Chief of Party, Bangladesh Integrated Youth Activity At BRAC

BRAC is an international development organisation founded in Bangladesh that partners with over 100 million people living with inequality and poverty globally to create sustainable opportunities to realise potential.

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Job Purpose: BRAC is seeking qualified Chief of Party (COP) candidates in anticipation of the USAID/Bangladesh Integrated Youth Activity (BIYA); which is expected to start in late 2022 or early 2023 and last for five years.

BIYA will empower youth to advance their economic and democratic opportunities by building skills through appropriate training and linkages with the private sector. The activity is aimed at enabling youth to better contribute to Bangladesh’s inclusive, resilient social and economic growth, which will be accomplished using a cross-cutting, multi-sectoral approach. The activity will empower youth and strengthen the capacity of government and non-government community-based organisations to address youths needs and provide quality, relevant services. This will include youth better able to support communities affected by natural disasters resulting from climate change. BIYA will address the inequitable nutrition outcomes of the most vulnerable segments of the population through a targeted community-health system strengthening approach.

The Chief of Party will oversee all aspects of programme implementation, providing vision to the programme and ensuring that objectives are met on time and within budget. This position will be based in Dhaka, with regular travel in Bangladesh.

Key Responsibilities:

• Provide strategic and technical leadership to the programme and the team.
• Bring dynamic and creative leadership to cultivate innovation in rigorous programme implementation and donor deliverables.
• Serve as the principal liaison with USAID, as well as with key government officials, other donors and implementers, private sector entities, and civil society partners.
• Engage with programme beneficiaries, youth leaders, youth cooperatives, youth networks, and other stakeholders, ensuring that these relationships are managed effectively.
• Ensure inclusion and safeguarding across all stakeholders, including programme staff and beneficiaries.
• Develop annual work plans in collaboration with staff and stakeholders, and oversee work plan implementation.
• Ensure programme activities are implemented on schedule and within budget.
• Supervise, manage, and mentor programme staff, including accountability for hiring a diverse and qualified staff and building a strong team.
• Oversee monitoring, evaluation, and reporting of programme activities, including identifying key indicators and regularly using data to inform programmatic improvements in partnership with BRAC Monitoring and Evaluation.
• Manage team to implement effective and evidence-based practices in designated BIYA areas and ensure there is a routine feedback mechanism in place for continuous quality improvement in programme implementation.
• Coordinate with other BRAC departments (research, communication) and external partners to contribute technical research and analysis through community assessments, market surveys, and existing evidence.
• Coordinate with implementing partners and country counterparts to represent BIYA’s work externally and advocate for additional investments in youth empowerment.

Safeguarding Responsibilities:

• Ensure the safety of team members from any harm, abuse, neglect, harassment and exploitation to achieve the programme’s goals on safeguarding implementation. Act as a key source of support, guidance and expertise on safeguarding for establishing a safe working environment.
• Practice, promote and endorse the issues of safeguarding policy among team members and ensure the implementation of safeguarding standards in every course of action.
• Follow the safeguarding reporting procedure in case any reportable incident takes place, encourage others to do so.

Educational Requirements:

• Advanced degree (PhD or Masters) in a relevant field such as education/ international development/ non-profit management, etc. from any recognised university/ institution.

Experience Requirements:

• More than 10 years of experience working in leading programmes focused on youth leadership and engagement, youth economic empowerment/ workforce development, institutional strengthening, or private sector engagement in the South Asian context (strong understanding of Bangladeshi context preferred)

Additional Job Requirements:

• All nationalities are welcome to apply.
• Successful track record of supervising, designing, managing, and implementing complex USAID-funded projects, with a deep understanding of FAR and AIDAR requirements.
• Demonstrated expertise in organisational development/ institutional strengthening of government and non-government community-based organisations.
• Ability to establish strong working relationships with senior government officials; youth-led groups, community officials, media, civil society, and private sector leaders; international donors; and other stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to track and manage budgets and plan both strategically and creatively to meet programme objectives.
• Exceptional leadership and communication skills to manage across teams in challenging contexts.
• Strong interpersonal skills to work cooperatively with teams, local counterparts, donors, and other stakeholders to achieve results.
• Fluency in Bangla and English are required.

Employment Type: Contractual

Salary Range: Negotiable

Other Benefits: Festival Bonus, Health and life Insurance and others.

Job Location: BRAC Head Office