TITLE: Head of Climate & Child Poverty Reduction- Somalia Country Office
TEAM/PROGRAMME: Programme Quality and Impact
(PDI) Team
LOCATION: Mogadishu/Hargeisa/Garowe

GRADE: Nat 1 CONTRACT TYPE: National
CONTRACT LENGTH: 2 Years
CHILD SAFEGUARDING:
Level 3: the role 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 in country
programs; or are visiting country programs; or because they are responsible for implementing the police
checking/vetting process staff.
ROLE PURPOSE:
The Head of Climate and Child Poverty Reduction will play a pivotal role in shaping and advancing Save the
Children International’s strategic ambitions in Somalia. This position sets the direction, growth, and
coordination of our work on Climate and Child Poverty, encompassing a diverse portfolio that includes cash
transfer programming, social protection and shock-responsive safety nets, economic resilience, disaster risk
reduction (DRR), anticipatory action, climate change adaptation and resilience, food security and livelihoods,
and youth economic empowerment including TVET.
Aligned with our Country Strategy (2025–2027) and Global Strategy, this role reflects our commitment to
sustainability, and context-driven programming. The Head of Climate and Child Poverty Reduction will lead
the development and delivery of high-quality, cost-effective programs in both humanitarian and long-term
development settings—resulting in immediate and lasting change for children.
In collaboration with the Research and Evaluations team, the Head of Climate Child Poverty Reduction will
provide technical leadership in climate and child poverty-focused studies and drive the documentation and
dissemination of innovations and good practices to inform project design, implementation, and policy
advocacy, in line with the Country Office’s Evidence & Learning Agenda.
The role also involves strategic networking and partnership building with government ministries, UN agencies,
civil society organizations, and donors. A key responsibility will be to mobilize resources and expand donor
relations to support the sector’s strategic growth and impact.
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: Senior Director of Programme Quality and Impact
Staff directly reporting to this post: 2 Technical Specialists (1 on Youth Economic Empowerment and 1 on
Social Protection)
Budget Responsibilities: None
Primary Technical area: Head of Climate & Child Poverty
Secondary Technical area: Food Security & Livelihoods/Economic Resilience, Anticipatory Action/DRR,
Child Sensitive Social Protection/Shock Responsive Safety Nets, Youth Economic Empowerment
KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:
Strategic Leadership:
• Provide technical inputs into the design, development, monitoring and reporting of the Country Strategic
Plan and Annual Plans, including driving the development and realisation of ambitious yet practical
Climate and Child Poverty strategies and plans
• Provide strategic direction and leadership to the Climate and Child Poverty Reduction team to roll out
global initiatives in Somalia aimed at delivering concrete results for the three organisational
breakthroughs for children (Survive, Learn, Be Protected)
• Work with other thematic leads to seek opportunities and linkages, wherever applicable, for
programmatic integration with other thematic areas (Child protection, Education, Health, Nutrition,
WASH) to increase depth of impact for vulnerable children
• Provide thought leadership and technical guidance to the Senior Management Team (SMT), Program
Development & Quality (PDQ) department and Climate and Child Poverty Reduction team to advance
Save the Children’s relevance in Climate and Child Poverty Reduction sub-themes in relation to
emerging trends and priorities, such as Anticipatory Action, DRR, Social Protection, Climate Resilience,
Urbanisation, Localisation, Market System Development, etc.
• Foster the integration of Climate Resilience and anticipatory action across the Country Programmes
including Operations, Education, Health, Nutrition, WASH, Child Protection) to build Save the Children
Country leadership position as ‘go to’ organization for Child focused Climate Resilience
Resource Mobilization:
• Actively inputs into strategic fundraising to support implementation of the Climate and Child Poverty
• Strategic Plan, including analysis of donor priorities and positions on issues related to climate, child
poverty, and identify synergies and scope for collaboration.
• Along with the Country Director, Deputy Country Director - PDQ and Head of Program Development,
maintain excellent professional relationships with key government stakeholders, existing donors, as well
as engaging potential donors, to continuously leverage support and resources for the Child Poverty
Reduction portfolio
• Provide timely and quality technical inputs into project design and proposal development for Climate
and Child Poverty funding opportunities by bringing together learnings from programme delivery, global
best practices, innovation, and donor interests.
• Support the utilization of Environmental and Social Safeguards to ensure that our projects and programs
are climate risk informed and environmentally aware contributing to financial sustainability and avoid
negative environmental or social impacts that could jeopardize programmes.

Technical Assistance:
• Lead and work together with the Child Poverty Reduction technical specialists and operations teams to
ensure that Climate and Child Poverty Reduction programs are implemented to a high standard of
quality, are costeffective, and sustainable, including undertaking regular project monitoring and
provision of technical recommendations
• Lead and work together with the Climate and Child Poverty Reduction technical specialists to provide
technical supportive supervision to project teams, including training on appropriate approaches and
methodologies; conceptual and practical frameworks; monitoring frameworks, standards and tools for
effective and quality delivery of Climate and Child Poverty Reduction programmes
• Provide technical review, guidance and inputs to donor reports to ensure that the reports are of high
technical quality, aligning to Climate and Child Poverty Reduction strategic plans and deliverables in
project proposals.
• Provide oversight and guidance to the programme implementation team to ensure that thematic and
cross thematic components are technically sound, implementation methods are consistent with
nationa and global strategies, acknowledge good practice including Save the Children’s Climate and
Child Poverty Common Approaches are likely to achieve scale and as well as equitable and sustainable
results.
Representation and Advocacy:
• Represent and position Save the Children Somalia programme in high-level and strategic internal and
external fora related to climate and child poverty, including influencing key stakeholders in Somalia e.g.
donors, Government, UN agencies and NGOs
• Work closely with the Head of Advocacy and Campaigns to develop and disseminate policy briefs and
position papers in Climate and child poverty in line with the Country Strategic Plan and global strategy of
Save the Children
• Identify and capitalise on key opportunities and events for Save the Children to showcase and position
itself as the leading organisation for Climate and child poverty reduction, linked to realising children’s
rights in Somalia.

