Economic Recovery Advisor- Damascus (National)

TITLE:  Economic Recovery Advisor

TEAM/PROGRAMME: 

Impact and Influencing

LOCATION: Damascus/ One of the Syria Country Offices within Syria (Jordan, Turkey or Syria) with expectation to travel to other locations 50% of the time
GRADE: 

CONTRACT LENGTH:

Fixed term – 12 months

CHILD SAFEGUARDING:

Level 3 - the responsibilities of the post may require the post holder to have regular contact with oraccess to children oryoung people

ROLE PURPOSE: 

The Economic Recovery Advisor will provide strategic direction and technical guidance to the country office (CO) on needs driven strategic planning, programme development and implementation in areas of livelihoodand economicrecovery. Under the general direction and guidance of the Head of Programme Impact and Quality, ensures that programming for livelihood and economic recovery is of excellent technical quality, coherent and aligned with SC and cluster strategies, attracts significant donor fundingand contributes significantly to national/global learning, advocacy and program development. The post holder is expected to provide technical advice and support to project staff to ensure program quality is maintained and programmingobjectives are successfully achieved.

The post-holder shall also contribute to the development and/review of the country livelihood and economic recovery strategic direction, and actively lead in the development of programme design. S/he represents SC in food security and agriculture cluster (FSAC), participates in cash and market working group and other relevant forums. S/he undertakes regular assessment to understand capacity gaps and initiates capacity strengthening efforts.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: Head of Programme Quality and ImpactSenior Protection Advisor

Staff reporting to this post: This is an advisory role with no direct line management responsibility; however, the role provides technical backstopping and guidance to program staff.

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY: 

Programme Development and Program Quality (Design, Implementation & MEAL):

• Work closely with new business development colleagues to identify and pursue funding opportunities; engage with technical partners, donors and colleagues across Save the Children 
• Lead the technical scoping, planning, and design and proposal writing during new programme development for FSL and economic recovery programmes including the integration of cash approaches across different sectors to achieve child centered outcomes. 
• Ensure that we design and deliver high quality programmes for children, building on global best practice. Ensure that gender, disability and resilience considerations are reflected in our programme design and implementation.
• Promote a Systems Strengthening approach as the overarching framework, that supports working in collaboration and partnership with local actors towards impact, scale and sustainability.
• Provide oversight and guidance to the programme implementation teams to ensure that thematic programme components are technically sound, implementation methods are consistent with national and global strategies, acknowledged good practice (e.g. Save the Children Common Approaches); and are likely to achieve scale, as well as equitable and sustainable results. 
• Promote and monitor integrated programming in a way that increases overall impact.
• Work with Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability & Learning (MEAL) teams as well as with the relevant thematic Technical Advisors (i.e. WaSH, Nutrition, Health, Education, Child Protection) to conduct quality monitoring against international standards on MEAL for programmes integrating CVA, through participatory methodologies (including child-friendly and disability inclusive methodologies); 
• Contribute towards the creation of an organisational learning culture that promotes the use of data, evidence and analysis and understands its link to quality and accountable programming;
• Undertake field visits to project sites; work with implementation teams to understand impacts, operational challenges, and continuously identify opportunities for learning and improvement.
• Contribute to organisational learning on Livelihoods and Economic Recovery when applied to and integrated with WaSH, Nutrition, Health, Education, Child Protection interventions, ensuring that learning from our programmes is shared across the Country Office, our partners, and the national/subnational clusters. 
• Monitor trends in order to ensure early action; and lead technical design and implementation and

technical coordination of humanitarian responses; 

Strategy Planning

• To be fully aware of and actively participate in the development and review of any Country Strategic and Thematic Plans. Specifically lead in the preparation of situational analyses, background information, policy formulations, establishing indicators etc in the area of Food Security and Livelihoods;
• Drive Save the Children's priorities during the transitional phase in Syria to support the shift from humanitarian to longer term development opportunities.   
• Lead the planning, implementation of labor market analysis, market system analysis, and scoping analysis of youth and women led livelihood opportunities;
• Lead the review and development of economic recovery strategic plan for Syria CO.
• Review locally feasible and successful youth and women empowerment programming opportunities through desk review and stakeholder consultations.
• Proactively continue to grow the livelihood and economic recovery portfolio through development of concept notes and proposals to donors
• Support identification of opportunities for economic and livelihood recovery and development programming initiatives in support of service delivery and/or thought leadership with country program senior management, business development staff and SC Technical advisors.
• Collaborate with partners on the identification of business development opportunities, and the design of new interventions.
• Anticipate, plan and lead programmatic and structural transitions.
• In collaboration with the MEAL team, develop relevant monitoring tools and adapt them to context.
• Actively participate in key relevant internal meetings such as Extended Senior Management Team or Area-based meetings as required. Participate in any Donor visit to project(s) within your portfolio as required.
• Lead technical capacity development initiatives for SC project implementation staff on FSL technical guidelines, Cash and Voucher programming, integrated nutrition sensitive approaches, technical common approaches.
• Ensure that gender equality and inclusion, safe programming and conflict sensitivity is embedded into needs and response analysis, and programming

