Senior Manager, Signature Programs – Africa at Heifer International

Description

Heifer International is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender identify, sexual orientation, age, status as a protected veteran, among other things, or status as a qualified individual with disability.

The Organization

Since 1944, Heifer International has helped more than 36 million families lift themselves out of hunger and poverty.
Our goal is to help families achieve living incomes, which will allow them to feed their families daily, educate all their children; and have proper housing, water, hygiene, and other essential resource. When many families gain this new sustainable income, it brings new opportunities for building schools, creating agricultural cooperatives, forming community savings, and funding small businesses.

Are you excited to join the diverse, passionate team and help save lives and increase sustainable living Income for smallholder farmers?
Function:

The Senior Manager, Signature Programs – Africa will be responsible for supporting the Regional Program in the effective roll-out out and implementation of Signature Programs in the countries, as well as in the areas of investment and initiatives to catalyze Signature Programs. S/he will provide technical advice and support to a range of Signature Program design and implementation issues in the area of Program Quality, in line with Heifer International’s project management principles and standards, donor guidelines and industry best practice.

The Senior Manager, Signature Programs will also support the monitoring and evaluation of Signature Programs, promote learning, increase efficiency and act as liaison between relevant HQ departments and country offices. The Senior Manager, Signature Programs will report to the Director, Signature Programs – Africa.

RESPONSIBILITIES AND DELIVERABLES1.Program Quality Initiatives

• Contribute to the development and implementation of strategies, standards, tools and best practice in Program Quality, that effectively engage partners, donors, and governments.
• Provide technical advise to Country Program teams, remotely and on-site, in strategic planning and how best to apply standards, best practice, partnership principles, tools and MEL, to ensure high-quality implementation of signature projects.
• Support the process of preparation, design, submission and approval of project concepts and full-fledged proposals. As needed, act as a technical writer on proposal development, advise project teams on integrating donor strategies, priorities and technical requirements into Heifer’s approach.
• Support capacity strengthening initiatives in Program Quality for staff and partners, by helping develop learning and training strategies and agenda, conducting trainings and workshops.
• Collect and analyze program data, capture and share lessons learnt and best practice for specific projects, to facilitate improvement in decisions.
• Contribute to maintaining strong relationships with donors, peer organizations, research and other institutions, towards enhancing Program Quality.
• Support, monitor and provide feedback on Program Quality through regular team meetings, field visits and regular communication.

 2. Partnerships and Capacity Improvement

• Provide support in ensuring compliance with Heifer and donor program and project guidelines and standards, including transparency, policy compliance, accountability, communication with HQ, donors and external constituencies.
• Support and manage new partnerships and nurture existing ones
• Support the development and adoption of standardized approaches, practices, tools and measurements in partnership and capacity strengthening.
• Support relevant country program, Regional and HQ staff in the development of comprehensive plans and materials, for the development and implementation of capacity strengthening strategies in the Signature Program area.
• Support country programs in their efforts to monitor and evaluate partnership and capacity strengthening activities and initiatives.
• Identify and support the creation of strong inter-organizational networks and efforts to strengthen the capacities of local partners.
• Represent Heifer Africa in external professional fora and with donor agencies in support of resource acquisition for capacity building.
• Ensure Signature Program proposals and concept notes are entered into HQ tracking systems.
• Maintain Signature Program files and documents

3. Strengthen Core Global Operating System

• Provide support to country offices to ensure compliance with Heifer International policies and procedures and other accountability standards through trainings, event participation and field visits.
• Liaise with departments at HQ on behalf of the country programs and the Africa Regional Program, with regard to Signature Programs.
• Ensure Signature Program proposals and concept notes are entered into HQ tracking systems, to avoid delay in activation.
• Support the adequate development, implementation, evaluation and systematization of signature projects implemented by country programs.
• Review signature project and field office monitoring and evaluation reports and make recommendations.
• Maintain Signature Program files and documents

Any Other Assigned Function

• May perform other job-related duties as assigned.

Essential Character Traits: 

• Detailed-oriented, self driven, action oriented, team player

 Minimum Requirements:

1. Bachelor’s degree plus seven (7) years’ job-related experience

Preferred Requirements:

1. Master’s degree preferred
2. At least three (3) years in a supervisory capacity

Most Critical Proficiencies:

1. Knowledge of strategic planning, program and project development and implementation processes (including planning, monitoring and evaluation)
2. Proficiency in basic statistics sufficient to analyze data
3. Knowledge and work experience in agriculture and community development in a developing country context
4. Excellent knowledge on monitoring and evaluation of programs and projects
5. Excellent organizational and administrative skills including strong attention to detail
6. Knowledge of grant acquisition and management
7. Basic knowledge of finance controls and systems
8. Knowledge of word processing, spreadsheets, database and electronic mail software (Microsoft preferred)
9. Strong English language skills – oral and written

Essential Job Functions and Physical Demands:

1. Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to work cooperatively, tactfully and diplomatically with a culturally diverse group of people
2. Ability to produce accurate documents in a well-designed and attractive format with impeccable attention to detail
3. Constant face-to-face, telephone and electronic communication with colleagues and the general public
4. May require constant sitting; working at a computer for extended periods of time
5. Ability and willingness to extensively travel 30% of the time both domestically and internationally
6. Ability to develop and present training materials
7. Ability to work with sensitive information and maintain confidentiality

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