Country Manager, Program - Christian Children’s Fund of Canada

Job Description

Careers that empowers young dreamers

When you make a decision to work with Christian Children’s Fund of Canada (CCFC), alternately known as Children Believe, you’re not just doing something great for your career, you’re helping empower children around the world to access education, pursue their dreams and be a voice for change. We know there are lots of career options for talented, top performers like you, but not many offer the opportunity to help children dream and live fearlessly.

We are currently recruiting for the following position: Country Manager - Program (GHA)

Position Summary

The Country Manager – Program (CMP) will provide administrative oversight to overall functioning of Ghana and will be an authorised representative to liaise with government and various government agencies. The incumbent provides strategic direction and facilitates effective collaboration with all other stakeholders to deliver on the strategic intent of CCFC and on the specific focus set for the CO towards centre of excellence (CoE).

The CPT oversees the program design, program implementation, sponsorship-program integration in the lens of ECD/LTP while ensuring quality implementation of all CCFC funded programs and projects delivered through our CO and program partners including grants and special projects, etc.) As a member of the senior management team pro-active contribution to overall organizational strategy, performance and culture are mandated. The incumbent will provide administrative oversight to functioning of Ghana operations including managing human resources and will be an authorised representative to liaise with government and various government agencies. Maintain beneficial relations with the development community (host government agencies, funders, NGOs, local, regional and international CCFC partners).

This is a field centric role and the position holder is expected to provide facilitative leadership and technical guidance over program related matters of CCFC and all its current of future subsidiaries or affiliates (CO). The CMP will supervise and provide support to all sub-projects within the Program Portfolio whether direct or aided.

Key Responsibilities

Program Management (40% of time)

Program Planning, Design and Implementation

• Develop strategic documents for program/project planning and implementation, Centre of Excellence on ECD/LTP, such as policy papers / briefs, concept notes, implementation plans etc.;
• Establish and execute the program/project implementation plans in collaboration with the team and partners, including setting objectives, quality parameters for key interventions/performance measurements, standards and results expected to ensure timely and client oriented services.
• Developing processes, guidelines and tools, quality standards, training implementation staff etc. by collaborating with DWA and MELKS Officer for transformative programming.
• Implementation and impact progress are in alignment with the approved plan and budget, analyse/ensure the interventions are sensitive and includes all stake holders (specifically children, women, youth) who are subject to different vulnerabilities.
• Ensure the participation and involvement of relevant stakeholders in program/projects -implementation so that the process is inclusive, participatory, transparent and community owned.
• Ensure that CCFC´s project governance and quality standards are adhered to during project (initiation and implementation);

Program Learning, Innovation and Influence

• Develop signature programs and promote widely among partners and program community.
• Identify potential partnerships to enhance learning, bring in program innovation and augment influence.
• Actively seek opportunities to contribute to CCCFC’s global learning and influence agenda and participates in global community of practice.
• Draft policy papers and/or recommend policy changes to align operations with changing environment.
• Explore opportunities for program innovations and initiate specific studies or research supporting local partners’/grant unit to design innovative program interventions.

Grant/ Donor Management

• Ensure the creation of donor reports for programmes being implemented at the state and their timely submission to the donor.
• Facilitate donor visits and accompany donors on these field visits.
• Resolve donor queries

Capacity Building

• Facilitate, guide and handhold the partners / program staff with technical guidance in planning, execution and quality delivery of allocated projects.
• Designing long term and annual proposals with budgets in CoE lens.
• Provide technical support to identify key indicators for which baseline to be collected in view of overall outcome envisaged.
• Support partners to formulate program’s communication strategy
• Ensure gaining authentic experience on addressing structural / systemic issues and other emerging aspects to maximize program impact and contribute to position CCFC as a CoE on ECD/LTP. 
• Ensure that the recommendation as per the monitoring and evaluation learnings are incorporated into planning 

Grants Proposal Writing (10 % of Time)

• Design innovative program models to augment our strategic intent and CoE.
• Help the NBD Manager in developing grant proposals by providing technical leadership in analyzing situation, deciding the strategy and developing the project log frame.
• Ensure that all grant proposals are in alignment to the long term strategy of CCFC and meets the standards expected by the donor.

Sponsorship Management (10% of time)

• Provide leadership support to PO-Sponsorship who is the primary communication link between the CO and Canada Office for coordination, planning and progress updates.
• Ensure the partners adhere to sponsorship standards with regard to the programs, finance and sponsor relations as agreed by signing the LOA
• Provide guidance and evaluate sponsorship activities and monitoring systems, emphasizing Quality Assurance (QA) and Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI).
• Undertake and/or recommend corrective measures or enhancements and enforce policies, procedures and agreements as necessary.

Administrative & Financial Management (30% of Time)

• Develop strategic relationship and partnership with key stakeholders at Country and Regional levels.
• Interact, build and nurture effective relationships with relevant GO/NGOs, UN Agencies, and Civil Society Organizations in order to foster coordination, collaboration and partnership to facilitate and enhance contribution towards CoE.
• Established adequate referral linkage of project target groups with the appropriate service providers, policy makers and other stakeholders.
• Place efficient systems to qualitatively impact the relationships with donors and other beneficiaries
• Ensure that CCFC´s Internal control mechanisms and risks mitigation plans are in place.
• Pursue most efficient and cost effective means while aiming for the highest quality of implementation.
• Monitor on monthly basis actual expenditures and compare them with the implementation model, budget requirements, review the budget if needed with the Finance team and other stakeholders. 

Documentation, Reporting & Others (10 % of Time)

• Prepare monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, annual and other program/project and financial reports aligning with project design and donor requirement.
• Create and document knowledge assets including blogs, quality case studies and other relevant communication outputs for dissemination and to support of operational / strategic KPIs on a periodical basis
• Maintain database management for Projects as per requirement.
• Facilitate and ensure documenting authentic experience of addressing systemic barriers in relation to ECD/LTP.
• Ensure compliance with all CCFC policies and procedures including 100% compliance to Child Safeguard Policy/Child Protection Policy.
• Any other tasks as assigned by the supervisor.

Required Skills or Experience

• Master’s degree or equivalent in Project Management, Business Administration, Social Sciences, or relevant development field.
• Minimum 7 years work experience in the development field with at least 2 years in a leadership role with experience in management and execution of programs related to at least 1-2 of the priority issues envisaged in CCFC’s current strategy.
• Demonstrated experience in capacity building, training, mentoring and coaching
• Demonstrated experience in building networks with development agencies, funding agencies and writing successful concept papers, grant proposals and donor reports at national & regional level.
• Experience in engendering / practicing Results Based Management (RBM) or using Participatory Development Approach (PDA) tools. Experience in the use Logical Framework Analysis (LFA) is an asset.
• Capacity need assessment, data analysis, transformative approaches / strategies and experience of designing program and interventions that will successfully address underlying causes of ECD/LTP.
• Proven leadership skills, with the ability to develop, motivate, monitor, and evaluate cross functional project team members assigned to the project to meet tight deadlines.
• Discretion and sound reasoning in dealing with sensitive matters; ability to independently solve complex and challenging problems;
• Excellent interpersonal skills; ability to establish and maintain effective working relations with sensitivity and respect for diversity;
• Strong computer skills, with familiarity in using Microsoft Office suite and other relevant applications.
• Excellent presentation, public speaking skills, skilled in networking & developing partnerships.
• Outstanding written and oral communication skills in English; fluency in a local language
• Proven ability to set strategic direction, develop and execute operational plans
• Alignment to CCFC's Vision, Mission and Values