Early Warning Systems and Early Action (EWS-EA) Coordinator - Lumbini Based

Duration: Feb 2025 to Jan 2026 (with possibility of extension)

Reports to: EWS-EA Lead

Openings:  1 External

 Introduction

People in Need (PIN) is a non-governmental, non-profit, international organization founded in the Czech 1992. PIN arrived in Nepal as part of a humanitarian response to the April 25, 2015, earthquake. Since its inception in Nepal, PIN has had a strong role in designing and facilitating systemic solutions advocating for and addressing the needs of vulnerable populations affected by disasters including person categories who live in geographically remote areas of the country, historically marginalized ethnic groups, and those marginalized because of their age and/or gender identity. Currently, PIN Nepal is implementing programmes under three strategic pillars 1) Emergency response and recovery, 2) Climate resilience, and 3) Civil society and inclusive governance. PIN Nepal team works in and promotes strong partnerships with civil society, Government of Nepal, academia, private sector and other key stakeholders in Nepal. Together with them, PIN Nepal has become one of the pioneer organizations advancing programmes such as landslide disaster preparedness and anticipatory action, climate and flood resilient housing, durable local solutions, climate change modelling for more inclusive and efficient local decision-making, girls and inclusive education, waste management and circular economy approaches. PIN is strongly committed for safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults, including persons with disabilities, in line with its safeguarding framework and child protection policy.

About the Project- “SARATHI”

SARATHI has been designed to support and significantly contribute to the overarching early action and climate resilience aims of FCDO BEK RAIN programme, and to increase the resilience of the most vulnerable communities. Project – SARATHI is aimed to bring significant value and sustainable scale up to RAIN programme in reaching the most vulnerable and marginalized people in Madhesh, Lumbini and Karnali provinces at risk of disasters by 2029.

To achieve this, SARATHI will use evidence-based approaches to tailor implementation for building resilience in a systemic way, centred around localisation, inclusion and leveraging fiscal resources to contribute to adaptation across differing contexts in the targeted provinces. SARATHI’s two intermediate outcomes will focus on 1) enhancing community resilience, 2) strengthening sub-national governmental systems in early warning (EW), early action (EA) and adaptation. SARATHI supports the attainment of NDRRMA’s strategic goals to strengthen Early Action, develop multi-hazard EWS and catalyse research and innovation to develop EA plans as per National Disaster Risk Financing Strategy (2020), DRR Policy (2018) and National Strategic Plan for Action (2018-2030).

SARATHI is built around equal and long-term existing partnerships between eligible international-national-local organizations, who bring the requisite knowledge, skills and comparative advantage. Besides, the consortium will partner with and empower 121 CBOs who represent the most marginalised groups in 15 LGs across 3 provinces. Through training and sub-grants, they will actively co-design and participate in EWS, EA and adaptation in their localities. The CBOs, together with national thematic sub-leads and leads, will empower and hold accountable the subnational Local and Provincial Governments (LG, PG), together with the RAIN TA and other stakeholders, with an emphasis on ‘unlocking fiscal resources’ for EW, EA and adaptation.

Furthermore, SARATHI is centered around using science, technology, innovation and evidence of best practice to inform multi-hazard anticipatory action interventions. The consortium, including technical partner, will build on its extensive experience of the RAIN sub-themes and what works and what doesn’t in Nepal, to establish and/or strengthen multi-hazard EWS at the sub-national level, increase access of vulnerable and marginalised groups to risk communication through forecasting, using data management for inclusive and focused EA and adaptation, and supporting coordination across all spheres of government. The learning produced from these interventions will in turn feed into the development of DRR and AA policy frameworks. The consortium will work closely at LG and PG levels with TA, SLU, RAIN partners to influence government to endorse relevant disaster resilience and adaptation polices and allocate fiscal resources, so that they address gender inequalities, marginalization and work with socially excluded groups. The consortium will directly target 987,299 people and indirectly benefit 3,478,805 more.

