Climate Change and Anticipatory Action Technical Adviser

TITLE: Climate Change and Anticipatory Action Technical Adviser

TEAM/PROGRAMME:

Programme Development, Quality & Advocacy LOCATION: Kabul, Afghanistan with travel across Provinces (minimum 30% of the time)

GRADE: INT 3, CONTRACT TYPE & LENGTH: International/National - 1 year with possibility of extension

CHILD SAFEGUARDING:

Level 3: The post holder will have contact with children and/or young people either frequently (e.g. once a week or more) or intensively (e.g. four days in one month or more or overnight) because they work country programs; or are visiting country programs; or because they are responsible for implementing the police checking/vetting process staff.

ROLE PURPOSE:

Save the Children Afghanistan (SCI-AFG) is strengthening its capacity on climate change adaptation and anticipatory action to mitigate the impact of predictable crises on children and their communities. In line with Save the Children's Global Framework for Anticipatory Action, the Climate Change and Anticipatory Action Technical Adviser (CCAA TA) will lead the program design, technical direction, quality assurance, and learning agenda for SCI-AFG's climate resilience and anticipatory programming.

The CCAA TA will ensure SCI-AFG's programs integrate evidence-based climate and disaster risk reduction measures, enhance early warning and anticipatory systems, and promote adaptive livelihoods, resilience building, and environmental sustainability. The post holder will provide technical guidance to design, implement, and monitor programs; support proposal development; foster donor and stakeholder engagement; and contribute to national and global learning and policy dialogue on climate resilience and anticipatory action for children.

To ensure cross-sectoral integration and program coherence, the Climate Change and Anticipatory Action Technical Adviser will work with other technical advisers and the Research, Evaluation, Accountability, Learning and Monitoring (REALM) Unit on building capacity and knowledge on Climate Change and Anticipatory Action.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: Head of Technical Unit

Staff reporting to this post: None but this post requires strong working relationship with programme implementation team, partners, and other technical advisers (WASH, FSL, Education, Health & Nutrition, CP, GEDI) and REALM.

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

SPECIFIC DUTIES

Thematic Area Leadership & Strategic Planning

• Lead the development, implementation, and periodic review of SCI-AFG's Climate Change and Anticipatory Action (CCAA) strategy, aligning it with the Country Strategic Plan, Humanitarian Strategy, and global priorities.
• Supports ownership and commitment to the Country Office strategy by all staff and departments through clear communication, regular feedback on progress and engagement of all functions in updates.
• Serve as the technical lead for integrating climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and anticipatory action across humanitarian and development programs.
• Analyse national climate and disaster trends, vulnerabilities, and risks affecting children, and provide timely technical inputs to situational analyses, assessments, and program planning.
• Support cross-sectoral integration of climate-smart interventions across themes (FSL, WASH, Health & Nutrition, CP, Education) to strengthen community and system resilience.
• Promote innovation in climate adaptation and anticipatory approaches, such as forecast-based financing, early action protocols, and nature-based solutions.
• Supports research being conducted to inform programming, strategic direction, policy and advocacy with a technical lens and technical consistency.
• Keeps abreast of national and global debates in policy and advocacy around climate change to apply to programming or advocacy.

Programme Development and Donor Engagement
- Lead or support the design of high-quality proposals, concept notes, and technical inputs for projects on anticipatory action, early warning systems, DRR, and climate adaptation.
- Work closely with the New Business Development (NBD) team and the Head of Technical Unit to mobilize resources for the CCAA portfolio.
- Ensure proposals and projects reflect SCI's child-centered, inclusive, and evidence-based approaches.
- Ensures all proposals meet SCI and sector standards and are in line with strategic goals and SCI approaches.
- Maintain and strengthen engagement with donors, UN agencies, and technical partners on climate change and anticipatory action programming.
- Support the integration of climate risk and anticipatory elements in multi-sectoral humanitarian responses.
- Actively communicates and coordinates with other Advisers and programme implementation teams to ensure integrated approaches across themes especially WASH, FSL (including Cash), MHPSS, Child Protection, Education, Gender, and Disability Inclusion.
- Develops and maintains contact with current and potential donors, partners and key technical agencies, in coordination with the Head of Technical Unit including supporting donor meetings and visits.

Programme Support and Quality Assurance
- Serves as the lead technical resource in quality, innovative, creative climate change, anticipatory action and disaster risk reduction and management programming.
- Provide technical oversight and quality assurance to CCAA projects, ensuring adherence to SCI standards and global frameworks.
- Develop and disseminate tools, guidance, and quality benchmarks for anticipatory action and climate-resilient programming.
- Support program teams in setting up early warning systems, defining triggers, and implementing early action protocols.
- Collaborate with the REALM unit to ensure robust MEAL frameworks and learning systems for CCAA programming.
- Facilitate research, case studies, and learning papers to inform adaptive programming and policy engagement.
- Ensures accountability is considered throughout the design and implementation of the programmes especially in terms of child safeguarding as well as ensuring child participation in the design, implementation and monitoring of the programmes where possible.
- Supports the preparation of timely programme and donor reports on project activities in compliance with internal SC requirements and any relevant external donor requirements.
- Works closely with the HR team, identify climate change and anticipatory action staffing needs for the country office and provincial office programmes, and ensure quality recruitment, induction and training of new staff.
- Ensures that the minimum standards of humanitarian relief are maintained in accordance with the Sphere Charter, Core Humanitarian Standard and Red Cross Code of Conduct.
- Contribute to ensuring that staff engaged in a 'culture of learning' with opportunities to connect, share experiences and lessons, while also coming together to bring improvements to the overall standard of climate change and anticipatory action programming.
- Ensures that gender equality and inclusion, safe programming, conflict sensitivity is embedded into the needs and response analysis, and programming.

Technical Capacity Building of Staff and Partners
- Identify capacity-building needs among staff and partners related to anticipatory action, climate change adaptation, and environmental sustainability.
- Develop and deliver tailored training packages and on-the-job mentoring for program and partner staff.
- Support institutional learning and internal community of practice for anticipatory action and climate adaptation.

Cluster Representation and Networking
- Represent Save the Children in relevant national and sub-national coordination mechanisms, technical working groups, and climate/DRR clusters.
- Build strategic partnerships with government institutions, academic bodies, private sector, and civil society to strengthen child-centered climate action.
- Contribute to advocacy efforts to influence national policies on child-sensitive climate change adaptation, anticipatory action, and disaster risk governance.
- Participate in regional and global learning forums to share experiences and bring lessons to the Afghanistan context.

Other Responsibilities
- Regularly visit field sites to provide technical support and ensure quality implementation.

Ensure adherence to SCI's safeguarding, health and safety, anti-harassment, and gender equality policies.
- Supports colleagues in Programme Operations to develop and secure Memorandums of Understanding with line ministries.
- Complies with Save the Children policies and practice with respect to child protection, code of conduct, health and safety, equal opportunities and other relevant policies and procedures.
- Perform other related duties as required by the Head of Technical Unit or PDQ&A Director.

BEHAVIOURS (Values in Practice)

Accountability:
- 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 oriented, 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 and 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 and demonstrates highest levels of integrity.

ROLE SPECIFICATION

Required
- Master's degree in Climate Science, Environmental Management, Disaster Risk Reduction, Development Studies, or a related field.
- At least 7 years of experience in climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction, or anticipatory action programming, preferably in humanitarian contexts.
- Proven experience designing and managing climate resilience or anticipatory action projects, including donor engagement.
- Strong understanding of climate risk analysis, early warning systems, and early action protocols.
- Experience in capacity building, training facilitation, and technical mentorship.
- Demonstrated skills in research, analysis, and technical writing.
- Experience of senior level representation.
- Experience of developing and negotiating successful partnerships with institutional donors.
- Ability to write clear and well-argued assessments, project reports, and proposals.
- Excellent communication skills in English.
- Culturally sensitive, diplomatic, and able to work in complex, insecure environments.
- Can work well in stressful situations and able to manage multiple competing tasks, prioritize deliverables and meet reasonable deadlines.
- Has capacity and willingness to be extremely flexible and accommodating in difficult and sometimes insecure working circumstances.

Desirable
- Experience in designing projects funded by institutional donors (e.g., ECHO, FCDO, EU, etc.)
- Familiarity with Save the Children's frameworks and Common Approaches.
- Experience working in multi-stakeholder initiatives and national partners.

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.

Safeguarding our Staff:

The post holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI safeguarding, anti-harassment and Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA).

Health and Safety

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

Desired Skills and Experience
ROLE SPECIFICATION

Required

* Master's degree in Climate Science, Environmental Management, Disaster Risk Reduction, Development Studies, or a related field.

* At least 7 years of experience in climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction, or anticipatory action programming, preferably in humanitarian contexts.

* Proven experience designing and managing climate resilience or anticipatory action projects, including donor engagement.

* Strong understanding of climate risk analysis, early warning systems, and early action protocols.

* Experience in capacity building, training facilitation, and technical mentorship.

* Demonstrated skills in research, analysis, and technical writing.

* Experience of senior level representation.

* Experience of developing and negotiating successful partnerships with institutional donors.

* Ability to write clear and well-argued assessments, project reports, and proposals.

* Excellent communication skills in English.

* Culturally sensitive, diplomatic, and able to work in complex, insecure environments.

* Can work well in stressful situations and able to manage multiple competing tasks, prioritize deliverables and meet reasonable deadlines.

* Has capacity and willingness to be extremely flexible and accommodating in difficult and sometimes insecure working circumstances.

Desirable

* Experience in designing projects funded by institutional donors (e.g., ECHO, FCDO, EU, etc.)

* Familiarity with Save the Children's frameworks and Common Approaches.

* Experience working in multi-stakeholder initiatives and national partners.