around disaster risk reduction within Nairobi, and thus will require to be able to make the research outputs accessible through policy briefs and alike. 

Programme: Nairobi Risk Hub under the Climate Resilient Economies Programme and the Africa Sustainability Hub at the African Centre for Technology Studies

Line manager: Dr Dave Rush (University of Edinburgh) and Professor George Khroda (University of Nairobi).

Qualifications

• The candidate should possess a PhD in relevant fields such as Disaster Management, Urban Geography, Fire Science, Sustainability Studies or other relevant field.
• Experience in applied research and the identification of uncertainties within that
• A good record of academic publications.
• Evidence of urban mapping, statistical analysis, and handling of large datasets is desirable.
• A good record of academic publications - excellent academic writing skills, data base expertise, and familiarity with policy briefs.
• Experience or ability to develop participatory risk maps.
• Ability to transfer localized models to other areas with relative ease.

Skills and competences

• Excellent interpersonal, management and communication skills, with proven ability to support narratives to describe results.
• A team player with ability to build strong working relationships, and experience working across different disciplines and with different stakeholders.
• Ability to work under limited supervision, produce regular internal progress reports and meet deadlines
• Strong technical writing skills and the ability to engage with literatures from the Humanities and Social Sciences
• Ability to write effectively and report to different audiences.
• Ability to manage own time effectively to deliver to tight deadlines and to work on a wide range of different demands.

Main Responsibilities

Research

• Develop a quantifiable fire risk map of Mukuru through Geographic Information Systems (GIS), spatial metrics, and fire science. This will require an approximately 1-month research trip to the University of Edinburgh within the first few months of the research.
• Map historic fire events in Mukuru and other Nairobi slums as appropriate GIS/Google Earth/Satellite Imagery and other appropriate datasets as necessary, in support of the point above.
• Collect secondary fire data and impact for modelling and mapping across the city from organizations including Kenyan Red Cross, SDI/CURI/KDI, and Newspaper articles, and any other sources.
• Carry out field visits for data collection, verification of facts and ground truthing.
• Link fire risk maps with socio-economic and demographic profiles (WP 1) and vulnerability profiles (WP 2) to assess risk and map risk profiles.
• To provide better quality descriptions of the typologies and construction materials of the homes within the Mukuru and other Nairobi slums.
• Carry out calibration, validation and sensitivity analyses of the model(s) created and report on the relative merits of these analyses.
• Analyze fire statistics provided from Nairobi City County contacts and other sources to provide initial analysis of frequentist fire data, and working with other Hub researchers, support the analysis of gender/intersectionality risk issues at the settlement (Mukuru) and city level.
• Present data and meta-data for internal and external dissemination, working closely with other physical hazards modelers within the Hub to ensure data compatibility, for both inventory purposes, and for multi-hazard risk and resilience identification/assessment purposes.
• Perform a high-level desktop assessment of fire regulations and design guidance used in Nairobi in cooperation with other stakeholders across the city Hub, and an assessment of the dichotomy between policy and practice.

Policy and outreach

• Work with other researchers within the Hub specifically looking at community engagement and planning to facilitate their discussions through developing fire risk maps in easily understandable forms, potentially participating in pertinent discussions.
• Support the production of policy briefs for, and with local, national and international stakeholders (i.e. NCC, UN-Habitat) on the mapping of fire risks in informal urban settlements.
• Support the establishment of DRR Community of Practice (CoP). The CoP will include a wide array of stakeholders drawn from local, county, national and international levels to support a more integrated review and inputs into the research outputs and outcomes.
• Support the development and delivery of a multi-hazard DRR Management Plan for the City
• Support and contribute to the capacity building plans designed towards the desired culture change through contributing to capacity needs assessments, skill development through targeted programmes such as capacity building programmes, customized trainings, Exchange visits (annually), and Executive courses (Yr 2) to deliver an open process for career development

Terms of Employment

• One (1) year Contract renewable based on performance and availability of funds.
• The position provides a competitive pensionable remuneration and an inclusive medical cover
• Provides an opportunity to work and establish networks with globally renowned researchers in the field of Disaster Management and with real career growth opportunity in the area of research and development.
• The position provides an equal opportunities for all and women candidates are highly encouraged to apply.