 Scope of Work

Under the direct supervision of the EWS-EA Lead and Programme Manager, the EWS-EA Coordinator will play a pivotal role in advancing the design, implementation, and coordination of SARATHI's Early Warning and Early Action (EWEA) initiatives. This position is instrumental in reinforcing multi-hazard Early Warning Systems (EWS) at the provincial, district, and local levels.

The coordinator will work closely with SARATHI's EWS-EA technical partners to develop robust and actionable Early Action Protocols (EAPs) tailored to multiple hazards. These protocols will align with SARATHI's commitment to enhancing community resilience, ensuring their effective implementation in targeted local governments (LGs) in close coordination with the SARATHI LG Officers. A key focus will be on promoting inclusive risk communication strategies that prioritize the needs of vulnerable and marginalized communities. This involves designing messages and dissemination mechanisms that are accessible, culturally relevant, and tailored to diverse linguistic, literacy, and technological capacities within at-risk populations.

In addition to these responsibilities, the EWS-EA Coordinator will support the localization of EWS initiatives by empowering local community-based organizations (CBOs) and stakeholders. By leveraging existing grassroots networks and capacities, the role will facilitate participatory planning and decision-making processes. Furthermore, the Coordinator will advocate for the integration of Gender Equality, Disability, and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) principles into all facets of EWS and EAP development, ensuring that no one is left behind in disaster preparedness and response.

The role also involves fostering collaborations with provincial and local governments to unlock and optimize fiscal resources for Early Warning Early Action (EWEA) actions. Through coordination with technical partners such as DHM, NDRRMA, and other stakeholders, the coordinator will contribute to strengthening the technical and operational capacities of subnational governments.

 Key Summary of Functions

• Support design, development and implementation of EAPs in collaboration with technical partners, ensuring alignment with SARATHI’s objectives and local risk contexts.
• Support and oversee the implementation of EWS at provincial, district, and local levels, ensuring effective integration into existing DRM frameworks.
• Support in development and promotion of accessible, culturally relevant, and inclusive risk communication strategies that reach vulnerable and marginalized communities.
• Support the supervision and co-design of nature-based solutions (NBS) initiatives in collaboration with the Adaptation Lead and the Partners' Adaptation Officer.
• Together with SARATHI LG Officers support local governments in planning, budgeting, and executing EWEA actions, including unlocking fiscal resources for disaster preparedness and response initiatives.
• Empower community-based organizations (CBOs) to participate in EWEA planning, fostering a participatory approach and strengthening local ownership.
• Ensure Gender Equality, Disability, and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) principles are mainstreamed across all EWEA activities to address the needs of at-risk populations effectively.
• Facilitate collaboration between provincial and local governments, technical agencies (e.g., DHM, NDRRMA), and other partners to strengthen systemic EWEA capacities.
• Conduct capacity-building initiatives for local stakeholders, enhancing their technical and operational skills in EWS, risk assessment, and anticipatory action planning in support with EWS-EA lead and SARATHI’s technical partner.
• Support in documentation of best practices, lessons learned, and evidence from EWEA implementation to inform policy advocacy and promote scalability and sustainability of interventions.
• Support BIPAD portal localization initiatives and the enrolment of vulnerable individuals into social protection schemes, advancing Forecast-based Financing (FbF) and Shock-Responsive Social Protection (SRSP) initiatives.

 Representation and Networking

• Represent PIN professionally with external stakeholders, including government, non-governmental agencies and the donor specially in Madhesh, Karnali, and Lumbini.
• Coordination efforts at provincial, district and local level to implement early warning early action and adaptation initiatives effectively.
• Ensure that PIN is well represented and visible within the broader development partners’ community, among the relevant networks and stakeholders (clusters, local/provincial level), and within coordination forums and delegating this responsibility as appropriate.
• Ensuring quality representation in regional and national dialogue on Anticipatory Action and other national fora, technical working groups on early warning-early action.

