Climate, Water Sanitation and Hygiene, and Shelter Technical Adviser at Save the Children

Role

ROLE PURPOSE:

The Climate, WASH and Shelter Technical Adviser is a senior member of Save the Children Lebanon’s Programme Development and Quality (PDQ) Team, providing strategic and technical leadership across climate change, environmental sustainability, WASH, Shelter, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), Anticipatory Action (AA), and infrastructure related programming.

The role is responsible for ensuring high-quality, evidence-based Climate, WASH and Shelter programming and ensuring the integration of climate and environmental considerations across all programme sectors, while strengthening resilience, localization, and humanitarian preparedness systems.

A key responsibility of the role is to lead the development of, climate resilience and climate finance initiatives, including Green Climate Fund (GCF) proposals and broader climate funding opportunities. The post holder contributes to the design and institutionalization of Anticipatory Action systems, ensuring alignment between early warning systems, preparedness planning, and rapid early action. The role holder will also develop WASH and Shelter related proposals.

The role also contributes to strengthening Save the Children Lebanon’s localization agenda and represents the organization in relevant coordination forums, including climate, WASH, Shelter, and resilience platforms.

The role will be responsible of the technical leadership, quality assurance, and integration support across WASH, Shelter, Climate Change, and construction-related programming.

This multifaceted role is integral to maintaining the quality and effectiveness of Save the Children’s programmes in Lebanon.

CHILD SAFEGUARDING:

Level 3 - The responsibilities of this post may require the post holder to have regular contact with children and young people. As part of these responsibilities the post holder will support the establishment of child safeguarding systems, promote a culture of keeping children safe, and ensure that potential harm to children (by our own staff and/or as a result of how we do our work) is identified and addressed on an ongoing basis. The post holder should report and respond to interventions as determined by position related responsibilities identified in the Child Safeguarding Policy.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: PDQ Director

Budget responsibility: N/A

Role Dimensions: N/A

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

Strategic Climate Leadership and Integration

• Lead the development and implementation of a climate change and environmental sustainability strategy for Save the Children Lebanon, ensuring integration across all sectors and programmes.
• Provide strategic technical leadership across WASH, Shelter, climate adaptation, DRR, and environmental sustainability, ensuring effective integration across humanitarian and development programming.
• Ensure integration of climate risk assessments, resilience approaches, and green construction principles and sustainable WASH and Shelter solutions into programme design, implementation, monitoring, and learning.
• Support the mainstreaming of climate and environmental considerations across Education, Protection, Child Rights Governance, and other thematic areas.

Climate programming and Green Climate Fund (GCF) Leadership

• Lead the identification, design, and development of climate programs opportunities, including Green Climate Fund (GCF) proposals
• Develop high-quality concept notes, proposals, and lead on consortium-based submissions aligned with donor priorities and national climate strategies.
• Lead and support the design and development of integrated WASH, Shelter, climate resilience and environmental sustainability programmes and proposals.
• Ensure WASH and Shelter investments contribute to climate adaptation, resilience building and environmentally sustainable outcomes.
• Coordinate with internal technical teams and external partners to develop competitive, scalable climate resilience programmes.
• Engage with government counterparts, donors, and technical partners to position Save the Children within national and international climate architecture.
• Ensure alignment of climate proposals with Lebanon’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and national climate policy frameworks.

Anticipatory Action and Climate Risk Systems

• Lead the design and institutionalization of Anticipatory Action systems, including early warning–early action frameworks, triggers, thresholds, and pre-agreed response protocols.
• Strengthen integration between Anticipatory Action, Emergency Preparedness Response Readiness Plans (EPRRP), and sectoral programming (WASH, Shelter, Food Security and Agriculture, Livelihoods, Education, Child Protection).
• Support the development of climate risk analytics and forecasting approaches to inform early action decision-making.
• Promote the use of anticipatory approaches in humanitarian response and resilience programming across Lebanon operations.

