GCRI · Agency
Agency
Competence-based technical assistance, staffing and expert-matching enquiries under explicit terms and mandates. Agency is an established platform of The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation.
- STEM methods
- 2
- Canonical methods this field applies
- Topics
- 8
- Subject pages in the field
- Counterparts
- 9
- Platforms in shared fields across the network
- Report series
- 1
- Reports series it contributes to
How the work runs.
Assignment and team board
Assignment pool · Quarter 2
Assignments
Team record
| Team lead | Disaster risk management | None declared | Confirmed |
| Hydrologist | Flood modelling | Declared, managed | Confirmed |
| Data engineer | Pipelines | None declared | Invited |
| Reviewer | Independent | None declared | Confirmed |
Scope
- Requester
- Requesting institution
- Duration
- 4 weeks
- Authority
- stays with the requester
- Fee
- no fee stated
Fig.Assignment and team board: example names and illustrative values, not a record or a live system.
Scoping, matching and supervision for mandated work.
Agency is designed for four groups: eligible experts who want to contribute their competence; project sponsors who need specialists for a scoped task; institutions that hold a mandate and need support to deliver it; and programme coordinators who form interdisciplinary teams.
- 01
Engagement scoping
A host request is turned into a written scope: question, deliverables, term, limits and supervisor, following technical assistance types and boundaries.
- 02
Competence matching
Candidates are compared on documented competence in the fields of the specialist network, as set out under fields of expertise and skills and review.
- 03
Conflict checks
Interests are declared and recorded, and a reviewer with a conflict never signs the relevant acceptance.
- 04
Supervision and closeout
Every assignment has a named supervisor, acceptance criteria and a contribution record at closeout; teams follow interdisciplinary teams.
Agency is designed to publish expert pathways, capacity maps and records of legitimate technical assistance enquiries. It does not employ the experts it matches unless a written contract with GCRI Canada or GCRI US says so.
Stocks, flows, delays and a tipping threshold.
Two stocks, pressure and adaptive capacity, joined by a reinforcing growth loop, a delayed balancing response and damage when pressure outruns capacity; past the threshold the system can tip. Teaching model with stated illustrative values, not a prediction. The map on this page shows East Africa; the model itself is not tied to a place.
Controls
- Growth of pressure
- 6.0% a year
- Efficacy of capacity in reducing pressure
- 4.0% a year
- Investment response to perceived pressure
- 20%
- Perception delay
- 4.0 years
- Tipping threshold of pressure
- 60 index
- Amplification past the threshold
- 2.0 times
- Years simulated
- 50 years
Readouts
- Peak pressure
- 113 index
- Capacity at the end
- 186 index
- Years over the threshold
- 15.8 years
Numbers, methods and sources
| Year | Pressure | Capacity | Perceived |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 20.0 | 50.0 | 20.0 |
| 4 | 23.3 | 44.9 | 21.2 |
| 8 | 27.2 | 42.2 | 24.0 |
| 12 | 31.7 | 42.3 | 27.7 |
| 16 | 36.8 | 45.5 | 32.2 |
| 20 | 42.3 | 51.5 | 37.2 |
| 24 | 47.9 | 60.3 | 42.6 |
| 28 | 53.2 | 71.3 | 48.0 |
| 32 | 57.8 | 84.3 | 53.1 |
| 36 | 66.4 | 98.4 | 58.4 |
| 40 | 82.7 | 115.9 | 69.7 |
| 44 | 97.8 | 139.7 | 83.8 |
| 48 | 109.1 | 169.4 | 97.3 |
Methods
- System dynamics Forrester (1961), Industrial Dynamics, MIT Press; Sterman (2000), Business Dynamics
- Critical transitions and tipping points Scheffer and others (2009), Early-warning signals for critical transitions, Nature 461
- Causal loop diagram Sterman (2000), Business Dynamics, McGraw-Hill
- Uncertainty fan (parameter Monte Carlo) Spiegelhalter, Pearson and Short (2011), Visualising uncertainty about the future, Science 333
- One-at-a-time sensitivity (tornado) Saltelli and others (2008), Global Sensitivity Analysis: The Primer, Wiley
Data
No observed data enters this model: it runs on the teaching values set by the controls, to be replaced with a programme’s own evidence.
Across the six pillars, led by Nexus Consortium
- Experiments Labs
- Built in Agency in Foundry
- Tested at Agency in Universe
- Codified in Foundations and Governance in Standards
- Published in Agency in Reports
- Taught in Faculty of Governance, Policy and International Affairs in Academy
The questions this field works on.
