Abdirashid Ali Adan

• Project Leadership & Oversight: Provides overall direction and management of field-level projects from initiation through completion, ensuring alignment with organizational strategy, donor requirements, and community priorities.
• Operational & Financial Compliance: Ensures all administrative operations, expenditures, and activities outlined in project-related MoUs strictly adhere to approved work plans and budgets, maintaining transparency and accountability.
• Logistics & Program Administration: Oversees day-to-day project operations with a strong focus on logistics, finance, procurement, and administrative systems to guarantee smooth implementation and timely delivery of outputs.
• Capacity Building & Staff Development: Leads initiatives to strengthen the capacity of project staff, fostering skills in project coordination, accountability mechanisms, and quality assurance for effective program delivery.
• Team Guidance & Performance Monitoring: Provides continuous mentorship and supervision to project staff, clarifying priorities, monitoring progress, and promoting a culture of collaboration, innovation, and results-driven teamwork.
• Best Practices & Knowledge Management: Develops, documents, and disseminates best practices, tools, and methodologies for project execution, ensuring lessons learned are integrated into future programming.
• Strategic Planning & Goal Setting: Defines project scope, objectives, and deliverables that advance organizational goals and contribute to the broader strategic vision of FHI 360.
• Reporting, Communication & Advocacy: Prepares and delivers comprehensive project plans, documentation, training materials, presentations, and budget proposals to management, donors, and stakeholders, ensuring clarity, accountability, and advocacy for project impact.

• As Program Lead, I provide strategic leadership across a diverse and complex portfolio of climate-resilient food systems and livelihood programs operating in fragile and drought-prone contexts. My work sits at the intersection of climate adaptation, market systems development, and inclusive economic growth, with a strong focus on enabling smallholder farmers and pastoral communities to anticipate, absorb, and adapt to climate and market shocks.
• I lead the design and delivery of integrated resilience approaches that combine climate-smart agriculture, early warning and climate information systems, and community-driven risk management. By strengthening institutional linkages and promoting anticipatory action, I ensure farming households are better equipped to make informed decisions, protect productive assets, and sustain food security under increasing climate uncertainty. All interventions are deliberately aligned with global resilience and food systems frameworks, while remaining deeply grounded in local realities.
• A core pillar of my leadership has been advancing financial inclusion and livelihood diversification as pathways to resilience. I have overseen the development of tailored financial mechanisms, inclusive market opportunities, and microenterprise support that reduce household vulnerability to single income shocks. Through gender-responsive and socially inclusive programming, I have expanded equitable access to resources, strengthened women's economic participation, and ensured marginalized groups are active agents within local food systems rather than passive beneficiaries. As a people-centered leader, I supervise and mentor Program Managers and technical staff, building high-performing teams capable of navigating complexity and uncertainty. I prioritize learning, accountability, and adaptive leadership, ensuring that resilience is not only an outcome of our programs, but a defining feature of how teams plan, deliver, and evolve interventions within dynamic food systems.

• During my tenure with ACTED, I managed and delivered a large-scale, integrated multisectoral humanitarian response across South West State and Jubaland, covering Food Security and Livelihoods, WASH, and CCCM interventions. I was responsible for overseeing the full project cycle, from planning and implementation through monitoring, adaptive management, and close-out, ensuring activities were completed on time, met quality standards, and achieved the intended outcomes with meaningful impact for crisis-affected communities.
• I provided day-to-day leadership to multidisciplinary project teams, ensuring effective coordination, performance management, and capacity building, while fostering a results-oriented and accountability-driven working environment. In parallel, I served as a key coordination and representation focal point at the hub level, engaging with external partners, cluster coordination mechanisms, local authorities, and community stakeholders to strengthen collaboration, ensure complementarity, and support smooth implementation in complex and dynamic operating contexts. I consistently applied risk management and adaptive programming approaches to address operational, access, and contextual challenges, enabling continuity of service delivery in volatile environments.

