EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

Pamodzi For Inclusive Education in South-East Africa (PIESEA)

Background

The Pamodzi for Inclusive Education in South-East Africa is a three (3) year project to be implemented by a transnational consortium of four organizations based in Africa funded by the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) through the grant agent Oxfam IBIS under the Education Out Loud (EOL) program. The consortium is led by Rays of Hope Ministries, an NGO based in Malawi, and its partners: Fount for Nations – Malawi, Kesho Kenya – Kenya, and Shule Direct – Tanzania.

The project focuses on the awareness gap, and the disconnect between inclusive education policies and implementation in Malawi, Kenya, and Tanzania. Despite that, there is a strong global, regional, and national policy framework on inclusive education, Malawi, Kenya, and Tanzania still score low on inclusive education policy awareness and there is a huge disconnect between the policy framework and subsequent implementation. The project is the Operational Component 3; one of the three funding streams that aims at creating a stronger global and transnational enabling environment for national civil society advocacy and transparency efforts under the EOL program.

To achieve the project’s goal effectively and efficiently, the consortium is in the process of engaging services of a qualified and passionate team in inclusive education experience, practice, and policy for the following position.

Program Director

The Program Director role is a senior management position for PIESEA and subsequently, Rays of Hope, with supervisory and managerial responsibility.  over all aspects of program design, development, and implementation. The incumbent will lead the coordination, financial and administrative compliance and monitoring and evaluation of the program in all the three countries – Malawi, Kenya, and Tanzania. Essentially, the PD will make sure that all the partners in the project are faithful to execute designed activities with quality, integrity, and tangible impact. In general, the position drives the project’s regional advocacy and social accountability agenda in inclusive education, but with an intentional focus to position and open potential doors for collaboration. To ensure the achievement of the goal of the project, the incumbent shall continually become the technical and communication hub of the program team across the three countries to meet donor, community, and state and non-state actors’ requirements and standards.

Key Areas of Accountability
I. Strategy and planning

• The PD shall have strong strategic and planning abilities to lead in the interpretation and execution of PIESEA in line with the donor and Rays of Hope’s compliance standards. In that sense, the incumbent shall work closely with the CoP in strategic iteration as an adaptive management strategy. All this will be done to influence policy on inclusive education agenda at community, country, and regional levels.
• The PD shall have an acumen to mobilize support and resources to ensure that all the teams in three countries are smoothly executing their duties.
• The PD will support the cop to coordinate and provide leadership for the successful implementation of all project activities including partners management, grant implementation due diligence and grants compliance.
• The PD shall be diligent and not lose sight to achieve the long-term goal, which is raising awareness on inclusive education, and reducing the gaps between inclusive education policies and their operationalization.

II.  Programme Management

• The PD shall lead and ensure quality program management with strong evidence in grant management and donor reporting requirements so that program implementation meets donor compliance standards.
• The incumbent shall lead in creating strong and effective program execution system that includes reporting, monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning for the community, national, and regional stakeholders.
• The PD shall demonstrate a succinct understanding of the project’s goal and embody the theory of change translated into quarterly goals, and monthly workplans to achieve the project’s targets with documented tracking of indicators.
• The PD shall offer managerial and programmatic guidance at micro and macro levels including giving support (mentoring, coaching, and skill strengthening) to officers present in all the partners across the three countries.
• Facilitate monthly review of operations workflow with the SMT and propose and implement innovative procedures to facilitate ease of programming

III. Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning

• In liaison with the project’s MEAL Specialist, the PD shall demonstrate an understanding of the logical sequence of the project’s theory of change, MEAL framework and master the implementation plan as key to effective adaptive management.
• The PD shall ensure that he/she plays an active role in accountability and as an accountability champion, ensuring the presence of downward and upward accountability at each stage of the project in all the three countries.

IV. Risk Management

• The PD shall ensure that there are adequate risk management systems in place in all the four (4) organizations across the three countries.
• The PD shall closely work with the CoP to develop an adaptive management system that support pro-activeness in times of ecosystem disruptions.
• The PD shall have the financial audit acumen that ensures thorough preparation for program and financial management audits.

V. Representation & Coordination

• The PD is the face of the project implementation and is mandated to create and maintain cordial external relations with current and potential strategic and financial partners across the region.
• The PD shall represent PIESEA at community, national, and regional levels
• The PD shall support the marketing and communication function by coordinating and participating in media and public relations activities to enhance the visibility of piesea and its partners.
• In the absence of the Chief of Party, the PD shall act on behalf of the CoP on relevant forums.

VI. Team Management

• The PD shall demonstrate understanding of the relevant human resource policies present in the partners’ organizations including position descriptions, performance expectations, development plans, and appraisals.
• The PD shall always instill professionalism in all the partner program teams, enhance a culture of performance management and regular feedback on the status of their implementation.
• The PD shall develop an effective program on-boarding and capacity strengthening system  targeting program teams in all the partner organizations.

VII. Information Communication Technology (ICT) Abilities

• The PD shall ensure that the Policy Monitoring Tool is always up and running, regularly updated with quality and approved data, showing synthesized output for policy dialogues.
• The PD shall strive to provide the needed support to the IT Team with resources needed for the management of the policy monitoring tool, geo-location of inclusive education infrastructure and visualizations for analytics.

Oversight

The PD shall have a dotted supervisory responsibility to all the Advocacy and Communication Officers in all the partner organizations.

Accountability

The Program Director will directly report to the Chief of Party

Qualifications

• Bachelor of Arts/Science Degree in International Development or relevant field from a nationally accredited university – a master’s degree will have an added advantage.
• 5-7 years experience working in an operations management capacity on a donor-funded project, of which at least two years must be in a position that involved supervising staff with managerial experience in program design, development and execution at community, national, and regional levels.
• An extensive experience in implementation of national policy advocacy and lobbying campaigns with demonstrable tangible results.
• Proven expertise in program assessment, evaluation, and grants management in consortiums involving multiple international strategic and financial partners.
• Demonstrated excellence overseeing finance & accounting, procurement, and grants under contract functions of large donor-funded projects.
• Advanced information communication technological skills.

Other Essential Attributes

• Analytical, strategic, and planning skills with hands-on ability to lead complex projects
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with a demonstrated experience to meet deadlines, work independently, attentive to detail, and a team player
• Experience managing culturally diverse teams and working with counterparts from other cultures.

Mode of Application 

Through Email, interested persons meeting the above specifications should submit applications with detailed Curriculum Vitae as one document, naming three traceable referees to addressing:

The Human Resource and Administration Officer
Rays of Hope Ministries,
P.O. Box E365, Post Dot Net,
Blantyre, Malawi

Application Email: [email protected]

Closing date for receiving applications is Thursday, 9th march 2023. Rays of Hope Ministries is an equal opportunity employer. Due to anticipated large volumes of applications, only short-listed candidates will be acknowledged.

Qualified and experienced women are hugely encouraged to apply.

Take note that Rays of Hope Ministries is an Organization that is child friendly and as such we take issues of child safe guarding seriously.