Head of Programmes at Street Child Nigeria

Street Child is a UK charity working to protect vulnerable children and improve access to education in some of the poorest communities in the world. We work in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nepal and since November 2016, Street Child has been involved in the Humanitarian response in North East Nigeria.

Street Child works in the fields of education, child protection and livelihoods, working to deliver sustainable solutions and create maximum impact. Our work combines counselling, family mediation, business support, school building, teacher training and child protection. We were a key player in the Ebola crisis and led the global response for children orphaned by Ebola in Sierra Leone and Liberia. We deliver all our programmes through local partners and, since 2008, together we have built/renovated over 200 schools and are now helping to educate over 40,000 young people.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Head of Programmes

Location: Maiduguri, with frequent travel to Abuja
Reporting to: Country Representative
Hours: Monday – Thursday 8:30 to 17:15; Friday 8:30 to 13:30
Status: Initial one-year contract, with potential extension

Background
Street Child believes that every child deserves the chance to go to school and learn. Our projects focus on a combination of education, child protection and livelihood support to address the social, economic and structural issues that underpin today’s education crisis. We partner with local organisations and communities to deliver our locally rooted programmes, using evidence to drive learning and the refinement and scale up of programmes to create maximum impact for the most children at the lowest cost. We pride ourselves on being willing to go to the world’s toughest places where others won’t, including remote, hard-to-reach areas and fragile, disaster-affected states across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Since 2008 we have helped over 250,000 children to go to school and learn and supported over 25,000 families to set up businesses so they can afford the cost of educating their children.

Street Child Nigeria: Street Child started in Nigeria in early 2017 and implemented major humanitarian programmes in the North East to respond to the protection and education needs of children affected by the crisis. We have been supporting over 40,000 children to access quality and safe education, formal and non-formal, by providing spaces and building the capacity of teachers and communities. We work with families and government to overcome the barriers that undermine the development and wellbeing of children, ensuring parents and caregivers have financial resources and livelihoods to sustain their education, health and other needs, and providing child protection services. Street Child in Nigeria has ambitions to expand beyond the North East and is a reliable partner for UNICEF, UNOCHA, GIZ and other institutional donors and a member of the national Education in Emergencies, Child Protection and Early recovery and Livelihood sectors.

Role Purpose

The Head of Programmes will oversee the country programme portfolio, ensuring alignment with global and national strategy and mission. Managing Programme Managers, he/she will ensure quality in programmes planning, delivering & management towards timely achievements of outcome indicators.
In collaboration with the Country Representative, provide leadership and strategic direction for the design of country programme strategic frameworks and plans, including the development of resource mobilization strategies. Based on context, needs, gaps and opportunities, he/she will be responsible for developing new proposals.
The Head of Programmes will directly manage the Education Programme Manager, the Child Protection Programme Manager, the Livelihood Programme Manager and the Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Manager

Key Responsibilities
Programme Management (60%):

Work with Programme & Project Managers to ensure timely and quality delivery of activities in line with the workplan, monitoring and evaluation framework and expenditure plan
Lead on programme reviews with managers to ensure consistency and integration across programmes
Conduct regular programmes monitoring to identify opportunities for programme enhancement and ensure alignment with programme objectives
Identify areas of improvement in programmes with integration of new trends, knowledge aligned with needs and gaps that might arise during implementation
Oversee the process for timely quality programme reports in line with donor requirements
Coordinate across projects within the country programme to ensure efficiency, value for money and integration.

Business Development (40%):

Actively contribute to planning and delivery of internal reflection, staff retreat and strategy review
Identify new opportunities and contribute in building strong relationships with donors and government
Leading proposal development ensuring use of participatory methodologies
Contributing to recruitment of key staff
Contributing to capacity building for partners and staff
Representation in cluster mechanisms
Identification of opportunities to provide national visibility through strong communication strategy and representation

Person Specification

Education / Qualifications
Essential:

Educated to Bachelor’s degree level or higher

Desirable:

Master’s degree in International Development, Human Rights or related field

Experience and Knowledge
Essential:

Extensive work experience in a program management position with progressive responsibilities for an international NGO, including demonstrable successful performance in a Head of Programming position or equivalent senior leadership role.
Strong experience in grants management for large and complex programmes, including project design, budget preparation, expenditure tracking, monitoring and evaluation, reporting, etc., for projects funded by multiple public donors with relevant budgets
Substantial experience with successful business development activities capturing significant public and private donor funding, including proposal coordination, proposal writing and agreement negotiation.
Experience engaging partners and strengthening partnerships.
Substantial staff management experience, including coaching and mentoring senior program staff.
Experience and abilities in capacity strengthening – developing curricula and facilitating trainings.

Desirable:

Previous experience in North east Nigeria
Previous experience in Humanitarian Response
Education and / or child protection experience is strongly desirable

Skills and Abilities
Essential:

Excellent spoken and written English skills.
Ability to build networks and effectively represent the organisation in a variety of public and private forums.
Excellent interpersonal, listening and communication skills;
Strong leadership skills
Ability to positively influence others and successfully reconcile differences;
A self-starter, able to work independently and to tight deadlines, with a strong results orientation and with high levels of integrity, credibility and dependability;
An energetic team player who can effectively collaborate;
Ability to work in international settings and with various departments to implement successful approaches to Education;
Analytical thinker with the ability to find innovative solutions

Desirable: