Programme Quality and Development Coordinator – Tchad At Concern Worldwide

Your goal: This is an exciting opportunity to work with an international NGO whose goal is to help extremely poor and vulnerable communities achieve greater resilience and sustainably improve their living conditions. You will create and maintain funding opportunities for Concern Chad and ensure that they meet the highest quality standards. You will ensure that Concern Chad’s programmes are of high quality, in line with Concern’s policies and procedures, driving innovation and contributing to a strong learning culture. This will include providing direct technical support to programme teams and continually adapting monitoring and evaluation approaches to capture learning and guide decision-making. We believe that inequality is a major cause of extreme poverty and vulnerability and PQDC plays a key role in developing gender and equality transformative approaches with staff, partners and communities. You will also play a key role in supporting Concern in meeting its Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS) accountability commitments to programme participants, ensuring the effective implementation of Concern’s Complaints and Response Mechanism (CRM) and other processes. You will lead key evaluations and research activities and play a significant role in programme/project design and in developing quality proposals for donors. You will contribute to disseminating learning and increasing the visibility of Concern and its work in Chad among key stakeholders.

Concern is currently implementing health, nutrition, education, water, sanitation and livelihoods programmes, as well as humanitarian interventions in four provinces: Lac, Ouaddai, Sila, Wadi-Fira.

**About the position: This is a new one-year position, with unaccompanied terms, based in Ndjamena, Chad, with a salary of Grade 4 (€45,457 – €50,509). You will be required to travel frequently to other provinces in Chad where Concern works.

We would like you to start working by September 2024.

Reports to: Program Director (PD)

Direct reporting lines: MEAL Manager

Connections with:

• All program coordinators and project managers, Grants, Compliance and Communication Manager, MEAL Manager
• The National Management Team (CMT), Finance, Logistics and Procurement, and Human Resources;
• Chad Desk Officer and technical advisors at headquarters (HQ)

You will be responsible for:

Technical support for program management, monitoring and learning:

• Support the DP and programme managers by providing technical expertise to improve the quality of programme design and implementation (health, nutrition and WASH in particular);
• Monitor programme/project activities to ensure that they are carried out in accordance with legislation:
  • Concern’s systems and procedures and full adherence to Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) accountability commitments are respected.
  • Concern’s global strategies and PQ guidelines in collaboration with the Strategy, Advocacy and Learning (SAL) unit at HQ;
  • National strategic plan and national or global policies;
• Support DPs and Program Managers by monitoring project schedules, procurement plans, budget execution, deliverables and expected results.
• Support the DP in reviewing and monitoring specific purchases for the program, in liaison with the Systems Department and HQ (in case of international procurement).
• Assist the MEAL Manager and Programme Managers in organising participatory review meetings for all programmes to review objectives, achievements and gaps or challenges, using the relevant logical framework and other tools.
• Support the follow-up of action points and recommendations made during regular meetings.
• Promote a culture of shared learning in countries and:
  • Ensure that our learning is documented, shared and valued in order to improve the visibility and quality of our activities;
  • Organize/participate in learning sessions with other national teams;
  • Ensure that lessons learned from partnership projects are systematically captured and shared between partners and Concern.
• Together with the Grants Officer and MEAL Officer, maintain MEAL information for each programme/project in Concern’s GMS system (and on the shared drive).
• Contribute to donor and other program reports, providing feedback and quality assurance on data analysis and writing prior to sharing with external parties and leading the review of relevant sections of donor and other reports.
• Together with technical advisors at headquarters, supervise all research activities carried out by the national programme, both directly and through consultants. Ensure that research results are clearly documented.
• Work with MEAL departments of program/project partners to establish effective and harmonized M&E systems that can effectively integrate and manage indicators defined in project proposals and partnership agreements. Provide technical advice and support as needed.
• Support the MEAL Lead in overseeing the delivery of Concern’s accountability commitments and the effective implementation of its Complaints and Response Mechanism (CRM). Ensure that stakeholder feedback or complaints are handled appropriately and systematically, and that all sensitive complaints are promptly escalated to the CD. Lead the reporting on the Complaints and Response Mechanism and the adaptation of the mechanism in partnership with communities and other key stakeholders.
• Participate in workshops/technical meetings/clusters to support Concern’s leadership and advocacy work.
• Participate in donor and partner visits and meetings, as appropriate;

Technical support for program development

• Together with the DP, MEAL Manager and relevant Programme Officer(s), oversee project design processes, including context analyses, theories of change, logframes and specific studies, in line with Concern’s Programme Cycle Management Systems (PCMS) and Programme Monitoring and Evaluation Guidelines.
• Support the DP to develop sector strategies and pilot approaches at national level (in the areas of health, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene, livelihoods, etc.)
• Participate in the preparation of comprehensive, accurate and realistic budgets for donor proposals and within Concern’s internal budgeting procedures, in collaboration with the Programme Director, Grants Manager and Country Financial Controller.
• Assist in the development of MEAL plans for all programs/projects which are regularly reviewed. Ensure cost accuracy and inclusion of cross-cutting themes and program quality initiatives in budgets.
• In collaboration with the Grants, Compliance and Communications Manager, assist the Programs Department in preparing a funding strategy, “ready-to-use” concept notes and flexible budget templates;
• Support the DP and Grants Manager in developing and implementing Concern’s global localisation and partnership strategy (identifying local partners, designing tailored MoUs, maintaining quality collaboration, technical support/monitoring);

