Program Quality & Strategy Director

Position title: Program Quality & Strategy Director
Location: Conakry
ChildFund office: Guinea
Manager/Supervisor title: Country Director Senegal & Guinea
Position type: Full-time fixed term
Work environment: On-site

About ChildFund
ChildFund is a child-focused international development organization that works in 23 countries to connect children with the people, resources and institutions they need to grow up healthy, educated, skilled and safe, no matter where they are.

ChildFund’s Values

ChildFund is creating a diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible environment where everyone is welcomed and celebrated equally. In our culture of connection, you will have ample opportunity to grow, learn, and lead while contributing your talents and innovations to our inspiring mission.

ChildFund’s Commitment
ChildFund International has a zero-tolerance policy regarding sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment (SEAH) and all other forms of harm by its staff, partners, and other representatives in the delivery of its mission and services for children. ChildFund is committed to creating a safe environment in the workplace as well as in the communities where it delivers programs and services. ChildFund expects every staff member, partner, and representative to adhere to this commitment and to ensure all organizational policies and standards are followed. This position is subject to a range of vetting checks, including a criminal records check and/or disclosure to ensure program participants are safeguarded.

About This Role
The Program Quality & Strategy Director (PQSD) provides quality assurance in Guinea & Senegal Program. S/he provides strategic and technical leadership. S/he is responsible for developing staff and partners capacity, and organizational capabilities in program design and development, monitoring and evaluation, impact measurement, learning and knowledge management using approaches and systems such as CAMEL (Comprehensive Approach Monitoring Evaluation Learning).

Reporting to the Country Director Guinea & Senegal and working in close collaboration with the Program and Sponsorship Director (PSD) the position holder will ensure child protection, safeguarding, gender inclusion and other ChildFund program quality standards are adhered to. S/he will lead the development of new, long-term, and cross border projects/programs between Guinea and Senegal.

S/he will supervise all program technical specialists (the Education Senior Specialist; Child Protection & advocacy Senior Specialist; Sr Manager Resource Mobilization, and the Monitoring Evaluation and Learning Specialist) to ensure consistency and complementarity in program development and fundraising initiatives.

S/he is a member of the Guinea-Senegal Senior Management Team and is the most senior position in Guinea with delegated authority to represent ChildFund in Guinea. S/he will support the Country Director in developing partnerships and good relations with partners (the host Governments, donors, INGOs) in Guinea.

Required Experience and Education

• Demonstration of knowledge of program design, quality; grant acquisition and management.
• Have high level of integrity, honesty, and accountability.
• At least 10 years of demonstrated work experience in program quality and management, child development or other relevant area, preferably in an international not-for-profit environment. Africa experience and experience in complex development settings preferred.
• Experience with community development approaches and working with local partner organizations.
• Demonstrated experience in effectiveness short and long-term planning of financial, human resources, and program management.
• Demonstrated high-level interpersonal and cross-cultural skills including the ability to build collaborative relationships internally and externally with sensitivity to cultural, ethnic, social, and political issues.
• Knowledge of international child rights conventions and systems.
• Familiarity with community development approaches and working with local partner organizations.
• Conflict management and ability to pragmatically solve problems, plan a course of action using analytical, conceptual, strategic, and forward-thinking abilities to achieve an effective resolution.
• Proven Supervising/Management experience including direct supervision of professional and support staff, evaluation of staff performance and deliverables.
• Computer proficiency in general office software applications (i.e. Word, Excel, Outlook)
• Ability to speak, read, and write French and English languages.

Education

• Master’s degree in community development, child development or general business management or equivalent relevant work experience in lieu of a master’s degree.

Primary Responsibilities
Program Design & Development/Fundraising

• In coordination with the Sr. Manager, Resource mobilization and the thematic specialists, oversees the development of a funding raising strategy and donor engagement plan based on the funding landscape and strategic portfolio analysis.,
• Lead resource mobilization required to deliver the Guinea-Senegal strategic plan – ensuring the funding portfolio supports the resilience and sustainability of the program.
• Lead new partnership building, engagement, and management for fundraising (facilitating consortium building for new funding opportunities)
• Working with the program implementation team, S/he ensures the participation of children and communities in the design, monitoring and evaluation of programs and projects.
• In consultation with the Country Director and the International Office ensure technical engagement with donors for intelligence gathering, capture planning and pre-positioning and prepare for opportunities.
• Engaging with technical specialists to ensure high quality, evidence-based designs that draw on needs assessments, learning from past ChildFund programming, and child safeguarding principles.
• Working through the program implementation team, appropriately engage with local partners in program design and proposals development as well as promote a system strengthening approach as the overarching framework, that supports collaboration and partnership with governments and local partners and working towards impact, scale, and sustainability.
• Ensuring proposal designs and related budgets include robust M&E/KML plans that are aligned with our 2030 ambition, incorporate relevant and build in critical learning questions.
• Partner with Finance to ensure project budgets enable the projects to be delivered as designed incorporating child and community participation into design, as relevant.

