ROLE PURPOSE:
The Program Manager – Education - will have overall responsibility for overseeing the implementation of early childhood education, lower, middle, and high school education projects implemented in the South Area Office in Ukraine. In addition to directly managing grants in the South Area Office, the Program Manager will be expected to have input into program planning, oversight of program implementation, recruitment, and procurement. A key role is to work with the Education Coordinator and Education teams located in the South Area Office, building their capacity in project management. The Program Manager will also support partners to deliver quality projects, including (1) timely activity implementation according to plan and routine monitoring against agreed indicators, (2) high quality progress and final reports for external and internal use and (3) strong budget oversight: monthly forecasting and spending according to plan; quarterly revisions, as needed; and budget (spending) reporting.
SCOPE OF ROLE:
- Reports to: Head of Program
- Staff reporting to this post: Education Coordinators, Education Officer and others as assigned.
- Other key working contacts: Education team, Partnership Coordinator, SCI local Partner, Logistics Manager, Finance and Awards Managers, HR manager, and other department
KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY
Program Management:
- Overall responsible for the timely implementation of education project activities ensuring that services are delivered on time, on budget and in compliance with donor regulations.
- Ensure the education program is implemented in ways responsive to communities, partners and children in line with SC’s principles, values and strategic plan and compliant with SC’s procedures
- Ensure award/grant kick off and management tools, including implementation plans, MEAL plans, procurement plans and distribution schedules of program inputs in line with program logistics/supply chain capacity are in place, tracked and updated regularly.
- Ensure that partner staff have work-plans in place and follow up with team members regularly to ensure that activities are on track.
- Manage program budget, including phased budgets, monthly budget forecasting and quarterly budget revisions for all grants.
- Ensure proper and effective use of program resources, ensuring that all resources/assets in project are managed in line with SC and Donor policy.
- Monitor program progress against both programmatic and budgetary targets, and collaborate with the Technical Advisors/Specialists to make adjustments to program design as necessary.
- Prepare timely and high-quality program and donor reports on project activities in compliance with internal SC requirements and any relevant external donor requirements.
- Responsible for liaising with Operations/Field Management and Security on the movement planning of team and any necessary security assessments or reassessments of operational areas.
- Close coordination with WASH and Child Protection teams on cross cutting needs and issues.
Partner management
- Work with the Partnership team to identify appropriate partners for implementation of the education response.
- Work with the partners to develop their program design and proposals, ensuring they align with SC strategy and grant design.
- Ensure regular review of partner progress against the budget and work plan, and support partners to alter activities/strategies in light of context changes or operational challenges.
- Review partner narrative and financial reporting as well as MEAL data, in line with CO internal deadlines for MEAL.
- Undertake ongoing capacity assessments of partner, reporting areas for development to the Director of Implementation, Partnerships, and TAs.
Needs Analysis, Program Design and Implementation:
- Contribute to situation/response analysis, sector strategy documents and sector response plans as well as program design, working with the partner teams to ensure design is appropriate and implementable.
- Support the Technical Advisors in the development of project and donor proposals in close coordinator with logistics, finance and awards units ensuring effective integration at design phase.
- Undertake consultation with partners and support with partner proposal work.
- Contribute to country level contingency and emergency preparedness plans and where possible, integrate contingency planning for education in all program planning and proposal design.
- Support partners to respond to new emergencies and spikes.
Monitoring, Evaluation and Accountability
- Support the Technical Advisors and MEAL department to develop M&E and indicator tracking plans for all grants, inputting into the development of additional M&E tools as necessary to monitor project progress.
- Support Knowledge Management/MEAL to collect appropriate, timely and accurate data against agreed indicators to enable both internal and external reporting.
- Work with MEAL team to identify and incorporate project suitable accountability mechanisms.
Staff Management, Mentorship, and Development
- Ensure appropriate staffing within the education team, and ensure that all education staff understand and are able to perform their role.
- Establish performance management of all education staff through effective use of the Performance Management System including the establishment of clear, measurable objectives, on-going feedback, periodic reviews and fair and unbiased evaluations.
- Support, mentor and develop SC education team to develop leadership, management and technical capacity.
Coordination:
- Regularly coordinate and collaborate with other program managers and program teams to strengthen programmatic synergies, integration and impact for children.
- Support representation needs as required.
General
- Comply with Save the Children policies and practice with respect to child protection, code of conduct, health and safety, equal opportunities and other relevant policies and procedures.
- Other duties as assigned by line manager.
QUALIFICATIONS, EXPERIENCE AND ATTRIBUTES:
Qualifications/Accreditations:
- Advanced Degree in relevant subject: Education, Social Sciences, Development, or a Bachelor’s degree with equivalent field experience
Knowledge/Experience:
- Understanding of education programming, particularly in emergency settings
- At least 5 years of project management experience in emergency, fragile state or development programmes related to primary, secondary and/or early childhood education
- Proven capacity to supervise, and coach staff and partners in program management.
- Experience of, and commitment to, working through systems of community participation and accountability
- Specific experience of managing ECHO, DANIDA and other major donor projects and understanding of donor compliance
- Fluency in spoken and written English
- The maturity and experience to effectively building relationships with key NGO and government partners
- Experience to identify problems and develop appropriate solutions
- Strong relationship building, negotiation and interpersonal skills
Skills/Abilities:
- Ability to analyse information, evaluate options and to think and plan strategically
- Good analytical (thinking) skills with ability to produce quality analytical reports, case studies
- Ability to take initiative, independently as well as part of a team
- Strong commitment to providing high levels of service delivery (both internal and external stakeholders)
- Commitment to and understanding of Save the Children’s mission, vision and policies
- Excellent communication skills – presentation, negotiation, analysis, reflection
- Understanding of the complex issues that affect children’s access, participation, inclusion and retention in education in Ukraine
- Excellent knowledge on the MS Word, Excel, Power Point
Attitude:
- To work in a team and able to work under pressure
- To protect children in connection to the work
- To be non-discriminatory and gender sensitive
Desirable:
- Experience of remotely managing programmes in complex settings
- Experience or knowledge of working and living in relevant regions/contexts
- Experience in any of the relevant fields, such as ECCD and/or Youth programming, teacher professional development, wellbeing and psychosocial support programmes, in emergency contexts
- Experience in representing an organisation in the coordination mechanism in emergency contexts