Technical assistance scope
What support can and cannot authorise.
TopicExpert competence
Skills, evidence and relevant experience.
TopicTeam formation
Interdisciplinary assignments and accountability.
TopicInstitutional support
Scoped support to eligible organisations.
TopicResearch and field assignments
Technical work, safety and supervision.
TopicConflict and independence
Conflicts, procurement neutrality and sanctions.
TopicVolunteer and professional roles
Clear employment and contribution boundaries.
TopicProject closeout
Review, evidence, learning and lawful handoff.
Model agency as a system. Run the cascade.
Assembled from the Nexus Standards area profile Disaster risk reduction: the hazards it names, the systems and sectors that carry the loss, the controls that dampen it and the data that observe it. Choose the components, pick an initiating hazard and step through the cascade. The Map view places the run on an example geography with open data. Every coupling weight is a stated assumption you can change. A teaching model, not a forecast, an assessment or a certification. To model a place of your own choosing, open the full System Builder.
Hazards
- Tropical cyclone
- Flash flood
- Heatwave
- Ice-jam flood
- HIV epidemic
- Earthquake
- Storm surge (set off downstream)
- Intense rainfall (set off downstream)
- River flood (set off downstream)
- Dangerous surf (set off downstream)
- Widespread power outage (set off downstream)
- Mass displacement (set off downstream)
- Coastal flood (set off downstream)
- Extreme fire weather (set off downstream)
- Wildfire (set off downstream)
- Heat-driven grid stress (set off downstream)
- Agricultural drought (set off downstream)
- Flash drought (set off downstream)
Systems and couplings
Controls
NS-0Constitution and principlesNS-1The UNI and the artefact catalogue (grammar v0.2: domain, sector, region and environment segments)NS-3Risk record UNIs (grammar, legacy crosswalk, allocation authority)NS-3bDataset and product metadata profile (STAC, DCAT, PROV-O)NS-9Contextual UNIs (deployments, instances, programme instances)NS-11Verification and monitoring (evidence, attestations, zero-trust conformance observation)NS-14Conformance and crosswalk to external standardsNRS-C15Loss, damage and impact accountingNRS-H114Hazard family: Macroeconomic and fiscal shocks (NHS-1 soc.macro-fiscal)NRS-K20Domain pack profile: Climate adaptation (DOMAIN-020)NRS-H54Hazard family: Signal and platform disruption (NHS-1 cyber.platform)NRS-H65Hazard family: Planetary boundary transgressions (NHS-1 planet.boundary)NRS-H119Hazard family: Cultural heritage loss (NHS-1 soc.heritage)
Observation
- DesInventar disaster loss databases (listed for reference)
- INFORM Risk Index (listed for reference)
- Global SDG Indicators Database (listed for reference)
- EM-DAT international disaster database (listed for reference)
- Number of deaths and missing persons attributed to disasters per 100,000 population
- Number of directly affected people attributed to disasters per 100,000 population
- Direct economic loss attributed to disasters in relation to global GDP
- Damage to critical infrastructure attributed to disasters
- Number of countries that adopt and implement national DRR strategies
- Total public international support for national disaster risk reduction actions (Sendai indicator F-1)
- Number of countries that have multi-hazard early warning systems
- Number of deaths, missing persons and directly affected persons attributed to disasters per 100,000 population
Example geography
- Bangladesh: 134 hexagonal cells
- Rain rate, last half hour (IMERG), NASA GIBS
- Surface water through cloud, 30 m (OPERA DSWx-S1 radar), NASA GIBS
- Surface air temperature, daytime (AIRS), NASA GIBS
- Night lights tonight, outages (VIIRS Day/Night Band), NASA GIBS
What the work is read against.
The platform does not set standards. It reads its evidence against the frameworks that competent bodies have adopted, so a finding can be placed where a decision-maker already works.
