Save the Children is seeking a Deputy Chief of Party for an anticipated five-year USAID-funded Inclusive Nutrition and Early Childhood Development (INECD) activity in Rwanda. The proposed project will focus on promoting nurturing and responsive care practices, especially in the areas of health, functioning, nutrition, and early childhood development (ECD) for caregivers and children. Specifically, the activity aims to improve health and nutrition outcomes among women of reproductive age and adolescents and infant and young child feeding practices (IYCF). It also aims to address child development gaps and specifically unmet physical rehabilitation and assistive technology (rehab/AT), and social inclusion needs for infants and children. The activity will focus on community-level service delivery, community-health facility linkages and district level capacity development, as well as address issues of inclusion and participation, including access to programs and services for children and adults with disabilities, in line with Government of Rwanda (GoR) priorities.
The Deputy Chief of Party reports directly to the Chief of Party and ensures technical implementation of high impact, proven interventions that meet stated goals and reporting requirements. The Deputy Chief of Party will assume the responsibilities of the Chief of Party in their absence. The Deputy Chief of Party coordinates with key stakeholders, implementing partners and government representatives. The Deputy Chief of Party manages the implementation of key program activities throughout the targeted districts, oversees the work of program managers, and provide efficient operational support for the project team and will provide leadership on relevant, government or USAID convened technical working groups. Activities delivered under this project will deliver critical programmatic learning and establish collaborative models to address these development challenges for children and families in Rwanda.
*This position is contingent upon donor approval and funding. Qualified local nationals are strongly encouraged to apply.**
What You’ll Be Doing (Essential Duties)
- In collaboration with the Chief of Party (COP), deliver the program according to the contractual requirements of the donor and government, i.e. that all activities and deliverables are completed with high quality within the agreed timescale and budget, reports are submitted as per agreed schedules, and any other requirements or criteria are fulfilled;
- Oversee all technical aspects and lead program integration between Early Childhood Development, Nutrition and inclusion;
- Provide strategic technical leadership across the program, including strategic advice to the Chief of Party and project team, and ensure innovation and technical excellence in the three priority areas and community-based programming integrated ECD in the first three years of a child’s life;
- Provide support in programming geared towards addressing the needs of children with disabilities throughout program activities;
- Drive innovation in program strategy and implementation to contribute to national and global learning opportunities and ensure greatest impact for children’s development;
- Design and regularly update detailed annual work plans and oversee progress towards completion and achievement of program objectives and outcomes;
- Support the COP in the timely completion of programmatic reports for donors, government, and Save the Children. Be fully aware of the grant compliance regulations of Save the Children as well as USAID;
- Assist with the preparation and revision of a realistic budget, authorizing and monitoring expenditure in line with the budget, donor guidelines and Save the Children’s grant management and financial regulations;
- Manage and motivate team of technical advisors as direct reports to achieve their work plan objectives, and to contribute to the achievement of the overall program goals;
- Maintain good working relationships with officials, government ministries, implementing partners and the international and local NGO community, including participation in technical working groups and representation of the project at national technical events and fora;
- Work with program staff and Save the Children Technical Advisors based in the country office and home office to identify the technical support needs of the program and ensure this support is provided;
- Monitor country-level activities, identify challenges and develop appropriate reporting and results of project activities to the COP including progress and annual reports;
- Coordinate closely with the SC offices in administrative and HR matters, especially regarding operations and financial matters as they relate to the program implementation; and
- Attend and actively participate in periodic program meetings and ensure a summary of progress and challenges are prepared and presented with follow-up actions as required.
Key Areas of Accountability
Strategic Technical Management
- Lead the technical team and ensure technical innovation and maximise the collaborative working approach and technical engagement with key stakeholders;
- Manage technical teams overall implementation, including prioritization of visits to the field, to monitor program progress and offer technical inputs;
- Work with MEAL staff and technical team to ensure that programs are monitored against developed standards and indicators
- In collaboration with USAID test and document promising new technical approaches;
- Ensure strong technical coordination and collaboration between partners in consortium, and with the wider civil society, international community, government agencies and networks working on ECD, nutrition, and inclusion in Rwanda, in particular other USAID funded projects.
Operations
- Follow USAID’s Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) framework and set of practices to help improve development effectiveness throughout the program life cycle, valuing and using all forms of knowledge—tacit, experiential and contextual—for design and adaptive management;
- Work with the project team to ensure that partners are provided with the required support and that project plans are achieved;
- Ensure that effective technical partnership assessments are undertaken which identify capacity gaps;
- Arrange for appropriate technical training and supportive supervision of project team and partners to equip them with the skills and knowledge required to accomplish their responsibilities;
- Ensure potential issues and amendment requests are flagged promptly to the Chief of Party;
- Be the lead Child Protection and Safeguarding Focal point for partners.
Human Resources
- Manage team of technical specialists in ECD, nutrition, and inclusion;
- Ensure appropriate staffing of the Technical Team, including effective training to the team and ensuring the team remains up-to date with best practice in areas of focus for the program;
- Ensure that the Technical Team have clearly defined objectives and understand their responsibilities and are being effectively supervise to deliver high quality.
Knowledge sharing
- Support the Chief of Party and ensure the Technical Team implements learning activities, including participation in communities of practice, learning events, and sharing data, etc.
Required Qualifications
- Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Development/Human Development, Nutrition, international development or related field required;
- Minimum of eight to ten years of professional experience in managing and implementing complex integrated technical community-based programs of similar size and scope in a development context, with a minimum of five years’ experience in the region, ideally in Rwanda;
- Substantial technical leadership expertise in at least two of the three integrated programming areas -early childhood development, inclusive development or nutrition;
- Professional experience should include community-based programming, not just institution level;
- At least five years of demonstrated experience in managing and supervising a technical team and in project design;
- Demonstrated ability to work effectively with government representatives, private sector entities, local community organizations, donors and other stakeholders, particularly at the sub-national level;
- In-depth knowledge of USAID approaches and regulations;
- Strengths in inspiring and enabling others through teamwork, training, and capacity building to realize organizational objectives;
- Excellent oral and written communication skills in English.
Preferred Qualifications
- Strong knowledge of care system and government structure in Rwanda is an
advantage;
- Familiarity with the political, social, and cultural context of Rwanda;
- Fluency in Kinyarwanda
Qualified local candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
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