Senior Team Leader 168 views0 applications

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is among the world’s leading humanitarian relief and development organisations. For 80 years, the IRC has been at the forefront of every major humanitarian initiative to assist people uprooted by war, persecution, or civil conflict. IRC staff go to the toughest places, implement both immediate response and long-lasting programs, and conduct the type of applied research and advocacy the aid community needs to continually push itself to find better solutions for people. In all its country programs and in the US, IRC partners with local governments and others to achieve outcomes related to people’s health, education, safety, power and economic well-being.

Present in Sierra Leone since 1999, IRC supports the Sierra Leonean institutions – government, civil society, community-based organizations and private sector – to provide improved social services. The IRC does this through programs and partnerships designed to improve the life of women, youth and children by implementing Health, Education, and Women’s Protection and Empowerment programming.

Background and objective of the Sierra Leone Secondary Education Improvement Project (SSEIP)

The SSEIP programme is a 5 year intervention with a potential budget of £10 million. The overall aim of the programme is to improve access, safety, learning and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) outcomes for 1.15 million children aged 12-17 (including 575,000 adolescent girls and 52,000 children with disability) over the life of the programme and lead to:

• A halving in the rate of adolescent girls out of school or in non-formal education

• A reduction in the rate of 15–19-year-old adolescents who have begun childbearing.

• At least 160,000 more girls, and children with disability, enrolled and progressing through school or provided with out of school learning opportunities.

• A doubling in the number of girls passing secondary school examinations.

Scope of Work

The IRC is recruiting for a Senior Team Leader for SSEIP. The Senior Team Leader will coordinate across multiple partner organisations and IRC staff and be the primary representative of the project to all key stakeholders, government officials, and donors at coordination fora and other related meetings. The Senior Team Leader will ensure that the project achieves the expected results and is implemented in accordance with the donor agreement, donor regulations, and internationally recognised quality of assistance standards. She/he will have the overall responsibility for the oversight and delivery of outputs and results of the programme and will ensure that the programme is implemented as per the contract and in compliance with the FCDO requirements. She/e will also Oversee management of partners/subgrantees and provide financial and operations support that optimises resources through sound budgets, consistent financial tracking, and timely submission of reports to the donor. This will include overall technical, financial and operational management of the programme. She/he will be supported by a team of dedicated full-time and part-time personnel as determined by the needs of the programme, and will support project staff by creating and maintaining a work environment that promotes teamwork, trust, mutual respect, and empowers staff to take responsibility.

The Senior Team Leader will be the face of the programme and expected to maintain strong relationships with the FCDO and other networks in the sector as well as communicate effectively and distribute information about programme achievements and lessons learned to a range of different audiences. She/he will bring exceptional experience, expertise and commitment to girls’ education and empowerment, particularly in relation to girls living with disabilities. The Senior Team Leader is expected to have extensive skills in programme design and development, advocacy and networking with international and national institutions and development agencies which promote the education and empowerment of girls with disabilities, including SRHR. Wider technical knowledge of gender programming including women and girls’ economic empowerment, gender and poverty-related barriers, gender-based violence, education and livelihoods will be essential.

Areas of Responsibility:

• Provide overall leadership and technical direction for the project, ensuring completion of project deliverables.

• Responsible for the overall planning, implementation, administration, and financial management of the project, as well as the achievement of all impact goals and objectives.

• Lead the development and implementation of the programme’s framework in coordination with partners and advisors to drive towards the programme’s objectives

• Lead response and course-correction for programmatic challenges, applying collaborative, flexible, and practical thinking.

• Conduct regular meetings with Implementing Partner technical staff to assure standardization of technical delivery approaches on timely manner

• Coordinate with government and other relevant stakeholders to ensure activities complement ongoing initiatives and adhere to country and global standards.

• Serve as the primary liaison with the donor and Ministry of Education.

• Report to FCDO through formal and informal debriefings, annual and quarterly reports, etc.

• Represent the project and organization at regional, national, and international forums, including technical conferences and policy briefings, and share information about project achievements and lessons learned within the organization and wider development community.

• Oversee the development, review, and monitoring of yearly work plans and project strategy documents to ensure long- and short-term priorities are on track.

• Build capacity of the team in the different selected program methodologies, and provide technical support and ongoing coaching to ensure high-quality program implementation.

• Undertake regular field monitoring visits to assess progress and identify technical quality issues and/or other implementation issues, provide solutions and implement modifications;

• Based on monitoring reports, proactively initiate technical corrective actions, and provide corrective feedback, in accordance with Technical Leads for implementing partners

• Manage project staff and consortium partners to ensure proper reporting, financial management, and compliance.

• Perform other duties and responsibilities as required.

Qualifications

To effectively deliver this engagement, the applicant should meet the following requirements:

• Advanced degree (or equivalent experience) in education, gender, disability or related field with at least 10 years working in international development in adolescent girls and empowerment;

• At least 10 years’ experience in leading the management of large and/or complex donor funded programmes, and managing a diverse team of professionals and consortium partners;

• Extensive Experience working in Sierra Leone;

• Experience in SRHR programming, and girls’ empowerment programming;

• Experience and ability to provide leadership and direction in harnessing the multi-disciplinary skills of the technical personnel and consortium partners;

• Familiarity with current debates about girls’ education and empowerment including FCDO’s thinking and emerging priorities;

• Experience and ability to work with, and build effective partnerships between, a broad range of stakeholder groups including government, civil society, private sector, multi-laterals and other donors;

• Prior experience in operating effectively within complex and high-risk environments and managing the needs of multiple stakeholders ;

• Prior experience in managing large FCDO programmes

• Experience working with children and adolescents and an ability to apply safeguarding, ethics, and ‘do no harm’ principles;

• Excellent analytical, communication and writing skills and ability to articulate arguments and positions backed with evidence in order to promote causes and ideas;

• Strong communication skills, both oral and written. Fluency in English is required.

Please note that the JD is high level and indicative only at this stage and may be subject to change once the Terms of Reference for the programme is released and as the opportunity develops. This position will be contingent on the outcome of the bid.

The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way – Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Equality and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.