| Framework or standard | Body | What it sets |
|---|---|---|
| DAC evaluation criteria | OECD Development Assistance Committee | Relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability as the reference for judging development interventions |
| Paris Declaration, Accra Agenda for Action and Busan Partnership | OECD and the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation | Principles of country ownership, alignment, use of country systems, results and mutual accountability |
| IATI Standard | International Aid Transparency Initiative | Data format for publishing activities, participants, budgets, results and documents of development co-operation |
| Open Contracting Data Standard | Open Contracting Partnership | Structure for disclosing data and documents at every stage of public contracting |
| PEFA Framework | PEFA Secretariat and partners | Indicators and scoring for public financial management performance, including procurement and external audit |
| Environmental and Social Framework | World Bank | Standards on environmental and social risk, labour, community health and safety and stakeholder engagement in financed projects |
| ISO 37001 anti-bribery management systems | International Organization for Standardization | Requirements for preventing, detecting and responding to bribery, including due diligence on associates |
| ISO 21502 guidance on project management | International Organization for Standardization | Concepts and practices for governing, directing and managing projects across their life cycle |
| MAPS Methodology for Assessing Procurement Systems | MAPS Secretariat hosted by the OECD | Assessment of public procurement legal, institutional, operational and integrity pillars |
| Common Approach to Prospective Risk Management | United Nations system | Shared approach to anticipating and managing risk across UN entities and programmes |
How agency is modelled, measured and tested.
The model, its assumptions, its data and its uncertainty, in the form a scientist or engineer would check. Structures follow published methods. The values drawn are illustrative, not findings.
Datasets and provenance
The data classes behind agency and what is recorded about each before it is used.
| Data class | Provenance recorded | Resolution stated | Licence checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Satellite imagery, optical and radar | sensor, processing level, acquisition date | pixel size and revisit | per scene |
| Reanalysis and climate model output | model, experiment, member, version | grid and time step | per release |
| In-situ sensors and gauges | station, instrument, calibration record | point and sampling rate | per network |
| Population and asset exposure | method, vintage, input sources | cell size and unit | per release |
| Boundaries and reference geography | producer, edition, date | scale | per edition |
- Lineage
- W3C PROV record from source to figure
- Principles
- FAIR: findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable
- Gaps
- shown as missing, never filled silently
Model, equations and assumptions
The model structure used for agency, the assumptions it makes and how each is tested.
Ri = f(Hi, Ei, Vi, Ci)hazard, exposure, vulnerability and coping capacityEAL = ∑k pk · Lkover events k with annual probability pkxt+1 = A xt + B ut + εtA carries the couplings, u the shock, ε the error| Assumption | Why it is made | How it is tested |
|---|---|---|
| Hazard and exposure are independent within an event | Keeps the loss integral tractable | Compare with a copula fit on joint records |
| Couplings are linear near the operating point | Lets shocks propagate through A | Perturb beyond the linear range and compare |
| Vulnerability curves transfer between places | Local curves are rarely available | Validate against observed losses where they exist |
- Inputs
- versioned datasets with provenance
- Outputs
- distributions, never single numbers
- Code
- released with the model card and tests
- Reproduction
- same data, code, environment and seed
What Agency does.
Technical assistance is the provision of knowledge, skills and analysis to an institution that holds a public mandate, without transferring that mandate. Agency studies how assistance is scoped, staffed, supervised and closed, and how weaknesses at each step become delivery, safeguard and accountability risk for the institutions served.
Its community
Eligible experts; project sponsors; institutions; programme coordinators.
Its methods
Competence matching; conflict checks; engagement scoping; supervision.
Its outputs
Expert pathways; capacity maps; legitimate technical assistance enquiries.
People and hazards in East Africa.
Population density, night lights and flood water over East Africa, from NASA GIBS. Each layer carries its own date.
The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.
