Save the Children is seeking an Environmental Lead for an anticipated five-year USAID-funded Development Food Security Activity (DFSA) in Ethiopia. The goal of the Activity is to improve food and nutrition security and resilience among poor and chronically food insecure households and communities in a sustainable manner. The program will coordinate closely with, and represent a contribution to, the Government of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Nets Programme (PSNP).

Hiring is contingent upon successful award of the program and USAID approval of the candidate.

What You’ll Be Doing (Essential Duties)

The proposed program will be an integrated, multi-sectoral food and nutrition security intervention. The DFSA’s contribution to the PSNP will include a substantial public works component, primarily focused on improved management of natural resources (soil, water, forests, pasture). The Environmental Lead is dedicated to overseeing compliance for environmental safeguards and hydro-meteorological risks. The Environmental Lead also leads the technical and planning aspects of natural resource and watershed management activities, including environmental remediation, integrated watershed management, and soil and water conservation, among other topic areas. The incumbent is to regard such environmental considerations as integral cross-cutting issues across all program activities (e.g., WASH, health, nutrition, agriculture, etc.).

Key Functions:

• Building on the Initial Environmental Examination (IEE), lead the development of environmental safeguarding plans for all relevant program activities, including but not limited to watershed management, soil and water conservation, WASH, agriculture and nutrition.
• In conjunction with host communities and partners, develop associated environmental management and mitigation plans, with indicators for the implementation of these plans, and monitor these plans on a regular basis.
• Develop guidelines for environmental safeguarding in the context of a phased activity design and implementation, and recommend preventative or corrective actions as needed. Foster commitment from, and build the capacity of, team members, partners, local stakeholders and communities to facilitate environmental safeguarding; this includes developing and delivering formal training but also coaching and mentoring. 
• Lead the collection, analysis and utilization of information from a wide variety of sources to inform the program’s environmental safeguarding approaches.
• Manage any studies related to environmental safeguarding or natural resource management topic areas during the program’s Refine period; analyze information and use this information to inform associated program strategies. 
• Stay abreast of donor and host government environmental policies, programs and best practices, ensuring coherence and coordination with, and linkages to, the same. 
• Provide environmental compliance and natural resource management technical support, on an ongoing basis, to thematic team leaders, participating in thematic team planning processes and the implementation of program activities as required Lead the stimulation and development of scalable innovative environment and natural resource management approaches, methodologies and practices. Develop strategies and technical guidance relevant to these practices, including but not limited to environmental remediation, integrated watershed management, agroforestry and soil and water conservation.
• Collaborate with technical counterparts to proactively integrate environmental remediation activities as part of broader public works, livelihoods and food security strategies.
• Review community project plans for public works initiatives pertaining to natural resource management, and recommend best practices and compliance considerations for the same.
• Manage team members supporting environmental compliance or natural resource management at the field level.
• Lead the development of documentation related to the above, and contribute to program reporting. 

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field, such as water, hydrology, agriculture, natural resource management, environmental science, or environmental engineering; Master’s degree preferred. 
• Deep familiarity with USAID environmental compliance requirements.
• Experience designing and implementing natural resource management programs, with at least seven years of relevant implementation experience at the community-level. 
• Strong management and interpersonal skills, mentoring and facilitation skills and the ability to network and communicate with a wide range of stakeholders.
• Strong analytical, research and application of research outcomes
• Excellent written communication and presentation skills in English. Knowledge of local languages is an asset. 
• Strong tool/ curriculum development and training skills. 
• Ability and willingness to travel frequently.  

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