Climate Resilience Technical Expert (TE)

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY

Technical Leadership

• Provide technical leadership for climate resilience for the Malawi - Zimbabwe Cluster (Cluster), ensuring alignment to Save the Children’s global thematic priorities and breakthroughs, and technical steers and set the strategic approach in relation to the wider country strategy, with explicit linkages to other thematic and cross thematic steers, and with a focus on gender and disability inclusion.
• Support the Cluster offices to implement Save the Children’s Global Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change Policy
  
  Climate Finance & Resource Mobilisation
• Lead and coordinate climate finance positioning for the Cluster, with a focus on Green Climate Fund, Adaptation Fund, African Development Bank, bilateral climate windows, MDB-linked facilities and emerging blended finance instruments.
• Work closely with NBD teams to shape a proactive climate finance pipeline, including concept notes, readiness grants and programmatic approaches rather than one-off projects.
• Provide technical leadership on donor engagement strategies, including positioning SCI as a long-term climate partner rather than only a project implementer
• Lead the technical scoping, planning, and design and proposal writing during new programme development, and ensure that we design and deliver high quality, holistic child-centred climate resilience programmes, building on global best practice. Ensure that broader intersecting social justice and disability considerations are reflected in our climate resilience programme design and implementation.
  
  Ensuring Programme Quality (Implementation)
• Support the use of national, regional, and global climate and early warning platforms (e.g. FEWS NET, DCCMS climate services, WHO EWARS) as reference and learning mechanisms to complement the GCF supported Climate informed HEWARS dashboard, enhance data coherence, and strengthen institutional understanding of climate risk.
• Quality assure and provide technical input on climate science and climate resilience components within GCF-supported deliverables, particularly consultant recruitment, competency screening, and review of consultant outputs, reports, and knowledge products.
• Strengthen in-house technical capacity within the Cluster on climate resilience by facilitating structured learning and knowledge-sharing, providing strategic mentorship and supporting the technical advisers and programme teams across humanitarian and development programming.
• Link and strategically position GCF-supported projects within relevant regional and global climate resilience/DRR platforms to promote cross-learning, knowledge dissemination, and uptake of good practice across institutions and geographies.
• Identify and lead opportunities for applied research, learning, and evidence generation across GCF projects and synthesize products that strengthen climate-resilient programming and inform external engagement.
• Support the development and delivery of technical training materials, tools and guidelines to ensure proper integration of climate change and DRR practices into project activities, including contracting additional technical expertise as appropriate.
• Provide strategic technical guidance and operational quality oversight for climate change and DRR activities, ensuring delivery teams implement in line with agreed plans, timelines, quality standards, and the Environmental and Social Policy requirements of the GCF.
• Act as the key focal point on all project-related climate change and DRR related project needs and interface with all implementing partners and stakeholders (e.g. relevant Ministries, Provincial Technical Working Groups, Area Councils/Rural District Councils, and other local level committees, etc.).
• Support Humanitarian colleagues (as needed) to develop climate and weather informed emergency preparedness plans, and to design and deliver anticipatory emergency response and recovery programmes. Build capacity on climate resilience among humanitarian teams involved in different sectors.
• Monitor seasonal weather and longer-term climate trends to ensure early, anticipatory action and adaptation; and lead/input to technical design and implementation and technical coordination of preparedness, anticipation, adaptation, and humanitarian responses as appropriate.
• Contribute to the development, dissemination, monitoring and evaluation of innovative program quality tools and resources focused on advancing child-centred climate resilience.
• Work with Child Rights Governance colleagues to ensure that a rights based approach is reflected in our programme design and implementation (in line with our child rights programming approach), with a strong focus on child participation
• Ensure the systematic integration of Gender, Disability and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) principles across all stages of the project planning and implementation of activities.
• Support other country technical experts to understand and contextualise child-centred climate resilience guidance for their thematic areas.
• Provide technical inputs on climate crisis focused advocacy initiatives in Malawi-Zimbabwe Cluster
  
  Risk Management
• Identify potential technical, operational, and contextual risks affecting climate change and DRR project implementation by integrating environmental and social considerations into its decision-making and operations.
• Timely flag potential issues and contribute to developing solutions and implementing future mitigation strategies or corrective actions.
• Provide oversight to climate risk assessments, vulnerability mapping, and scenario analysis.
  
  Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning and Reporting
• Monitor the progress of technical activities and ensure alignment with project goals and timelines.
• Collaborate with the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) team to ensure data collection is accurate and that field activities are continuously tracked for quality and impact.
• Prepare and submit regular reports on technical implementation progress, challenges, and adjustments of climate change and DRR activities to senior management.
• Distil learnings and evidence generated into succinct and compelling programmatic guidance and thought leadership for internal and external consumption.
• Contribute to organisational learning on child-centred climate resilience, ensuring that learning from our programmes is shared across the Cluster Office and with our partners, as well as with colleagues in the wider regional and global climate resilience community within Save the Children via Technical Working/Leadership Groups and Communities of Practice and externally
• Prepare and contribute to regular reports on technical implementation progress, challenges, and adjustments of climate change and DRR activities to the senior management.
  
  Networking & External Engagement
• Engage in strategic positioning with donors, partners and government in-country, and ensure that Save the Children is a partner of choice in child-centred climate resilience programming.
• Develop a Partnership Strategy for Climate Resilience in Malawi and Zimbabwe, with specifics for each country, cultivate contacts and links with relevant country and regional stakeholders for joint programming and other forms of joint action.
• Foster partnership with climate justice organizations, including children’s groups and child-led groups, and civil society organizations focused on children’s and human rights, and climate change and environment.
• Build collaborative country and regional partnerships, through representation on regional clusters, working groups and technical fora, and ensure effective documentation; to showcase SC’s leadership on climate resilience in Malawi-Zimbabwe Cluster
  
  Child Safeguarding
• Ensure Child Safeguarding is incorporated in partnerships with stakeholders and key private sector partners as per the Minimum Operating Standards.
• Familiarise himself/herself with Save the Children’s Child Safeguarding Policy and strictly adhere to the Policy (and strictly comply with the Policy).
• Carry out the responsibilities of the role in a way that reflects Save the Children’s commitment to safeguarding children, in accordance with our Code of Conduct and Child Safeguarding Policy.
• Report any Child Safeguarding concerns to the focal person or using other available reporting mechanisms (e.g. Datix).
• Demonstrate leadership in relation to Save the Children policies and practice with respect to bullying and harassment, code of conduct, equal opportunities and other relevant policies and procedures.
  
  QUALIFICATIONS
• Minimum of a Master's degree in Environmental Sciences, Master’s in Climate Change and Food Security, Master’s in Disaster Risk Reduction, Master’s in Sustainable Development, or related field is required.
  
  
  
  EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS
• At least 5 years’ experience providing technical leadership for the design and implementation of humanitarian and development programmes focused on advancing climate resilience.
• Familiarity with the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and its operational requirements.
• Knowledge of the Government of Malawi and Zimbabwe government’s disaster risk reduction frameworks, climate change adaptation policies and frameworks (such as the National Climate Change Response Strategy, the National Climate Policy, the Nationally Determined Contributions, National Adaptation Plans).
• Experience of child-centered approaches in DRR and climate change adaptation.
• Demonstrable experience in child-centred approaches to climate resilience
• Strong understanding of climate resilience principles and best practices, the climate change sector, policy priorities and key climate risks to children most affected by inequality and discrimination in southern Africa
• Ability to support analysis of cost-effectiveness, economic co-benefits and scalability of climate interventions, particularly for youth livelihoods and nature-based solutions.
• Significant experience in designing and delivering training, capacity building, and mentoring to colleagues and partners.
• Experience of context, capacity, and policy analysis, and influencing and advocacy at country/regional level to hold duty bearers to account to realise children’s rights.
• Skilled at networking, representation, and partnership development to promote learning, strengthen civil society and mobilise resources.
• Demonstrated program design, monitoring and evaluation skills, including designing pathways to sustainable impact at scale for climate resilience.
• Able to generate and use data and evidence to innovate, deliver, learn and share what works and what doesn’t work for children in the climate crisis.
• Fluency in English and any local language spoken in Zimbabwe and Malawi.