Livelihood Officer at SOS Children Villages

We work to prevent family breakdown and care for children who have lost parental care, or who risk losing it. We work with communities, partners and states to ensure that the rights of all children, in every society, are respected and fulfilled.

We are non-governmental and non-denominational. We respect all religions and cultures and work with trusted partners in places where we can contribute to social development.

All the work we do is made possible through the generous support of sponsors and donors, institutional and corporate partners, and loyal friends worldwide. Your help is needed too.Position Summary

The Livelihood Officer will provide technical and programmatic support to crisis-affected families and communities to design and implement sustainable, community-based livelihood initiatives.
The role focuses on promoting employment opportunities, enhancing vocational skills, and supporting income-generating activities to reduce vulnerabilities and
build resilience.
He/She will work closely with caregivers, youth, and young adults to strengthen their livelihood capacity, enabling sustainable income generation and self-reliance even in emergency contexts.
Priority will be given to interventions that deliver immediate or short-
term improvements in household socio-economic well-being, while laying the foundation for longer-term recovery and resilience.

Responsibilities

The livelihood officer will give Priority attention to interventions that would have immediate or short-term positive effect on the family’s socio-economic wellbeing, aiming to reduce their vulnerability; e.g. access to start-up support for job creation, access to low-interest loans for micro-business development, individual skills training, targeted vocational or entrepreneurship training, job placement, internship, business expansion support, etc.
Support families to identify ‘gaps’ in attaining self-reliance while linking it to the keys to self-reliance based on the development needs of each child within their care
Support families to establish set goals, milestones with timelines and develop actionable plans to achieve the defined set goals to address the identified gaps
Ensure that the organisation keeps its commitments, in terms of support services committed to in the FDPs action plans;
Empower families to have improved household income to actively support the development of their children and be self-reliant
Support young adults and caregivers in setting up viable small-medium scale businesses with good business plans and link them to other funding sources for business scaling-up and expansion
Implement skills-based innovative sustainable livelihood community initiatives that have a direct and immediate or short-term positive effect on the family’s socio-economic activities, aiming to reduce the family’s vulnerability and increase their chances of being self-reliant
Identify weaknesses and strengths in the livelihoods activities and map the best way forward to enhance strengths and mitigate adverse impacts or weaknesses;
Ensure gatekeeping and case management guidelines are followed in providing specifically tailored interventions targeted at supporting families to attain self-reliance
Conduct activities in a community- and rights-based, participatory manner, maintaining an Age, Gender and Diversity (AGD), and conflict-sensitive approach for community engagement
Ensure timely and quality progress and financial reporting by partners in line with agreed templates and schedules
Monitor programme implementation of partners (contractors, consultants, grantees) in accordance with agreements, work plans, deliverables, and timelines
Carry out regular reviews of the situation of the families and the support provided to them by the programme
Contribute to the realisation of sustainable income generation for families to provide quality care and protection for their children

Qualifications, Experience and Skills

Bachelor’s degree in Economics, Agriculture, Business Administration,
Development Studies, Social Sciences, or a related field (Master’s degree is an advantage).
Minimum of 1 year experience in emergency response programming and working with vulnerable populations.
Knowledge of market systems development, micro-enterprise, and vocational training approaches.
Familiarity with donor-funded projects and humanitarian standards.
Strong project design, implementation, and monitoring skills.
Excellent facilitation, training, and community mobilization abilities.
Competence in conducting needs assessments and market analysis.
Good communication, negotiation, and partnership-building skills.
Ability to manage data, prepare reports, and ensure accountability.
Computer literacy (MS Office, data collection/analysis tools).
Commitment to humanitarian principles, child safeguarding, and protection standards.
Strong problem-solving, decision-making, and analytical thinking.
Ability to work independently and as part of a multi-sectoral team.
High cultural sensitivity, empathy, and inclusiveness.
Flexibility, resilience, and capacity to adapt to rapidly changing emergency contexts