Climate Justice Advisor

Job Opening – Climate Justice Advisor – Arab Region Office

Background:

ActionAid Arab Region (AAAR) is a non-governmental organization committed to promoting social justice and sustainable development in the Arab region. Under the Danida funded Strategic Partnership Agreement Program (SPAII), AAAR aims to enhance the capacities of local partners from Syria, Lebanon and Jordan in addressing climate-related challenges through Strategic Objective 2, which focuses on climate justice, in collaboration with the SPAII climate justice global program. To achieve this objective, AAAR seeks to recruit a dedicated Climate Justice Advisor who will provide technical expertise and support to SPAII team and local partners in integrating climate justice principles into their programs and advocacy initiatives.

Job Title: Climate Justice Advisor

Reports to: Program Manager

Direct Reports: Program Manager & Head of Programs

Role Overview:

The primary objective of the Climate Justice Advisor role is to enhance the capacities of local partners from Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan in addressing climate-related challenges through a climate justice lens with a focus on ensuring that climate actions do not compromise social justice. Additionally, the Advisor supports AAAR in the overall strategic thinking around Climate Justice, including forward-looking strategies, identifying, and building new partnerships, and engaging strategically in national and regional advocacy spaces. The Advisor also offers technical support and guidance to local partners and relevant AAAR staff members while advocating for climate action.

Key Accountabilities / Responsibilities:

Capacity Assessment: Conduct comprehensive assessments of local partners’ capacities in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan to identify strengths, weaknesses, and capacity-building needs in relation to climate justice and social justice.

Capacity Building: and implement tailored capacity-building plans and training modules for local partners, focusing on climate change mitigation, adaptation, resilience-building, climate finance, advocacy and social justice principles.

Technical Support: Provide hands-on technical assistance and guidance to local partners in designing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating climate and social justice initiatives in programming and in national and regional advocacy work, ensuring a rights-based approach.

Partnership Development: Support SPAII team members in establishing and strengthening partnerships and collaboration with relevant stakeholders at national and regional levels, including government agencies, international and regional bodies, civil society organizations, social movements, and communities, to advance climate and social justice agendas.

Implementation Strategies: Collaborate closely with SPAII team members to develop and implement specific strategies for partners, ensuring alignment with program objectives and priorities.

Knowledge Sharing:

• Facilitate knowledge-sharing and peer-learning platforms for local partners to exchange experiences, best practices, and lessons learned in addressing climate and social justice issues.
• Collaborate with various climate-related work within AA’s federation such as thematic sparing for curriculum developments, TCDC led thematic workshops, AADK climate action team etc.

Advocacy and Communication:

• Support SPAII team members in developing and implementing advocacy and communication strategies to raise awareness, mobilize support and achieve concrete impact for climate and social justice issues at local, national, and regional levels, in coordination with the SPAII climate justice global team.
• Lead collective actions and policy and practice changes.

Reporting:

• Prepare high-quality narrative and financial reports on climate and social justice activities, in collaboration with SPAII team members and finance team. Ensure compliance with donor requirements and AAAR’s reporting standards.

• Coordination and follow-ups with SPAII Program Manager on specific reporting outcomes and deliverables.

  Monitoring and Evaluation:

• Develop and implement robust M&E frameworks and systems to track progress, outcomes, and impacts of climate and social justice interventions. Ensure timely and accurate reporting of M&E data to inform decision-making and program adaptation.

• Coordination and follow-ups with SPAII PQMEAL Coordinator on tracking progress towards achieved partner outcomes.

  Financial and Budget Management: Work closely with the finance team to track program budgets, expenditures, and resources. Provide inputs for budget planning, expenditure forecasting, and resource allocation to support effective program implementation.

  Person Specification

  Education & Certifications:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in environmental science, climate change, social sciences, international development, or a related field.

  Essential Knowledge and Experience:

• Minimum of 7 years of professional experience working on climate change, social justice, or related issues, with a focus on capacity-building, advocacy, technical assistance, and program implementation.

• Demonstrated expertise in climate change mitigation, adaptation, resilience-building, climate finance, advocacy and social justice principles, particularly in the context of the Arab region.

• Strong understanding of human rights-based approaches, gender equality, and social inclusion in climate and development programming.

• Proven experience in designing and delivering capacity-building workshops, training programs, and technical assistance initiatives for diverse stakeholders, including local organizations and communities.

• Excellent communication, facilitation, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work effectively with multicultural teams and stakeholders.

• Fluency in English and Arabic is required.

  Desirable Knowledge and Experience:

• Experience in working effectively on sectors pertaining to climate justice-focused initiatives within the Arab Region, social movements, youth engagement, community-based interventions and advocacy and campaigning.

• Extensive knowledge of the current ecosystem of climate justice movements in the MENA region, specifically in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

  Competency Profile

  Action: The desire to accept ownership and accountability, whilst getting things done well and meeting challenging goals.

  Planning: The ability to think ahead and decide on courses of action, ensuring that the resources required to implement the action will be available, and scheduling work required to achieve an end-result.

  Innovation: The ability to originate, introduce and be open to, new practices, concepts, ideas and change and to continuously improve.

  Communication: The ability to get our points across clearly, both orally and in writing, to ensure we get our key messages across in the right way

  Collaboration: The ability to work co-operatively and flexibly with others, both within and outside the organisation, demonstrating an understanding of effective team working and partnerships

  Leadership & Management: The capacity to inspire others to give of their best to achieve a desired result, whilst maintaining effective relationships with individuals and teams as a whole and allocating resources

• Language proficiency

• Proficiency in Arabic and English, written and spoken is a must.

• This Job Description covers the main tasks and conveys the spirit of the sort of tasks that are anticipated proactively from staff. Other tasks may be assigned as necessary according to organizational needs.

• It is part of every staff member’s responsibility to contribute to AAI’s and ActionAid AR mission and comply to its values, which are: Mutual respect, Equity and justice, Honesty and transparency, Solidarity with the poor, Courage of conviction, Independence, Humility