Advisor, Cash, Livelihoods and Child Poverty at Save the Children

Role purpose

The Advisor is accountable for the technical quality and strategic coherence of CVA, Livelihoods, and Child Poverty programming across an assigned portfolio of regions and priority countries (with a proposed focus on Asia). The role owns the global technical standards, guidance, and tools for the thematic areas, exercise technical sign-off in quality assurance processes; lead situational assessment and response analysis for major emergency responses; drives the Cash Plus innovation and evidence agenda; and represent Save the Children with the authority in relevant global forums and platforms. The Advisor provides matrix technical leadership, supervising Country Office’s technical staff during deployment and surge responses, managing consultants as relevant, and leading the global Community of Practice (CoP) to embed high quality, inclusive programming across humanitarian and development contexts.

Principal Accountabilities

• Provide strategic and technical leadership for Cash, Livelihoods and Child Poverty programming across the portfolio, ensuring high-quality, evidence-based programmes aligned with SCI strategy, donor requirements and organisational standards.
• Act as the primary technical focal point for Country Offices, supporting design, implementation, monitoring and continuous improvement of inclusive and impactful programmes.
• Lead the development, maintenance and application of global technical standards, tools, guidance and learning resources, ensuring consistent quality assurance and accountability across programmes.
• Provide technical oversight and sign-off for CVA feasibility and risk analyses, response option analyses, and other agreed technical review processes for humanitarian responses and programme investments.
• Lead or support strategic programme design, situational assessments, response analyses and proposal development, ensuring strong technical quality, appropriate budgets and integration of global priorities.
• Promote integrated and multi-sectoral programming, including Cash Plus approaches, to strengthen outcomes across child poverty, nutrition, child protection, education and other relevant sectors.
• Provide matrix leadership by technically supervising surge and Country Office staff, managing consultants, and leading communities of practice to strengthen organisational capability.
• Support emergency preparedness, response and recovery planning, including market, gender and disability analyses, while fostering collaboration across thematic and functional teams.
• Facilitate learning, innovation and knowledge sharing across Country Offices and global teams, promoting the application of best practice and lessons learned to improve programme impact and sustainability.
• Deploy and travel as required (up to 40%) to support priority countries, while championing Save the Children's commitments to safeguarding, anti-harassment, diversity, equity and inclusion.

Experience and Skills

Essential

• Extensive international experience in Child Poverty, Cash & Voucher Assistance programming across humanitarian, recovery and development contexts, working with a broad range of donors and sectors.
• Knowledge and experience of Market Based Programming (MBP), Market Systems Development (MSD), M4P, Social Protection, HEA, Cost of the Diet, EMMA and MIFIRA.
• Demonstrated technical leadership in livelihoods and economic empowerment programming, including climate-resilient approaches, financial inclusion, graduation pathways, Climate Smart Agriculture, anticipatory action and sustainable livelihoods.
• Extensive experience designing and managing cash and voucher interventions, including transfer value calculations, feasibility assessments, risk analysis and operational delivery.
• Extensive experience building equitable partnerships and advancing localisation objectives through capacity strengthening, knowledge sharing and collaboration with local, national and global stakeholders.
• Experience representing organisations in inter-agency, donor and global technical forums (e.g. CALP, clusters and sector working groups).
• Proven ability to provide technical leadership, coaching and capacity strengthening to country teams, with strong influencing, negotiation and communication skills.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to interpret complex data, drive programme improvements and apply emerging evidence and best practice.
• Extensive experience in programme design and proposal development, including successful donor fundraising and business development.
• Commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, with the ability to work independently and travel internationally (up to 40%), including in challenging operating environments.

Education and Qualifications 

Essential

• A post-graduate degree in International Development, Economics, Social Policy, or a related field. A university degree combined with professional experience could be considered as a substitute for a post-graduate degree.