Overview
Provides specialist technical leadership and quality assurance across Save the Children's Disaster Risk Reduction portfolio in Sri Lanka, ensuring high-quality, evidence-based, child-centred, inclusive, and climate-risk-informed programming.
Key Responsibilities
- Provide technical leadership and quality assurance across DRR portfolio.
- Contribute to the development, adaptation, and application of technical approaches, guidance, tools, and standards.
- Provide technical oversight throughout programme implementation, identifying and escalating technical risks.
- Promote the integration of disaster risk reduction, preparedness, early warning, anticipatory/early action, and resilience principles.
- Provide technical guidance for CBDRR initiatives.
- Support communities and local partners to strengthen local disaster risk governance, preparedness, multi-hazard early warning, anticipatory/early action, contingency planning, and community resilience.
- Promote inclusive and participatory approaches.
- Support the development and implementation of community preparedness plans, simulation exercises, early warning and early action protocols, and locally led preparedness and response mechanisms.
- Provide technical support for the integration of Comprehensive School Safety (CSS) approaches.
- Support schools, local authorities, and implementing partners to strengthen school disaster preparedness, risk reduction planning, multi-hazard early warning, and school-community coordination mechanisms.
- Contribute technical inputs to the development and implementation of school disaster management plans, preparedness activities, and capacity strengthening initiatives.
- Promote child-centred and inclusive approaches within school communities.
- Provide technical advice to strengthen the integration of disaster risk analysis into programme design, implementation, monitoring, and decision-making.
- Support programme teams to identify disaster and climate-related risks and incorporate appropriate mitigation, preparedness, early warning, and anticipatory/early action measures.
- Promote the use of risk information, hazard assessments, vulnerability analysis, climate information, and evidence.
- Contribute to organisational efforts to strengthen Disaster Risk-Informed Programming and organisational preparedness.
- Provide technical advice, mentoring, coaching, and capacity strengthening to implementing partners, government institutions, schools, and community structures.
- Support partners and government counterparts to apply technical standards, improve programme quality, and strengthen institutional systems.
- Facilitate technical learning events, training programmes, and peer learning initiatives.
- Contribute technical inputs to assessments, programme design, concept notes, proposals, donor engagement, and resource mobilisation processes.
- Support the development of technical guidance, implementation tools, monitoring frameworks, and knowledge products.
- Promote innovation, operational research, documentation of good practices, and learning.
- Work closely with MEAL teams to ensure evidence and lessons learned inform programme adaptation and organisational learning.
- Represent Save the Children in relevant technical working groups, government-led coordination mechanisms, and stakeholder platforms.
- Build and maintain effective relationships with government agencies, UN organisations, NGOs, academic institutions, private sector partners, and technical networks.
- Support technical advocacy initiatives.
- Provide technical inputs to national technical discussions, government systems and standards, sector learning initiatives, and policy development processes.
- Ensure all technical interventions are implemented in accordance with Save the Children's policies, technical standards, safeguarding principles, and donor requirements.
- Support effective monitoring of programme quality, technical risks, and implementation challenges.
- Contribute technical inputs to donor reports, evaluations, audits, and programme reviews.
- Promote a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and technical excellence.
Required Experience
- Minimum 5 years of progressively responsible professional experience in Disaster Risk Reduction, Disaster Management, Humanitarian Preparedness, Resilience Programming, or a related field, including demonstrated technical leadership or advisory responsibility.
- Demonstrated experience designing and providing technical oversight and quality assurance for Disaster Risk Reduction programmes funded by institutional donors.
- Pruven experience in one or more of the following technical areas: Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction (CBDRR); Comprehensive School Safety (CSS); Disaster Risk-Informed Programming; Emergency Preparedness, Multi-Hazard Early Warning, Anticipatory/Early Action, and/or Emergency Readiness.
- Experience working with national and local government institutions, local organisations, communities, and multi-stakeholder coordination mechanisms.
- Experience strengthening the capacity of partners, government counterparts, and community structures through training, coaching, mentoring, or technical assistance.
- Demonstrated experience contributing to programme design, proposal development, resource mobilisation, technical reviews, donor engagement, and donor reporting.
- Experience working in complex humanitarian and/or disaster-prone contexts.
- Desirable Experience supporting localisation, partner-led programming, and institutional capacity strengthening.
- Experience working with education-sector disaster risk reduction, Comprehensive School Safety, and school preparedness initiatives.
- Experience integrating Disaster Risk Reduction, climate risk, preparedness, and resilience into multi-sector programmes.
- Experience in operational research, learning, documentation of good practices, and knowledge management.
- Previous experience with Save the Children or another international NGO.
Qualifications
- Master's degree in Disaster Risk Reduction, Disaster Management, Environmental Management, Climate Change, Geography, Development Studies, Social Sciences, Public Administration, or another relevant discipline.
- Or a Bachelor's degree with significant relevant experience may be considered.
- Professional training or certification in Disaster Risk Reduction, Comprehensive School Safety, Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction, Humanitarian Action, or Emergency Preparedness is an asset.