Learning and Knowledge Management:
• Work closely with the Research, Evaluation, Accountability, Learning & Monitoring (REALM) team
to track progress towards Climate and Child Poverty Reduction programme and global indicators,
and utilisation of data to inform decision making and course correction
• Lead and foster a culture in the technical and operations teams of the systematic collecting,
documenting, sharing and utilising of evidence, learning and best practices in Climate and Child
Poverty Reduction to drive quality and impact of programming and advocacy
• Provide technical review, guidance and inputs into Climate and Child Poverty Reduction focused
research studies and evaluations and facilitate the dissemination and uptake of research findings,
learning and best practices documentation in child poverty both internally and externally to
donors, governments, consortium partners and other key actors
• Serve as a technical knowledge, skills and experience hub for the sector in Somalia, and in doing
so play a leading role in introducing innovations in Climate and Child Poverty Reduction
programmes gained from existing and emerging Save the Children’s global, regional and Somalia
knowledge and practices.
People Management & Development:
• Provide leadership to the Climate and Child Poverty Reduction team, including strategic vision and
direction, team cohesion and team building
• Lead, in coordination with HR, the recruitment, professional development and promotion of direct
line reports as appropriate, including the identification of development opportunities, such as
coaching/training/stretch assignments to build and maintain technical skills and competencies
required for leading first class programmes
• Provide day-to-day direct line management of the Climate and Child Poverty Reduction technical
specialists, including: Managing and defining expectations; delegation of roles, responsibilities
and tasks among the team; providing technical guidance and support to the team as needed
• Undertake performance management, including setting of annual goals and quarterly
deliverables, undertaking quarterly reviews, and provision of feedback to ensure delivery of results
• Support the development of an organisational culture that reflects our dual mandate values,
promotes accountability and high performance, encourages a team culture of learning, creativity
and innovation, and frees up our people to deliver outstanding results for children and excellent
customer service for our members and donors.

SKILLS AND BEHAVIOURS (our Values in Practice):
Accountability:
• Holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role
modelling Save the Children values
• 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
Collaboration:
• Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to
• Builds and maintains effective relationships with colleagues, Members and external partners and
supporters
• Values diversity and different people’s perspectives, able to work cross-culturally
Creativity:
• Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
• Cuts away bureaucracy and encourages an entrepreneurial approach
Integrity:
• Honest, encourages openness and transparency, builds trust and confidence
• Displays consistent excellent judgement. 

Master’s degree in social sciences; economics; natural resource management or a related field.

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS
Essential
• 8 years’ experience in developing, overseeing and delivering high quality and cost-effective
poverty reduction programmes (experience in social protection or youth economic empowerment
or climate change/economic resilience preferable)
• Experience in strategic planning, including an ability to prioritize among competing demands and
opportunities, and an ability to scan the horizon and manage risks
• Experience working in Somalia or similar fragile/conflict/humanitarian contexts is desirable
• Experience of working with local/national governments and capacity building of systems,
partners and staff
• Ability to extensively travel for project monitoring and provide on-site technical support to field
teams
• Highly developed interpersonal and communication skills, including ability to present complex
information in a succinct and compelling manner, and experience of being a strategic influencer
with relevant stakeholders, building personal networks at senior levels, resulting in securing
significant new opportunities for the organization
• Experience of building, leading and developing staff in a matrix management and remote
management environment
• Highly developed cultural awareness and ability to work well with people from diverse
backgrounds and cultures
• Strong results delivery with the ability to solve complex issues through analysis, definition of a
clear way forward and ensuring buy-in
• Ability and willingness to dramatically change work practices and hours, and work with incoming
surge teams, in the event of emergencies
• Fluency in English, both verbal and written, required
• Commitment to Save the Children values.
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. The post holder must commit to work in an international agency
that respects racial diversity and fights racism in all forms; and to model positive behaviours and
respect to all colleagues, partners and communities.
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 and Adult Safeguarding:
The post holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI anti-harassment policy,
all employees are also expected to carry out their duties in accordance with the SCI protection from
sexual exploitation abuse policy.
Health and Safety
The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with SCI Health and Safety policies
and procedures.

Health and Safety
The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with SCI Health and Safety policies
and procedures.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
At SCI, we uphold the principle of equal rights and opportunities for all our employees. In our
commitment to
fostering a more inclusive workplace and addressing gender gaps, we have implemented additional
efforts aimed at
supporting female qualified candidates: -
• Maternity leave (6 months)
• Annual Leave 30 working days
• 10% *gross salary. (female allowance)
• 1.5 flexible working hours for lactating mothers

All interested and qualified candidates can apply the position through the link below:
External Job Posting Link: Head of Climate & Child Poverty Reduction

https://hcri.fa.em2.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/en/job/14453
Application closing date is on 2
nd November 2025