Layers 3
People and hazards, for this page
About this layer
- Evidence
- Estimated
- Source
- Gridded Population of the World v4.11 (NASA SEDAC (CIESIN, Columbia University))
- Provider
- NASA SEDAC (CIESIN, Columbia University)
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
- Vintage
- null; Census-based estimate, static (2020)
- Resolution
- about 1 km grid
- Uncertainty
- Census-based estimate of people per square kilometre in 2020, shown as exposure context; not a count of people affected by any hazard.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
About this layer
- Evidence
- Observed
- Source
- VIIRS Black Marble (VNP46A2) (NASA LAADS DAAC)
- Provider
- NASA LAADS DAAC
- Licence
- NASA open data
- Vintage
- daily; Satellite radiance, corrected for moonlight and atmosphere
- Newest at build
- 2026-10-12
- Resolution
- about 500 m grid
- Uncertainty
- Satellite night-time radiance for the date shown; lights are a proxy for electricity use and outages, not a measurement of supply or access.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
About this layer
- Evidence
- Observed (clouds leave gaps)
- Source
- VIIRS Global Flood Product (NASA LANCE)
- Provider
- NASA LANCE
- Licence
- NASA open data
- Vintage
- daily; Satellite detection; clouds leave gaps
- Newest at build
- 2026-10-14
- Resolution
- about 250 m grid
- Uncertainty
- Satellite detection; clouds leave gaps. Satellite or model raster as the provider publishes it. Clouds, swath gaps and retrieval error leave gaps and noise; values are indicators, not measurements at a place.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
About this layer
- Evidence
- Observed
- Source
- VIIRS NOAA-20 corrected reflectance (NASA LANCE)
- Provider
- NASA LANCE
- Licence
- NASA open data
- Vintage
- daily; Satellite image
- Newest at build
- 2026-10-14
- Resolution
- about 250 m grid
- Uncertainty
- Satellite image. Satellite or model raster as the provider publishes it. Clouds, swath gaps and retrieval error leave gaps and noise; values are indicators, not measurements at a place.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
About this layer
- Evidence
- Modelled (latest year GIBS publishes)
- Source
- MODIS Terra and Aqua land cover (MCD12Q1) (NASA LP DAAC)
- Provider
- NASA LP DAAC
- Licence
- NASA open data
- Vintage
- yearly; Satellite classification; latest year GIBS publishes
- Newest at build
- 2024-01-01
- Resolution
- about 500 m grid
- Uncertainty
- Satellite land cover classes for the year shown, including croplands; a classification with known errors, not a farm register.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
About this layer
- Evidence
- Observed (clouds leave gaps)
- Source
- MODIS Terra EVI (NASA LANCE)
- Provider
- NASA LANCE
- Licence
- NASA open data
- Vintage
- daily; Satellite index; clouds leave gaps
- Newest at build
- 2026-10-13
- Resolution
- about 250 m grid
- Uncertainty
- Satellite vegetation index for the 8 days to the date shown, a habitat condition indicator; not a measure of species or biodiversity.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
Keyboard, with the map focused
Hold Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll to zoom
Latest available
NASA GIBS / EOSDIS · ASTER GDEM (METI, NASA) · Blue Marble (NASA) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Natural Earth
Loading the latest NASA imagery.
Drag to move. Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll, pinch or the buttons to zoom; hover for the values under the pointer; reset returns to the region.
People and hazards, framed on East Africa.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date. They are indicators, not assessments of any place.
Data: NASA GIBS · ASTER GDEM · Blue Marble · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Natural Earth · NASA EONET · NASA JPL OPERA DIST-ALERTSources and licences
- We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA’s Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA’s Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA’s Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA’s Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University. 2018. Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 (GPWv4): Population Density, Revision 11. NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). doi:10.7927/H49C6VHW. CC BY 4.0
- VIIRS Black Marble night-time lights, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; distributed by the NASA Level-1 and Atmosphere Archive and Distribution System (LAADS DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- VIIRS near-real-time products (flood, land surface temperature, snow cover, corrected reflectance), NASA LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- MODIS land products (vegetation indices, gross primary production, land cover), NASA LP DAAC and LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- ASTER GDEM is a product of METI and NASA (ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003, NASA LP DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). Cite as: NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Spacesystems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (2019). ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003. doi:10.5067/ASTER/ASTGTM.003. NASA open data
- Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com. Public domain
- © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via NASA GIBS (coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). ODbL
- Blue Marble, NASA Earth Observatory; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- Context on the globe and flat map: coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names from NASA GIBS reference layers (OpenStreetMap data, ODbL, © OpenStreetMap contributors); Blue Marble imagery as an optional base; 3D terrain and the elevation read-out from the ASTER GDEM elevation colour index (5 m to 200 m classes, exaggerated for legibility). Boundaries are drawn as published and imply no position on any territory.
- Live events: NASA Earth Observatory Natural Event Tracker (EONET); events are indicative and keep their original source links.
- Live: NASA EONET Events are indicative, not authority warnings.
- Observed (EO): NASA JPL OPERA DIST-ALERT (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2026). We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA’s Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA’s Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS).
- NASA GIBS: We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA’s Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA’s Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS).
- Optional layers (5 sources in the layer list: live, forecast, observed and context) print their provider credit on the map and here when switched on; forecasts are model output and derived indices are estimates.
Layers and dates
- Population density, 2020: Population: CIESIN, Columbia University, Gridded Population of the World v4.11 (2018), NASA SEDAC, CC BY 4.0 · static
- Night-time lights, daily: VIIRS Black Marble (VNP46A2), NASA LAADS DAAC · 12 Oct 2026
- Flood water, 3-day composite: VIIRS Global Flood Product, NASA LANCE · 14 Oct 2026
- True colour: VIIRS NOAA-20 corrected reflectance, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
- Land cover type (IGBP), yearly: MODIS Terra and Aqua land cover (MCD12Q1), NASA LP DAAC · 2024
- Enhanced vegetation index, rolling 8 days: MODIS Terra EVI, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
What Agency provides, and what technical assistance is not.
