Climate - Resilient Labour Mobility Specialist

ABOUT IHRB'S WORK ON CLIMATE

The Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB) is the leading global think tank working to ensure corporate activity respects the rights of workers and communities. IHRB’s mission is to shape policy, advance practice, and strengthen accountability in order to make respect for human rights part of everyday business. IHRB’s focus areas are diverse and reflect some of the most important and emerging human rights issues facing business.

IHRB is entering new and strategically important territory. The intersection of climate change and labour migration is one of the most consequential – and least addressed – frontiers in both the climate and human rights fields. This consultancy sits at the heart of that gap.

IHRB’s new initiative, Resilience by Design, is built on a clear premise: climate adaptation is failing to deliver systemic resilience because it excludes the workers and communities most exposed to its risks. Migrant workers – representing 1 in 20 workers globally, and concentrated in climate‑exposed sectors such as agriculture, construction, and logistics – face compounding vulnerabilities: heat stress, displacement, precarious employment, and limited access to legal protections or safety nets.

Yet labour mobility, if made safer and more climate‑informed, can itself be a powerful driver of resilience. Global remittances (~$685 billion in 2024) already vastly exceed international aid flows. The economic and adaptive potential of migrant workers is immense – and almost entirely untapped by climate policy.

IHRB brings deep expertise in responsible recruitment, supply chain accountability, and labour rights, but the climate/labour nexus is new ground for the organisation. This consultancy is therefore not just about producing a framework: it is about helping IHRB develop its thinking, positioning, and voice at this intersection. We are looking for a thought partner as much as a deliverable lead.

The consultant’s primary responsibility is the design and delivery of a Climate‑Resilient Labour Mobility Framework for Business. A tool intended to help businesses across front‑line sectors from a climate perspective ensure their adaptation investments and solutions are inclusive of the workforce affected by those same climate risks, many of whom will be migrant workers who have left their home countries due to climate stresses.

The Consultant will work as part of a cross‑collaborative workstream between IHRB’s Migration and Just Transition teams. They will be embedded within the Migration team while also reporting to, and working closely with, the Head of Just Transition and Just Transition colleagues. The role will contribute to corridor research, stakeholder engagement, and outreach in coordination with colleagues across both teams. IHRB's internal team brings deep regional networks across all three corridors;

the Consultant is expected to draw on and work through those networks, while bringing their own regional expertise and relationships to bear.

As the climate/labour nexus is new ground for IHRB – an emerging area within our Migration Programme – the Consultant is also expected to be a genuine thought partner, helping the organisation develop its analytical approach and positioning at this intersection.

Africa is the consultant's primary area of geographic expertise, and their knowledge base and networks should be strongest in the African context, engaging directly on the Africa‑Gulf corridor as a subject‑matter expert. However, the Framework itself has a global remit, and the Consultant will work closely with IHRB colleagues across all three corridors:
Africa‑Gulf, South Asia, and the Americas, maximising the team's collective regional expertise throughout.

This role requires deep expertise on the African continent, while the work itself will have a global remit. The consultant will work closely with IHRB colleagues leading work across the South Asia and Americas corridors, and their Africa‑focused expertise should both complement and connect with this broader body of work. The three deliverables outlined below reflect that wider scope:

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