Summary
Date Posted: Tuesday, January 17, 2023 , Base Salary: Not Disclosed

JOB DETAILS:
CHILD SAFEGUARDING:
Level 3: the role holder will have contact with children and/or young people either frequently (e.g. once a week or more) or intensively (e.g. four days in one month or more or overnight) because they work in country programs; or are visiting country programs; or because they are responsible for implementing the police checking/vetting process staff.

ROLE PURPOSE:
As a member of the East and Southern Africa regional office operations team, the Head of Programme Operations acts as a coordinating focal point for operational issues, providing support to designated Country Offices (CO) operational delivery across the full spectrum of Save the Children programmes in both development and humanitarian response activities, ensuring effective information flows and assistance in adherence to SCI operations procedures/standards.

The Head of Programme Operations will support CO operations staff in managing development & humanitarian operations. The post holder will provide direction advice to the country programme in concurrence with the Country Directors/ DPOs/ Head of Operations and ESARO team.

The post-holder will effectively and efficiently support operations systems, processes and activities so that Country Offices can deliver programme on time according to organisational strategy, donor requirements and within allocated budgets.

S/he will support the country office leadership on aspects related to staffing structure, operational management, awards, supply chain and systems. He/she will play a strategic role in the effective scale up and management of Save the Children development & humanitarian programmes to increase impact and enable positive change so children in the East Africa region so they survive, learn and be protected.

SCOPE OF ROLE:
Reports to: East and South Africa Regional Programme Operations Director
Staff directly reporting to this post: Regional Humanitarian Operations Coordinator, Regional Operations Officer
Functional Links: Regional Emergency Director, Head of Supply Chain, Head of Awards, Country Office counter parts
Dimensions: Save the Children works in 14 countries in East and Southern Africa with a current staff strength of approximately 5500 and annul expenditure of approximately $400 million each year.

The Head of programme Operations/Implementation will be the main focal point Implementations for the 14 countries in the region, whilst support all countries with the team assigned to him/her.


KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:
to deliver high quality programmes for children in the region. this role is expected to provide continuous and consistent operational support, proactive and strategic support to Country Offices considering the breadth of programming needs and ground realities. The positon holder is expected ensuring the coordination of reactive support to Country Office leadership to deal with the range of operational and contextual issues as they occur.

Support strategic and operational planning, in the ESA region
• Support strategy planning and implementation; including Country Strategic Plans (CSP), annual planning and reporting, Emergency preparedness plans (EPP) and response strategy and planning
• Demonstrate leadership in upholding Save the Children policies and procedures (child protection, code of conduct, health and safety, equal opportunities, conflict of interest etc)
• Ensure adherence to SCI standards (safe programming etc) in programme delivery across country offices. flag key issues to relevant stakeholder as and when they occur.
• Support Operational effectiveness and efficiency by ensuring improved ability to monitor the IP Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s)
• Support country operations reviews and engagement on risk management, Management Improvement Plans, annual planning, follow up on achievements linked to the CSP, quarterly and annual reporting among designated country offices.

Programme Operations Support to Country Offices:
• Have oversight and provide support to programme implementation in the assigned countries in the region, monitor external factors that may influence the programming context (security environment, natural disasters, political change).
• Work with CO DPOs for overall coordination of program implementation and delegated responsibility for field delivery of high-quality programming in line with Save the Children standards and the objectives of the country strategy
• Liaise with other key ESARO functions – awards, finance, logs, HR, PDQ – to ascertain operational blockages and to seek solutions
• Ensure implementation and follow up of management decisions and actions agreed between SCI Centre, Regional and Country management teams, across operations and associated departments, including humanitarian responses.
• Provide coordinated and integrated finance, Awards, safety & security and logistics advisory support to field offices/programmes to enable effective and efficient project implementation according to donor guidelines, Save the Children standards and policies
• In liaison with regional and country office finance & awards teams, support the implementation of High-risk awards identified by both CO and RO.
• Support implementation of effective safety and security management systems in COs in liaison with the ESA RO Safety and Security team, ensure that these plans are updated and revised at regular intervals and that new programmes are built around security considerations
• Support effective functioning of logistics systems to procure, store and distribute stock, supplies and services for the timely delivery of project objectives, liaising with the ESARO supply chain (RPU) team and Programme Quality team to ensure that programme supply strategies are in place.
• Ensure appropriate level of support being provided to Country Programme by technical backstops and other operational and support functions at regional or by Centre/member
• Ensure timely and effective rollout and action plan support of business systems (PMM PRIME, S2P, COOM, Budget Holder automated training) across country offices. Support the Cos on trouble shooting issues and appropriate utilization of the said systems and business processes.
• In close coordination with the NBD and Finance, participate in program proposal process and ensure that all programs progress in accordance with award agreements, are completed within quality, time and budget considerations
• Working with PDQI participate in conceptualizing and designing cost effective, innovative and high-quality programs to serve difficult to reach children
• Serve as overall budget holder for most programming; manage and support budget holders for individual projects and awards and ensure project expenditure is in line with work plans and commitments to donors and members
• Ensure programs are implemented in ways responsive to the communities, and children in line with Save the Children principles, values and strategic plan and following Save the Children compliance procedures. This includes working with government and national NGO-partners to strengthen national capacity
• Work with Cos DPO and RO teams to ensure, with improvement in the Quality of reports to make donor ready reports from Project teams.
• Take lead and support CO operations team on capacity building with a focus to improving our Projects management both in Humanitarian and development.

