Cash & Voucher Assistance (CVA) Advisor at Save The Children

Ref No: 220007EI
Location: Abuja
Team/Programme: Programme Development & Quality
Grade: Grade 2
Contract Length: 2 Years
Employee Status: Fixed Term

Child Safeguarding

• Level 3- The responsibilities of the post may require the post holder to have regular contact with children or young people and, in the overseas context all posts are considered to be level 3 posts in view of potential situations which may allow staff unsupervised access to vulnerable children and young people.

Role Purpose

• Experienced Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) Technical and Operations Advisor to provide expertise to support design and implementation of CVA programmes/ components so they are appropriate, timely, accountable to beneficiaries, donor-compliant, and cost-effective.
• The CVA Advisor will use their in-depth contextual understanding, technical expertise, and relationship building skills to define and deliver our strategic ambition for cash & market-based programming in Nigeria.
• The role will lead strategy development and the technical design and implementation of high-quality programmes that deliver change for children in both emergency and development programming. The role supports national advocacy and influencing, while driving strategic partnerships for new business development.  It supports the design and implementation of monitoring and evaluation systems to demonstrate impact, while sharing learning across our programmes, teams and partners.
• The role will work closely operations colleagues and with partners in Nigeria CO, building their capacity and building ownership and agency of local organisations.  This role includes a focus on external representation on priority issues including market-based assistance, as well as shock-responsive social protection to ensure linkages between SCI humanitarian cash & voucher assistance and government-led social protection systems. 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: Programme Quality & Development Director, with a dotted line into the Programme Operations Director.
• Staff reporting to this post: no direct reports but expected to provide coaching and mentoring support to operational and other technical colleagues and local partners
• Budget Responsibilities: None
• Role Dimensions: The role is expected to foster relationships with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders including Save the Children members, the Country Office Programme Development & Quality team, advocacy colleagues, Regional Advisors, technical counterparts in other organisation, donors etc. The role is also expected to engage with internal technical working groups, in particular with the Cash & Market Humanitarian Technical WG, and communities of practice.
• Context: Humanitarian and development
• Scope: Nigeria
• Primary Technical area: Cash & Voucher Assistance
• Primary Sub technical area: Market-based programming for child outcomes

Key Areas of Accountability
Technical Leadership:

• Provide technical leadership for CVA programming for the Country Office, and set the strategic approach in relation to the wider country strategy.
• Build capacity of national staff and partners in key technical approaches related to CVA across all child outcomes.

Ensuring Programme Quality (Design & Implementation):

• Work closely with new business development colleagues to identify and pursue funding opportunities; engage with technical partners, donors and colleagues across Save the Children
• Lead the technical scoping, planning, and design and proposal writing during new programme development, and ensure that we design and deliver high quality CVA-based programmes for children, building on global best practice. Ensure that gender, disability and resilience considerations are reflected in our programme design and implementation.
• Work with Child Rights Governance colleagues to ensure that a rights based approach is reflected in our programme design and implementation (in line with our child rights programming approach), with a strong focus on child participation.
• Promote a Systems Strengthening approach as the overarching framework, that supports working in collaboration and partnership with governments, local partners and working towards impact, scale and sustainability.
• Provide oversight and guidance to the programme implementation teams 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 are likely to achieve scale, as well as equitable and sustainable results.
• Promote and monitor integrated programming in a way that increases overall impact of CVA at the community level.
• Work with Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability & Learning (MEAL) teams as well as with the relevant thematic Technical Advisors (i.e. WASH, Nutrition and Health, Education, Child Protection, and FSL) to conduct quality monitoring against international standards on MEAL for programmes integrating CVA, through participatory methodologies (including child-friendly and disability inclusive methodologies).
• Contribute towards the creation of an organisational learning culture that promotes the use of data, evidence and analysis and understands its link to quality and accountable programming.
• Undertake field visits to project sites; work with implementation teams to understand impacts, operational challenges, and continuously identify opportunities for learning and improvement.
• Contribute to organisational learning on CVA when applied to and integrated with WASH, Nutrition, Health, Education, Child Protection, and FSL interventions, ensuring that learning from our programmes is shared across the Country Office, our partners, and the national/subnational Cash Working Group, as well as with colleagues in the wider regional and global Cash & Market community in Save the Children.
• Participate in the development of emergency preparedness plans, including CVA and market-specific assessments (including gender analysis and disability situation analysis, using SC assessment processes and tools), as well as in the design and delivery of emergency response and recovery strategies. Ensure synergies across thematic and functional teams, data and programme design.
• Monitor trends in order to ensure early action; and lead technical design and implementation and technical coordination of humanitarian responses.

