Livelihoods, Cash & Voucher Assistance (CVA) Advisor

The Opportunity – Livelihoods and Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) Advisor

Post location: oPt Country Office – Ramallah

**Contract Duration and Level of Effort:**1 year and renewed based on the availability of funds, Full-time Position.

The Livelihoods and Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) Advisor provide strategic direction and technical oversight to the country office (CO) programs in areas of livelihoods, cash, and voucher assistance. Under the general direction and guidance of the PDQA director and close collaboration with Programme teams, ensures all livelihood and CVA programming is of excellent technical quality, coherent and aligned with SC and cluster strategies, attracts significant donor funding and 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 programming objectives are successfully achieved.

The post-holder shall also contribute to the development and/review of the country strategic direction and actively lead in the development of livelihood and CVA policy and programme formulation. S/he represents SC in food security cluster, participates in cash and market working group and other relevant forums. S/he undertakes regular assessments to understand capacity gaps and initiates capacity strengthening efforts.

In the event of a major humanitarian emergency, the role holder will be expected to work outside the normal role profile and be able to vary working hours accordingly.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: Director of Program Development, Quality and Advocacy (PDQA)

Dimensions: The oPt Country Office (CO) has diverse programs in areas of FSL, Health, Child Protection, Child Rights Governance, and Education and is present in West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.

Staff directly reporting to this post: None

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

1. Technical Leadership and Capacity Building:

• Provide technical leadershipfor livelihoods, cash and voucher assistance in the Country Office, and set the strategic approach in relation to the wider country strategy.
• Build the capacity of national staff and partners in key technical approaches related to livelihoods, cash, and voucher assistance, including coaching and mentoring of staff.

1. Ensuring programme quality (at design and implementation)

• Work closely with the PDQA Director and New Business Development colleagues to identify and pursue funding opportunities; engage with technical partners, donors and colleagues across Save the Children to design strong quality proposals.
• Lead the technical scoping, planning, and design and proposal writing during new programme development, and ensure that we design and deliver high-quality livelihoods, acash and voucher assisstance programmes for children, building on global best practice. Ensure that gender, disability and resilience considerations are reflected in our programme design and implementation
• Liaise with the operations department, ensure all livelihoods and CVA programme staff receive the necessary and appropriate technical support to deliver quality programs with impact. In consultation with staff and partners, 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 and application of tools for project staff and partners to improve the quality of livelihoods and CVA work. Where necessary provide technical training for project staff and partners as required (HEA, monitoring and evaluation, market assessment, social protection mechanisms, cash and voucher distributions).
• Provide oversight and guidance to the programme implementation teams and partners 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 global evidence); and are likely to achieve scale, as well as equitable and sustainable results.
• Promote and monitor ourlivelihoods and CVA programs through participatory methodologies that promote gender equality and inclusion (including child-friendly and gender sensitive/transformative methodologies) in order to ensure it meets minimum standards (quality benchmarks) and overall, delivers impact for children and families.
• Review relevant donor reports to ensure that technical debates are well articulated and reports are of acceptable quality before submission. Provide support where necessary to improve report writing skills, particularly reporting impact using program evidence. Lead in the evaluation and review process for all Livelihood and CVA projects including the development of Terms of Reference, selection and management of consultants
• Contribute to organisational learning on livelihoods and CVA, ensuring that learning from our programmes is shared across the Country Office and our partners, as well as with colleagues in the wider regional and global livelihoods and CVA community in Save the Children. This will include gathering and sharing learning internally with the technical working groups and communities of practices, as well as externally.
• Support Humanitarian colleagues (as needed) to develop emergency preparedness plans, and conduct sectoral assessments (including gender analysis, using SC assessment processes and tools) and to design and deliver emergency response and recovery programmes.

1. Networking & External Engagement:

• In alignment with Country Office strategy, represent Save the Children in relevant livelihoods and CVA national technical coordination and networking bodies such as clusters and working groups such as the Food Security Cluster or the cash working group.
• Identify, develop and pursue opportunities for strategic alignment and positioning with external stakeholders, including ministries, UN agencies and INGOs, ensuring relevant colleagues are kept informed and updated on developments within the sector.
• Strengthen civil society engagement in national dialogues and policy processes as well as private sector engagement for inclusive growth and innovations through working closely with advocacy and child rights governance colleagues. Ensure that the diverse voices of children, girls and boys are equitably heard and represented across our livelihoods and CVA work.

Leverage and liaise with technical colleagues from across Save the Children, including technical working groups and centres of excellence, ensuring that learning from the Country Office is shared with others and global lessons brought back.

Ready to work to respond to any natural disaster or emergency situation anywhere in oPt

In order to be successful you will bring/have:

QUALIFICATIONS

Masters degree in a discipline related to agricultural economics, development economics, agriculture, food security, cash and markets or other relevant discipline or 8 years of commensurate work experience in lieu of postgraduate qualification in relevant technical field

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

Essentials:

• At least 5+ years’ experience of leading the design and implementation of humanitarian and development programmes in the field of livelihoods and CVA.
• Understanding of the livelihoods and CVA sector in oPt or at least the Middle East.
• Experience in the introduction of internal controls systems to support cash and vouchers delivery in the areas of financial management, logistics, security and programme delivery
• Familiar with livelihood and market approaches, green jobs, financial inclusion, market-based programming, youth and women economic empowerment, cash and voucher programming, Household Economy Approach (HEA) and graduation and livelihoods resilience building approaches.
• Track record in successful business development/fundraising for key institutional donors and corporates.
• Demonstrated programme design, monitoring and evaluation skills, including designing pathways to sustainable impact at scale.
• Experience of strategy development and planning
• Experience of context, capacity and policy analysis, and influencing and advocacy at regional/international level in order to hold duty bearers to account to realise children’s rights (e.g. Food Security/Nutrition assessments, Household Economy Analysis, market assessment (PCMA, EMMA), labour market assessments, market system/value chain analysis, gender analysis, Cost of the Diet, cost barrier analysis, Hazard Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment – non exhaustive list)
• Skilled at networking, representation and partnership development in order promote learning, strengthen civil society and mobilise resources.
• Able to generate and use data and evidence to innovate, deliver, learn and share what works and what doesn’t work for children
• Experience of promoting quality and impact through at least one cross-cutting area: gender equality and inclusion, adaptive and safer programming; child rights; disability; migration and displacement.
• Experience of supporting humanitarian preparedness, response and recovery
• Significant experience in training, capacity building, and mentoring
• Fluent in English and high level of English writing skills.

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.
• 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.
• Fluent in Arabic

We offer a competitive package in the context of the sector. This role is offered on the basis of national terms and conditions only.

Save the Children promotes a diverse and inclusive work environment, women and people with different abilities are strongly encouraged to apply.

The Organisation

Save the Children works in development and humanitarian contexts with children and partners to help families, communities, and governments identify and use innovations to ensure all children survive, learn and are protected.

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 realize 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 environment where ambition, creativity, and integrity are highly valued.