About Mary’s Meals
Mary’s Meals is a global movement supported by people from all walks of life and we are focused on one goal – that every child receives a nutritious daily meal in a place of education. We continue to change the lives of over 2.4 million children who today will receive Mary’s Meals. We have been working in Kenya since 2005 and we operate an Early Childhood Development School Feeding Programme across 689 Early Childhood centres in Turkana County.
About the Role
Mary’s Meals Kenya (MMK) is recruiting for a Programme Development Lead.
Reporting to the Head of Programmes – Kenya, the Programme Development Lead will provide strategic leadership of the programme development team, in line with the MMI School Feeding Approach, overarching strategic objectives and relevant policies.
Working in close collaboration with the Programme Delivery and Quality Assurance teams to understand programme issues, the Programme Development Lead will be responsible for research, learning, and providing key inputs and innovative ideas on how to continuously improve the MM School Feeding Approach. Leading our Programme Development Team in Kenya, you will also have responsibility for leading institutional donor project impact assessment and baseline activities.
Working in collaboration with the Mary’s Meals International (MMI) Programmes teams, you will play a key role in the successful running and development of the school feeding programme.
This role will be based in Lodwar, Turkana County in Kenya.
Key responsibilities:
· Coordinate strategic research, rapid assessments and learning to understand and explain identified issues.
· Refine existing programmes and develop innovative programme refinements, aligned to our school feeding approach, with clear implementation guidelines.
· Monitor programme refinements and piloting of new approaches to ensure implementation has desired effect.
· Ensure the systems and processes for monitoring programme impact are robust and consistently applied, in coordination with the quality assurance teams.
· Lead in the design and development of impact assessment research, including developing implementation tools and plans for an effective tracking of indicators and activities.
· Establish a strong system of feedback and knowledge sharing across the Programmes function and Mary’s Meals Kenya as a whole.
· Lead on the learning and capacity building needs of school and community partners.
· Facilitate the sharing of best practices across MMK and our global programmes, through the Programme Development Lead Forum and with other opportunities as identified.
· Identify in-country research needs and lead research in accordance with the MMI Programme Development team.
· Coordinate responses to external audits conducted by MMI Risk & Assurance, liaising with MMI Programme Operations and Programme Development as required.
· Develop a high-performing, innovative, resilient, and sustainable development team though coaching, delegation and mentoring.
· The role will require travel to locations in which Mary’s Meals operate.
Required skills and experience:
· Strong commitment to Mary’s Meals vision, mission and values.
· Proven experience of designing and developing impact assessment research and developing implementation tools.
· Strong understanding of programme refinements, with experience of piloting and implementing these.
· Experience of monitoring, evaluating, learning and reporting against agreed strategy and plans.
· Strategic thinker, with experience of developing and delivering strategy in a complex environment.
· Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with ability to establish effective working relationships at all levels.
· Strong analytical skills and effective financial management experience.
· Proven experience of strong leadership of a function, and in coaching and developing high performing teams and individuals.
· Strong cultural sensitivity, with an ability to work well with a wide range of people in many different contexts.
· Experience of international development, knowledge of the place of school feeding, and working in international environments and teams, would be beneficial.
· Strong experience of liaising with community groups and governments.
· Relevant degree qualification, with relevant post-qualification experience.
As a member of Mary’s Meals Kenya, you will demonstrate commitment to our mission, vision and values and strive to demonstrate service, simplicity and stewardship in your daily work.
We believe in the innate goodness of people, respect the dignity of every human being and family life and believe in good stewardship of the resources entrusted to us. In line with our values, Mary’s Meals is fully committed to a culture of safeguarding.
Mary’s Meals is committed to preventing any type of unwanted behaviour at work and we expect all the Mary’s Meals family to share this commitment and work in the best interest of the communities we serve. Our safe recruitment practices ensure that only those that are committed to our high standards join our movement.
Please click Apply to send your CV and a short covering note, highlighting your suitability and motivations in considering this role and your salary expectations. As part of adherence to Mary’s Meals Safeguarding Policy, the successful candidate will be required to provide a clean police record.
Mary’s Meals never asks candidates to pay any money or pay for tests at any stage of the recruitment process.
Closing date for receiving applications is Friday 11th April 2025. We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.
