Summary
Date Posted: Monday, November 07, 2022 , Base Salary: Not Disclosed

JOB DETAILS:

Job Title: Kulea Watoto Project Manager - Early Childhood Development

Job Description
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is one of the world's leading crisis response agencies, providing life-saving assistance and supporting recovery and reconstruction for people affected by war and natural disasters. Active in public health, education, livelihoods, women's empowerment, youth development, and protection and promotion of rights, IRC assists people from harm to home. The IRC has been working in Uganda since 1998 supporting refugees, vulnerable host communities and various institutions in the country notably the government, community-based organizations, the civil society, and the private sector. Currently, the IRC in Uganda has presence across six sub-regions and six refugee settlements, implementing programming in the sectors of health, protection, and rule of law (PRoL), women’s protection and empowerment (WPE), economic recovery and development (ERD), and education. IRC Uganda also implements cross-cutting programming focused on systems strengthening and accountability to affected persons. As part of IRC Uganda’s strategic ambitions, the IRC works closely with local actors, including civil society organizations, local non-governmental organizations, local and national governments, among others, to strengthen their capacity and with intentions of transferring more resources for locally led implementation and support to our clients.

Job Overview:
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has received a $10 million grant from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation to implement a three-year project titled ‘Kulea Watoto’ – meaning ‘nurturing children.’ Kulea Watoto is an initiative aimed at improving early childhood development and transforming livelihoods of refugees and host communities in Uganda by providing nurturing care and early childhood learning opportunities, and to build their own skills to generate income for their families. The project will use a unique two-generation approach to reach out to young children under five years of age and their caregivers in Yumbe, Kyegegwa and Kampala districts, implemented in partnership with four local partners – the AfriChild Centre, Madrasa Early Childhood Program, Kabarole Research and Resource Centre and Literacy and Adult Basic Education (LABE). To achieve this, the project will offer learning sessions for parents and caregivers on responsive caregiving and provision of early learning opportunities, improved links to children’s services in local communities, livelihoods training, and start-up funding for promising business ideas, and more.
The Kulea Watoto Project Manager - Early Childhood Development will be responsible for all Kulea Watoto project activities designed to promote early childhood development and restore and/ or strengthen client economic wellbeing in Kyegegwa. The role will provide leadership and technical support to the project team including partners in Kyegegwa. The role will manage the Kulea Watoto project; providing support on the implementation of caregiver training in nurturing care, increasing caregiver involvement in ECCD services, increase access to ECD centers and promote safe, quality early learning environments. The role will coordinate with key stakeholders to ensure training of ECCD management committees. The Project Manager will liaise closely with other ECD Program Managers within their area of operation to ensure close collaboration in ECD project implementation. The Project Manager will supervise and mentor the ECD project officers and ECD assistants and volunteers. The role will work very closely with the livelihoods partner organization to implement and integrate ECD-livelihoods project activities. The project Manager will work closely with MEAL teams to ensure quality program data collection and analysis. They will play a key role in the process of reporting on the impact of the Kulea Watoto project to donors. The Project Manager will conduct frequent visits to field operations to assess the quality of the project, ensure understanding and compliance with donor requirements and provide guidance and coaching to staff. The role will work closely with the project coordinator – Kulea Watoto on all aspects of implementation and in close coordination and collaboration with other IRC education projects in the target locations.

Duties & Responsibilities:
Project implementation:
• Provide technical guidance and monitor staff in the implementation of the work-plan and quality of activities, share relevant information and direction to improve quality and ensure timely implementation of activities.
• Collaborate with internal (Play Matters) and external partners in the planning and implementation of all Kulea Watoto activities within Kyegegwa.
• Prepare, maintain, and update detailed work-plan, jointly with project partner/s.
• Foster a cohesive Kulea Watoto project identity across partners and sectors.
• Work with the Kulea Watoto project coordinator to develop procurement plans, monthly project spending plan and cash forecasts.
• Support MEAL team/staff in conducting data collection in line with Kulea Watoto MEAL plan
• Ensure activity implementation in accordance with the budget and track budget expenditure.
• Oversee the implementation of the integrated project strategy (ensuring coherence across ECD and livelihoods activities).