Mainstreaming and Quality Management

• Oversee mainstreaming and strengthening of GEDSI (working collaboratively GEDSI lead in usingmarginalization framework for the identification of most marginalized people), environmental considerations, climate change, DRR and safeguarding agendas within programme planning and implementation;
• Work closely with MEAL lead to ensure that project-based learnings and monitoring/evaluation results are regularly used and reflected in PIN’s work;
• Ensure and strengthen quality focus within the project, across all cross-cutting components; 
• Engage in advocacy and policy dialogues on federal, provincial, district and local levels and/or where appropriate, ensuring PIN represents the needs of its beneficiaries and based on its field experience to campaign for needed policies, donor commitments etc.
• Together with MEAL lead and Communication & Advocacy Manager, engage in project-learning based PIN’s positioning and advocacy, development of learning papers and selection of advocacy points for HP, and as per Country Strategy;
• Coordinate to ensure communication and visibility requirements are fulfilled in line with PIN Media Policy and donor requirements.
• Ensure and monitor all field staff and partners’ adherence to PIN’s policies and internal procedures, protocols, PIN’s Code of Conduct, with special attention to Safeguarding, Duty of Care.
• Standards and Procedure, Case Handling Framework, Child Protection and Do No Harm policies; immediate reporting and redress of any complaints and issues based on its severity.

• Bachelor’s degree in social science/work, disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, environmental science, rural development or relevant field, with at least 4 years of demonstrated work experience.
• Experience working with diverse stakeholders in DRRM sector, especially with local, district, provincial and federal level actors.
• Knowledge on EWS/Anticipatory Action and experience in field-based understanding of vulnerabilities, exposure and risk in the multi hazard context of Nepal.
• Demonstrated experience in coordinating diverse teams and maintaining strong relationships with the project team, partners and local stakeholders;
• Outstanding communications and networking skills; with good command in English and Nepali language- written and spoken.

EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS AND BENEFITS

• Salaries are according to People in Need Salary Scale. Candidates will be informed about the salaries in the beginning of the recruitment process
• Health insurance for both in-patient and out-patient care with maximum benefit limit of NPR 500,000.00 per year per person (Including dependents)
• Accident insurance for all injuries during work time NPR 3,000,000 per year (For Staff only)
• Compensation leave for working overtime when requested by the Line Manager
• Maternity, Paternity and mourning leave as per the labour law
• Communication or internet allowance on monthly basis (Reimbursable)
• Capacity Building program, both internal and external trainings - Induction training, internal online opportunities, such as access to e-learning platform and live webinars
• International environments with opportunities to learn from other country programs and HQ office in Prague
• Per diem for working outside of the duty town depending on the location. Full reimbursement of accommodation and transportation during business trips (as per the organization’s policy)
• Friendly and fair environment in small collective structure where everyone knows each other
• Work hours are from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm, Monday to Friday with 30 mins break for lunch

How to Apply

Submit an updated CV and Motivation letter before the deadline of January 31, 2025. Please note, that applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and should a suitable candidate be found before the official closing date, the advertisement might be withdrawn before the deadline thus early submissions are strongly encouraged. No phone calls will be entertained. PIN promotes equal opportunities. Women, Dalits, Minorities (ethnic, sexual & gender), Janajati, persons with disability are strongly encouraged to apply! People in Need is committed to preventing any type of unwanted behavior at work including sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse, lack of integrity, and financial misconduct, and is committed to promoting the welfare of children and adults with whom People in Need is involved. People in Need expects all staff to perform job duties and responsibilities following the People in Need code of conduct and key policies (available at: https://www.peopleinneed.net/key-policies-4142gp People in Need Staff will undertake the appropriate level of training.

All offers of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and appropriate screening checks, which can include criminal records and terrorism finance checks. We are committed to ensuring diversity and gender equality within our organization and encourage applicants from diverse backgrounds to apply.

Note- If you need reasonable accommodation (especially for people with disability) to proceed with our recruitment process, please mention so in the cover letter.