Humanitarian Action Advisor (CPiHA)
Unit: Disaster Preparedness & Technical Support – Humanitarian action (IDS)
Preferred location: Dakar (Senegal), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Nairobi (Kenya). Work permits in the preferred work locations are desirable.
Duration: 1 year with possible extension
About us
SOS Children's Villages, founded in 1949, is the world's largest non-governmental organization focused on supporting children and young people without parental care, or at risk of losing it.
Child neglect, abuse and abandonment is everywhere. Families are at risk of separation. Locally led, we work in more than 130 countries and territories to strengthen families who are under pressure so they can stay together. When this is not in a child or young person's best interests, we provide quality care according to their unique needs.
Together with partners, donors, communities, children, young people and families, we enable children to grow up with the bonds they need to develop and become their strongest selves. We speak up for each child's rights and advocate for change so all children can grow up in a supportive environment.
They contribute to the leadership of SOS SOS Children's Villages International (CVI) including enabling sound budgeting and financial management by leaders and managers in the two units: FCS (Federation Secretariat) and IDS (International Development Support).
Mission
The Humanitarian Action enables and supports local national offices (NOs) or partners when needed or on request, in pursuing their mission as set out in the SOS Children’s Villages International Humanitarian Policy.
The Humanitarian Action Service is ensured by an agile team of deployable senior humanitarian experts having an executive role to Member Associations aiming at reinforcing their capacities, ensure a timely start-up of response or scale-up of humanitarian operations.
This includes internal coordination of various funding streams or humanitarian appeals particularly in case of large-scale responses, as well provision of support for disaster preparedness, recovery and prepositioning of new innovative approaches and partnerships opportunities on the ground or internationally.
Furthermore, the department would initiate institutionalization of Humanitarian Development and Peace nexus approach through deliberate integration of short-term lifesaving and long-term recovery actions in the time of acute and protracted crisis response, whereby the HA and the existing long term development program teamwork hand in hand and make sure that the affected communities are received an interrupted services in case of major crisis.
The Humanitarian Action Advisor (CPiHA) ensures that child protection is systematically integrated into SOS Children’s Villages’ humanitarian programming. The role provides technical leadership and quality assurance across the project cycle, supports proposal development, and builds the capacity of Member Associations to deliver inclusive, child-centered, and gender-responsive interventions. By driving innovation, piloting new approaches, and representing SOS CV in key coordination forums, the Advisor helps strengthen programme quality, accountability, and visibility in the protection sector.
Tasks and Responsibilities
Technical Leadership and Standards
- Lead the integration of Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (CPiHA) standards, child protection principles, gender equality, and inclusive approaches throughout programme design, implementation, monitoring, and reporting.
- Review humanitarian project proposals and related documentation to ensure compliance with the Child Protection Minimum Standards (CPMS), providing technical recommendations where required.
- Develop, adapt, and maintain operational guidance, tools, and standard operating procedures (SOPs) to support the consistent application of CPiHA across humanitarian programmes.
Programme Quality, Innovation, and Technical Support
- Monitor and enhance the quality of child protection interventions through field missions, technical reviews, and follow-up actions.
- Provide technical guidance to Member Associations (MAs) during project inception and implementation, ensuring robust safeguarding measures, gender mainstreaming, and conflict-sensitive approaches.
- Support the development of programme indicators and Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) frameworks in collaboration with the MEAL Advisor to effectively measure protection-related outcomes.
- Promote innovation in child protection programming by testing new approaches, documenting lessons learned, and supporting their replication and scale-up.
Capacity Strengthening and Knowledge Sharing
- Design and deliver targeted training, coaching, and technical support to MA and regional teams based on identified capacity gaps and programme monitoring findings.
- Facilitate cross-learning and peer exchange through webinars, case studies, communities of practice, and dissemination of lessons learned and promising practices.
- Strengthen staff competencies in child safeguarding gender analysis, and the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA).
Accountability, Participation, and Safeguarding
- Promote meaningful participation of children and young people in programme assessments, design, implementation, and monitoring processes.
- Support the establishment and strengthening of child-friendly feedback and complaint mechanisms, in collaboration with the MEAL Advisor, ensuring feedback informs programme adaptation and improvement.
- Ensure gender-responsive, inclusive, and safeguarding-centred approaches are integrated across all phases of the project cycle, including the effective application and monitoring of PSEA standards.
Representation and Sector Engagement
- Represent SOS Children’s Villages in relevant humanitarian coordination mechanisms, including the Protection Cluster and AoRChild Protection ), advocating for child rights child protection priorities.
- Engage with external stakeholders and partners to contribute to sectoral standards, influence policy discussions, and strengthen the visibility of SOS Children’s Villages’ expertise in CPiHA.
Safeguarding Responsibilities
As a representative of SOS Children’s Villages, you are expected to contribute to a safe, protective, and inclusive environment for children, young people, adult programme participants, and staff. This includes:
- Demonstrating commitment to the Code of Conduct and continuously reflecting on the safeguarding implications of your work.
- Actively participating in team discussions to identify safeguarding risks and implement preventive and mitigation measures.
- Integrating safeguarding principles into daily decision-making and programme activities.
- Promptly reporting safeguarding concerns in accordance with established procedures.
- Promoting a values-driven culture of accountability and a zero-tolerance approach to abuse, exploitation, and harm.
