Project Manager-Anticipatory Action (AA)

Danish Refugee Council, one of the world’s leading humanitarian NGOs, is currently looking for a highly qualified Project Manager- Anticipatory Action (AA)

About the job

DRC is seeking a highly motivated and experienced Anticipatory Action (AA) Project Manager, based in Mogadishu, to lead and coordinate anticipatory action programming in Somalia. The position will serve as the Project Manager and national lead for the AHEAD project, providing strategic, technical, and operational leadership to ensure high-quality implementation and alignment with DRC’s global AA strategy.

Reporting to the Area Program Manager, the role is pivotal in strengthening and expanding DRC’s anticipatory action portfolio beyond the AHEAD project. The AA Project Manager will work closely with country teams, local authorities, community structures, UN agencies, and partners to design, implement, and scale anticipatory action initiatives that enhance preparedness, reduce displacement risks, and improve the resilience of communities exposed to recurrent shocks.

Your main duties and responsibilities will be:

Key Responsibilities

1. Management and Coordination

• Serve as the national technical focal point for Anticipatory Action (AA), ensuring alignment with DRC’s global AA strategy, country priorities, and donor requirements.
• Coordinate closely with national, regional, and global AA teams to integrate anticipatory action across DRC’s broader programmatic strategies and contribute to cross-fertilization of learning.
• Facilitate awareness, understanding, and uptake of AA approaches across sectors and among key stakeholders, including government authorities, UN agencies, local partners, and community structures, with specific emphasis on the reliable use of the AHEAD displacement forecasting model.
• Actively engage in existing AA coordination platforms and technical working groups (including National Technical Working Groups on Anticipatory Action) and support the establishment of new coordination mechanisms where needed, promoting harmonized AA approaches and implementation standards.
• Ensure strong visibility and representation of DRC’s AA portfolio within humanitarian coordination platforms, including the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) and relevant clusters, seeking formal endorsement of AA frameworks by the HCT or equivalent body
• Serve as the field focal point for AA activities in Mogadishu, Belet-Hawa, and Jalalaqsi, ensuring coherence between national strategy and field implementation.

2. Implementation and Technical Oversight

• Lead the design, development, and implementation of anticipatory action plans, including readiness actions, anticipatory actions, trigger mechanisms, and evidence-generation frameworks, using a localization-focused and a participatory and bottom-up approach.
• Oversee anticipatory action systems strengthening, including early warning systems, trigger development, and operational AA plans, in close collaboration with duty bearers and in-country partners, ensuring implementation adheres to critical humanitarian principles, including impartiality and neutrality.
• Provide technical leadership and operational oversight for all AA project activities, ensuring timely, high-quality, and compliant implementation in line with approved project plans and donor requirements. This includes integrating conflict sensitivity throughout the program cycle to ensure a ‘do no harm’ approach and mitigate the risk of unintentionally fueling conflict.
• Supervise the rollout of anticipatory and protection activities, ensuring strong community engagement, accountability, protection mainstreaming, and quality assurance, guided by Age, Gender, and Diversity Mainstreaming (AGDM) principles
• Coordinate closely with emergency response and preparedness teams to ensure anticipatory actions are fully integrated into broader emergency preparedness and response frameworks and linking AHEAD to existing development and peace frameworks.
• In the event of trigger activation, lead or support operational oversight of AA implementation, ensuring rapid delivery and robust monitoring and evidence generation.
• Systematically consolidate, triangulate, and analyse information on shocks using data from monitoring networks, social media tracking, and partner updates to support early warning, trigger activation, and anticipatory planning, including contributing to H2R (Hard-to-Reach) analyses to inform access strategies for vulnerable segments.

3. Capacity Building, Technical Support, and Learning

• Provide ongoing technical assistance and capacity strengthening to DRC country teams and local partners on anticipatory action concepts, including forecast-based planning, anticipatory finance, and operational delivery.
• Work closely with the Evidence, Knowledge, and Learning (EKL) team to ensure that data, risk analysis, and displacement forecasting models are effectively applied to AA decision-making and contribute to evidence-based adaptive programming.
• Support global and regional analysts to monitor and analyze disaster risk and displacement data, ensuring that triggers and forecasts remain relevant to evolving field realities and integrating community-level indicators to ground truth AHEAD model predictions with local observations.
• Capture, document, and disseminate lessons learned and best practices from AA implementation, contributing to national, regional, and global learning, advocacy, and policy influence including developing resources and tools for replication by local organizations

4. Business Development and Advocacy

• Contribute to the development of funding proposals and concept notes for anticipatory action initiatives in collaboration with country teams and donor engagement units.
• Represent DRC in national and, as required, regional AA forums, advocating for anticipatory action as an effective and cost-efficient humanitarian response approach, using robust evidence generated from pilots regarding cost-efficiency and benefits on humanitarian needs (food, protection)
• Work closely with advocacy and policy teams to influence national policies and promote the institutionalization of anticipatory action within government systems and humanitarian planning frameworks, promoting AA as a clear contribution to AUC’s wider peacebuilding and conflict management agenda where applicable
• Secure further financing for the pooled anticipatory action fund established under AHEAD, leveraging the seed funding to expand pre-arranged anticipatory finance capacity

5. Reporting, Communication, and Coordination

• Ensure timely, accurate, and high-quality reporting on AA activities in line with donor, organizational, and internal requirements.
• Maintain strong communication with field and country focal points to track progress, address implementation challenges, and ensure alignment across locations.
• Provide regular technical guidance and support to field teams and partners, ensuring clear understanding of AA objectives, triggers, and implementation responsibilities.

6. Budget Management and Accountability

• As Program Manager, monitor expenditures against approved budgets for assigned projects, proactively mitigating risks related to over- or underspending.
• Liaise with support functions, including Finance, Supply Chain, and Human Resources—to ensure timely availability of information for Program Monthly Meetings and decision-making.
• Hold overall responsibility and accountability for quality delivery of AA project outputs, ensuring compliance with donor rules and DRC standards, and escalating risks and challenges to the Senior Management Team as required. Ensure adherence to fraud and corruption mitigation strategies, including conducting due diligence on local partners.

About you

To be successful in this role we expect you to have:

Required

• A Bachelor’s degree in Development Studies, Social Sciences, International Development, or a related field, with a minimum of six (6) years of progressive experience as a Project Manager; or
• A Master’s degree in Development Studies, Social Sciences, International Development, or a related field, with a minimum of three (3) years of progressive experience as a Project Manager.
• At least 5 years of international experience in disaster risk management or anticipatory action programming, preferably in conflict-affected regions.
• Proven track record of designing and implementing anticipatory action projects, including the development of triggers and anticipatory action planning.
• Strong understanding of data-driven decision-making, with experience with displacement forecasting models and early warning systems being a strong asset.
• Demonstrated strong networking capacity and extensive networks with federal, state, and regional governments.
• Excellent stakeholder coordination skills, with an ability to navigate diverse stakeholder groups and drive joint progress to achieve common goals.
• Familiarity with conflict-sensitive programming and the impacts of displacement on vulnerable populations.
• Ability and willingness to travel, including to remote or conflict-affected areas, up to 35% of the time.
• Excellent interpersonal, communication, and coordination skills, with the ability to work across multiple teams and with diverse stakeholders.

Other Requirements:

• Able and willing to be based in Mogadishu, Somalia, with occasional travel. Travel to remote and isolated rural communities will be required within this role.
• The position requires a high degree of collaboration with program staff and all relevant stakeholders to ensure effective communication and priority setting.
• Experience with programming related to climate resilience, preparedness, and conflict sensitivity.
• Demonstrated ability to innovate and take a flexible, problem-solving approach in complex humanitarian environments.
• Strong project management skills and experience with donor reporting and proposal writing.
• Familiarity with humanitarian coordination mechanisms and key international standards.

In this position, you are expected to demonstrate DRC’ five core competencies: 

Striving for excellence: You focus on reaching results while ensuring an efficient process. 

Collaborating: You involve relevant parties and encourage feedback. 

Taking the lead: You take ownership and initiative while aiming for innovation. 

Communicating: You listen and speak effectively and honestly. 

Demonstrating integrity: You uphold and promote the highest standards of ethical and professional conduct in relation to our values and Code of Conduct, including safeguarding against sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment.

We offer

Contract length: 12 months

Band: Employment Band Management -F2

Work location: Mogadishu

Start date: February 2026

Reporting to: Area Program Manager

Salary and conditions will be in accordance with Danish Refugee Council’s Terms of Employment for

employees on national contract.

Application process

All applicants must upload a cover letter and an updated CV (no longer than four pages) in English. Applications sent by email will not be considered.

Closing date for applications: 31st December 2025

We welcome applications from all qualified candidates and highly encourage female applicants to apply.

For more information about the Danish Refugee Council, please visit our website drc.ngo.

Danish Refugee Council is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to creating an inclusive and positive work environment based on mutual respect for all employees. All applicants are considered for employment regardless of personal characteristics or attributes.