Programme Quality, Capacity Strengthening and Knowledge Management

• Lead and ensure technical quality, relevance and compliance of WASH, Shelter, and construction-related interventions across humanitarian and development programming, in line with SCI standards, sector guidelines and donor requirements.
• Provide technical review and quality assurance of assessments, technical designs, specifications, BoQs, implementation methodologies, monitoring findings and programme documentation related to WASH and Shelter interventions,
• Support capacity strengthening of field teams and implementing partners in climate resilience, DRR, WASH, and Shelter programming.
• Develop and maintain technical tools, SOPs, and guidance materials, ensuring contextualization and accessibility (including Arabic where appropriate).
• Lead integration of climate risk analysis and resilience indicators into MEAL systems and learning frameworks.
• Promote innovation in climate-smart programming, including nature-based solutions and community-led adaptation approaches.

Collaboration, Advocacy and External Engagement

• Represent Save the Children in national and sub-national coordination forums, including WASH, Shelter, and climate/resilience-related working groups.
• Engage with government ministries, municipalities, donors, UN agencies and technical bodies to promote child-centered, climate-resilient WASH and Shelter approaches.
• Work closely with the Child Rights Governance (CRG) and Advocacy teams to support child- and youth-led climate action initiatives and community support projects.
• Contribute to policy dialogue and sectoral coordination processes related to climate adaptation, DRR, and humanitarian preparedness.
• Engage with donors and climate stakeholders to strengthen strategic positioning and partnership opportunities.

Localization and Partnership Strengthening

• Support the implementation of Save the Children Lebanon’s localization strategy, ensuring equitable partnerships and capacity sharing with local actors.
• Promote locally led climate adaptation, DRR and resilience, WASH and Shelter programming approaches.
• Conduct technical capacity assessment of local partners and structures and provide capacity building training and coaching accordingly.
• Strengthen collaboration with civil society organizations, municipalities, and community structures.

General Responsibilities

• Ensure compliance with Save the Children policies and procedures, including Child Safeguarding, Code of Conduct, health and safety, and equal opportunities.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor or Master’s degree (or any related degree) in Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Water Engineering, Architecture, Climate Change, WASH, Construction Management or a related major.
• Fluency in English, both verbal and written

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

Essential

• Minimum 7 years of relevant professional experience, including at least 3 years in a technical leadership role within climate, WASH, Shelter, DRR, resilience, or related humanitarian and development sectors.
• Strong experience in climate change adaptation, DRR, and resilience programming in humanitarian and development contexts.
• Strong experience in WASH and Shelter programming.
• Demonstrated experience in programme design, project cycle management, and proposal development.
• Proven experience in emergency preparedness and response programming.
• Experience engaging with government institutions, local authorities, and humanitarian coordination mechanisms.
• Strong capacity strengthening, coaching, facilitation, and partnership-building skills.
• Excellent communication, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work effectively in multicultural and multidisciplinary environments.
• Commitment to Save the Children values.

Desirable

• Experience in Lebanon or similar fragile and crisis-affected contexts.
• Experience in climate finance proposal development, including Green Climate Fund (GCF) or similar funding mechanisms.
• Experience designing or implementing Anticipatory Action, Forecast-based Action, or Early Warning–Early Action approaches.
• Experience representing organisations in national policy or technical coordination forums.
• Knowledge of climate risk analysis, resilience measurement, or environmental sustainability frameworks.

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.

FRAUD PREVENTION:

The role holder is expected to uphold high standards of integrity and transparency, and will have access to financial, operational, or programmatic resources that require strict compliance with SCI’s Anti-Fraud and Corruption Policy. This includes responsibility for preventing, identifying, and reporting any suspected fraud, corruption, or misuse of resources in the course of their work.

SAFEGUARDING OUR STAFF:

The post holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI anti-harassment policy.

HEALTH AND SAFETY:

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