Agency organises bounded technical assistance and expert support: a defined scope, named experts with declared interests, supervision, and a closeout that records what was delivered and what was not. Assistance builds capacity in the receiving institution; it is not procurement, financing, an execution mandate or authority over the institution served.
Experts act within their engagement; they do not speak for GCRI outside it, and no engagement creates an employment, agency or partnership relationship beyond its written terms.
Assistance requests come from every domain.
- WaterHow this field couples to itBasin authorities ask for help setting up drought indicators and water balance tools.
- EnergyHow this field couples to itEnergy ministries ask for adequacy and restoration studies their own staff can rerun.
- FoodHow this field couples to itAgriculture ministries ask for seasonal monitoring and yield-risk methods.
- HealthHow this field couples to itHealth ministries ask for continuity planning and surveillance analytics.
- BiodiversityHow this field couples to itEnvironment ministries ask for ecosystem accounts and monitoring under the Global Biodiversity Framework.
How assistance is reported, and how experts can join.
Closeout records and lessons from assistance are designed for the Portfolio and Readiness series, with outcomes evaluated against OECD DAC criteria. Engagement records would carry contextual identifiers under NS-9 of the proposed Nexus Standards.
- Experts can register their competence and declare interests.
- Institutions can describe a need; scoping is the first step and creates no obligation.
- Evaluators can review closed engagements.
Capability gaps are where risk programmes fail.
Most national and institutional risk programmes do not fail for lack of strategy. They stall because the people who can build a flood model, design a data-sharing agreement, run a supervised field survey or review an early-warning system are not available where and when they are needed.
Bounded work
Assistance answers a defined question under a host mandate. It never carries procurement, financing or execution authority.
Evidence, not titles
People are matched on work products, references and scoped tasks, read against the methods the work needs.
Declared conflicts
Financial, institutional and personal interests are declared and managed before selection, not after.
Technical assistance is meant to fill that gap, but it has well-known failure modes. Scope drifts until advisers take decisions that belong to the host. Experts are chosen for title or network rather than demonstrated competence. Conflicts of interest go undeclared, so assistance becomes a route to future contracts. Volunteers and students are given high-consequence work without supervision. And when the project ends, knowledge leaves with the consultants and the host is left with documents it cannot maintain.
Each of these failures compounds the risk the assistance was meant to reduce. A poorly scoped hazard assessment can misdirect investment for years; an unsupervised data task can expose personal information; a captured adviser can tilt procurement. Good assistance is therefore a discipline in its own right, with methods drawn from systems engineering, decision analysis and professional ethics.
Method from STEM, mandates from the Consortium.
Agency applies systems engineering, for defining requirements, interfaces and acceptance criteria, and decision analysis under uncertainty, for choosing between options when outcomes are uncertain; see the STEM foundation of Agency. It works alongside platforms at the other pillar institutions, each under its own mandate.
- Governance NexusInstitutionThe Global Risks Forum (GRF)RelationshipInstitutional governance and mandates that assistance must respect.
- Research NexusInstitutionThe Global Risks Forum (GRF)RelationshipResearch agendas and convening that shape where expertise is needed.
- Development Finance NexusInstitutionThe Global Risks Alliance (GRA)RelationshipShared industry understanding of development finance, without advising on or arranging transactions.
- Financial Regulation NexusInstitutionThe Global Risks Alliance (GRA)RelationshipShared understanding of the financial regulatory context of risk programmes.
Field gateways: Governance and institutions and Development finance. The full list is on counterparts across the Consortium.
The areas of governance and institutions this platform takes on.
Agency studies how technical assistance, expert engagement and institutional support are scoped, staffed, supervised and closed, and how weaknesses at each step become delivery, safeguard and accountability risk for the institutions served. Its pages set out mechanisms, indicators, sources, methods and the decisions each step involves, naming who holds each decision. Every indicator is a name and a unit, not a value, and every source carries its licence.
Technical assistance scope
Mandates, terms of reference, acceptance criteria and the line between advice and decision.
Expert competence
Evidence of skill and relevant experience, verification of credentials and roles, and substitution rules.
Team formation
Interdisciplinary composition, interfaces between workstreams and a single accountable holder for each deliverable.
