Environment & Climate Action Sr. Advisor

Job Description

With 75 years of experience, our focus is on helping the most vulnerable children overcome poverty and experience fullness of life. We help children of all backgrounds, even in the most dangerous places, inspired by our Christian faith.

Come join our 33,000+ staff working in nearly 100 countries and share the joy of transforming vulnerable children’s life stories!

Employee Contract Type:

Local - Fixed Term Employee (Fixed Term)

Job Description:

Provide highly technical and strategic support on Environment and Climate Change Action to FO's to enhance environmental stewardship, lead necessary climate action initiatives within the East Africa region, and collaborate with key stakeholders. The senior advisor, through frequent field visits, will provide technical support in the design and implementation of Environment, climate action programs, and associated projects in development work, emergency response, and advocacy programs. Conduct quality assurance of implementation on a sampling basis, assess capacity gaps in FO’s, and carry out ToFs on core project models and approaches on environmental stewardship and climate action. Promote and support learning initiatives and manage the CoP, lead and contribute to continuous innovative improvement integrated program/project interventions. Develop capability statements and contribute to design and resource mobilization efforts within the region and support FO’s. Coordinate with the Global partnership environment and climate change teams. Represent the region in the various working groups and engagements on environmental stewardship and climate action.

Key Responsibilities:

• Support the roll out and application of the Environmental Stewardship Policy across EARO offices.
• Support Field offices to set up and improve integrated programming in ESCA projects and build their capacity to do so.
• Develop compelling materials to strengthen WV EARO FO’s commitment and passion for work on ESCA (e.g., capability statements, case studies of success, business cases, Return on Investment, etc.).
• Nurture a community of practice at field level to implement environmental programming with practical steps to reduce WV’s environmental footprint.
• Promote RO and FO’s carbon footprint and subsequent measures to reduce impact through initiatives with both internal and external stakeholders.
• Monitor and track FO implementation of ESCA initiatives and report against relevant Regional and Global KPIs.
• Advise FO’s on ESCA related policy statements as requested.
• Work with Regional Office and Field Office’s to raise grant and other resources to fund environmental projects.
• Work with Priority Field Offices to design, develop, and where necessary write grant applications to secure funding for ESCA projects.
• Advise WV EARO FO’s on strategies, approaches, and positioning to secure funding for ESCA projects.
• Work with Global Centre (Headquarters) ESCA and relevant funding offices and functions to build WV EAR Field Office capacity to meet sector and major grant donor requirements on ESCA (e.g., ECHO's Minimum Operations Requirements).
• Work with EAR GAM to identify, map, and communicate ESCA funding opportunities to WV EAR Field Offices.

External and Internal (WV Partnership) Engagement:

Be a focal point for ESCA issues in cross and multisector programming, including commissioning and overseeing relevant field research/positioning materials, establishment of external partnerships, and help position EARO regional office in the WV Partnership on ESCA issues.

Strategically engage with donors, their respective funding offices, and other partners in a response, development, or nexus context, to ensure that WV is positioned as a viable partner for ESCA programs.

Work with FOs to broker external partnerships that can forward ESCA work at field level.

Represent the region effectively in key organizational discussions, platforms, and fora.

Maintain partnerships with organizations, think tanks, and agencies to fund and implement ESCA or integrated programs.

Nexus Approach:

Will strengthen the implementation of the Nexus Approach by ensuring integration on humanitarian/development/peacebuilding initiatives.

These efforts include stronger and more focused joint analysis, strategic planning and programming, and more joint learning (field trips, evaluations, etc.) between humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding actors.

Focus on working in collaboration and complementarity between humanitarian and development actors, knowing that Field Offices will become increasingly affected by climate change, food insecurity, and extreme poverty, which might lead to more conflicts over scarce resources and presence.

Work with humanitarian, development, and peace actors to find solutions to, if/when possible, prevent conflict, violence (and population movement) from happening.

Qualifications:

• Master's Degree in Environmental Sciences, Climate Change, or Program Management/International Development is an added advantage.
• Experience in advocacy, policy formation, guidance, and implementation on ESCA project model.
• Detailed knowledge of NGO Environmental Stewardship and Climate Action programming and how to apply it.
• Proven track record of growing communities of practice and influencing senior field stakeholders (e.g., Operations Directors, Head of Mission, etc.) is vital.
• Able to think and plan strategically and conduct practical field assessments, visits, proposal writing, etc.
• Knowledge of livelihoods, international development, humanitarian response, project management, or other relevant fields is an added advantage.
• Experience with bilateral and UN donors is required.
• Experience in the development of projects, training materials, conducting training (face-to-face and online), and providing technical assistance.
• Understanding of the sector, donor, and UN landscape for ESCA.
• Technical skills: Knowledge of ESCA project models and approaches is desirable.
• A minimum of 5 years of working experience in climate change and environmental stewardship, program development, implementation, and resource mobilization in both emergency, development, and advocacy contexts.
• Highly developed external engagement and networking skills.
• Strong project management skills, including experience with research and development of programming models.
• Excellent writing skills as shown through technical documents, thought pieces, and proposals.
• Demonstrated willingness to be flexible and versatile in a changing work environment while maintaining effectiveness and efficiency.
• Ability to motivate and develop staff.
• Experience leading a task force or community of practice or learning.
• Understanding of climate change risks and challenges.
• Strong understanding of global strategies and frameworks on environmental stewardship and climate change.
• Knowledge of legal international conventions related to climate change.
• Strong negotiation, collaboration, networking, liaison, and donor engagement skills.
• Demonstrated proficiency using Excel, Microsoft Suite of products, databases, and statistical packages.
• Consistently demonstrates high-level influence and strategic engagement skills and tactical savvy in the delivery of technical assistance.
• Ability to think broadly and look at the macro, strategic issues to inform strategy choices and management processes.
• Critical thinking skills to relate work performed to broader business context.
• Clear communication skills, written and spoken; high influencer, engager, and innovator; techno survey, trainer/coach, research.
• Strong relationship-building/network capacity, spiritual maturity in Christian faith, ability to influence, innovative, and proactive personality.

Good-to-Have:

• Excellent English skills; basic French is an added advantage.

Required Travel and/or Work Environment Accommodations:

The position requires the ability and willingness to travel domestically and internationally up to 60% of the time, with possible extended periods of 4 to 6 weeks of field work. Preferred candidates should be committed to travel to Field Offices for days/weeks and spend time with Field Office technical teams in the field. Hands-on support is a critical part of this role.

Applicant Types Accepted:

Local Applicants Only

Skills Required:

• Environmental / Natural / Resource
• Political / Science / Ir
• Social / Science / Project / Management / Development