Project Manager-DANIDA at SOS Children's Villages

Position Summary:

Reporting to the Director of National Programs and Quality (DNP&Q), the Program Manager is responsible for the overall management of the DANIDA-funded Leave No Youth Behind (LNYB) program. The program targets young people who have transitioned from Alternative Care settings and it aims to influence decision makers to put policies/laws in place to strengthen the support for young care leavers; enhance responsiveness of social protection systems to the needs and rights of young care leavers on their journey to independent living; and support young care leavers in stable and fragile societies to claim their rights to social protection, assistance and active participation.

The Program Manager will take lead the LNYB team in Mombasa and Uasin Gishu Counties in program implementation, monitoring, evaluation, reporting, stakeholder engagement, knowledge management, donor liaison and reporting.

S/he will collaborate closely with the Uasin Gishu and Mombasa County governments, local implementing partner organizations and National Office program team to roll out and implement innovative approaches to ensure program compliance and success in line with the Federation, National and International legal and policy frameworks on children and youth programming.

Key performance areas and main responsibilities:
Technical lead in program delivery

•  Lead planning and budgeting exercises for the LNYB program in line with the organizational planning and budgeting processes while ensuring alignment to the existing strategy documents.
•  Oversee the day to day implementation of Leave no Youth Behind Project interventions, services, and activities and ensure program activities achieve desired outcomes an provide the require technical support as required.
•  Identify and address capacity gaps among program staff and stakeholders for effective program delivery.
•  Facilitate engagement and management of strategic partners and mmaintain good working relationships with Government, Private Sector and Civil Society Partners to enhance synergies in program delivery.
•  Promote identification and enrolment of young care leavers to programs on youth employability, life skills, internships, attachment, job shadowing, mentorship, Mental Health and Psycho-social Support (MHPSS), Sexual Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) and advocacy.
•  Adopt a rights-based approach by emphasizing the interplay between youth leaving care and

the communities they live in as rights holders and government institutions as duty bearers.

•  Capitalize on the foundation of the existing youth coalition forum to strengthen the organization(s), representation, decision making power, evidence based advocacy, peace building, conflict resolution and community led development initiatives.
•  Ensure the voices of the vulnerable youth especially youth leaving care are represented and amplified to influence decision making at county and National levels.
•  Join relevant networks, forums, platforms, campaigns, working groups and advocates on behalf of the organization for the promotion of youth empowerment in general and the rights of care leavers in particular.
•  Engage the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development and National Youth Council to drive the youth empowerment agenda forward.
•  Identify relevant national youth platforms and youth organizing opportunities and support youth in the project locations to link up with same.
•  Maintain regular communication with donors and stakeholders over technical issues where I am responsible and appropriate.
•  Generate progress reports in line with the MA and donor requirements.
•  Work with the Program team and Fund Development department to mobilize financial and non-financial resources for youth empowerment programs.

Quality Management, Monitoring and Evaluation

•  Jointly with the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) team, ensure the development of appropriate M&E plans and tools for the effective monitoring an evaluation of the program drawing from the Results Based Management (RBM) approach.
•  Ensure the program is compliant to organizational, Government and international quality standards on youth programming.
•  Monitor and evaluate the quality and progress of program/project interventions through supportive supervision, internal program audits, and review of and feedback to project reports, statistics, and self-evaluation results to ensure that interventions are in line with organizational plans, standards, and policies, and with national legislation.
•  Collaborate with the Director of National Programs and Quality in supporting internal and external program and financial audits and external evaluations as appropriate; and ensure full implementation of all audit and evaluation recommendations.
•  Ensure proper documentation of program progress, trends, milestones, challenges, lessons learnt and other variables in line with the M&E plan and donor requirements.
•  Facilitate learning and knowledge management among staff and other stakeholders.
•  Generate internal and external program reports as guided by the Director of National Programs and Quality an in line with internal and external reporting guidelines and protocols.

Safeguarding

•  Lead the integration of safeguarding of children, youth, staff and assets in the LNYB program.
•  Support in awareness creation, prevention, reporting and responding to incidences of safeguarding in line with the organization’s Safeguarding policy.
•  In collaboration with National child protection coordinator, support in capacity building to enhance a culture of child and youth safeguarding in the LNYB program.
•  Support the program to ensure safeguarding in all its operations; including procurement, visitor engagement, service provision by external facilitators to children and youth to ensure child protection provisions are adhered to.

Data Protection, climate change, Gender and Social Inclusion (GESI)

•  Work in collaboration with HR and other departments to implementation of the organization’s data protection policy while ensuring that at all times the personal data of donors, sponsors, SOS Children’s Vilalges in Kenya beneficiaries and their families as well as SOS co-workers is handled confidentially and in accordance with prevailing SOS-Kinderdorf International data protection laws.
•  Perform any other reasonable task as assigned by the immediate supervisor from time to time.
•  Work with the Director of National Programs and the National Program team to integrate climate change, Gender and Social Inclusion (GESI) in all program operations and actions in line with existing policy frameworks.
• Performs any other tasks that may be assigned by the immediate supervisor from time to time

Formal qualifications & Experience Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in Social Sciences or related field
• Master's Degree and project management certification is an added advantage
• Minimum of 10 years experience managing donor funded youth-focused programs preferably in an NGO setting.
• Experience and strong reputation working with or liaising with County and National government agencies and Civil Society Organizations on youth empowerment issues.
• Demonstrated skills and experience in managing and working within teams and effective management of the project cycle.
• Financial management experience including budgeting, forecasting, tracking and reporting.
• Sound understanding of issues related to children rights, alternative care, youth empowerment, youth in general and young people who have transitioned from Alternative Family Care settings in particular.
• Track record of working in programs promoting policy changes in favour of youth and access by youth to employment, business opportunities, mental health & psycho-social support, social protection and related services.
• Sound experience in working with local implementing partners, sub-grant management and capacity building of program staff and partners.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office products including Excel, Word and PowerPoint and in the use of project management software.

Personal Attributes

•  Good planning, organizing and coordination skills with attention to details and timeliness.
•  Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to work well in a team and to communicate effectively with colleagues, external stakeholders and others who are not in the line of command.
•  Strong analytical, strategic thinking an problem solving skills.
•  Ability to meet tight deadlines and deliver high volume/high quality work with minimal supervision, including reports to donors.
•  Trustworthiness and confidentiality, modelling principled behavior.
•  Commitment and ability to travel frequently to the field.
•  Sensitivity and understanding dynamics and current trends relate to climate change, gender and social inclusion in relation to programming.