Institutional support
Capacity at individual, organisational and enabling-environment levels, eligibility and sustainability after exit.
Research and field work
Duty of care, security and health, research ethics, data protection and supervision at a distance.
Conflict and independence
Conflicts of interest, procurement neutrality, sanctions and debarment screening.
Engagement types
Staff, consultant, secondment and volunteer roles, with their rights, duties, cover and ownership of work.
Closeout and learning
Completion evidence, audit, evaluation, lawful handover and records that later work can use.
Built on named science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Every claim on Agency rests on methods with a canonical page in the STEM Commons, so readers can see what a finding depends on and where its limits lie.
How work moves in this field.
A question becomes evidence, a governed build, an organised community, a controlled test, a reviewed publication and, finally, a decision taken by the competent authority under its own rules.
- Question Universe National, regional or institutional priority. Question in Agency
- Evidence Foundry STEM foundation of the platform. Evidence in Agency
- Build Foundry Foundry. Build in Agency
- Organise Universe Nexus ecosystem. Organise in Agency
- Test Universe Universe (independent site). Test in Agency
- Publish Reports Reports. Publish in Agency
- Decide Competent authority Competent authorities and institutions, through NXS-RLS (participants, agreements and handoffs). Decide in Agency
- Renew Universe Corrections and the next annual agenda. Renew in Agency
Each step of the cycle in the pillar it runs in; the decision stays with the competent authority, outside the programme.
- Labs
- Foundry
- Universe
- Nexus Standards
- Reports
- Risk Academy
- Competent authority (outside the programme)
How this works across the six pillars.
Agency works through six pillars of one annual programme, led by the Nexus Consortium, with GCRI, GRF and GRA each contributing in its role: explore, experiment and prototype in Labs, build, simulate and prepare in Foundry, convene and test in Universe, codify, correct and apply in Nexus Standards, publish in every format in Reports, teach in the open in Risk Academy.
handoff in playrecorded handoffno direct handoff
Programme yearAll phases
Route
The whole programme
Every pillar hands its work to another; together they close the year’s feedback loops.
L · F · U · S · R · A
- Pillars
- 6 of 6
- Handoffs
- 18 of 18
- Loops
- 17 closed
Handoffs in play
- F01Universe → Foundry · Admitted mission becomes a cycle project with a decision caseReadiness preparation
- F02Foundry → Universe · Core Build Report and go or no-go evidenceControlled build
- F03Foundry → Reports · Sealed observations and indicator series behind a profileCloseout
- F04Universe → Reports · After-action and scenario findings for chapters 10 and 13After-action review
and 14 more
- LabsWhere questions become experiments and prototypes: new methods, data and tools are tried in the open, with their limits on record, before the Foundry builds them, under the Nexus Consortium.Labs
- FoundryWhere methods, data and models become reproducible builds, each run with its inputs, version and limits on record.Agency in FoundryFoundry
- UniverseWhere a build is tested under controlled conditions with independent evaluators, so a method’s skill is measured, not assumed.Agency in Universeuniverse.nexus
- Nexus StandardsWhere methods, identifiers and data schemas are codified in the open and corrected when a test finds a fault.Foundations and Governance in Standardsnexustandards.com
- ReportsWhere findings are published with their method, uncertainty and evidence class, and corrected as new versions.Agency in ReportsReports
- Risk AcademyWhere methods and systems are taught on real data and real places, by working the case, on Risk Academy.Faculty of Governance, Policy and International Affairs in Academyrisksacademy.com
The same field, seen three ways.
GCRI studies a field as science, GRF governs it and GRA builds shared financial understanding of it. Agency links to its counterparts so that work on one side is visible on the others.
- Research NexusInstitutionGRFShared fieldGovernance and institutions
- Policy NexusInstitutionGRFShared fieldGovernance and institutions
- Capital NexusInstitutionGRFShared fieldDevelopment finance
- Governance NexusInstitutionGRFShared fieldGovernance and institutions
- Development Finance NexusInstitutionGRAShared fieldDevelopment finance
- Financial Regulation NexusInstitutionGRAShared fieldGovernance and institutions
- Disaster Risk FinanceInstitutionGRAShared fieldDevelopment finance
- Financial Crime and Fraud RiskInstitutionGRAShared fieldGovernance and institutions
Where this page’s references lead.
The bodies and documents this page is read against. Status and editions change; each link goes to the issuing body.
