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

JOB DETAILS:

Job Title: Kulea Watoto Project Manager - Economic Recovery & Development (ERD)


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 will be responsible for providing oversight to all project activities designed to improve community economic well-being and household income generation opportunities that complement early childhood development in Yumbe. The role will work closely with the district agricultural departments in Yumbe to build the capacity of agricultural extension officers to provide trainings on nutrition sensitive and climate smart agriculture practices that help meet children’s nutritional needs as well as contribute to household income through sales of extra produce to the local markets. The project manager will coordinate livelihoods trainings to households on business skills, business development and financial literacy while also engaging households to identify market relevant off farm opportunities that they can pursue to diversify their household incomes. The project manager will work closely with the Project Coordinator in connecting households to acquisition of inputs, support linkage to agricultural and business inputs, market access, formal/non formal services and identify potential private partners and actors for linkages to job placement, markets, and connections to financial services.
The Project Manager will work closely with the other ERD program managers within their area of operation to ensure collaboration in project implementation while supporting ERD officers, assistants, volunteers, and partner organization on project deliverables. The Project Manager will also ensure quality program data collection and analysis and will play a key role in the process of reporting on the impact of the ERD program to donors. The Project Manager will conduct frequent visits to field operations sites to assess the quality of the project, ensure coherence in the implementation approaches, understanding and compliance with donor requirements and to provide guidance and coaching to staff.

Duties & Responsibilities:
Project implementation:
• Provide technical guidance and monitor staff in the implementation of the project work-plan and quality of activities, share relevant information and direction to improve quality and ensure timely implementation of activities.
• Prepare and maintain/update detailed work-plan.
• Responsible for the planning and implementation of all Kulea Watoto activities within the target areas.
• Collaborate closely with internal (Re:Build) and external partners in the planning and implementation of all Kulea Watoto activities within Kampala.
• Work with the Project Coordinator-Kulea Watoto to develop procurement plans, monthly project spending plan and cash forecasts.
• Lead field implementation of the household assessments, surveys of Kulea Watoto project clients and work closely with the M&E Officer for input into beneficiary databases.
• Ensure activity implementation is in accordance with the budget and track budget expenditure.
• Participate in the development of the project implementation strategy and other project tools.
• Liaise with the Kulea Watoto Project Coordinator to identify private sector partners and market connections for on-the-job training or job placement opportunities.
• Work within the existing structures to integrate ECCD and livelihoods activities where possible and form new structures only when necessary.

Project Monitoring & Reporting:
• 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 team 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 M&E purposes.
• Ensure proper documentation and maintain an archive of Kulea Watoto project activities and related procurements.
• Support in the development of the M&E 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; 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.

Staff Supervision & Development:
• Directly supervise the project implementing teams including the ERD officers, and the ERD assistants.
• Participate in the recruitment process of ERD officers, ERD assistants.
• Build the capacity of ERD officers and ERD assistants.
• Ensure timely completion and submission of monthly timesheets, probation reviews and staff performance management evaluation as per the HR policies.
• Plan/coordinate and oversee staff work-plans, work, and vacation schedules.
• Ensure staff training/development activities.
• If/as required identify staff performance issues and work with Human Resources team to document and address these gaps in accordance with the National Staff Employment Policies.
• Maintain open and professional relations with team members, promoting a strong team spirit and providing oversight and guidance to enable staff to successfully perform in their positions.

Internal Coordination and Representation:
• Work closely and coordinate with IRC supply chain, finance, and other program staff at field level 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 collaboration and coordination:
• Coordinate closely with the partner implementing Kulea Watoto project in Kampala.
• 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 project, finance, and compliance review and reflection (monitoring), and work with the partner teams to address any project performance issues.


Qualifications
• Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, Food Security, Economics, business, International Development, Agronomy, or related field.
• 5 years of experience leading teams, implementing livelihoods projects, entrepreneurship development or community development projects.
• Experience working in Humanitarian settings required.
• Experience in community-based programming, coordination, and stakeholder analysis.
• Experience with Early childhood development (ECD).
• Eagerness to learn about the ECD sector and promote integrated ECD and livelihoods programming.
• Positive attitude towards localization and elevating local partners’ expertise and experience and closely integrate with ECD.
• Proven abilities in coordination within teams and with other stakeholders.
• Prior experience in developing project implementation work-plans and project reporting
• 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 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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