Strategy, Planning and Reporting

• Development/revision of the Country Strategy Plans (CSPs) of the Guinea and Senegal Country offices into a Single Program Strategic Plan (PSP) working closely with the program teams and ensuring alignment with the global strategy (ambition 2030), with child rights at the core of all programming and advocacy work; and support the delivery of the PSP strategic axes.
• Lead innovation and generation of evidence, identifying strategic ways of partnering and supporting broader change in policy and practice in alignment with ChildFund’s strategy and ambition 2030 “Growing Connection”.
• Lead the monitoring of progress of the CSP, timely submission of accurate, annual reports on outcomes and impact for children.
• Facilitate the development and pursuit of thematic and cross-cutting strategic priorities in line with the CSP, including climate change, child protection and gender equality, to guide current and future ChildFund programming, advocacy work and humanitarian Strategies.
• Participate in global discussions and working groups to represent ChildFund, country offices (field perspective) and the voice of children, in strategy design and policy development.
• Support change processes and roll-out new ways of working to improve achievement of the CSP.
• Lead the adapting program models to local conditions, integrating sponsorship, and preparing for implementation as well as providing technical support to local partners on program models and implementation.

Program Quality/Monitoring and Evaluation

• Oversee a program monitoring system (CAMEL) that provides timely and accurate project results by embedding MEAL across program implementation by ensuring effective collaboration across M&E staff, Thematic Specialists, and program implementation teams in developing log frames, indicators, implementation plans, quality benchmarks, monitoring and evaluation frameworks and related tools.
• Lead program quality improvements by resourcing and conducting high-quality evaluations to demonstrate outcomes and impact and ensuring that accountability mechanisms are in place for all projects and programs and that identified actions are resolved, with critical issues escalated to the senior management team as appropriate
• Monitor and advance technical and operational quality of programs, including conducting regular field visits to provide feedback on quality benchmarks, soliciting inputs
• Monitor program Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and, in partnership with other functions (Sponsorship), take steps to improve the quality of the programming platform to meet agreed upon standards.

Knowledge management, learning and collaboration.

• In close collaboration with the Program Sponsorship Director (PSD) facilitates collaboration among departments, documentation, learning and sharing and promoting further standardization on program delivery, grants, and sponsorship execution.
• Work together with the PSD to documents & disseminate best program practices to promote learning; identifies needs and organizes relevant training in collaboration with HR Office for staff capacity building.
• Develop and/or ensure teams develop learning and knowledge products (documenting approaches, project and program designs and lessons and case studies) that meet standards and enable organization-wide learning and sharing. Leverage existing knowledge products to increase efficiency and effectiveness and ensure your teams do as well.
• Identify concrete systems and mechanisms to cultivate a culture of learning, reflection and continuous improvement and provide leadership to ensure their uptake and roll out.
• Define and pursue Country Program and project-specific learning agendas.
• Ensure that research and evaluations of the Guinea and Senegal program contribute to the generation of evidence and learning to inform sound decision making, project design, adaptive project management, and policy influencing internally and externally.

Advocacy and Influencing

• Conceptualize, develop and implement an advocacy plan for the effective creation, implementation and/or amendment, enactment and enforcement of policies at national levels.
• Help to ensure that the ChildFund’s policy advocacy efforts are aligned with relevant national, regional and international priorities.

People Management, Mentorship, and Development

• Support the development of an organizational culture that reflects ChildFund’ s full spectrum mandate and values, promotes accountability and high performance, encourages a cross-team culture of learning, creativity, and innovation in a productive work environment, and frees up people to deliver outstanding results for children.
• Ensure appropriate staffing of Program Development and Quality team, and engagement of additional technical support when needed to deliver quality project design and delivery.
• Ensure that all staff of the program quality understand and can perform their role in delivering first-class, quality programs for children in both development and emergency contexts through effective onboarding and clear workplans.
• Manage individual and team performance using principles of leadership agility, performance management system, including annual goal setting and quarterly performance reviews,
• Ensure that staff proactively build and maintain technical, managerial and leadership skills, including competencies in child rights programming and safeguarding, providing coaching opportunities when needed, and ensure availability of and support appropriate professional development opportunities.
• Participate in country office leadership through the senior management team and make collective decisions on program and advocacy priorities.
• Establish and maintain a culture of teamwork, participation, and accountability, including regular team and individual meetings, mechanisms for cross department coordination and collaboration, and norms and practices that are results driven.

Representation and Partnership

• Represent the Country Director in the Country (Guinea) and oversee administrative, resources and people management in Guinea.
• Support the strengthening of ChildFund’ s relationships with key donors, partners, government, and stakeholders in Guinea.
• Ensure ChildFund representation and active participation in key INGO and governmental coordination platforms.
• Ensure good relationships with governmental and non-governmental agencies for effective program implementation and resource use, as well as general information-sharing.
• Ensures appropriate representation of ChildFund’s views and seeks government recognition and support for ChildFund work.
• Ensures a clear understanding of the association’s role regarding children, families, and community.
• As per the need represent the ChildFund in government authorities and other external bodies and organizations.

Required Competencies

ChildFund’s Core Competencies

• Teamwork: the ability to work effectively and collaborate with others; values and respects individual differences.
• Communication: demonstrates empathy and tact when communicating with others and uses a storytelling approach when appropriate.
• Results orientation: gets things done; takes proactive steps to achieve organizational goals and quality standards.
• Decision making: uses good judgement, critical thinking, and non-traditional ways to evaluate problems and opportunities; reflects and innovates to improve decisions and outcomes.
• Resilience: thrives and grows in rapidly changing, demanding, and complex environments.
• Digital literacy: adopts and champions new technology to relevant contexts, stays aware of technological trends and embraces technological solutions to business challenges.