- OECD DAC Evaluation Criteria, revised definitions and principles for use (OECD, 2019)
- Busan Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation (2011)
- IATI Standard (International Aid Transparency Initiative)
- ISO 21502:2020 Project, programme and portfolio management, guidance on project management (ISO)
- Nexus Standards, the proposed NS series (nexustandards.com)
Pages in Agency.
Competence and expertise
PageTechnical assistance
PageAssignments and missions
PageSkills and review
PageInterdisciplinary teams
PageParticipate as expert or organisation
PageExpert and project integrity
PagePurpose and publisher
PageSupporting methods
PageContributors and community
PagePublic outputs
PageContact and support
PageJobs and calls
PageSTEM foundation of Agency
PageHow work moves in this field
PageBuild in Foundry
PageTest in Universe
PagePublish in Reports
PageThe same field across the Consortium
PageTopics
Questions and answers.
Who publishes Agency?
Is Agency active?
How can I contribute?
Where are findings published?
Which values on this platform are real?
How do I report an error?
Who publishes Agency?
Is Agency a recruitment agency or employer?
Contribute evidence from this page.
Reports is the Consortium’s quarterly publication. What you know about this subject can become evidence, a case or a correction in the next edition, credited to you and published under CC BY 4.0 where it is your own work.
- EmailGateway GW-GCRISend it from this pageEvidence, a correction, a case, a method, a review, a translation or profile input. It arrives tagged with this page, so the editor who owns it receives it.
- ZenodoOpen depositDeposit it and submit to the communityPublish your own record on Zenodo with your ORCID iD, then submit it to the Reports community there. Curators review it; the DOI stays yours.
- ReportsGCRISee every way to contributeThe contribution types, how each is reviewed, what credit you receive, the licence and what is never accepted.
Never send personal data, sensitive infrastructure detail or anything you have no right to share. A contribution is reviewed before use; sending it confers no authorship or editorial rights, and sponsorship never buys a finding.
How Agency works.
Choose a view and press Play to follow the platform’s process, its programme year, the standards it applies and how its findings are published. The outline shows how the work is designed to run, not the status of any decision.
Agency
How Agency works
Platforms · Programme year · Standards · Reports
A platform joins a field to named methods, labelled evidence and the outputs it publishes, without becoming the authority it serves.
01 Scope
- 01Field and familiesStart · The platform leadThe home states the field, its families and who it serves.
- 02Topic dossiersRecord · Platform authorsTopics explain the subject with labelled evidence.
02 Evidence
- 03Evidence labelsRecord · GCRIEach value is labelled: observed, published statistics, estimated, modelled, scenario or unknown.
- 04MethodsStep · Method ownersMethods come from the STEM Commons, each with one canonical page.
03 Work
- 05Scenarios on the systemsModel · Foundry pillarScenarios run on the Nexus systems, labelled as scenario.
- 06Standards that applyRecord · Nexus StandardsThe platform names the standards that apply. A validator report is evidence for review.
04 Publish
- 07EditionsRecord · ReportsFindings are published through Reports with their limits.
- 08Authority decidesOutcome · The competent authorityDecisions and execution stay with the government, operator or licensed institution.
Agency home · Platforms · Shared methodsAn outline of how the work is designed to run; it does not report the status of any decision or record.
Take part in Agency.
Start from who you are. Answer an open call. Or form and lead a competence cell on the Agency platform.
National institutions
Ministries, statistics offices and agencies: a national desk and chapter, and a seat in the working groups. National chapters
Sectors and professions
Operators, regulators, banks, insurers and professional bodies whose work touches Agency. Participate
Learning
Courses and practice, with a record of every course completed. Free to study. Open learning
Standards
Draft, review and adopt the methods and data standards with the working groups. Working groups
Communities and research
Universities, civil society and individual experts: projects, data and review. Write to the team
| Open call | Seeks | Closes |
|---|---|---|
| Founding call for experts to the working groups CALL-FOUNDING-EXPERTS | expert, editor, chair | 2026-12-15 |
| Open nomination for the three independent expert seats of the Global Standards Council CALL-GSC-IND | council-member | 2026-12-01 |
| Nominations of interim regional members (applies only if the transitional provision is decided) CALL-GSC-REG | council-member | 2026-12-15 |
| Review of the wave-1 risk core outlines (C1, C2, C3, C4, C8, C10, C11) CALL-REVIEW-WAVE1 | contributor | 2027-01-31 |
| Experts for the core standards of risk science: uncertainty and evidence grading, scales, structured expert judgement, tolerability, extremes and compound events, catastrophic and existential risk, ethics and equity, units and measurement (NRS-C17 to NRS-C24) CALL-CORE-SCIENCE | expert, editor, chair | 2027-01-31 |
| Independent reviewers for the families of the hazard atlas, three from at least two regions for each family (NHS2-R19), priority families first CALL-ATLAS-REVIEW | expert | 2027-03-31 |
| Members of the interim Frontier Safety Review Panel and red-team reviewers (biosafety and biosecurity, AI safety and security, critical-infrastructure security); applications treated in confidence CALL-FRONTIER-SAFETY-REVIEW | expert | 2026-11-30 |
| Experts in ontology, metrology, software verification and conformity assessment for the requirement register, the NHS-2 machine representation, the conformance test suites and the conformity assessment scheme CALL-CONFORMANCE-ONTOLOGY | expert, editor | 2027-01-31 |
Calls past their closing date are hidden automatically. Every call, proposal and route: open areas and calls.
