Assistant Country Director Programmes

Reference:	RD/ACDP/KY
Country:	Kenya
Job Title:	Assistant Country Director for Programmes

Contract Grade: C

Contract Length: 2 years

Date Needed By: Beginning January 2014 or sooner

New Post or Replacement: Replacement

Accompanied / Unaccompanied:  Accompanied

Exact Job Location: Nairobi

Reports To: Country Director

Purpose: To manage and coordinate Concern Worldwide Kenya’s multi sectoral programme, program quality and the delivery of results in relation to Kenya’s country strategic plan and programme strategies.

Direct line management:  Programme Coordinators for Food, Income and Markets, and Health and Nutrition; Programme Managers for Education and Advocacy; M and E Advisor

Liaises With: Country Financial Controller, Logistics, IT and Transport Manager, HR Manager, Area Coordinators

Job Purpose

To manage the implementation of Concern Kenya’s programme in line with its Country Strategic Plan (2012-1016) and its programme strategies maintaining and strengthening focus on community empowerment, system strengthening and emergency preparedness. 

The ACDP is a key member of the Country Management Team and leads its secretariat.

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

As a member of Concern Kenya Country Management Team the ACD will contribute to the development and management of the country programme with specific responsibilities for:

• Leading the development of strong innovative programmes that impact on poverty and that can secure funding
• Playing a significant role in the midterm review of the Kenya Strategic Plan in 2014.
• Strengthening the Country Programme’s foundation on community empowerment and system strengthening
• Ensuring systems are in place for the communication of early warning information on impending emergencies and the programme team’s emergency preparedness
• Facilitating and monitoring the organisational capacity building of partners in a strategic way, as appropriate.
• Leading the development of a strong advocacy programme in line with current programme direction.
• Facilitating documentation and sharing the programme learning through M&E, action research and publication. 
• Mainstreaming HIV/AIDS, equality, accountability, RBA, and DRR throughout all programmes.
• Lead secretariat services for the Country Management Team and the Emergency Management Team
• Finalise the contextual analysis

To undertake the responsibilities the ACDP needs to be 30% field based.   

B. Specific Responsibilities

Provide strategic direction to Concern Kenya’s Programmes

• Each programme has an approved programme proposal – specific focus for next two years will be development of advocacy, governance, health.
• Coordinate programme emergency preparedness and response
• Demonstrate progress against the programme specific results showing link to country strategic results
• Ensure widespread understanding of Concern’s programming policies, strategies and approaches
• Monitor and analyze the external environment particularly in relation to programme areas, and make recommendations as appropriate for interventions

Strengthen planning, monitoring and reporting systems  

• All programmes have approved annual workplans
• All programmes implement monitoring plans
• Lead compilation of the annual report
• Baselines, mid-term reviews and evaluations are conducted
• Ensure donor reports are high quality, results based and timely
• Lead regular review and update of PEER (preparing for an effective emergency response)
• Oversee the finalisation and implementation of the M and E system and tools within Concern and among partners

Resource mobilisation and management

• Ensure quality programming and results are the basis for networking among donors
• Developing funding applications in line with programme proposals and country strategic plan
• Represent Concern’s programmes at high level technical, coordination  and government forums
• Design fund raising strategy

Strengthen team dynamics and intersectoral programming

• Manage a senior technical team of 5 - both nationals and internationals
• Put in place/maintain mechanisms for a people centred approach to programming

• Continue to foster a working environment where staff are committed, motivated, creative and willingly work together  and adhere to Concern policies and procedures applying key principles of transparency, accountability, good stewardship and participation;
• Ensure that regular staff Performance and Development Review (PDR) system is established and maintained and that PDRs are undertaken at all levels;
• Demonstrate support, encouragement, and coaching of staff as a role model for the cadre of program managers to aspire to;

Strengthen budgeting and financial management

• Ensure strict expenditure and budget tracking by the programme budget holders undertaking regular reviews and checks of budget compliance
• Initiate and lead quarterly budget review meetings with Finance
• Improve management partner financial reporting
• Oversee the preparation of  budgets to ensure that the timing and cost of planned programme work and systems support is accurately reflected, while taking relevant donor requirements into consideration

Documentation and learning

• Ensure sharing of lessons and experiences between programmes/ counties/ other country programs and SAL (Dublin based technical support)
• Oversee the implementation of the research and innovations strategy
• Write and disseminate occasional technical briefing papers on lessons and best practice

Person Specification

Essential:

• More than 5 years field experience managing a multi-sectoral programme in both emergency and development contexts
• Third level qualification in development studies, social sciences or other related discipline
• Technical skills in advocacy and sustainable Livelihoods  or primary education or public health
• Practical experience in participatory development approaches, facilitation, capacity building and building effective teams to work in poor rural and urban communities
• Experience of programme design, the project management cycle and participatory planning methodologies, including distance management ; demonstrated success in improving programme quality
• Strong M and E foundation
• Proven ability to network and mobilise resources
• Experience of strategic planning
• Proven leadership ability, including ability to motivate and develop skills of others
• Experience working through and managing local partners
• Ability to work with culturally diverse groups of people
• Ability to organize and plan work effectively within a team
• Excellent report and technical paper writing ability
• Participatory and inclusive team working
• Flexibility to work in an emergency context as required
• Strong communication, problem solving, analytical and planning skills
• Ability to prioritise and handle a diverse and heavy workload
• Ability to work under pressure often to strict deadlines.

Desirable:

• Understanding of the Kenyan operating environment
• Additional training or qualification in Gender equality/ Gender programming/ HIV &  AIDS / Informal Education  (vocational training)/ good governance would be a great advantage

All applications should be submitted through our website at https://jobs.concern.net by closing date 9^th December 2013.  CV’s should be no more than 4 pages in length.

All candidates who are short-listed for a first round interview will be notified via email after the application deadline.

Concern Worldwide is an Irish-based non-governmental, international, humanitarian organisation dedicated to the reduction of suffering and working towards the ultimate elimination of extreme poverty in the world’s poorest countries.

Concern has a Staff Code of Conduct and a Programme Participant Protection Policy which have been developed to ensure the maximum protection of programme participants from exploitation and to clarify the responsibilities of Concern staff, consultants, visitors to the programme and partner organization, and the standards of behaviour expected of them.  In this context staff have a responsibility to the organization to strive for, and maintain, the highest standards in the day-to-day conduct in their workplace in accordance with Concern’s core values and mission. Any candidate offered a job with Concern Worldwide will be expected to sign the Programme Participant Protection Policy and the Concern Staff Code of Conduct as an appendix to their contract of employment.   By signing the Programme Participant Protection Policy and the Concern Staff Code of Conduct candidates acknowledge that they have understood the contents of both the Concern Staff Code of Conduct and the Programme Participant Protection Policy and agree to conduct themselves in accordance with the provisions of these two documents.

Concern receives a substantial amount of funding from external donors each year.  Increasingly donors are introducing requirements whereby future funding is conditional on Concern ensuring that the names of any new employee or volunteer do not appear on terrorism lists generated by the European Union (List of person, groups and entities to which Regulation (EC No. 2580/2001 applies), the US Government (Office of Foreign Assets Control list of specially designated Nationals and Blocked Persons) and the United Nations (Consolidated List).  Any offer of employment (either paid or voluntary) with Concern Worldwide will not be made pending a clearance check being conducted on the applicant.  For additional information please consult our web site or contact the Human Resource Division in our Head Office.

Concern Worldwide is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all sections of the community.