Equality, diversity and inclusion:

• Together with the Grants Manager and the HQ Equality and Gender Advisor, promote the integration of equality and gender in all programmes/projects and develop tools and systems to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness and impact of equality interventions across programmes/projects.
• Review and monitor progress in implementing a gender strategy for Concern in Chad, liaising with other departments and raising issues related to its implementation with the change management team.
• Improve Concern’s approaches to equality by strengthening work on diversity and inclusion in line with Concern Worldwide’s global strategic plan.
• Support the HQ Equality and Gender Advisor in implementing training and awareness raising for staff, partners and other key external stakeholders, and engage in relevant external bodies and forums as appropriate.

Human resources management and development

• Set clear performance targets, provide regular feedback and conduct performance reviews (in line with Concern processes), with relevant staff, holding staff accountable for achieving agreed success criteria. Ensure effective performance management is implemented across the department.
• In liaison with HR, design appropriate and effective mentoring, coaching and career development plans for staff to build capacity. With HR, this includes establishing effective onboarding processes for new staff. Provide regular technical and managerial support as required.
• With HR, support recruitment for vacant positions within the program department. This includes updating job descriptions and periodically reviewing the department structure, proposing necessary changes to the DP.
• Ensure that work within the Programs Department is planned and organized to meet the needs of the organization in the most cost-effective manner possible. Ensure that team members are given an appropriate workload and work efficiently.
• Provide Concern staff and partners with needs-based training and support.
• Ensure compliance with and promotion of Concern’s Code of Conduct and associated policies (in particular the Programme Participant Protection and Child Safeguarding policies) and other key Concern policies (including the Equality, Concern’s Understanding of Extreme Poverty (HCUEP), Approach to Emergencies and Anti-Fraud policies) within the programme department and more widely within the organisation.

Accountability

In line with Concern’s commitments to the Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS):

• actively promote meaningful community participation and consultation at all stages of the project cycle (planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation);
• work with relevant colleagues to ensure that the Complaints Response Mechanism (CRM) is functional and accessible, and that feedback and complaints are welcomed and addressed;
• work with relevant colleagues to ensure that information about customer relationship management, safeguarding and expected staff behaviour is disseminated among programme participants and communities.

General

• As a humanitarian organisation, all staff are required to engage in or support emergency response work where appropriate (training and other support will be provided where appropriate).
• Actively participate in the periodic updating of Concern’s emergency preparedness plan in Chad.
• Contribute to the review and update of Concern’s Chad Security Management Plan, Country Strategic Plan and other Concern inter-organizational initiatives.
• Within the Program Department, ensure the efficient and transparent use of all project resources to maximize benefits for target communities.
• Act as interim program director when needed
• Any other tasks that may be mutually agreed with the Program Director and/or CD.

Your skills and experience are as follows:

Essential :

• Bachelor’s degree in international project management, humanities, public health/nutrition, agriculture or any other related discipline (or equivalent professional experience accepted).
• At least five years of relevant field experience in managing/coordinating varied and complex programmes in the development/humanitarian sector;
• Demonstrated technical knowledge in the field of health, nutrition and the washing sector and specific issues related to the Sahelian context;
• Proven experience in all stages of PCMS: evaluations, programme development, including the logical framework approach.
• Proven experience in proposal development and program/project design (health, nutrition, washing, livelihoods).
• Proven experience in reporting and quantitative and qualitative data collection methods;
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Proven experience working with rural communities, collaborating with local authorities and partners and encouraging organisational learning in programmes.
• Knowledge of mainstreaming equality (especially gender) and protection
• Knowledge of Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS), Sphere and other relevant global standards.
• Ability to work independently and take initiative
• Ability to work under pressure and prioritize, often to strict deadlines.
• Good networking, interpersonal communication, presentation and motivational skills.
• Strong understanding of research methodologies and the nature of evidence.
• Proven experience in leadership, hierarchical management and building cohesive, high-performing teams.
• Excellent animation and training skills.
• Experience working with partner organisations and building organisational and individual capacity.
• A clear understanding and knowledge of equality issues related to work and development and humanitarian contexts, as well as a demonstrated commitment to Concern’s ethics and values ​​in relation to the elimination of inequality and extreme poverty.
• Fluent in French and excellent English (written and oral).
• Excellent computer skills, particularly with regard to Microsoft Office.
• Good team spirit, flexibility and political and cultural sensitivity.

Desirable:

• Work experience in Chad or in the Sahel context
• Experience working with consortia
• Experience with data collection/analysis platforms (Kobo, iFormBuilder, etc.)