Gather the cell
Bring together three to seven people with complementary skills: data, field practice, policy and communication.
Register it
Write to the team with the cell’s name, members, area and region. You receive a reference and a contact. Write to the team
Choose a charter
Pick one focus: research and evidence, data and maps, standards review, or community preparedness.
Learn together
Follow shared study paths at Risk Academy, with practice and a record of every course completed. Hazards and resilience
Lead and report
Hold regular sessions. Publish what the cell learns through Reports. Bring findings to the working groups. Working groups
What a national team or a local community can do on The Global Risks Index (NXS-GRX) today.
Your country’s profile
Open risk profiles for 195 countries, with sources and licences on every value. Open the Index
Correct or reply
Correct a value or reply for your country. The change is logged with its effect. Open the Index
Offer data
Offer a dataset. It enters through the licence gate, with your credit. Open the Index
Every figure on this page is indexed: governance, conflict, society, East Africa.
The Index is the Consortium’s indexing system for risk data. Every indicator, hazard, series and country profile carries its Nexus Standards identifier, its source and its licence, so what this page shows can be traced, corrected and reused.
- 01 · Sources205 registered sourcesEvery value keeps its source and licence; withheld values are counted.Data and licences
- 02 · Nexus StandardsNIS-1 and NHS-1451 indicators, 905 hazards; every record carries a UNI.Nexus Standards
- 03 · The Index54 series, 195 country profilesComputed on the standards; no value is published until an edition is released.The Global Risks Index
- 04 · This pageAgencyMaps, figures and feeds read the Index in the context of governance, conflict, society and East Africa.Public API
Series in this context governance, conflict, society
- GLBGlobal SystemsThe state of interdependent global risk: the twenty domain indices aggregated to the world, the five core systems (water, energy, food, health, biodiversity) and their couplings, the global tail register and the gap…NXS-GRX-AR-000002Conflict · Society · Governance
- GSGlobal Policy and institutionsGovernance weakness, state capacity, rule of law, preparedness frameworks and the institutional ability to anticipate and adapt.NXS-GRX-AR-000072Governance · Crisis · Conflict
- SRConflict, fragility and human securityConflict risk and escalation, fragility, organised violence, civilian harm and the conflict–climate–food–displacement nexus.NXS-GRX-AR-000075Conflict · Governance · Society
- SRInformation integrity and social cohesionInformation disorder, polarisation, trust and cohesion as amplifiers of every other risk.NXS-GRX-AR-000084Governance · Society · Conflict
Country profiles East Africa
Every country profile carries the source and licence of each value. Correct a value or reply
Hazard domains NHS-1
- Society, conflict and economyNXS-GRX-AR-000147
Geodata and API open
Open layers on an equal-area hexagon grid, shown as densities per km² or as symbols: People · GHSL 2025People · WorldPop 2025Built-up areaPortsAirportsRoadsRailwaysRivers and lake centrelines
/api/v1/public/grix · https://nexustandards.com/uni/{uni}
Developers · Data · Made with Natural Earth, Public domain; GHSL and WorldPop, CC BY 4.0
Snapshot of the Index registries pinned 2026-10-23 · 22c6eed. Research and risk-analytics information: not a rating, an official classification, a warning, a benchmark or advice.
Bring a method, a dataset or a question.
Information and enquiries are open today. An enquiry receives a reference and names the next step; applications, payments, compute allocations and registrations open only when their team, terms and review capacity exist.
Legal documents.
Maps, data and figures on this site are shown for context and general information. They are not advice, forecasts or warnings; the limits of the information are set out in the Disclaimers and Data Notices.