Internal/External Vacancy Announcement
INTRODUCTION
Save the Children is an exciting and dynamic organization that follows a holistic approach to achieve more for children and use its resources in an efficient and sustainable way. In every programming we aim to achieve results at scale, build partnership to influence others and increase our impact; look for innovate solutions to the problems children faces, campaign for better practice and ensure that Children’s voices are heard.
Save the Children is an organization for talented people with different backgrounds and perspectives. We are proud that our people are representative of the children we work with and we thrive on our diversity. We are an equal opportunity organization dedicated to our core values of Accountability, Ambition, Collaboration, Creativity and Integrity. Our culture is embedded in these values, along with a strong commitment to our Child Safeguarding Protocol, ensuring that all representatives of Save the Children demonstrate the highest standards of behavior towards children both in their private and professional lives.
Save the Children offers sound employment conditions with opportunities for personal growth and development. If you are interested to work in an organization that is determined to achieve dramatic change for the most vulnerable children, we encourage you to look through the job profile below.
Job Title | Project Director |
Code | 0314 |
Place of Work | Addis Ababa (With significant travel to field locations (at least 20%). |
Monthly Salary in ETB | As per the salary scale of the Organization |
No. of Positions | 1(One) |
ROLE PURPOSE:
Save the Children is recruiting for an experienced project director to lead a capacity strengthening nutrition sensitive agriculture project in Ethiopia. It is a five-year (2019-2023) nutrition sensitive agriculture project to strengthen the capacity and system of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoA&LD) and the Regional Bureaus. The project is expected to establish sustainable and creative methods to build the capacity of the MoA&LD Ministry and Regional Bureaus to plan, implement, monitor and evaluate the integration of nutrition sensitive agriculture into large scale agriculture and livestock programs in accordance with the government's national Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture Strategy (NSAS) and National Nutrition Plan II (NNP II). They will in turn guide and support delivery of nutrition-sensitive agriculture (NSA) interventions at the zonal and woreda levels. Government leadership and ownership, and quality technical assistance from the project team are key to the success of this important project.
The Project Director will provide overall strategic, technical, and operational leadership in partnership with the Ministry and Regional Bureaus. S/he will be responsible for the overall planning, coordination and technical direction and management of the project to ensure adherence to overall technical and programmatic quality in implementation and the timely submission of all deliverables to Save the Children and the donor. S/he is also responsible for representing Save the Children and the project with the donor in country, in all programmatic coordination platforms in Ethiopia, and in meetings with the government and partners.
The Project Director is responsible for approximately 5-10 staff and ultimate budget holder for the project. S/he must have the strategic vision, leadership qualities; extensive professional experience in managing system-based projects implemented with the leadership of a government in Ethiopia; and the breadth of technical expertise in nutrition, agriculture, host government system strengthening, translating government strategy into implementation, and sub-grant management.
SCOPE OF ROLE:
Reports to: Direct report to Deputy Director for Program Operation and technical dotted line to SCUS’s Technical lead for the project.
Staff directly reporting to this post: Sr. Nutrition and Agriculture Specialist, Sr. Human Resource Management Specialist, Sr. MEL Specialist, Regional Operation Manager, and Award Manager.
KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:
Programme delivery, management and quality assurance
· Hold overall responsibility for development and implementation of all aspects of the project as per the project’s Theory of Change.
· Provide strategic guidance, strong leadership and ensure technically sound decision-making processes.
· Lead all key negotiations and decision making with the Ministry and Regional Bureaus
· Ensure institutional commitment, awareness, and knowledge of nutrition-sensitive agriculture with in the Ministry.
· Lead and motivate the project teams in the areas of responsibility in the delivery of the programme’s goals and objectives.
· Ensure compliance with and adherence to Save the Children and the donor’s rules and regulations in all aspects.
· Ensure program and award deliverables of the Ministry and Regional Bureaus.
· Ensure monitoring and evaluation activities and tools are systematically integrated into the Ministry system, and information is used by the project teams and the Ministry, in cooperation with the project MEL advisor.