Technical Leadership, Management and Representation

• Liaise with the operations department, ensure all programme staff receive the necessary and appropriate technical support in the areas of livelihoods, cash and voucher programmes and food security. In consultation with staff and project managers agree on the range of advice, support, training and/or other assistance required from you to facilitate high quality programming. This will involve regular visits to Save the Children operational areas.
• Assist in the development of tools for project staff and partners to improve the quality of food security and livelihoods work. Where necessary provide technical training for project staff and partners as required (HEA, monitoring and evaluation, market assessment, social protection mechanisms, graduation approaches, small businesses, vocational skill development and employability, cash and voucher distributions).

Representation & Advocacy & Organisational Learning:

• Help shape broader child-centered economic recovery strategies through influence of and leadership within inter-agency coordination forums, ensuring the specific needs of children are being addressed. 
• In collaboration with New Business Development, contribute to strategic partnerships; identify partners and donors to strengthen the portfolio across the SCO 
• Play a key role in shaping sector relevant communications and media priorities and product in line with thematic priorities.
• Ensure effective collaboration with other Technical Advisors and Program Teams, to maximise outcomes
• Represent and advocate for Save the Children with UN agencies, Donors, Government, NGOs and others at the highest levels in both verbal and written communications to ensure Save the Children is seen as the lead international agency in Syria in terms of innovation and quality of implementation that focus on economic recovery, livelihood and resilience (integrated approach through market, livelihood analysis, skill development, small businneses). Specifically ensure the following:
• Attend and provide technical expertise when needed to coordination meetings
• Ensure presence at relevant UN coordination meetings at national and regional levels
• Ensure active dissemination of programmes findings and lessons learned through the production of high technical quality lessons learned documents and their effective dissemination to key stakeholders.

BEHAVIOURS (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 their team to do the same
• widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others
• future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale.

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; demonstrates highest levels of integrity

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE: 

Required

• Postgraduate qualification in discipline related to economics, development economics, agriculture, food security or other relevant discipline or commensurate work experience in lieu of postgraduate qualification.. 
• 7 Years of experience working in FSL  or economic recovery programmes including CvA in humanitarian and development contexts
• Significant international experience in livelihood and economic recovery programming in developing countries with specific experience and/or advanced understanding of at least four of the following
• social protection systems for vulnerable populations 
• designing and implementing market assessments and analysis of data collected livelihood interventions using cash and voucher approaches
• Market driven technical/vocational skill development and employability Market driven and locally feasible income generation initiatives
• Strong commitment to capacity building of national staff and partners with willingness to adopt a participatory and consultative management approach.
• Experience in leading and developing thematic strategy and response plan
• Good interpersonal skills with the ability to communicate and negotiate clearly and effectively at all levels, taking into account cultural and language difficulties. Tact and diplomacy are essential
• Experience of working in insecure/conflict situations and security management. • Willingness to travel regularly and in difficult circumstances
• Fluent in spoken and written Arabic and English (Kurdish language an asset)

Desirable

• Knowledge and understanding of SPHERE Standard and other principles of humanitarian work.
• Experience in promoting children’s participation in programme design, implementation and evaluation.
• Experience deseigning and implementing Cash Plusprogrammes
• Good understanding of poverty reduction strategy framework and related processes.
• High knowledge of database management tools and data analysis tools (VBA programming, MySQL, Access, Advanced Excel functions)
• Working experience in planning and response to large-scale food insecurity situations. Additional job responsibilities

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.

The Organization
We employ approximately 25,000 people across the globe and work on the ground in over 100 countries to help children affected by crises, or those that need better healthcare, education and child protection. We also campaign and advocate at the highest levels to realise the right of children and to ensure their voices are heard. We are working towards three breakthroughs in how the world treats children by 2030:
· No child dies from preventable causes before their 5th birthday
· All children learn from a quality basic education and that,
· Violence against children is no longer tolerated
We know that great people make a great organization, and that our employees play a crucial role in helping us achieve our ambitions for children.We value our people and offer a meaningful and rewarding career, along with a collaborative and inclusive workplace where ambition, creativity, and integrity are highly valued.
Application Information:
Please apply using a cover letter and up-to-date CV as a single document. Please also include details of your current remuneration and salary expectations. A copy of the full role profile can be found at www.savethechildren.net/jobs We need to keep children safe so our selection process reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.