ECHO Programme Manager

The role 

We are currently looking for ECHO Programme Manager based in Vientiane Capital Laos.

Role Purpose                   

The Regional Programme Manager (RPM) leads the overall coordination, management and quality assurance of the ECHO-funded Asia Regional Disaster Preparedness and Early Warning Action — a 24-month, multi-country initiative spanning Cambodia, Lao PDR, Vietnam and Thailand's Deep South. This is a complex, high-profile programme merging two previously separate projects into a single coherent consortium action operating across four national contexts, three Results, and eight institutional partners.

The post-holder serves as the primary focal point for DG ECHO, maintains full donor compliance across the programme lifecycle, and provides strategic and technical oversight of three mutually reinforcing Results: strengthening impact-based Early Warning Systems (R1); enabling communities and schools to act on warnings (R2); and scaling learning through ASEAN and regional frameworks (R3). The RPM also champions the transboundary EWS harmonisation agenda for the Lower Mekong and the institutionalisation of the integrated CBDRM+ model in Thailand's conflict-sensitive Deep South.

The role combines deep programme management rigour with active regional representation — engaging the ASEAN Committee on Disaster Management (ACDM), AHA Centre, Mekong River Commission (MRC), and the Asia-Pacific Technical Working Group on Anticipatory Action (AP-TWGAA) — to ensure the programme's evidence and models contribute to durable change at national, regional and global levels.

The role carries full accountability for delivery of a complex, multi-country DG ECHO action in line with humanitarian principles, ensuring operational excellence, strict compliance, and high-quality results across all implementing partners and countries.

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY

Programme Management and Strategic Coordination:

• Lead the Regional Programme Management Unit (PMU), providing overall strategic direction, work planning and coordination to country programme teams in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Vietnam and Thailand.
• Oversee the development and timely execution of annual workplans, ensuring coherence across four national contexts and alignment with the three Results framework.
• Ensure all project activities remain on track against agreed timelines, quality benchmarks and contractual milestones; lead quarterly programme reviews and adapt implementation plans as required.
• Conduct regular country monitoring visits to Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand to assess implementation quality, resolve field-level challenges and provide on-site technical support to country teams.
• Manage programme risk across diverse and complex contexts — including the politically sensitive conflict-affected environment of Thailand's Deep South (Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat, Songkhla, Satun provinces) — applying do-no-harm and conflict-sensitive programming principles throughout.
• Together with ADPC, oversee the management of transboundary programme components, particularly EWS harmonisation among Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam along the Mekong and its tributaries, including engagement with MRC's Mekong Flood Forecasting System and relevant national hydro-meteorological agencies.
• Ensure timely delivery of outputs and outcomes across all countries, maintaining a strong focus on operational feasibility, field realities, and last-mile implementation quality.
• Maintain and regularly update a programme risk register covering operational, financial, compliance and contextual risks, with clear mitigation actions and escalation pathways.
• Provide overall leadership to the consortium, including decision-making on programme direction, risk mitigation and performance management, in line with agreed consortium governance structures.
• Manage formal consortium partnerships with ADPC — ensuring sub-award agreements are implemented with quality, accountability and within agreed budgets.
• Facilitate coordination across the consortium through regular steering committee meetings, technical working groups, and joint review processes, ensuring coherent implementation across all four countries.
• Oversee the division of roles and responsibilities between SCI country offices, ADPC's regional technical team, and SCI's Global Climate and Anticipatory Action Team, ensuring clear accountabilities and efficient collaboration at each programme level.
• Champion capacity strengthening for national partners and local civil society organisations in line with Save the Children's localisation commitments and Grand Bargain principles.
• Ensure all consortium partners adhere to SCI's safeguarding, anti-fraud and conflict-of-interest policies; lead response to any compliance issues in a timely and transparent manner.
• Serve as the primary relationship holder with DG ECHO, maintaining proactive, transparent and high-quality communication on programme progress, emerging risks and strategic opportunities throughout the grant cycle.
• Hold delegated authority for day-to-day grant management and decision-making in line with DG ECHO regulations and contractual obligations.
• Lead the preparation and quality assurance of all contractual deliverables, including interim and final narrative reports, financial reports and required annexes — ensuring timely and fully compliant submission in line with ECHO's e-Single Form standards.
• Oversee full programme budget management, including financial oversight, BVA review, forecasting and audit readiness, working closely with the Regional Finance Officer, SC Laos finance team and SC Finland backstopping team.
• Ensure strict adherence to cost eligibility rules, monitor burn rates across partners, and proactively manage risks related to underspend, overspend or ineligible costs.
• Ensure full compliance with DG ECHO visibility and communication requirements, including correct application of EU Humanitarian Aid branding across all programme outputs and activities.
• Proactively flag significant deviations, delays or risks to ECHO and prepare well-reasoned mitigation plans; manage any budget amendments, no-cost extensions or contractual modifications as required.