• As a Program Manager, I was responsible for overseeing the planning, implementation, and evaluation of programs designed to improve the livelihoods of vulnerable communities. My role included coordinating with local stakeholders, managing project budgets, and ensuring compliance with donor requirements. I led a diverse team, fostering a collaborative environment that enabled us to achieve program objectives effectively. Strong leadership and communication skills were critical in building productive relationships with partners and beneficiaries, while also ensuring timely reporting to senior management.
• Beyond day-to-day management, I applied a strategic lens to program development by identifying opportunities for growth and expansion. Using data and community feedback, I informed program design and made necessary adjustments to strengthen impact, ensuring that interventions remained relevant, effective, and sustainable.

As the Financial Inclusion Specialist, I led the implementation of financial inclusion and economic empowerment interventions aimed at improving access to financial services and sustainable livelihood opportunities for vulnerable communities, including women, youth, IDPs, refugees, and host populations. I facilitated strategic partnerships with Microfinance Institutions (MFIs), SACCOs, commercial banks, and private sector actors to expand access to savings, credit, and other financial products tailored to beneficiary needs.

I established and strengthened Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs), SACCOs, and community-based savings groups through capacity building, financial literacy training, and mentorship on savings culture, loan management, business planning, and entrepreneurship development. I also supported diversified livelihoods and income-generating activities by linking beneficiaries to markets, productive assets, startup capital, and enterprise development opportunities to enhance household resilience and self-reliance.

In addition, I coordinated stakeholder engagement and community mobilization activities while working closely with government institutions, private sector partners, cooperatives, and local leaders to ensure sustainable implementation of financial inclusion interventions. I conducted market assessments, financial service mapping, and beneficiary profiling to inform program design and implementation, while also contributing to monitoring, reporting, and learning processes to ensure program quality, accountability, and impact.

• I played a key role in strengthening NRC’s cash and livelihoods programming by supporting the design and implementation of market assessments, beneficiary targeting, Post Distribution Monitoring (PDM), and end-line surveys to inform program design and measure impact. I ensured robust reporting systems were in place for daily tracking of activities, trainings, and distributions, while contributing to the development of area-level cash and market strategies and donor proposals. My responsibilities included providing technical support and ensuring program quality, compliance with donor standards, and effective grant management, alongside regular reporting on cash and market-related interventions. I developed training materials and facilitated capacity building for technical and support staff, enhancing institutional knowledge and practice in cash programming. In addition, I worked to ensure projects reached the most vulnerable beneficiaries, while continuously exploring innovative approaches to improve assistance and integrate lessons learned into future programming.

• Under the supervision of the Project Coordinator, I was responsible for the timely implementation of NRC’s livelihoods programs in Dollo, ensuring effective delivery of pastoral livelihood activities. I conducted field-based needs assessments, supported program monitoring and reporting, and worked closely with community elders and local authorities to facilitate smooth operations in terms of security, accessibility, and collaboration. My role included community mobilization, organizing meetings, liaising with stakeholders, and coordinating with other agencies to strengthen program impact. I prepared monthly, quarterly, and annual progress reports, highlighting achievements, challenges, and recommendations for improvement. In addition, I led the beneficiary selection process for cash and milk programming, overseeing documentation, distribution, and payments for both conditional and unconditional cash transfers, while ensuring accountability and transparency throughout the process.

• I contributed to the implementation of cash-supported projects in line with technical guidelines, supporting assessments, re-targeting, and beneficiary registration to ensure effective delivery. My role involved coordinating with communities, government ministries, and implementing partners, presenting project data and results, and overseeing the targeting, verification, and upload of beneficiary information into program systems. I monitored project progress from inception to completion, compiling and sharing detailed progress reports, including statistical and technical updates. In addition, I led community mobilization efforts around voucher distribution, redemption timelines, and commodities, ensuring transparency and data integrity throughout the process. I supervised cash distribution activities, promoted compliance with financial policies and procedures, and fostered strong working relationships with field staff, local authorities, and communities to support successful project implementation.