Networking & External Engagement:

• In alignment with Country Office strategy and leadership, engage in strategic positioning with donors, partners and government in-country, and ensure that Save the Children is a partner of choice in CVA-based programming.
• Ensure that Save the Children is influencing and learning from others through national technical coordination and networking bodies such as clusters and the national and sub-national Cash Working Groups.
• Strengthen civil society engagement in national dialogues and policy processes through working closely with advocacy and child rights governance colleagues. Ensure that the voices of children are represented in our cash & market-based programming work.
• Represent the program to National and Local government representatives, donors, partner agencies, etc. as required.
• Ensure the quality, clarity and consistency of technical components of internal and external reports (e.g. programme reports, sit-reps, internal updates), working closely with awards, programme implementation and communications colleagues as needed.
• 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.

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.

Qualifications

• Master's Degree in Economics, International Development, Public Administration, Agriculture and Food Security, or equivalent experience.
• Certified CaLP trainer (preferable)

Experience and Skills:

• At least 5 years’ experience of working internationally in Cash & Voucher Assistance in emergency and development settings, for a broad range of institutional donors and sectors (beyond Food Security & Livelihoods)
• Previous humanitarian response experience
• Understanding of Cash & Voucher Assistance in Nigeria
• Experience with various cash and voucher modalities, including digital, mobile, card, paper voucher, and cash in envelopes
• Management experience of operational aspects of cash and voucher interventions
• 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
• Demonstrable understanding of M&E, beneficiary accountability, and learning
• Experience in the application of methodologies to calculate cash / voucher amounts for sectoral outcomes, as well as for multipurpose cash transfers; experience in conducting feasibility and risk analysis for cash & voucher assistance
• Familiar with the Sphere Standards (Handbook released in 2018)
• Track record in successful business development/fundraising, especially with bi-lateral donors
• Demonstrated program 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
• 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.

Behaviours (Values in Practice)
Accountability:

• Holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values
• Holds their team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in accordance with the context, 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 professional development and encourages their team to do the same
• Widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others
• Future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale.

Collaboration:

• Builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters
• Values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength
• Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to.

Creativity:

• Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
• Willing to take disciplined risks.

Integrity:

• Honest, encourages openness and transparency; demonstrates highest levels of integrity
• 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.

Key Competencies
Primary Technical Competences:

• Leads operational feasibility and other assessments to inform cash & voucher assistance go/no-go decisions
• Champions preparedness and capacity building for CVA programming across sectors
• Trains and advises others on Standard Operating Procedures and best practices related to the set-up and implementation of cash & voucher assistance
• Works with thematic experts on the design of sector-specific (e.g. WASH, Nutrition, Health, Education, Child Protection, and FSL) and cross-sectoral programmes using cash & voucher assistance and a market lens including MEAL frameworks to measure impact on desired child outcomes.

Technical Competencies Related to the Sub-Thematic Focus (specialised competencies):

• Promotes location and use of early warning information to plan for and trigger early CVA and market-based action; Aligns humanitarian CVA programmes design with existing social protection programmes
• Champions the use of market-based programming approach also to inform the choice of response options and programme design

Generic Competencies:

• Being the Voice of Children: Promotes evidence-based policy and public engagement that includes the voices of children and their communities
• Advancing Equality & Inclusion: Displays a commitment to ensuring everything we do considers the most deprived and marginalised children
• Building & Strengthening Partnerships: Promotes working with diverse partners as critical to delivery
• Child Rights: Promotes the rights of children in own work and in work with colleagues and peers.