Regional Program Manager, West Africa at TechnoServe

Requisition Number: SENIO01497
Job Category: Operations

Program Overview

• TechnoServe's West Africa region has full country programs in Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria. The region has a diverse portfolio of projects, covering three of TechnoServe’s four focus sectors with programs in high margin agriculture, entrepreneurship, and food processing.
• Home to TechnoServe’s oldest country program, Ghana, the region has over 50 years’ experience of developing, executing, and up-scaling innovative programs across a variety of value chains.
• Beyond traditional bilateral and multilateral donors, the region also receives funding from private foundations, corporations, and national governments.
• The West Africa Division is seeking a highly motivated, dynamic individual to support the mobilization and management of new and existing programs across the region.

Position Description
Program Management (40%):

• Build the management capacity of field teams by developing managerial tools such as budget trackers, work plans, report templates and charters and monitoring their execution and refinement
• Support and monitor country teams in the development and execution of annual budgets and midterm budget reviews
• Ensure the timely delivery of expenditure reports (including variance analyses) to divisional leadership and country directors
• With the Regional Director, develop and manage WA region and division annual budgets, including direct bill
• Support the Regional Director and Country Directors in the development of annual regional and country plans
• Negotiate, develop and execute agreements and modifications in collaboration with field teams, as needed
• Serve as lead for program technical audits and other donor inquiries related to programmatic results for WA programs, overseeing research, strategy and framing/drafting TNS response in conjunction with field offices and division and Head Office leadership
• Provide general program support to the regional division, country and regional programs by reviewing reports, maintaining key programmatic files, and facilitating the review, updating, and processing of contracts, etc.
• Support overall quality control of WA programs, flagging issues and areas of concern for divisional and home office leadership and disseminating lessons learned and best practices
• Manage assignments of selected consultants and fellows, providing feedback on deliverables and work planning as needed
• Mobilize new programs and support proper closeout of ending programs as needed
• Act as interim program manager or other type of temporary attachment to West Africa projects, as needed
• Manage stakeholder relationships for new and existing programs as needed
• Support the identification of country gender champions. Promote active collaboration of gender champions at the country, regional, and corporate level
• With country gender champions, ensure all projects and proposals include gender-specific targets. Facilitate the collection and dissemination of lessons learned and best practices related to gender integration. Promote and support gender assessments

Reporting and M&E (30%):

• Manage the compilation, refinement and submission of quarterly Program Status Reports (PSRs) and program quality surveys
• Provide technical review and editing of key donor reports, M&E plans, terms of reference for external program evaluations and other key program deliverables
• Capacitate program managers in reporting by developing and rolling out tools such as report-writing guidelines, templates and trainings
• Work with field staff to develop and refine program logframes and ensure their integration with internal reporting needs, and work with them develop program targets, report annual performance via the corporate measurement system and analyze data for accuracy and trends
• Act as liaison for the region for all internal reporting systems, helping advocate for improvements and refinements to organization-wide systems such as corporate measurement in conjunction with field staff
• Design and manage divisional program library and reporting calendar; liaise with WA teams to ensure systems integration of all active programs

Human Resources/Office Management (15%):

• Support the recruitment and orientation of new program managers, directors and senior field staff on TechnoServe policies, procedures, structures and tools;
• Support staff development of country Human Resource/Office managers, particularly in emerging/leanly staffed countries
• Oversee candidate management for key staff positions, and contribute to timely and effective recruitment of staff, consultants, volunteers and interns by developing Scopes of Work (SOWs), vetting CVs, interviewing and checking references
• Develop and manage databank of recruitment resources and tools to be shared across the region
• Manage on-boarding and orientation of new divisional and regional staff
• Facilitate staff and client training on program management, M&E, advising businesses competently and collaboratively, financial literacy and gender, as demanded

Knowledge Management and Marketing (10%):

• Develop and deploy knowledge-sharing tools and platforms
• Develop marketing collateral such as factsheets, press releases and articles for external distribution
• Organize and facilitate internal meetings and communications to strengthen the organizational culture of WA as a Division, across country teams and the divisional team
• Serve as the key liaison between WA and Home Office, representing WA perspectives on policy issues
• Provide leadership and represent WA in practice groups
• Respond to requests regarding WA and programs from Marketing, Finance, Office of the President and Board of Directors.

New Business Development (5%):

• Provide occasional support to the new business development process, which can include proposal management, writing and research, recruitment, budget development, or other forms of support, as needed
• Support the development of market analyses and donor scans, as required

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in International Relations, Economics, Business or other relevant subject
• Minimum of 5 years of work experience in international development in Africa,
• Or Master's degree with 3 years’ experience
• Excellent computer skills in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Internet
• Required Languages:  English & French Language Proficiency
• Travel: Up to 30% International Travel

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Detail orientation, including strong organizational, analytical, and quantitative skills
• Ability to anticipate demand, manage multiple tasks/ projects and meet tight deadlines
• Proven team player with strong interpersonal and cross-cultural skills
• Strong written communications skills