GCRI · Agency
Technical assistance scope
Technical assistance supplies knowledge, skills and analysis to an institution that holds a public mandate. It does not transfer that mandate. Scope sets the problem, the deliverables, the counterpart, the acceptance criteria and the decisions reserved to the client. Scope that is vague at the start is where delivery risk first enters a programme. This page sets out how scope is defined, how scope risk develops and spreads, and what evidence the holders of the mandate use to decide.
Technical assistance scope on the record.
Technical assistance scope: how the risk develops.
What support can and cannot authorise. The dossier below sets out how the risk develops, what is measured, where the data come from, how it is modelled and who decides.
Advice drifts into authority
Advisers placed to fill a capacity gap are gradually asked to draft, then approve, then sign. The institution’s own staff stop exercising the function, and the line between advice and decision disappears from the record.
Terms of reference leave gaps
Objectives without acceptance criteria, deliverables without a named counterpart, and timelines without decision points mean no one can say whether the work is done. Variations, extensions and payment disputes follow.
Supply shapes the demand
When assistance is designed around what a funder or firm can supply rather than what the institution asked for, ownership is weak and outputs sit unused. Parallel units built to deliver the assistance can drain the system it was meant to strengthen.
Unscoped work cascades
A draft regulation enacted without legal review, or a design signed by an adviser without authority, moves risk from the assignment into the institution. Audit observations, safeguard breaches and suspended financing can follow, each with its own holder and remedy.
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
Scopes keep assistance in each domain bounded.
- WaterIn practiceA drought indicator project has defined deliverables.What a reader can checkScope document
- EnergyIn practiceAn adequacy study names what is in and out.What a reader can checkExclusions stated
- HealthIn practiceA surveillance analytics project names the data it may use.What a reader can checkData terms
Scopes feed the Portfolio and Readiness series. Effective assistance follows the Paris, Accra and Busan principles of country ownership.
- Scope templates for review.
- Lessons from past scopes.
Assignment and team board.
The screen a team would use to follow this subject: its measures, states and decisions. Names are examples and values are illustrative.
Assignment and team board
Technical assistance scope · Assignment pool · Quarter 4
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
- 5 weeks
- Authority
- stays with the requester
- Fee
- no fee stated
What is measured, and how well.
Each indicator carries its unit, its cadence, the kind of source behind it and the evidence label a value would carry. No values are shown: a programme supplies them under its own authority.
| Indicator | Unit | Cadence | Source type | Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Technical cooperation in bilateral development assistance (ODA) | percent of gross disbursements | annual | OECD Creditor Reporting System type-of-aid codes | Published statistics |
| Assignments mobilised with signed terms of reference | percent of assignments | quarterly | Engagement and contract records | REPORTED |
| Deliverables accepted against stated acceptance criteria | percent of deliverables | per assignment | Client acceptance records | REPORTED |
| Terms-of-reference amendments | count per assignment | per assignment | Contract variation records | Published statistics |
| Assignments with a named counterpart in the client institution | percent of assignments | quarterly | Engagement records | DECLARED |
| Advisory positions performing line functions | count of positions | annual | Functional reviews, audit findings | REPORTED |
| Development co-operation using country public financial management and procurement systems | percent of disbursements | per monitoring round | Global Partnership monitoring | Published statistics |
Model technical assistance scope 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
Where the evidence comes from.
Named public datasets and institutional records, each with its licence class. Sources by agreement are used only under their terms and never republished.
| Source | What it gives | Licence class |
|---|---|---|
| OECD Creditor Reporting System | Activity-level aid records, including type-of-aid categories for donor experts and other technical assistance | Free and open, attribution under OECD terms |
| IATI Datastore and d-portal | Published activity data: objectives, participating organisations, budgets, documents and results | Open, licence declared per publisher |
| Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation monitoring | Country-led data on ownership, use of country systems and results frameworks | Open, attribution |
| World Bank Independent Evaluation Group evaluations | Evaluations of advisory services, analytics and technical assistance operations | Public documents under the World Bank access to information policy |
| UN Joint Inspection Unit reports | System-wide reviews of consultants and non-staff personnel in UN organisations | Public documents |
| National supreme audit institution reports | Audits of externally funded programmes, advisory contracts and decision authority | Public records, terms per audit office |
How technical assistance scope 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 technical assistance scope 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
Who decides, and what the evidence serves.
Agency prepares evidence. The decisions below are taken by the authorities named, under their own rules, and never by the platform.
| Who decides | The question | Evidence this page serves |
|---|---|---|
| Requesting ministry or public agency | Whether the need is for advice, implementation support or a function the institution must staff itself | Mandate map; scope statement with the decisions reserved to the institution |
| Funding agency task team or programme manager | Whether the terms of reference are specific enough to finance and to accept deliverables against | Terms-of-reference checklist, acceptance criteria and counterpart commitment |
| Supreme audit institution or internal audit function | Whether decisions were taken by persons holding the legal authority to take them | Records of who advised, who decided and who signed |
| Public service commission or establishment office | Whether externally funded advisers are substituting for posts the institution should fill | Functional review findings; advisory positions against the establishment |
Outputs this topic produces
- Scope statements that separate advice, implementation support and decisions reserved to the client
- Terms-of-reference checklists with acceptance criteria, counterpart and decision points
- Mandate maps showing which office holds which decision right
- Scope-risk notes for requesting institutions and funders
What a good scope answers.
- Which institution holds the mandate for this work, and who in it is accountable for using the results?
- What question does the assistance answer, and what deliverables will show it has been answered?
- What is explicitly outside the scope?
- What capability should remain with the host when the assistance ends?
How assistance goes wrong.
The best-documented failure of technical assistance is substitution: advisers do the work instead of building the host’s capacity, and the host is no better able to act when they leave. A second failure is authority creep, where an adviser’s recommendation is treated as a decision, or where assistance becomes a channel for steering procurement or financing towards particular suppliers.
Clear scope protects all parties. The host keeps control of its decisions, the expert knows the limits of their responsibility, and affected communities can see who answers for what. For that reason assistance offered through the Consortium’s programme carries a stated limit for each type of work, such as ‘a blueprint is not an installed environment’ or ‘testing is not certification or procurement status’.
The host decides.
The host institution decides whether to request assistance and how to use its results, under its own rules. The programme team decides whether a request fits the programme. Related topics: Institutional support, Team formation and Project closeout. The full list of assistance types is on technical assistance types and boundaries. Governance of institutional mandates is the subject of Governance Nexus at The Global Risks Forum (GRF).
This page describes practice as designed. It is reviewed by a named subject editor, with references and independent specialist voices recorded, before release.
How it is studied, and what the methods cannot say.
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.
Questions and answers.
What is the difference between technical assistance and a decision?
Why do acceptance criteria matter so much?
Can an adviser fill a vacant post?
Does Agency decide what support is provided?
Can assistance include drafting legislation or regulations?
What happens if the host asks for work outside the scope?
Who owns the outputs?
Is technical assistance free?
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