ABOUT IHRB'S WORK ON CLIMATE

IHRB’s Just Transitions Programme focuses on a central challenge: current climate action models are structurally misaligned - and this is undermining delivery. Decision-making remains top-down across sectors, financial systems misprice social risk, adaptation and mitigation are siloed, and practitioners lack awareness of usable, investable models. The result is an implementation gap, where ambition is rising but delivery is contested, delayed, or fragile - raising material risks for workers and communities, company operations, and the transition itself.

Our core contention is that climate action succeeds when governed as a social process, not just a technical or financial one. Embedding the rights and agency of workers, communities, and affected stakeholders into how decisions are designed, sequenced, and financed is not a moral add-on - it is a precondition for effective, investable climate action. This approach is grounded in international standards, including the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which establish participation, accountability, and due diligence as baseline conditions.

IHRB works to shift practice through three-interconnected approaches:

• making risk visible, by demonstrating how social exclusion translates into financial and operational costs

• making the possible tangible, by identifying real-world models and mechanisms, and translating them into operational insights for diverse practitioners

• making change actionable, by convening and engaging business, finance, policy, and civil society in dialogue on shared challenges and emerging issues

PROJECT PURPOSE

The world is learning, often painfully, that climate action devoid of social inclusion is climate action prone to failure. When those most affected by climate extremes are excluded from design and decision-making, backlash grows, interventions underperform, and climate goals slip further from reach.

This challenge is particularly acute in adaptation and resilience, where:

• Investment remains slow, fragmented, and poorly aligned with local realities

• Strategies are often designed top-down, despite adaptation being inherently local

• The knowledge, agency, and leadership of frontline communities remain systematically underutilised

The result is not only inefficiency, but risk: poorly designed interventions have led to high rates of maladaptation, wasted resources, and diminished resilience over time.

JUST Stories is designed to help shift this dynamic. Launched in 2024, JUST Stories is a global search for stories of people working together to advance people-centred climate action. Our first phase of stories focused on successful, real-time decarbonisation projects across diverse sectors co-designed with those most affected by these transitions.

This second phase will extend this work into the adaptation space.

Over the next 18 months, the JUST Stories team will identify and document real-world examples of successful adaptation solutions co-designed with and led by frontline communities, including Indigenous peoples, local communities, and workers.

These stories are designed not as communications outputs alone, but as evidence to inform investor, policymaker, and practitioner decision making around the most effective climate solutions. We believe these stories are not anecdotal - they:

• Demonstrate what makes adaptation efforts effective and durable

• Identify enabling conditions for genuine co-creation

• Reveal how finance, governance, and local agency interact in practice

The ultimate goal is to contribute to shifting the dominant adaptation narrative - from top-down delivery to locally grounded, co-created solutions - and to informing more effective decision-making across policy, finance, and business.

ROLE OVERVIEW

IHRB is seeking 1-2 experienced Researchers/Writers with a specialism in climate adaptation and resilience to lead a new phase of its flagship JUST Stories project.

This role will focus on identifying, researching, and producing immersive, evidence-based, solutions-oriented narratives of community-led climate adaptation and resilience in practice.

The outputs of JUST Stories are designed for decision-makers responsible for designing, financing, and implementing climate adaptation and resilience efforts in practice. Therefore, stories and lessons must be written to:

Be directly usable in decision-making contexts (investment, policy design, programme structuring) for:

• DFI’s, commercial banks, and asset managers

• Insurance and reinsurance firms

• Corporates with climate exposure

• National/subnational governments

• Multilateral development banks and UN agencies

• Public climate finance institutions

• Technical advisory organisations and consultancies

While also authentically reflecting the lived realities of adaptation leaders on the front-lines, including:

• Community-based organisations

• Indigenous institutions

• NGOs and supporting/implementing civil society organisations

This requires the ability to move fluently between:

• Ground-level realities (community experience) and

• System-level decision environments (finance, policy, corporate strategy)

The ideal candidate combines:

• Strong primary research capability (including interviews and fieldwork).

• Exceptional narrative writing skills, with the ability to translate complex, context-specific realities into compelling, analytically rigorous stories.

• Familiarity with adaptation and resilience practice, particularly community-led or locally-led approaches.

ROLE OBJECTIVES

To lead the process of:

• Identifying a long-list of real-time examples of community-led or co-designed adaptation in action across a diversity of contexts

• Producing 2-3 deeply researched, field-based stories

• Translating these into immersive multi-format outputs (long-form articles, practitioner briefings, with audio and visual supplements)

And work with the wider IHRB team to:

• deploy these stories as a basis for practitioner learning and decision influence

• convene cross-sector actors (finance, policy, business, civil society) around lessons learned, replicability, and scalability

• Synthesise the lessons across stories to draw out the key learnings for community-led adaptation for business, finance, and policy practitioners

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Research & Framing

• Conduct rigorous literature and landscape reviews on adaptation and resilience, including locally-led adaptation (LLA), nature-based solutions, and community governance models

• Identify high-potential case studies through global networks and open calls

• Develop analytical frameworks to assess what constitutes “effective” and “just” adaptation

