Social-economic & livelihood specialist

Background

DAI works at the cutting edge of international development, combining technical excellence, professional project management, and exceptional customer service to solve our clients’ most complex problems. Since 1970, DAI has worked in 150 developing and transition countries, providing comprehensive development solutions in areas including crisis mitigation and stability operations, democratic governance and public sector management, agriculture and agribusiness, private sector development and financial services, economics and trade, HIV/AIDS, avian influenza control, water and natural resources management, and energy and climate change. Clients include international development agencies, international lending institutions, private corporations and philanthropies, and host-country governments. 

Job Description

DAI, a global development consulting firm headquartered in Washington, DC, USA seeks to fill a Socio-economic and Livelihood Specialist short-term technical assistance (STTA) consultancy position to support a five-year U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Climate Change Adaptation project on the Mekong River Basin, covering communities in Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. The project aims to strengthen human and institutional capacity to develop and implement climate change adaptation plans and strategies; strengthen policies, tools, methodologies, and practices for ecosystem services valuation and climate resiliency; demonstrate and scale-up model actions for integrated approaches to climate change adaptation, and sustain regional learning networks to share and replicate best practices. The position will be based in the Lower Mekong River Basin (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, Vietnam) with an anticipated start date in late November. US-Citizenship is required.

Responsibilities

Working under the Team Leader, the Socio-economic & Livelihood Specialist shall:

- Guide Riparian specialists in identifying data needs for climate change assessments of Mekong social and livelihood systems
- Design a socio-economic and livelihood survey for use in the project and train riparian team members in its effective implementation
- Develop socio-economic and livelihoods baselines and profiles for agro-ecological zones in the region (defined by the project team), including resource dependent livelihood pathways
- Analyze and describe baseline trends for Mekong social systems and agro-ecological zones
- Analyze and describe the subsistence and livelihood links and dependencies with agricultural systems and with biodiversity.
- Identify climate and non-climate drivers of change to Mekong social and livelihood systems
- Undertake climate change vulnerability assessments for social groups dependent on biodiversity and subsistence livelihoods, prioritizing those groups living in vulnerable agro-ecological zones in the region
- Develop adaptation options for the most vulnerable social groups living in each of the agro-ecological zones

Basic Qualifications

- The Socio-economic and Livelihoods Specialist will have at least 10 years of experience in economic assessments, livelihood surveys, human geography, social impact assessments, climate change, and statistical analysis with a relevant masters or doctoral degree in social sciences, economics or similar. 
- The specialist should have extensive experience working in and assisting government institutions of Mekong countries (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, and Vietnam); be familiar with the institutional arrangements and social and livelihoods development in these countries; and demonstrated experience working in data poor and institutionally weak environments. 
- Also required is the ability to work effectively in inter-ministerial groups and with riparian counterpart specialists and to report effectively in strategic consultations and in written reports. 
- The specialist should have excellent analytical and inter-personal skills and a team-oriented work style.