POSITION DESCRIPTION
Position Title: PROGRAM MANAGER
Department: Programs
Location: Yangon Office, ChildFund Myanmar
Supervising: Program team consisting of Program related personnel, Technical focal persons, Consultants and Interns
Reports to: Country Director, ChildFund Myanmar
Employment Status: Full Time - Initial two-year employment agreement, with option to extend upon mutual agreement.
ORGANISATIONAL CONTEXT
ChildFund Myanmar is the representative office of ChildFund Australia – an independent and non-religious international development organisation that works to reduce poverty for children in the developing world.
ChildFund Australia is an international development agency that works in partnership with children and their communities to create lasting and meaningful change by supporting long-term community development and promoting children’s rights.
ChildFund Australia directly implements child-focused development programs in Vietnam, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Timor-Leste, and works in conjunction with the ChildFund Alliance global partnership to deliver programs in countries throughout Asia, Africa and the Americas.
ChildFund Australia began working in Myanmar in 2012. Child-focused development programs are being delivered in a partnership approach working with local groups and organisations focusing on the areas of child protection, youth resilience, education and DRR.
POSITION SUMMARY AND JOB PURPOSE
As a core member of the Myanmar Senior Management Team (SMT), the Program Manager together with the Country Director is responsible for leading and overseeing the management, coordination and supervision of all aspects of ChildFund Myanmar’s program development activities including planning, organizing, staffing and managing, with the overall objective of improving the well-being of children and youth in Myanmar.
The role requires a full-time committed and highly motivated person, who is prepared to provide dynamic leadership, build a strong ChildFund team, mentor and develop capacity amongst all ChildFund Myanmar staff with a focus upon the needs of program staff; and contribute actively towards the SMT of ChildFund Myanmar.
It will be critical to ensure that the Program Manager takes responsibility for program cycle planning, implementation, monitoring and partnership management.
REPORTING STRUCTURE
- Reports to the Country Director.
- Advises and collaborates with other senior managers (Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Manager, Finance and Admin Manager) and ChildFund Myanmar staff, ChildFund Australia and ChildFund Australia representative offices; ChildFund Myanmar partners, communities and departmental personnel.
- Participates actively as a member of ChildFund Myanmar SMT.
- Supervises Program team, and external consultants, program interns and volunteers.
KEY AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY
Organisational Development
- Serves as a key member of the ChildFund Myanmar SMT, contributing to all strategic and policy decisions.
- Coaches, mentors, motivates and supervises program personnel and contractors to influence positive action and accountability for assigned work responsibilities.
- Manages the development of a learning and development plan for direct reports in line with ChildFund Myanmar Staff Capacity Development Plan.
- Implements, models and promotes ChildFund Myanmar policies, procedures and guidelines within ChildFund team and also with the partner organizations.
- Ensures ChildFund staffs receive an appropriate orientation to ChildFund and its programs.
- Participates in Myanmar cross-functional and ChildFund Australia cross-country task forces as requested.
- Promotes ChildFund Myanmar’s position as a child-centred development agency.
Program Planning and Development
- Demonstrates a strong leadership and mentoring role across all program personnel.
- Works closely with all Myanmar Senior Management, ensuring the development and implementation of programs, projects and activities that fit with the goals and objectives of the Country office strategic direction.
- Takes responsibility for convening and leading quarterly program action-oriented unit meetings with both SMT and Program team.
- Ensures the submission of regular and ad hoc project and program reports are verified, finalised and submitted on time (narrative, financial, output tracking, assessments and evaluations).
- Guides and mentors Program team to develop project proposals to ensure timely submission of quality project proposals that meet the needs of children and families in communities where ChildFund works. Builds Program team capacity to effectively participate and provide input into project proposal development.
- Reviews and strengthens program unit procedures to strengthen program cycle management.
- Monitors and supports implementation of Myanmar project activities according to schedule and budget: identifies achievements, challenges and assists in strategy development.