Support humanitarian interventions
Working in close collaboration with the Humanitarian Director/ programme operations coordinator (humanitarian) the post holder will:
• Ensure appropriate categorisation of humanitarian needs in COs, with re-categorisation on an annual basis or when the situation significantly changes. Ensure seed funding requested are developed in a coherent fashion, work with relevant stakeholder (Senior Advisor and Members) to source required funding.
• Support CO teams on designing multi-sector response and recovery strategies, programme plans and programme master budgets, ensuring sufficient operational support for the CO is included within budgets
• Work closely with the Country Programme to maintain an overview of programme delivery, provide a sounding board for decisions and actions and helping to proactively identify issues that might affect response implementation, flagging these to the Country Director and to Regional Operations Director/Regional Humanitarian Director.

Information & Knowledge Management and Learning
• Collect and enable information flow and information-sharing, including response strategies, needs assessments, appeal documents, sitreps, media/comms moments, updating OMT and regional operations monitoring information
• Ensure strong coordination with relevant external stakeholders in country and at regional and international levels, including ensuring participation in clusters/sectoral coordination mechanisms, Humanitarian Country Team and coordination with key external actors such as other INGOs, RCRC Movement, regional and international networks as appropriate
• Ensure Operations Monitoring Tracker is kept up to date with information provided by the Country Office.
• Facilitate and maintenance of an updated operations department OneDrive folder to ensure issues trackers, operational updates etc are compiled and followed up by the RO and CO teams
• Together with PDQI teams, take initiative/participate in team lessons learned and planning processes at key stages in program cycles, supporting initiatives in documenting lessons learnt, best practice and case studies to shape country strategies and programme approaches, and contribute to broader sector learning
• Liaise with PDQI teams to support the implementation of accountability mechanisms (including children and youth participation)
• Liaise with communication/ media teams to highlight SCI interventions/ issues children face in humanitarian situations when and as needed

People Management
• Manage Program Implementation team; define expectations, provide leadership and technical support as needed, and evaluate direct reports regularly
• Ensure the recruitment, training, and promotion of staff as appropriate and ensure availability of appropriate professional development opportunities for staff
• Incorporate staff development strategies and Performance Management Systems into team building process.
• Work in close collaboration with the Country Office, Regional HR and Global Roster Manager to ensure staff succession planning, and where there are key staffing gaps that these are identified in a timely fashion and support requested with clear terms of reference.

Perform any other duties and tasks assign to the staff member by the line manager to ensure needs of children are addressed in the region

SKILLS AND BEHAVIOURS (our Values in Practice)
Accountability:
• Holds oneself accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving results together with children and role modelling Save the Children values
• Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities – giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved

Ambition:
• Sets ambitious and challenging goals for self and team, takes responsibility for own personal development and encourages team to do the same
• Widely shares personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others

Collaboration:
• Builds and maintains effective relationships, with own team, colleagues, members, donors and partners
• Values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength
• Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to

Creativity:
• Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
• Willing to take disciplined risks

Integrity:
• Honest, encourages openness and transparency
• Always acts in the best interests of children

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE:
• Extensive program and operations management experience (10 years) in international development and humanitarian programs, including
• Demonstrated ability to set up operational management systems in a large complex programme
• Direct experience of delivery of humanitarian programs, in a technical or operational role, in at least 3 different contexts
• Senior management role within a complex country programme and/or in a large-scale emergency response
• Previous experience of managing technical/programme/operations/support teams in large-scale first phase emergency response is essential
• Experience in managing, rollout, troubleshooting business systems across various structures and countries
• Knowledge of international humanitarian and development systems, institutions and donors (including ECHO, DFID and OFDA), and of procedures, accountability frameworks and best practices
• Demonstrated ability to thrive in a complex, matrix management environment. Highly developed interpersonal and communication skills including influencing, negotiation and coaching.
• In depth knowledge and experience of logistics systems and requirements in a multi field office, multi programme setting
• Security management experience across a large programme
• Substantial training and capacity building experience
• Culturally sensitive, with highly developed interpersonal and communication skills including influencing, negotiation and coaching.
• Experience of supporting and developing programmatic staff with different backgrounds and expertise
• Commitment to Save the Children values.
• Ability and willingness to change work practices and hours in the event of major emergencies.
• Willingness to travel in developing countries (varying, but expected to be at least 40% of time).
• A master’s degree in a relevant field either in relation to development, disaster management, management


Education Requirement: No Requirements

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: 120

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