Responsibilities to Uphold Safeguarding (standards) and Promote a Safe Environment
As someone working for or on behalf of SOS Children’s Villages, you are responsible for helping to create and maintain a safe and protective environment for staff, as well as for the children, young people, and adult programme participants supported and cared for by SOS Children’s Villages. You are expected to:
- Commit to the Code of Conduct and reflect on the safeguarding implications of your work on an ongoing basis.
- Actively participate in team discussions to identify risks and share and apply preventative and mitigation measures and strategies.
- Integrate safeguarding principles into your daily decisions and tasks.
- Report any safeguarding concerns promptly and in line with procedures.
- Promote values-based culture, accountability and zero tolerance of harm.
Requirements
- Master's degree in social sciences, Child Protection, Psychology, International Development, Humanitarian Action, or related fields.
- Minimum of 5 years of professional experience in child protection and humanitarian programming, including at least 2 years in international emergency settings.
- Experience working with multi-country programmes and humanitarian coordination mechanisms, including Protection Clusters and Child Protection Sub-Clusters.
- Demonstrated experience in programme design, proposal development and review, donor engagement, and technical advisory support.
- Willingness to travel up to 30%
- Excellent written and spoken English.
- Working knowledge of French, Spanish, or Arabic is an asset.
Technical Skills
- Humanitarian Expertise (Advanced): In-depth knowledge of CPiHA standards and the CPMS, with proven ability to apply them throughout the programme cycle.
- Proposal Development (Advanced): Strong experience reviewing and strengthening project proposals, logframes, and technical programme documents.
- Training and Capacity Building (Advanced): Demonstrated ability to design and deliver training, coaching, and mentoring for staff and partners.
- Programme Monitoring (Intermediate): Experience assessing programme quality against CPMS, INEE, and IASC GBV standards.
- Safeguarding (Intermediate): Solid understanding of child safeguarding, risk assessment, and mitigation strategies.
- Coordination and Representation (Intermediate): Experience engaging with humanitarian coordination platforms and external stakeholders.
- Analysis and Technical Writing (Advanced): Excellent analytical, report-writing, and guidance-development skills.
- Networking (Intermediate-desirable): Strong understanding of key humanitarian, child protection, and education actors and networks.
- Technical Approaches (Intermediate – desirable): Familiarity with gender equality, inclusion, mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), and resilience-based programming.
- Child Protection Programming (Intermediate - desirable): Knowledge of primary prevention approaches and experience piloting innovative child protection or EiE interventions.
Other Skills and Competencies
- Strong commitment to child safeguarding and child rights.
- Excellent intercultural communication and collaboration skills.
- Strong analytical, advisory, and problem-solving abilities.
- High degree of adaptability and resilience in complex humanitarian contexts.
- Proven stakeholder engagement, networking, and relationship-building skills.
- Experience providing remote technical support and working with digital collaboration platforms (desired)
Ways of working:
- Global collaboration and communication – Working effectively across countries, cultures, and time zones by maintaining clear communication, transparency, and shared understanding within distributed teams.
- Cross-functional collaboration – Working closely with colleagues across different functions and areas of expertise to combine knowledge, solve problems collectively, and deliver meaningful outcomes aligned with the organisation’s mission.
- Effective collaboration within matrix structures – Working constructively within solid and dotted reporting lines by maintaining open communication, aligning priorities with both line and functional managers, and ensuring clarity on roles, responsibilities, and expectations to support coordinated delivery across teams.
- Flexibility and adaptability – Remaining responsive to evolving contexts and adjusting priorities, approaches, and ways of collaboration as projects, services, or organisational demand evolve.
- Ownership and accountability – Taking responsibility for advancing tasks and initiatives, proactively addressing obstacles, and ensuring that commitments, decisions, and actions are carried through to completion, taking initiative within your scope of responsibility rather than waiting for direction.
- Strengthening member associations and their autonomy – Ensuring that knowledge, tools, and lessons from projects and services are shared with member associations so they can learn from the work carried out and progressively strengthen their capacity and independence.
- Continuous feedback and transparency - Contributing to a culture where feedback and data are shared openly and constructively, enabling teams and stakeholders involved to reflect, learn, and continuously improve their work and impact.
What We Stand For
SOS Children’s Villages is committed to creating and maintaining a caring and protective environment, which promotes its core values, and prevents and addresses child abuse and exploitation. We strongly condemn all forms of child abuse and exploitation, be it within or outside of our organization, and always respond to any case of proven, alleged or attempted abuse within our sphere of influence according to its nature. Efforts ensure that mechanisms are in place to raise awareness, aid prevention, encourage reporting and ease response. They range from human resource development actions such as training and counselling to measures such as suspension, dismissal, and legal action.
SOS Children’s Villages is committed to creating and maintaining a safe working environment for our staff, the children and young people and the communities that we work for. The organization prohibits harassment, exploitation and abuses by or of any employee, supervisor, manager, child, young people, community, contractor, applicant, or other individual with whom SOS Children’s Villages employees come into contact by virtue of their work. All employees are expected to carry out their duties in accordance with our prevention and protection against Sexual Harassment, Exploitation and Abuse policy.
In addition, SOS Children’s Villages apply a zero-tolerance concerning any fraud situation. The organization does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process.
Successful candidates will have to submit a criminal record certificate, current within the last three years. In accordance with the organisation’s child protection policy, these positions will be subject to criminal record checks.
How to apply?
If you are interested in this position, please send your detailed application in English before 11th of July 2026 through ICISMs here: Job Listings at SOS Children's Villages International
Please note that applications will be reviewed and suitable candidates will be contacted for interviews on an ongoing basis. The position will remain open until filled.
