Chair of Community & Indigenous Council (CIC Chair)

Position: Community & Indigenous Council Chair (CIC Chair) — Global Risk Alliance (GRA) / Nexus Governance System
Type: Equity, safeguards, and do-no-harm governance leadership role for finance-linked programs (non-executive; strictly non-executing)
Board: Council leaders are considered for Board nomination after joining and serving in good standing
Location: International (distributed, hybrid)
Term: 3 Years
Time commitment: ~12–26 hours per month (build-year cadence; surge periods around safeguards escalations, grievance matters, and high-impact releases)
Apply here: https://therisk.global/work/job/chair-of-community-indigenous-council-cic-chair-gra/

Context and Purpose

Finance-linked resilience programs fail when they are socially illegitimate: when communities experience harm without remedy, when participation is symbolic, when data is extractive, or when “readiness” and monitoring systems amplify inequity. In a financial services context, these failures become not only ethical failures but also conduct risk, reputational risk, litigation risk, and program failure—blocking adoption and undermining long-term capital formation.

The GRA Community & Indigenous Council Chair (CIC Chair) is the equity, legitimacy, and safeguards anchor for GRA’s finance-facing governance. The role ensures that standards, diligence artifacts, monitoring packs, and disclosure posture embed do-no-harm requirements, protected participation, and credible grievance/remedy pathways—so finance usability does not come at the cost of rights, safety, or legitimacy.

This is governance—not execution. The role does not advise transactions, broker deals, steer procurement, select vendors, underwrite, place, custody, operate markets, or imply endorsement.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and enforce do-no-harm requirements for finance-linked governance outputs, including risks of exclusion, stigmatization, retaliation, displacement, or the publication of exploitable vulnerabilities.
• Ensure safeguards are applied early (design stage), not only after harm occurs; maintain explicit “stop-the-line” thresholds for inadequate safeguards.
• Ensure outputs include equity impact considerations: who benefits, who bears risk, who is excluded, and what mitigations are required.
• Ensure protected participation is real and safe: informed participation pathways, anti-retaliation posture, safe channels, and respectful convening practices—especially for vulnerable groups.
• Prevent tokenism by ensuring community and Indigenous inputs can materially change outputs where warranted, and by documenting how inputs were addressed.
• Ensure representation integrity: participation is legitimate and not selected for convenience or reputational cover.
• Oversee grievance and remedy pathways (with appropriate officers/functions): recorded intake, time-bound routing, reasoned outcomes, and verifiable remedy actions (corrections, withdrawals, additional safeguards, disclosure changes).
• Ensure remedy processes do not expose complainants or communities to further risk; maintain confidentiality and handling posture appropriate to locality-sensitive information.
• Enforce data ethics and locality-sensitive handling: least-privilege access, controlled sessions where needed, strict public-safe publication posture, and guardrails against extractive data practices.
• Coordinate with handling/security and communications integrity functions to prevent disclosure of sensitive locations, vulnerabilities, or community-identifying details that create harm or exploitation risk.
• Enforce neutrality and anti-capture posture: prevent dominance by advocacy blocs, funders, political interests, or commercial actors; manage conflicts and recusal rigor.
• Drive participation growth and seat completeness for community/Indigenous roles across geographies while maintaining strong independence and conflict controls.

Compensation, Remuneration, and Expenses

This role is designed to be trust-maximizing and capture-resistant in a financial services context.

• Governance authority is not paid. Compensation is never linked to votes, approvals, recognition decisions, enforcement actions, standards outcomes, market outcomes, or influence. No success fees. No pay-to-approve.
• Operational workload may be compensated (where permitted). If build-year operational work is required (safeguards frameworks, grievance/remedy operations, participation protocols, localization playbooks), compensation may be provided only for clearly defined operational services—scoped, time-bounded, deliverable-based, independently approved, and auditable, with conflicts safeguards.
• Expenses may be reimbursed. Reasonable, documented, pre-approved out-of-pocket expenses required for the role may be reimbursed in accordance with policy and handling requirements.
• Standing and independence apply. Continued service depends on remaining in good standing, meeting disclosure obligations, and maintaining independence consistent with integrity and conduct requirements.

Opportunities for Leaders to Join

• Build the safeguards and legitimacy layer that makes finance-linked resilience programs adoptable, durable, and ethically defensible.
• Shape grievance and remedy architecture that turns participation into enforceable accountability—reducing conduct and reputational risk for the entire ecosystem.
• Embed equity and do-no-harm into diligence and monitoring standards so capital can scale without harm externalization.
• Strong performance positions leaders for broader chairing responsibilities and board consideration (without implying entitlement).

Leaders Profile

We are seeking senior leaders (typically 12–20+ years) with credibility across one or more of:

• Indigenous governance, community leadership, rights-based safeguards, and participatory accountability systems.
• Social safeguards, grievance mechanisms, remedy verification, and ethical governance in high-impact programs.
• Community-centered resilience, disaster risk reduction, climate adaptation, or humanitarian accountability under scrutiny.
• Multi-stakeholder convening requiring neutrality, confidentiality, and disciplined documentation.

Capabilities and Mindset

• Rights- and harm-aware judgment: identifies latent harms and insists on mitigations before release.
• High-integrity convening: protected participation, non-extractive engagement, and legitimacy-first posture.
• Calm escalation leadership: can manage disputes and remedy pathways without exposing communities to added risk.
• Documentation discipline: converts lived impact into testable safeguards, conditions, and traceable outcomes.
• Boundary discipline: maintains strict non-execution posture and resists both commercial and advocacy capture.

Eligibility, Membership, and Independence

• Holds a primary full-time role outside the council seat and can commit sustained time at the expected cadence.
• Willing to fully disclose relevant interests (funding, affiliations, representation mandates) and comply with conflict-of-interest, recusal, and conduct requirements.
• Not placed in a situation where service creates unmanageable conflicts, compromises neutrality, or creates regulated-activity ambiguity.
• Accepts strict confidentiality, handling discipline, and communications integrity expectations.
• Commits to remain in good standing (participation, disclosures, and applicable contribution obligations).