Fieldwork & Primary Research

• Design and implement ethical, high-quality interview and engagement processes

• Conduct in-depth interviews with institutional actors, local community leaders, and workers, to understand the people, perspectives, and relationships that make the solution effective

• Undertake field visits to selected sites to gather primary data, context, and narrative material - having built the necessary trust and relationships with the local actors in order to cocreate the story together

• Ensure all research is conducted with the highest levels of safeguarding, consent, and representation standards

Narrative Development

• Produce publication-quality stories that integrate:

  • Human narrative

  • Analytical insight

  • Clear articulation of enabling conditions and constraints

• Translate complex, context-specific findings into clear, structured insights for local and global decision-makers

• Work with communications colleagues to distil content into outputs targeted at select audiences (articles, briefings, audio, visual assets)

Strategic Integration, working with the IHRB team to:

• Ensure each story contributes to a coherent body of evidence

• Engage regularly with the Project Advisory Council (to be constituted) to refine story selection and framing

• Support the development of cross-story synthesis and learning products

Engagement & Influence - providing support to:

• high-level convenings (e.g. Climate Weeks, COPs, adaptation-specific conferences)

• the positioning of stories as tools for influencing finance, policy, and corporate practice

ABOUT YOU

Essential Experience & Knowledge

• 7+ years experience in research and writing roles, ideally combining:

• Primary research / fieldwork

• Long-form journalism and/or narrative or report writing

• Demonstrated expertise in climate adaptation and resilience, including at least one of:

• Community-led or locally-led adaptation (LLA)

• Climate resilience in vulnerable contexts

• Nature-based or ecosystem-based adaptation

• Strong understanding of how adaptation intersects with finance, governance, and development systems

• Familiarity with relevant frameworks (e.g. LLA principles, UNFCCC adaptation frameworks, loss & damage, resilience metrics)

• Proven ability to produce high-quality, analytically rigorous, and engaging written outputs

• Experience working in politically and socially sensitive contexts

Essential Skills and Abilities

• Exceptional writing and storytelling ability - able to balance narrative, evidence, and insight

• Strong qualitative research skills, including interview design, synthesis, and analysis

• Ability to translate local, context-specific insights into broader systemic relevance

• High degree of emotional intelligence and cultural sensitivity when engaging with communities

• Strong organisational skills and ability to manage multiple workstreams in a remote environment

Desirable

• Experience working directly with frontline communities, Indigenous groups, or worker organisations

• Background in journalism, anthropology, development studies, or human rights research

• Experience engaging with practitioners from climate finance, multilateral institutions, local government, and philanthropy

• Additional languages relevant to project geographies

Attitude

• Proactive and self-motivating: Entrepreneurial attitude, with a proven ability to own and be accountable for end-to-end processes and tasks, and ensure successful outcomes.

• Flexible and adaptable: Ability to adjust aspects of the work, timelines, and working style as needed to cater to the realities of a small and nimble organisation

• Diplomatic and tactful: Treating others respectfully and sensitively regardless of personal biases or beliefs, acting as a bridge builder and peacekeeper

TIMEFRAME & CONTRACTING

Expected start date and timeframe:

• As soon as possible, ideally April/May 2026. The individual(s) will be contracted through September 2027 inclusive, with a one-month notice period.

Location:

• This is a home-based role and open to candidates globally. To support effective collaboration, we are only able to accommodate candidates whose primary working hours align with time zones up to Central European Time (CET), or west of CET, ensuring substantial overlap with colleagues working on UK/West Africa time (GMT/BST) and further west.

• Candidates must already have the legal right to work in their country of residence, provide their own laptop, and have reliable internet connectivity.

• The role requires willingness to travel internationally up to three times per year. Site visits may involve remote locations; candidates should therefore hold a valid driver’s license and maintain appropriate insurance and a good driving record.

Hours:

• IHRB is seeking the right fit for this complex and important role. Therefore, we are open to considering one full-time role (4-5 days/week) or two part-time roles for the right candidate(s). Please indicate your preference in the Application Questions section. Exact working patterns will be agreed with the successful candidate(s).

Compensation:

We have an indicative budget of ~£70,000 for the period May/June 2026 – September 2027. We are open to structuring this in one of two ways depending on the strongest candidate profile(s), as below (please indicate your preference in the Application Questions section):

• One full-time (or near full-time) lead writer/researcher over the full project period; or

• Two part-time contributors, each leading specific stories or editorial tracks.

Contracting:

• The successful candidate will be engaged through a consultancy agreement subject to UK law. They will need to be registered as self-employed and will be responsible for managing their own taxes, insurance, and any other legal or financial obligations. A consultancy offer will be subject to receipt of two satisfactory references.

APPLICATION PROCESS

Click on the "Apply Now" button to answer some specific application questions.

• Deadline for applications: Wednesday 15 April 2026 at 11:59pm UK

• Interviews: Shortlisted applications will be invited to an initial 30-45min video interview via TeamTailor. The first round of interviews will take place on 23 & 24 April between 2-6pm GMT. Second interviews will take place the following week and scheduled closer to the time.

Applications from unsuccessful applicant/s will be held on file for 6 months after the end of the recruitment process.