Head of Program Implementation at Save The Children

ROLE

The HOPI is responsible for the direct oversight and overall management of SC’s humanitarian projects in northeast Nigeria. The HOPI supports the Deputy Director Programme Operations (Humanitarian) and the Director Programme Operations by providing information on the progress of the programmatic interventions, providing direction to individual Sector Managers on their projects and ensuring a multi-sectoral and/or integrated approach across programmes where feasible.
The post-holder will develop a response strategy, identify needs and resources and elaborate programme recommendations for the emergency response in line with Save the Children Nigeria SMT and regional response priorities. In coordination with the PDQ Team (TAs), the HOPI will support Sector Managers to incorporate the relevant thematic advisory to provide appropriate design, training and MEAL functions for programming in Northeast Nigeria. The HOPI will establish working relations with other agencies, looking for opportunities for partnership and harmonisation of approach and with donors to ensure resources are made available to the response.
The HOPI will negotiate the positioning of the humanitarian response within the Country Programme and ensure suitable resourcing of the response, manage programmes or country support functions, negotiate, and network at an international level. HOPI will ensure that all relevant Save the Children policies and procedures with respect to child safeguarding, safety and security, code of conduct, equal opportunities and other relevant policies are in place. The post holder will play a strategic role in defining the effective scale-up and management of the Save the Children emergency programme to maximise impact and enable positive change for children.

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES

Programme Support:

• In collaboration with the Deputy Director Programme Operations (Humanitarian), assume overall oversight of the programmatic side of the SC Nigeria humanitarian response in Borno.
• Lead and manage multiple grants (across the 5 sectors), and contribute to the achievement of the response strategy by ensuring strict compliance of programme activities with Save the Children national and global policies and procedures and with relevant donor regulations and agreements, SPHERE guidelines and the NGO code of conduct.
• Ensure the integration of other sectors to strengthen the quality and geographical coverage of the humanitarian response to include new areas of need and additional sectors like early recovery/resilience
• Take overall leadership and oversight on the management of response budgets of annually US$ 34 million, keeping relevant stakeholders informed and ensuring any corrective actions are taken to meet donor guidelines
• Review all donor project reports as per the reporting matrix and work with the respective Sector Managers to finalize drafts at the field level before submitting them to CO and SC Member
• Ensure all donor project reports meet the respective donors’ guidelines
• Support on the revision of the response master budget for the Nigerian response, based on direction from the Deputy Director Programme Operations (Humanitarian).
• Coordinate with the sector managers, TAs, and the awards team to ensure the preparation of timely programme and donor reports on project activities in compliance with internal SC requirements and any relevant external donor requirements.
• Work with the Sector Managers and TAs to develop scaling up plans for programming, based on existing Nigerian experience and the experience during the early months of the response
• Establish project monitoring plans and systems for identifying and tracking the indicators and develop processes/procedures and forms to support monitoring and inform learning.
• Through embedding direct and remote processes into each sector programme design, ensure strong accountability to beneficiaries
• Perform other tasks as outlined by the line manager

Capacity Building:

• Coach and train Sector Managers on PCM/PMM to ensure coherent project management
• Ensure that all programme designs and budgets sufficiently incorporate pre-deployment training requirements and capacity building plans and performance management systems are in place. Ensure training plans include capability statements and measuring systems to allow the development of the requisite competencies in staff at each level to ensure timely delivery of a quality response
• Coach and mentor international and national staff and partners and link into wider organisational talent development mechanisms.

Representation & Advocacy & Organisational Learning:

• Represent Save the Children’s emergency response on a national, regional and international level to donors, the media and members of the humanitarian community.
• Help shape broader sector strategies through influence of and leadership within inter-agency coordination forums, ensuring the specific needs of children are being addressed
• Regularly undertake high-level representation and advocacy with Government partners and officials as well as donor representatives. Establish systems for communication with local Government partners, relevant line departments and community representations in the project area(s).
• Lead on organisational level operational practice, innovation and learning in consultation with the humanitarian team.
• Oversee the implementation of Save the Children policies and procedures with respect to child rights and safeguarding, health and safety, equal opportunities and other relevant policies

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

Essential

• Substantial management experience (i.e., at least 5 years) in a humanitarian setting including significant field operations experience in both emergency and development programmes
• Robust experience in emergency programme cycle management, and experience in working within a complex organisation structure
• Experience in international humanitarian systems, institutions, and donors, and procedures, accountability frameworks and best practices in emergency management
• Education: MA / MSc level (or equivalent field experience)
• Experience in managing multi-donor, multi-site programmes (including ECHO, FCDO, NORAD, ECW and BHA) of USD 10m+ in the first phase of response at the regional or country level
• Experience in international level representation with key stakeholders, and co-ordination with other NGOs/UN
• Experience in international media representation and advocacy
• Award management and experience. Good understanding of donors ‘requirement
• Experience in developing and negotiating successful partnerships with institutional donors
• Proven ability to influence change at an operational and strategic level
• Proven reporting and communication skills
• A high level of written and spoken English
• The capacity and willingness to be extremely flexible and accommodating in difficult and sometimes insecure working circumstances.
• Commitment to the aims and principles of SC. A good understanding of the SC mandate and child focus and an ability to ensure this continues to underpin our support

Desirable

• Previous experience in northeast Nigeria or the Lake Chad basin
• Previous experience with Save the Children