· Foster a system strengthening and integrated approach and government leadership and ownership.
· Ensure coordination of NSA activities across several directorates with in the Ministry, and linkages and collaboration with other partners and donors working in this area.
· Produce high quality and timely reports as per reporting schedules of the project agreement.
· Ensure regular monitoring and reporting on all grant management aspects: phased budget and actual expenses analysis, work-plan progress, procurement plan, and MEL.
· Take full responsibility for the delegated budget holding function on the programmatic aspects of the managed grant, participate actively in finance meetings and contribute to financial decision making.
· Mentor, coach and supervise the Ministry and regional Bureaus, including ensuring that they regularly report on financial and programmatic aspects in line with sub-grant agreement.
· Conduct regular field visits to the Regional Bureaus and put in place corrective actions.
· Ensure Save the Children’s Child Protection & Safeguarding Policy is understood by staff within the programme as well as partners and suppliers.
· Ensure documentation of programme learning, and incorporate analysis and lessons learned into program improvement and advocacy work.
· Ensure project related program, finance and award documents and reports are posted in AMS.
Performance management and capacity building
· Line-manage senior leadership and key personnel of the project staff in the areas of responsibility.
· Lead, manage and motivate the project’s staff, ensuring they have clear objectives and receive meaningful feedback on their performance regularly, in collaboration with the human resources department.
· Identify capacity building requirements of staff in collaboration with the human resources department.
· Lead on capacity building of staff and partners through coaching, mentoring and training.
· Coordination
· Lead and represent the project and Save the Children in all relevant fora at all times, including with Partners, BMGF, and MoA&LD to ensure complementarity and avoiding overlap with other programmes.
· Represent the project and Save the Children at donor meetings in country and internationally as required.
· Lead and manage the project Senior Leadership Team and Extended Senior Leadership Team meetings to coordinate project activities and for effective management.
· Communicate regularly with country office senior management and thematic leads and Save the Children US to ensure strong coordination and communications internally.
· Participate proactively and regularly in senior management meetings of SCI in the areas of responsibility, making concrete contributions to strategic and operational orientations.
Others
· Advocate for the importance of multi-sectoral nutrition and child protection.
· Comply with all relevant Save the Children policies and procedures with respect to child safeguarding policy, health and safety, equal opportunities and other relevant policies.
· Any other reasonable duty as may be assigned that is consistent with the nature of the job and level of responsibility.
Additional job responsibilities
· The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.
QUALIFICATIONS
· MA/MSc in a relevant field including nutrition, agriculture, public health, international development, public administration, and/or economics.
EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS
Essential:
· Sound knowledge of Ethiopia’s agriculture system and National Nutrition Program including institutions, policies and legal frameworks and large scale agricultural programs.
· At least 12 years of experience managing integrated or multi-sector projects experience especially in agriculture sector in developing countries.
· In-depth technical expertise in nutrition and one or more of the following areas: Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture, system strengthening or institutional capacity building, agriculture productivity or value chain, public health programming, and/or human resource development.
· Demonstrated experience in building country capacity and systems.
· Demonstrated knowledge in the areas of public health, agriculture, food security, and resilience, as well as socioeconomic, institutional, and policy challenges relevant to these technical areas in Ethiopia’s context.
· Demonstrated experience interacting with senior officials of the Government of Ethiopia, international donors and other relevant stakeholders.
· Practical experience of building, leading and developing a team of senior staff with different backgrounds and expertise to meet programmatic needs.
· At least four years of professional experience working in Ethiopia preferred.
· Strong English-language communication skills, both interpersonal and written.
· Knowledge and working experience of Child’s Rights Programming approach.
Desirable:
· Comprehensive understanding of the Ethiopian social and political context.
· Experience working for Save the Children.
· Ability to work with limited supervision.
· Expertise in gender programming for nutrition or in agriculture sector.
· Capacity and willingness to be extremely flexible and accommodating in difficult working circumstances.
· Commitment to and understanding of child right
· Qualified female candidates are highly encouraged to apply