Manager, Program at Child Fund International

Primary Responsibilities
Project Management

• Ensure the highest standards of project donor contract management are established and maintained regarding outcome deliverables, budgeting, financial management and reporting
• Provide hands-on technical and managerial support to project staff and partners to ensure approved projects activity plans and associated project milestones are delivered according to the contractual requirements of donors or other stakeholders.
• In collaboration with the Project Steering Committee (PSC) will supervise the project's coordination and governance, including agreements, monitoring and evaluation, communication plan, and dissemination.
• Oversee youth and youth led project partners active participation in key policy-design forums.
• Support communication and collaboration between government stakeholders, youth and youth-led organisations, in governance and accountability to ensure social and economic inclusion for youth.
• Play a key role in identifying and solving problems and issues in the implementation of project management in conjunction with other senior staff and partners.
• Plan and lead the quarterly review of projects, ensuring rigorous analysis, discussion and testing of progress, situation and plans in respect of activity implementation, budget utilization, finance and resourcing. Ensure decisions are reflected in future plans and activities with appropriate follow-up.

Monitoring, Documentation and Information Sharing

• Participate in and provide technical support (development of TOR, data tools review, etc) in project baseline and other related studies.
• Ensure that technical and implementation lessons are being learned across the teams, and adjustments made to project implementation, design or methodologies accordingly.
• Support project teams with the preparation and implementation of accurate, realistic and effective data collection.
• Support and coach field teams to ensure ongoing quality/impact improvements through use of data and related adaptation of projects within agreed project frameworks and contracts, identifying the need for and arranging technical support as/when needed.
• Support in the timely preparation and/or review of the quarterly and annual programmatic and donor quality reports.
• Undertake regular visits to project partners’ offices to attend internal meetings, monitor the implementation of operations and identify support required by the offices.
• Support Project Consortium members to develop a robust complaint and feedback mechanism and reporting system for the project.
• Coordinate partners monthly reporting both financial and narrative.
• Organize and coordinate forums and platform for project sharing and dissemination of lessons learnt and best practices.

Planning and Budgeting

• Support the preparation and revision of realistic budgets, including mid-year budget reforecast in conjunction with the project partners and finance team.
• Authorize and monitor project expenditures in line with the budget and donor guidelines, partners management and financial guidelines. This will include analysis of expenditures against monthly and quarterly budget reports and variance analysis reports and ensuring all budget holders are also fulfilling their responsibilities.
• Working closely with the project team and partners, prepare project annual work plan and for effective implementation of the project.
• Work closely with the finance officer to ensure that all project budgets are posted into the financial system in a timely and accurate manner

Reporting

• Ensure timely and accurate donor and project reporting. This includes the review of narrative and budget reports in readiness for submission, in close collaboration with the partners, Finance team and relevant departments.
• Track all donor reporting deadlines (both financial and narrative reports) and ensure that these are submitted in a timely manner.
• Provide regular update in project implementation progress to the Project Steering Committee

People management

• Support processes that aim to ensure all project staff and partners have clear work plans and objectives and receive periodic performance reviews.
• Efficiently deal with any performance issues as they arise either with the Project staff themselves, or in the role of ‘Manager’s Manager’.
• Ensure all staff’s level of efforts (LOE) to the project are properly accounted for through timely completion of time sheets.
• Alongside Finance and Admin Manager, ensure project staff adhere to donor guidelines and organisational policies and manuals.
• Champion for staff adherence to relevant policies, Code of Conduct and organisational values in action.

Other

• Act as a representative for the project to the donor, government, private sector partners and other NGOs.
• Play a key role in contributing to discussion and decision-making processes of the Project Steering Committee (PSC).
• Remain alert and responsive to any safeguarding risks; acquire relevant knowledge and skills to enable you to understand the safeguarding policy and procedures; promote strong safeguarding practices; perform your duty and responsibility to safeguard, report violations, and promote appropriate behavior; and conduct yourself in a manner consistent with the organization’s policies and values.

Required Experience and Education

• Advanced degree in a youth-related field, Community Development, Gender Development, Social Work, Project Management, or a related field.
• At least 6 years of experience working on similar projects.
• Strong knowledge and background in youth green and digital transformation models.
• Demonstrated experience managing a donor-funded youth-related development project.
• Experience with EU grants is an added advantage.
• Experience working with both urban and rural communities.
• Experience in managing implementing partners.

Required Competencies

• The ability to speak, read, and write fluently in English.
• Strong verbal communication skills, with the ability to develop and deliver compelling presentations.
• Effective and demonstrated change management skills, with the ability to proactively lead and champion innovation and organizational change.
• Demonstrated inclusive leadership skills, with a commitment to fostering a culture of learning and collaboration among teams.
• Excellent report writing skills.
• Good networking and advocacy skills, including youth advocacy and engagement at the national level.

ChildFund’s Core Competencies

• Teamwork: Leads a diverse team and solicits differing perspectives to develop unique solutions or ideas.
• Communication: Engages stakeholders using appropriate communication methods to achieve desired outcomes.
• Results orientation: Contributes to setting work priorities and direction, supporting the team in achieving goals and objectives.
• Decision making: Demonstrates ability to critically evaluate tasks and ruthlessly prioritize and triage
• Resilience: Maintains professionalism in difficult situations and unforeseen changes, supporting others in adjusting to change.
• Digital literacy: adopts and champions new technology to relevant contexts, stays aware of technological trends and embraces technological solutions to business challenges.