Catholic Relief Services carries out the commitment of the Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas. Our Catholic identity is at the heart of our mission and operations. We welcome as a part of our staff and as partners people of all faiths and secular traditions who share our values and our commitment to serving those in need.
- POSITION IDENTIFICATION:
Department :EARO
Job Title: Program Manager – THRIVE II(Ref.2015/32)
Grade :8
Reports To :Maternal and Child Health STA and Team Leader
Supervises (Direct Reports Only) :0
Based In (Location) :Nairobi
Background: CRS will be implementing and integrated Early Childhood Development (ECD)/Wash/Mental Health project in Kenya, Malawi and Tanzania to contribute to improve child health and development from October 2015 to September 2018. The project will be a continuation of THRIVE I and will be working with partners and MoH in these countries. The Goal of the THRIVE II is that children under two in Kenya, Malawi and Tanzania thrive in a sustainable culture of care and support. To obtain the goal, The Pilot’s strategic objective is that children under two demonstrate increased attainment of age-appropriate developmental milestones and reduced stunting.
2) Job Purpose:The Program Manager will be responsible for the overall management and oversight of grant implementation. S/he will assure the timely planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of activities, provide technical and strategic guidance, and monitor budget expenditures and reporting. The Program Manager will serve as a global representative for the project, establishing and reinforcing key relationships with the Country Program and Regional staff and other key stakeholders in the field and at HQ.
The successful candidate will be an exceptional Program Manager who is focused on high quality deliverables and provision of capacity strengthening technical support. S/he will be an excellent representative of the project, and will have the capacity to manage a geographically dispersed team, as well as PMs and external consultants.
3) Specific Responsibilities and Accountabilities:
I) Coordination and Project Management
- Orient new staff on THRIVE II project and provide guidance to the CP staff and Project Officers to monitor implementation of capacity strengthening and sub-grants to in-country partners.
- Facilitate the flow of information between CPs to ensure relevant, results-oriented use of funds and responsible management.
- Analyze organizational assessments, develop action plans to address weaknesses.
- Conduct country monitoring visits to assess partner progress, identify gaps and opportunities for Technical and organizational capacity strengthening for in country partners.
- Promote learning and document/disseminate project successes and lessons learned through various forums.
- Prepare and submit project reports to the donor.
II) Finance and Administration
- Provide financial oversight on the project grant.
- Ensure that all implementing partners understand their financial and programmatic obligations under the grant agreement and have systems in place to support these obligations.
- Evaluate the outcome of in-country work plans and approve FO and CP budgets.
- Approve requisitions and cash advances within the grant against the grant and sub-grant budgets ensuring that all transactions are processed according to grant guidelines.
- Develop SOWs for consultants and technical advisors tasked with supporting the technical needs of the CSO; manage their contractual agreements and payments.
- Assist in procurement as needed in the project portfolio.
- Ensure the maintenance of all files, records and documents relating to CRS’s activities within the project portfolio.
III) Monitoring/Evaluation
- Support the THRIVE II project in three countries to adhere to and self-assess against, CRS’s MEAL Policy & Procedures as a minimum standard.
- Contribute to the design of MEAL systems for THRIVE II project, including active participation in the SMILER process and review project MEAL binders for all projects, with a focus on completeness and quality.
- Ensure standard implementation of MEAL systems for the THRIVE II project at the country-level, including consistent administration of primary source documents and forms, reporting forms, and project databases.
- Ensure collection and reporting of high-quality program data for THRIVE II projects, including administration of data quality assessments.
IV) Implementation Research and Learning
- Support implementation research activities under THRIVE II, including the provision of feedback to study PI and monitoring data collection activities.
- Assist the study Principal Investigator in identifying and coordinating a local data collection team.
- Coordinate efforts to obtain approval of local ethical review board.
- Prepare and lead learning activities, including Learning to Action Discussions (LAD) for the THRIVE II project to ensure promising practices, lessons learned, and recommendations are identified, documented, disseminated, and used to improve program quality.
V) Reporting
- Work closely with THRIVE II project managers in each country to produce high-quality required and ad hoc reports for monitoring and evaluation according to the reporting intervals (monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, annually)
VI) Capacity building
- On-site capacity building of project and partner staff implementing the THRIVE II project, including formal and on-the job staff training and co-facilitation of trainings, learning events and activities.
- Distance support to field offices teams implementing the THRIVE II project through document reviews, emails and conversations.
- Contribute to assess THRIVE II project managers capacity and develop and implement plans to increase their technical and MEAL capacity in line with gaps.
****Agency wide Competencies (for all CRS staff)****These are rooted in the mission, values, and guiding principles of CRS and used by each staff member to fulfill his or her responsibilities and achieve the desired results.
- Serving with Integrity; Manifests CRS mission, values, and guiding principles to help improve the lives of the poor, vulnerable, and voiceless.
- Modeling stewardship; Making responsible and efficient use of time, talent, money, assets, and natural resources to achieve plans and goals.
- Developing constructive relationships; Building and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships through solidarity.
****Key Working Relationships****
****Internal****: Head of Programming (HoP), SCORE ECD and THRIVE II Project Manager, Regional Technical Advisor for Health. Overseas Finance, PIQA STAs, and the Operational Excellence (OpEx) and Institutional Donor Engagement and Advancement (IDEA) Departments.
****Eternal:**** UNICEF, WHO, Ministries of Health and other key stakeholders
****4. KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES REQUIREMENT****
- Masters’ Degree in a relevant field (MPH experience highly desired).
- At least 7 years’ experience working in a similar position with a large NGO.
- At least 3 years’ experience working with ECD and M&E
- Excellent budget and project cycle management skills; administrative and financial skills, including the ability to prepare and analyze work plans and budgets.
- Sound coordination skills and a demonstrated ability to multi-task.
- Demonstrated proactive leadership ability, as well as supervisory and personnel management experience.
- Excellent diplomatic and relationship management skills, and proven ability to work with diverse stakeholders in a multi-partner, multi-country/region project.
- Proven experience in building, strengthening and sustaining management and financial capacity.
- Ability to travel in the East African Region and Malawi 40% of the time.
- Excellent English language oral and written communication skills; knowledge of French is an added advantage.
- Excellent report writing skills
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office suite, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.
- Promoting learning; Building the capacity of self, staff and partners to continue learning and innovating to better fulfill CRS’ mission
This job description is not an exhaustive list of the skills, efforts, duties, and responsibilities associated with the position.
HOW TO APPLY:
Written applications indicating the reference number of position applied for and CV including day-time contact phone numbers, as well as names and contact information of three references should reach the below-mentioned ****by Close of Business Friday October 30, 2015;****
Human Resources Manager
Catholic Relief Services – Kenya Program
E-mail: hr@ke.earo.crs.org
Please indicate the Reference Number (Ref:2015/32) on the ‘email subject.Only Shortlisted candidates will be contacted.Note: Catholic Relief Services (CRS) does not charge any fees from applicants for any recruitment. Further, CRS has not retained any agent in connection with this recruitment