- Works with the MEL Manager to ensure staff understanding and effectively operationalise implementation of the MEL Framework, output monitoring and outcome monitoring activities.
- Drafts and submits annual budget plan to support ChildFund Myanmar’s activities in Myanmar and works with Country Director and Finance & Admin Manager to draft annual budget plans for program activities, according to ChildFund Australia’s timelines and organisational approach.
- Collaborates with the Sydney program team and ChildFund Myanmar senior management to coordinate the design of program initiatives and budgets in Myanmar, ensuring quality and alignment with organizational and country goals and objectives.
Localization
- In coordination with ChildFund Australia Partnership Advisor, leads the country team in establishing systems in place for effective partnerships for localization.
- Develops in-depth knowledge of local partners, ensuring that their capacity to plan, implement, and assess strong child-focused projects increases over time, building positive and valuable engagement with those partners, and providing or facilitating assistance to enable project implementation.
- Builds Program team capacity to effectively manage effective partnerships in line with ChildFund Localization approach.
- Together with other Managers and policy focal persons, ensures that the partners have mandatory polices developed and in action.
Representation and Communication
- Develops, strengthens and maintains high-order relationships with national government and sub-national authorities in Myanmar, NGOs and donors, as a representative of ChildFund Myanmar.
- Ensures that a robust community engagement process is built into all community processes, is regularly reviewed and strategies are developed for continual improvement.
- In consultation with the Country Director, MEL and FA Manager, identifies and works to secure funding opportunities for ChildFund Myanmar from ChildFund Alliance, bilateral, multilaterals foundations and individuals in consultation with ChildFund Australia.
- Represents and/or nominates key staff to represent ChildFund Myanmar on relevant working groups, managing dissemination of discussions and outcomes across ChildFund. Ensures ChildFund Myanmar’s initiatives are informed by evidence-based data and linked to relevant national initiatives.
- Act as a media spokesperson if requested by the Country Director.
- Ensures the Country Director and SMT are fully appraised of all achievements, lessons learned, critical factors impacting on success, strategies developed to overcome challenges and contractual discussions.
AUTHORITIES AND DELEGATIONS
Authorities and delegations relevant to this position are detailed in the ChildFund Myanmar Delegations Schedule. This document will be made available to the successful applicant.
REQUIRED COMPETENCIES/EXPERIENCE/QUALIFICATIONS
Core competencies
- Commitment to ChildFund Australia’s values, vision and mission;
- Teamwork;
- Communication;
- Accountability and integrity; and
- Adaptability and flexibility.
Functional/Technical Competencies
- Supporting others in achieving their goals through performance;
- Building stakeholders' competency for successful project management and implementation;
- Conducting training and guiding others in area of expertise;
- Responding effectively to change;
- Exercising high level relationship building, influencing and negotiating;
- Excellent Problem solving and decision making;
- Understanding development, in country context and child focused development; and;
- High level of accuracy and detail orientated.
Qualifications & Experiences
- Tertiary qualifications in development, or business-related discipline. Master’s Degree or higher qualifications are an advantage;
- Significant experience in senior role, taking responsibility or being involved at a high-level in program development and management;
- Experience with child-focused programs;
- Experience in managing complex, multi-sector, and/or multi-stakeholder;
- Demonstrated experience of working with partner organizations and consortia projects;
- Ability to analyze strategic trends and develop appropriate plans and responses to manage risks;
- Demonstrated understanding and awareness of Myanmar country context;
- Politically and culturally sensitive, with qualities of patience, tact and diplomacy;
- Experience integrating cross-cutting issues (gender, disability, social inclusion) into program and project planning;
- Experience working at the field level as well as high-level representation with government, donors, UN, NGO (international and national) personnel and departments;
- Demonstrated experience in delegating tasks, balancing the need to support empowerment of team members with the ability to maintain task over sight;
- Significant experience in high-level proposal & report writing and presentation;
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications and;
- Proficiency in English and Myanmar.
Deadline : 31 March 2023 (5:00 PM)