Senior Urban Advisor – Inclusive, Climate-Resilient, and Migration-Responsive Urban Development (Retainer)

Dutystation: Home based

Functional responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of the Head of Strategy and Results, the Senior Urban Advisor will provide strategic, technical, and advisory inputs to strengthen Cities Alliance’s programming, knowledge, and advocacy around inclusive, climate-resilient urban development. The advisor will support cross-regional initiatives with a focus on mainstreaming climate action and gender into urban planning and migration, informality and livelihoods, and service delivery strategies.

Key responsibilities include:

• Deliver high-level technical advisory services and rigorous peer review for complex urban development programmes, ensuring the systematic integration of climate resilience, human mobility, informality, and gender-responsive approaches across multiple geographies, particularly in Asia.

• Provide cross-sectoral expertise to enhance programme coherence, local ownership, and long-term sustainability.

• Lead the end-to-end development of flagship knowledge products and policy guidance materials, including thematic policy briefs, urban diagnostics, regional programme strategies, and climate-sensitive city action plans.

• Collaborate with regional teams, technical experts, and partners to ensure outputs are data-driven, contextually relevant, and strategically aligned with global urban agendas (e.g., SDGs, Paris Agreement, Global Compacts).

• Define and refine Cities Alliance’s strategic approach to climate adaptation, migration, and urban resilience, offering thought support to position the organization as a trusted convener and policy influencer.

• Design and oversee the implementation of robust impact monitoring frameworks that integrate climate adaptation and mitigation indicators, gender-responsive metrics, and resilience-building benchmarks.

• Ensure alignment with donor reporting requirements and promote the use of evidence in adaptive management and investment prioritization, particularly in informal and underserved urban areas.

• Conceptualize, facilitate, and moderate high-level regional and international peer learning exchanges, technical dialogues, and policy workshops on inclusive urban resilience.

• Curate content, identify strategic partners and speakers, and guide outcomes toward actionable recommendations.

• Promote cross-country learning on issues such as climate-smart infrastructure, local governance, gender mainstreaming, and migration-sensitive urban planning.

• Formulation of strategic fundraising initiatives and partnership-building efforts, with a focus on mobilizing resources for climate-responsive urban development and migration governance.

• Develop high-quality concept notes, funding proposals, and donor engagement strategies in collaboration with cross-functional teams and external partners.

• Ensure the integration of gender and climate considerations as cross-cutting pillars in all programmatic interventions, policy tools, and city-level initiatives.

• Provide technical oversight and capacity-building support to internal teams and local stakeholders to institutionalize inclusive and climate-responsive planning processes.

• Steer the quality assurance and strategic alignment of programme deliverables, applying peer review protocols, providing actionable feedback, and ensuring technical soundness, policy relevance, and value addition to local and regional stakeholders.

Monitoring and Progress Control :

The performance will be assessed based on the below points :

• Timely delivery of high-quality outputs incorporating climate, urban planning, migration, and gender dimensions.

• Contributions to Cities Alliance’s programmatic and policy positioning on inclusive, climate-resilient, and sustainable urban development.

• Effective support for events, sessions and dialogues.

• Strengthened capacity across Cities Alliance teams and partners to integrate climate, migration, and gender dimensions into urban planning and implementation.

• Perform other related duties as assigned. 

Education/Experience/Language requirements
Education

• An Advanced university degree (Master`s degree or equivalent) preferably in urban planning and governance, environmental and development studies, economics, law, demography, or relevant urban, political and development studies is required.

• A first level university degree (Bachelor degree or equivalent) in the related fields with an additional two (2) years of experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced degree.

Experience

• A minimum of 10 years of work experience on migration issues, inclusive, climate-resilient or sustainable urban development in the context of low-income countries is required.

• Experience in research and policy work on migration, sustainable and inclusive urban development in low-income countries is an asset.

• Proven experience of applied international development assignments as well as outstanding analytical and advisory work documented through publications is required.

• Previous held experience working in countries in Asia is required.

Languages

• Fluency en English is required. Knowledge of French, Somali, Arabic, Amharic, Lao, Khmer, Thai, Burmese is considered an asset.