DRR AND Resilience/ Safe Schools (senoir) advisor Full-Time

Child Safeguarding Level 3 – the responsibilities of the post may require the post holder to have regular contact with or access to children or young people

Role purpose:

Save the Children is the world’s leading independent organisation for children. Our vision is a world in which every child attains the right to learn, survive and be protected. Our mission is to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children, and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives. We save children’s lives; we fight for their rights; we help them fulfill their potential. We work together, with our partners from civil societies and government, towards the goals that all children are protected, learn and no child dies of preventable causes.

Key facts about Save the Children International in Mozambique and Zimbabwe

Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)/Safe Schools (Senior) Advisor will play a lead role in defining and implementing Save the Children’s disaster risk reduction and resilience programmes in Mozambique and Zimbabwe with a specific focus on risk reduction and resilience within the education sector. Through Save the Children Norway, Mozambique is implementing one ECHO funded project and is starting up a second round of a 5 year framework agreement with Norad, Zimbabwe is the consortium lead in an ECHO project and is starting up a 3-year phase out Norad funded programme and Malawi is starting up a 5 year Norad programme. All the projects work on risk reduction and resilience in the education sector. The purpose of this position is to give technical assistance to the projects in the three countries, assure the quality of implementation as to SC standards and be a central part of shaping and developing the future of risk reduction and resilience/Safe Schools programming in these countries. If extended, possibly also include responsibility for Malawi.

Mozambique has been increasingly exposed to climate variability and multiple weather-related hazards, particularly since consumption year 2015 – 2016 with the effects of El Niño causing widespread food insecurity. Pre-existing vulnerabilities have been exacerbated by the two strongest cyclones ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere in a period of six weeks (Cyclone Idai and Cyclone Kenneth).

Scope of role:

• Reports to: Interim PDQ Director at SCI in Mozambique;
• Dimensions: Save the Children works in 9 out of 11provinces in Mozambique, X in Zimbabwe. The value of the current portfolio in Mozambique is 50000000.00 USD.

Internal:

The DRR/Safe Schools (senior) advisor will collaborate with programme quality directors, programme managers and project officers in the two country offices. He/she will need to collaborate with other sectors specifically education and child protection. In addition, the advisor will work closely with Save the Children Norway’s DRR/CCA advisor.

External:

Occasional involvement with senior government officials in relevant ministries, departments, external agencies, and partners at national and regional levels to share strategic directions, lobby and advocacy and project implementation experiences. Senior level involvement with representatives of donors, international agencies, government agencies and local civil society may be required and sometimes together with other department/s.

Staff directly reporting to this post: n/a.

Key areas of accountability:

1. Technical Assistance and Quality Assurance

• Ensure quality of the thematic program implementation using SC standards and tools in the three countries;
• Ensure that timely and effective technical support is available for the programme staff;
• Act as a sounding board for programme managers and discuss strategic programmatic approaches within the programmes;
• Make extended field visits for on the job support for field offices and to understand the contexts of the programmes;
• Ensure learning across the three country offices;
• One “internal consultancy” task of writing the Safe School Context Analysis (previously Education Sector Snapshot) for Zimbabwe. Time estimated 6 working weeks. Support will be provided from SC in Zimbabwe and Norway, but DRR/Safe School Advisor will do data gathering, facilitate for discussion (and potentially action planning) among stakeholders and write the analysis.

Capacity Building

• In consultation with HR Department and programme operations thematic managers take lead in planning and organizing the delivery of capacity building of SC staff and partner staff as required for;
• Plan for on-the-job training and capacity building of project staff and government and civil society partners.

Advocacy and Representation

• Support the country offices to develop SC’s position on child-centered DRR and CCA programming and policy changes with support from CO programme staff, CRG/advocacy coordinator and other thematic specialists, and support in developing strategies for advocating;
• Facilitate for common positions in the Southern Africa CO;
• Support the development of the Safe Schools Context Analysis (previously named Education Sector Snapshot) for Zimbabwe, and the use of the study for policy changes when finished;
• Represent SC among donor’s communities, government and other national and international forums as relevant;
• Design, facilitate and participate in national and international workshop for disseminating proven evidence.

1. Documentation and Evaluation
2. An important aspect will be to organize the documentation and generation of evidence of best practices in DRR and CCA, and disseminate them to relevant stakeholders nationally and internationally, and be part of building up SC’s evidence base on our Safe Schools Approach.
3. Fund Raising and programme design and innovation
4. Exploring additional funding sources to pilot and scale up proven DRR&R interventions.
5. Develop project proposals in close consultation of other departments and the programme operations team.
6. Identify and bring in best practices and issues from national and international learning inside and outside the CO.
7. Take lead in developing program approaches in Safe Schools and child-centered DRR and CCA in close consultation of with other thematic specialists and the programme operations team.
8. Support other thematic specialists to include DRR and CCA components in all proposals as relevant.
9. Development and emergencies
10. Be prepared for change in tasks in case of larger scale emergency.

Skills and behaviours (our Values in Practice)

Accountability:

• Holds self accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values
• Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities – giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved

Ambition:

• Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages team members to do the same
• Widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates team members
• Future orientated, thinks strategically.

Collaboration:

• Builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters;
• Values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength;
• Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to.

Creativity:

• Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions;
• Willing to take disciplined risks.

Integrity:

• Honest, encourages openness and transparency.

Qualifications and experience

• Master’s degree or equivalent in social sciences, education/education in emergencies, natural resource management, environmental sciences, engineering, social sciences or other fields relevant to DRR&R in education;
• At least five-seven years of job experience in disaster risk reduction, resilience, climate change or related fields;
• Good interpersonal skills including verbal and written communication skills;
• Demonstrated significant experience in project design and advocacy;
• Prior experience in working with NGOs/civil societies and government counterparts;
• Proven sound strategic thinking and planning skills, including ability to think creatively and be innovative, set priorities, manage work plans and evaluate progress;
• Good understanding of education system in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe;
• Good report writing skill;
• Fluent in English and Portuguese;
• Experience with a rights-based approach is an asset;
• Experience in working with and/or for children, and child-centered DRR&CCA and child protection is an asset;
• Experience with working with education and/or protection is an asset.

Additional job responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.

Equal Opportunities

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI Equal Opportunities and Diversity policies and procedures.

Child Safeguarding:

We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

Health and Safety

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with SCI Health and Safety policies and procedures.

[MJ1]To be provided by HR