Chief of Party (Somalia Resilience and Food Security Activity (RFSA)

TITLE:  Chief of Party (Somalia Resilience and Food Security Activity (RFSA)

TEAM/PROGRAMME: Operations

LOCATION: Mogadishu

GRADE: Executive

CONTRACT LENGTH: TBD  

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:

Save the Children is seeking a Chief of Party (COP) for an anticipated five-year USAID-funded Resilience Food Security Activity (RFSA) in Somalia. The RFSA will seek to sustainably improve food and nutrition security and resilience among poor and chronically vulnerable households and communities in selected regions. The estimated implementation timeframe for the RFSA is 2024 - 2029. Hiring is contingent upon successful award of the project and USAID approval of the candidate.

The proposed program will be an integrated, multi-sectoral food and nutrition security intervention. The COP is responsible for the overall management and representation of the activity and is ultimately accountable for the delivery of desired program results, an effective adaptive management approach, relationships with a range of stakeholders, and management of the program team and consortium.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: TBD

Dimension of Role:

Save the Children operates across all zones in Somalia/Somaliland and currently has three main area offices and additional 11 field offices. Programmatically Somalia is a large Country Office with more than $110million annual budget turnover, more than 70 active awards at any time and over 650 staff.

Number of direct reports: TBD

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

·         Manage the overall administrative, financial, and technical activities of the program.

·         Lead overall program planning, putting in place team structures, technical and operational approaches, infrastructure, monitoring and evaluation (M&E), and feedback loops required for program delivery and success.

·         Lead partnerships within the program consortium, as well as with external stakeholders as needed, to foster the teamwork required for program success.

·         Represent the program to donor officials, host government officials, partner representatives, local stakeholders, and team members.

·         Ensure alignment and cross-learning with Save the Children’s program and technical priorities in country and with the US Office.

·         Build a strong program leadership team ensuring effective coordination between key technical, operational and administrative functions.

·         Review, approve and contribute to major program strategies such as the M&E plan, the learning plan, the collaborating, learning, and adapting (CLA) approach, the gender strategy, and technical or thematic strategies. Provide oversight and quality control to the program’s thematic approaches and implementation, leading course corrections as required.

·         Lead annual planning processes and associated donor resource requests, monitoring implementation progress as compared to these plans.

·         Ensure the quality of all program deliverables, inclusive of activities, outputs, documentation, and reporting.

·         Lead risk management, overseeing the delivery team to ensure compliant and accountable program monitoring and evaluations, staff and asset safety and security, and fraud, PSEA and extortion risk mitigation

·         Ensure sound program financial management and reporting.

·         Ensure sound program logistical and operational structures and management.

·         Ensure compliance with donors, host government, and Save the Children policies and procedures.

·         Recruit, develop and manage the program team, ensuring that adequate and appropriate capacity building plans are in place and that human resources policies are appropriate for team retention and high performance.

·         Demonstrate a commitment to gender and youth integration in both the programmatic and operational aspects of the activity.

·         Ensure that the program deploys an effective CLA approach, such that the activity can evolve in a changing context to achieve desired outcomes.

·         Oversee the program’s security management approach, working with country office counterparts.

COMPETENCIES AND SKILLS

Leading

Delivering Results

Takes personal responsibility and holds others to account to deliver our ambitious goals for children, continually improving own performance or that of the team.

Skilled level

·         Delivers timely and appropriate results using available resources

·         Takes responsibility for their work and its impact on others

·         Plans, prioritizes and performs tasks well without needing direct supervision

·         Understands the link between their work and the organization’s objectives and Adapting

·         Problem Solving and Decision Making Applying Technical and Professional Expertise

Thinking

Problem Solving And Decision Making

Takes effective, considered and timely decisions by gathering and evaluating relevant information from within or outside the organization and making appropriate judgements.

Skilled level

·         Gathers the right information and uses critical thinking to make effective and timely decisions

·         Stays with a problem or challenge until a solution is reached or no longer reasonably attainable.

·         Knows when to involve others in a decision

·         Demonstrates awareness of the wider external influences that impact on decision making

·         Simplifies processes and procedures wherever possible

Applying Technical and Professional Expertise

·         Delivers work that reflects a good knowledge and application of technical and professional standards

·         Keeps up to date with trends in their work area

·         Maintains ethical and professional behaviour in accordance with relevant codes of conducts

Engaging

Working Effectively with Others

Works collaboratively to achieve shared goals and thrives on diversity of people and perspectives. Knows when to lead and when to follow and how to ensure effective cross-boundary working.

Skilled level

·         Actively listens to new and different perspectives and experiences of those they work with

·         Proactively supports team members and trusts their capabilities

·         Demonstrates understanding of their skills and how they complement those of others within diverse teams and groups

·         Clarifies their role and responsibilities within the team to maximize impact

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

Essential

·         A master’s degree in development studies, international relations, agriculture, economics, business administration, or a related field and a minimum of seven years of increasing management responsibility in international development projects; OR an undergraduate degree in a related field and 10 years of increasing management responsibility in international development projects.

·         Proven leadership skills managing projects of a similar size and scope in developing countries facing complex, volatile, and uncertain contexts.

·         Experience with USAID and US Government regulations.

·         Prior experience effectively managing USAID development or resilience activities; preferably involving Title II commodities and implementation by multiple sub-awardees.

·         Demonstrated experience in managing program implementation, financial reporting, reporting procedures and systems, and staff.

·         Experience in recruiting and strengthening the capacity of program staff.

·         Proven ability to build and maintain relationships with host country government’s, donors and other key stakeholders

·         Previous work experience working in Somalia and technical expertise in food, nutrition, and economic security (FNES) is preferred

Highly Desirable

• Familiarity with the social, political, economic, and cultural landscape of Somalia is preferred.

•Understanding and demonstrated commitment to the importance of gender and youth dynamics in FNES programming.

•Skills in adaptive management and learning techniques highly preferred.

•Proven success serving in a leadership role for a project addressing issues related to food security, nutrition, resilience, agriculture, natural resource management, livelihoods, or similar, preferably in Somalia.

•Fluency in English is required, and professional proficiency in Somali and/or Arabic is preferred.

Child Safeguarding:

We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

Adult Safeguarding.

The post holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI anti-harassment policy, all employees are also expected to carry out their duties in accordance with SCI protection from sexual exploitation abuse.

Additional job responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.

Equal Opportunities

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI Equal Opportunities and Diversity policies and procedures.

Child Safeguarding:

We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

Adult Safeguarding.

The post holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI anti-harassment policy, all employees are also expected to carry out their duties in accordance with SCI protection from sexual exploitation abuse.

Health and Safety

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with SCI Health and Safety policies and procedures.

Save the Children is an equal opportunity employer and seeks to employ and assign the best qualified talent.

Female qualified candidates are strongly encouraged to apply

Interested and qualified applicants can view the profile and apply for this position through the below URLs:-

https://recruiting.ultipro.com/SAV1002STCF/JobBoard/7d92e82b-af74-464d-859b-c5b8cba6e92e/OpportunityDetail?opportunityId=95381b8d-b50e-4a3d-a7dc-776347398aaa

NB: this position is subjected to the donor approval and offers will not be extended until fund has been granted