Project Monitoring & Reporting responsibilities:
• Undertake regular field monitoring visits to assess progress and identify technical quality issues and/or other implementation issues, provide solutions and implement modifications as required.
• Work closely with MEAL in the collection of data, assessments and contribute to proposal development in close collaboration with the project coordinator.
• Develop project reports as per set schedules (monthly, quarterly and annually) on grant activities, indicators and achievements.
• Ensure all monitoring activities are fully documented, including systematic and timely data collection as required under the grant and for IRC MEAL purposes.
• Ensure proper documentation and maintain an archive of Kulea Watoto project activities and related procurements.
• Support in the development of the MEAL framework and tools related to the Kulea Watoto project.
• Consistently and proactively monitor/assess the safety and security of the team; promptly reporting concerns or incidents to IRC management and liaising with community leaders and other external parties as required to maintain/enhance the security environment for IRC programs.
• Consistently and proactively monitor/assess the safety and security of beneficiaries during the promptly reporting concerns or incidents to IRC management and liaising with community leaders and other external parties as required to maintain/enhance the security environment.

Internal Coordination and Representation:
• Work closely and coordinate with IRC supply chain, finance, and other program staff to ensure timely and compliant project activities and expenditures, including active participation in grant opening/closing and review meetings.
• Represent IRC in different platforms, coordination meetings, working groups and maintain good working relationships with OPM, UNHCR, District and Sub County Local government officials and behave in a manner that safeguards IRC Public image.
• Attend and actively participate in sector related working group meetings and represent the interests of the IRC.
• Other duties as assigned by the Project Coordinator – Kulea Watoto.

Partner Coordination and Collaboration:
• Coordinate closely with partners implementing Kulea Watoto project in Kyegegwa.
• Coordinate the Partnership Project Opening, Review, Monitoring and Closing Meetings, together with the Kulea Watoto project teams, Project Coordinator and ensure partner participation in all project cycle meetings.
• Coordinate and participate in timely and effective partner program, finance, and compliance review and reflection (monitoring), and work with the partner teams to address any project performance issues.


Qualifications
• Bachelor’s degree in Education, Early Childhood Education, Social Work, Community Development, Public Health (with a focus on child health and nutrition) or related field.
• 5 years of experience leading teams, implementing ECD projects.
• Experience working in humanitarian settings required.
• Experience in community based ECD programming, and/or child nutrition programming, coordination, and stakeholder analysis.
• Experience in working closely with partners
• Proven abilities in coordination within teams and with other stakeholders.
• Prior experience in developing project implementation work-plans and project reporting
• Positive attitude towards localization and elevating local partners’ expertise and experience and closely integrate with livelihoods programming
• Eagerness to learn about the livelihoods sector and promote integrated ECD and livelihoods programming
• Strong ability to organize work, meet deadlines, maintain composure, prioritize work under pressure, coordinate multiple tasks and maintain attention to detail
• Excellent interpersonal and problem-solving skills, creativity, and flexibility
• Works well in and promotes teamwork, comfortable in a multi-cultural environment, flexible
• High level of integrity
• Ability to handle multiple tasks, proven self-initiative and problem-solving abilities.
• Fluency in English Language both written and spoken is required
• Knowledge of the local language is an added advantage.

Standards for Professional Conduct:
The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, 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.

Gender Equality & Equal Opportunity:
We are committed to narrowing the gender gap in leadership positions. We offer generous benefits that provide an enabling environment for women to participate in our workforce including parental leave, gender-sensitive security protocols and other supportive benefits and allowances. We welcome and strongly encourage qualified female professionals to apply.
IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, colour, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.
This position is only for Ugandan nationals to apply; IRC strives to attract, motivate, and retain qualified national staff in our programs.



Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: 60

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

Job application procedure

Please note, the deadline for submission is November 17th, 2022.

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