Climate Adaptation & Resilience Lead at Christian Aid

About the role

Reporting in to the Global Head of Programme Policy & Practice, the Climate Adaptation & Resilience Lead is designated as the single point of accountability for climate change, adaptation and resilience leadership across the organisation, aligning with organisational values and goals.

The post-holder is responsible for co-developing a thematic strategy, collaborating with Strategy & Learning colleagues in Organisational Effectiveness Department, and with the Policy and Advocacy colleagues across the Impact Department.

The role is ultimately accountable for the delivery of the thematic strategy on Climate and for reporting progress towards this at regular intervals to measure success and maximise impact.

Some of the main responsibilities of the Climate Adaptation & Resilience Lead include:

• Co-develop, create and deliver a thematic strategy for the whole of the Climate Adaptation and Resilience thematic priority, including clear measures of progress and impact/success which are then reported against at regular intervals aligning with organisational values and goals.
• Manage the Senior Climate Resilience Advisor to clearly contribute to the delivery of the strategy, and to support and collaborate with programmes and partners to achieve organisational standards on resilience.
• Lead as the organisational technical expert on climate programming and collaborate with staff across all 5 multi-country clusters, and the broader Impact department and IPE department so they are able to draw on climate adaptation and resilience expertise – ours and our partners’ – in order to design, fundraise for and facilitate the delivery of strong signature programme work
  on climate adaptation and resilience, maximising impact and income.
• Foster a culture of learning and improvement by identifying best practice among our partners and facilitating knowledge sharing across partners; by commissioning (or directly undertaking when appropriate) research and learning reviews to evidence good practice and course correct where needed.
• Build strong relationships with key policy and advocacy colleagues – particularly the Global Policy and Advocacy Lead for Climate –, focusing on ensuring insight and learning from programme practice feeds into, and influences public policy development, and provides evidence for advocacy materials.
• Collaborate with the Strategy & Learning Manager and the Impact & Evidence Manager to ensure appropriate evidence is being gathered and consolidated to measure and communicate the impact of our work on climate adaptation and resilience and to adapt our signature programme approaches as necessary.
• Lead and build external networks globally so Christian Aid’s work on climate adaptation and resilience is presented and promoted nationally and internationally, resulting in:
  1. an enhanced organisational profile within the sector to maximise our impact, 2) a portfolio of work that is innovative and in line with sector best-practice, 3) a pool of potential partners to engage and work with.
• Programme advisory and resource materials on climate adaptation and resilience are developed on the basis of organisational values, goals, strategies, adaptive programming approaches, and informed by ongoing learning of Christian Aid.

About you

Who we are looking for:

Essential:

• Postgraduate or equivalent in Climate, Environmental Science, Agriculture, International Development etc.
• Extensive practical experience of programme design, management and implementation on climate adaptation and resilience within and across East & Central Africa, West & Central Africa, Latin America & the Caribbean, Asia and the Middle East in line with Christian Aid's 5 Multi Country Cluster (MCC) coverage
• Detailed understanding of current innovations in climate related programming including climate adaptation, renewable energy and resilience.
• Developed ability to engage with climate research and climate science.
• Detailed understanding of current thinking/debates on climate change, including those happening at global level related to the UNFCCC process at national and regional levels related to NAP's
• Highly developed communicator in English (written and orally).
• Extensive experience of International Development, including strategic planning & programme management.
• Detailed understanding of current thinking in sector-specific M&E, including adaptive management.
• Ability to apply analysis of power/social exclusion to programme design and management.
• Highly developed facilitation skills and ability to promote critical thinking and reflection.
• Significant experience of managing staff, providing training, technical support and/or advice.
• Developed ability to build effective working relationships across organisations, including at a distance.
• Developed negotiation, facilitation and diverse stakeholder engagement skills.