Consortium and Partner Management:

• Provide overall leadership to the consortium, including decision-making on programme direction, risk mitigation and performance management, in line with agreed consortium governance structures.
• Manage formal consortium partnerships with ADPC — ensuring sub-award agreements are implemented with quality, accountability and within agreed budgets.
• Facilitate coordination across the consortium through regular steering committee meetings, technical working groups, and joint review processes, ensuring coherent implementation across all four countries.
• Oversee the division of roles and responsibilities between SCI country offices, ADPC's regional technical team, and SCI's Global Climate and Anticipatory Action Team, ensuring clear accountabilities and efficient collaboration at each programme level.
• Champion capacity strengthening for national partners and local civil society organisations in line with Save the Children's localisation commitments and Grand Bargain principles.
• Ensure all consortium partners adhere to SCI's safeguarding, anti-fraud and conflict-of-interest policies; lead response to any compliance issues in a timely and transparent manner.

DG ECHO Donor Relationship and Compliance Management:

• Serve as the primary relationship holder with DG ECHO, maintaining proactive, transparent and high-quality communication on programme progress, emerging risks and strategic opportunities throughout the grant cycle.
• Hold delegated authority for day-to-day grant management and decision-making in line with DG ECHO regulations and contractual obligations.
• Lead the preparation and quality assurance of all contractual deliverables, including interim and final narrative reports, financial reports and required annexes — ensuring timely and fully compliant submission in line with ECHO's e-Single Form standards.
• Oversee full programme budget management, including financial oversight, BVA review, forecasting and audit readiness, working closely with the Regional Finance Officer, SC Laos finance team and SC Finland backstopping team.
• Ensure strict adherence to cost eligibility rules, monitor burn rates across partners, and proactively manage risks related to underspend, overspend or ineligible costs.
• Ensure full compliance with DG ECHO visibility and communication requirements, including correct application of EU Humanitarian Aid branding across all programme outputs and activities.
• Proactively flag significant deviations, delays or risks to ECHO and prepare well-reasoned mitigation plans; manage any budget amendments, no-cost extensions or contractual modifications as required.

Technical Leadership and Quality Assurance:

• Provide strategic oversight of technical approaches across all three Results, ensuring coherence between EWS harmonisation (R1), community and school preparedness (R2), and ASEAN/regional framework engagement (R3).
• Work closely with ADPC's technical team and SCI's Global Climate and Anticipatory Action Team to ensure that trigger frameworks, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), Early Action Protocols (EAPs), training curricula and learning products meet regional best practice standards and SCI's Child-Centered Early Warning Systems (CCEWS) model.
• In collaboration with ADPC, champion the transboundary EWS harmonisation framework — overseeing the alignment of impact-based trigger thresholds, data-sharing mechanisms and decision-support tools across Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam — including interoperability with MRC MFFS, NCHMF (Vietnam), DMH (Laos) and NFFC/SSARR (Cambodia) data flows.
• Lead quality assurance of the CBDRM+ model in Thailand, ensuring it is grounded in DDPM's planning and governance cycle, integrates child protection and anticipatory action elements, and is positioned for national endorsement and potential scale-up.
• Ensure child protection, disability inclusion, gender equality and conflict-sensitive approaches are meaningfully integrated into all technical outputs and programme interventions — not as compliance add-ons, but as core design principles.
• Oversee the use and integration of technical tools such as SERVIR-SEA platforms (Historical Flood Analysis Tool, Rainstorm Tracker, Mekong X-Ray, RAT-Mekong) and the AP-TWGAA Minimum Training Package on Anticipatory Action across the programme.
• Ensure that technical ambition is aligned with operational feasibility and country capacity, enabling practical and scalable implementation across diverse contexts.

Regional and Global Representation:

• Represent Save the Children and the consortium at ASEAN-level bodies, including the ASEAN Committee on Disaster Management (ACDM), AHA Centre working groups, AADMER implementation processes, and the ASEAN Safe Schools Framework — ensuring child and community perspectives inform regional DRM frameworks.
• Engage with the Mekong River Commission (MRC) and relevant inter-governmental technical mechanisms to advance transboundary EWS harmonisation, positioning the project as a regional proof-of-concept for multi-country, child-centred anticipatory action.
• Represent the project at the Asia-Pacific Technical Working Group on Anticipatory Action (AP-TWGAA, co-chaired by FAO and IFRC), contributing Lower Mekong child-centred EWS evidence to the Regional Roadmap 2023–2027.
• Engage with global anticipatory action platforms — including the Anticipation Hub, Start Network and OCHA AA workstreams — to share the programme's models and learning at the global level.
• Build and maintain strategic relationships with national DRM authorities in all four countries (NFFC/Cambodia, DMH/Laos, NCHMF/Vietnam, DDPM/Thailand) and with UN agencies including OCHA, UNDRR and WFP to ensure coordination, avoid duplication and amplify impact.
• Position of the programme as a flagship example of child-centred anticipatory action and transboundary early warning systems in regional and global forums.

Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL):

• Oversee the programme-level MEAL framework, working with country MEAL staff and SCI's technical support to ensure data quality, indicator tracking, and accountability to affected populations — including child- and disability-sensitive feedback and complaints mechanisms in all four countries.
• Ensure strong accountability to affected populations (AAP), including accessible, inclusive and child-sensitive feedback and complaints mechanisms across all programme locations.
• Lead or commission after-action reviews, mid-term reviews and the final evaluation; ensure findings are actively used to drive adaptive management and course corrections across the consortium.
• Oversee knowledge management, evidence generation and learning briefs — particularly the co-development of evidence products with ADPC and SCI's Global AA Team that position the programme's child-centred anticipatory action and transboundary EWS models as contributions to regional best practice.
• Ensure programme evidence feeds into regional and global learning platforms — including ASEAN frameworks, SCI's global AA annual reporting, and contributions to the AP-TWGAA Minimum Training Package.
• Ensure that programme data and evidence are suitable for donor visibility, replication and scale, contributing to regional and global learning priorities.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• Essential in Advanced degree (Master’s or equivalent) in International Development, Disaster Risk Reduction, Humanitarian Action, Environmental Studies, International Relations or closely related field.
• Desirable in Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field with significantly extended experience in lieu of advanced degree.

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

Essential:

• Minimum 8 years of progressively responsible programme management experience in humanitarian or development programming, including at least 4 years in senior multi-country or regional roles.
• Demonstrated experience managing large, complex multi-partner programmes (budget >EUR 2 million) with multiple national and international implementing partners, preferably in Southeast Asia.
• Proven track record managing DG ECHO-funded programmes including full contractual compliance, narrative and financial reporting, budget management and audit readiness
• Technical expertise in at least one of: Early Warning Systems (EWS), Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), Community-Based Disaster Risk Management (CBDRM), or Anticipatory Action and Early Action Protocols.
• Demonstrated experience in consortium management, including sub-award oversight, partner capacity strengthening, and coordination across diverse government and civil society stakeholders.
• Proven representation skills — demonstrated experience engaging ASEAN regional bodies, UN technical working groups, national DRM authorities, or equivalent regional and global coordination mechanisms.
• Strong budget management and financial oversight skills for multi-country, multi-partner donor-funded programmes.
• Excellent written and oral communication in English; ability to produce high-quality, donor-ready reports, briefings and analytical papers independently.
• Demonstrated commitment to child rights, child safeguarding, disability inclusion and gender equality in programme design and delivery.

Desirable

• Familiarity with ASEAN DRM frameworks (AADMER, ASEAN Safe Schools Framework) and key regional institutions including the AHA Centre and Mekong River Commission (MRC)
• Knowledge of transboundary water/flood risk management, including multi-country EWS data-sharing mechanisms or interoperability challenges
• Experience integrating anticipatory action, impact-based forecasting or cash-based programming into government DRM systems

Contract length: Fixed term (24 Months) 

The Organisation

We employ approximately 25,000 people across the globe and work on the ground in over 100 countries to help children affected by crises, or those that need better healthcare, education and child protection. We also campaign and advocate at the highest levels to realise the right of children and to ensure their voices are heard. 

We are working towards three breakthroughs in how the world treats children by 2030:

• No child dies from preventable causes before their 5th birthday 
• All children learn from a quality basic education and that,
• Violence against children is no longer tolerated 

We know that great people make a great organization, and that our employees play a crucial role in helping us achieve our ambitions for children.  We value our people and offer a meaningful and rewarding career, along with a collaborative and inclusive workplace where ambition, creativity, and integrity are highly valued. 

Interested candidates please submit a full application using a cover letter and up-to-date CV as a single document including contact details of three professional referees (current and last line managers and HR department). Please also include details of your salary expectations and a copy of your ID card. Please note that we will require a copy of your Criminal Records (ໃບແຈ້ງໂທດ) later. 

Save the Children International is a child-rights based organization. Safe recruitment is central to the safeguarding of children and young people that we come into contact with, and support through our programmes.

We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

Save the children is an equal opportunities employer, qualified females, persons with disability and candidates from diverse cultural backgrounds are encouraged to apply.

All employees are expected to carry out their duties in accordance with our global anti-harassment policy.