Chief of Party – USAID Ghana At Maestral International

Chief of Party – USAID Ghana

Position: Senior level, fulltime staff position

Location: Accra or Tamale, Ghana

Maestral International

Closing: Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis with the application window closing on 22 January 2025, 23:59 GMT.

Project Description

The Ghana Advancing Protection and Care for Children in Adversity (APCCA) Child Protection Activity aims to strengthen Ghana’s child protection system by addressing underlying causes of vulnerabilities, including poverty, harmful social norms, and gaps in inclusive services, especially for children with disabilities. Supported by USAID, the initiative focuses on evidence-based, child-cantered, and gender-responsive interventions at individual, family, community, and policy levels to enhance resilience and provide safe, nurturing care for children and adolescents. Key priorities include preventing and responding to violence, abuse, exploitation, neglect, and family separation, with special attention to children with disabilities, adolescent girls at risk of early pregnancy or child marriage, and those separated from family care. The program seeks sustainable solutions to empower families and communities while promoting children’s full potential.

Maestral International

Maestral International (Maestral) is a team of leading global experts supporting the development, strengthening and coordination of child protection and social welfare systems that meet the needs of children in adversity. We work to strengthen community-based and nationally owned systems for preventing and responding to harm and supporting children at risk. Our target population is children experiencing, or at risk of, abandonment, abuse, neglect and exploitation. Maestral works to facilitate cross-cutting, comprehensive approaches to child welfare that are locally owned, adequately resourced, sustainable and well-monitored and accountable. Learn more about Maestral at maestral.org

Job Description

Maestral is seeking a dynamic and experienced Chief of Party (COP) to lead the Ghana Advancing Protection and Care for Children in Adversity (APCCA) project. The COP will have overall responsibility for project management and implementation, ensuring the delivery of high-quality, impactful results. Key responsibilities include leading the project’s technical strategy in collaboration with national counterparts, technical leads, and Maestral staff; overseeing work plans, budgets, monitoring and evaluation (M&E), and ensuring timely, on-scope, and within-budget project execution; managing staff and implementing partners to meet project goals and maintain programme quality; building and maintaining productive relationships with USAID, the Government of Ghana, and local and international stakeholders; representing Maestral and the project in national forums, working groups, and capacity-building initiatives.

Reporting to the Program Manager, the COP will drive system reforms aligned with evidence-based, responsive and inclusive child protection approaches. They will foster collaboration across sectors and stakeholders, including government, civil society, academia, communities, and youth with lived experiences. The COP will be central in advancing a shared vision for strengthening Ghana’s child protection system. The COP will ensure compliance with Maestral policies and USAIDregulations, serving as the primary representative to USAID, government entities, and external stakeholders. They will promote equity, diversity, and an inclusive culture of learning and adaptive management, ensuring strong systems and processes drive programme performance.

The position is contingent upon award of the project by the donor.

Key Competencies

Program Leadership and Strategy

• Provide overall vision, strategic direction, and oversight for all project components to ensure effective execution.
• Offer leadership and strategic guidance across all facets of project development and management. Ensure that implementation is responsive to community needs and aligns with USAID and Maestral principles, values, and strategic objectives.
• Develop and maintain a comprehensive plan for programme activities, including a clear targeting strategy and process. Establish robust systems for quality implementation and program delivery, alongside effective operational methods and evaluation metrics.

Program Management

• Lead the development of detailed implementation plans based on strategic annual work plans.
• Ensure the project is delivered on time, on scope, and within budget, and that all systems are in place to support field activities effectively.
• Oversee the timely submission of all project deliverables, reports, and briefings to USAID and other stakeholders.
• Create and maintain systems to ensure the effective and transparent use of financial resources, ensuring timely and informative reporting in line with programme and donor requirements.

Team Management

• Manage the programme’s consortium, providing a framework and guidance for partners to fulfill their roles, contribute to the programme’s vision and direction, and manage challenges or issues that arise.
• Supervise, mentor, and develop program staff, fostering a collaborative and inclusive work environment.
• Promote accountability, communicate expectations, and provide constructive feedback through regular one-on-ones and performance reviews.
• With support from Maestral, hire, orient and lead team members as necessary, ensuring effective onboarding

Compliance and Financial Management

• Ensure full compliance with USAID regulations and Maestral policies, particularly regarding financial management, procurement, and reporting.
• In collaboration with the country operations and finance departments, ensure proper financial management, procurement, administration, human resources and logistics needs of the project are conducted within Maestral policy and with the maximum benefit.
• Monitor adherence to grant agreement, Maestral policies and procedures and relevant external rules and regulations, including those of the Government
• Collaborate with country leadership to support preparedness and response to major disruptive events.

Accountability

• Reports directly to: Program Manager
• Works directly with: Maestral’s Director of Operations, Maestral’s Program Manager, project team members, partner organizations, national stakeholders, and USAID.
• Accountability to participants and stakeholders.
• Maestral team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our programme participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our projects.

Behavioral Competencies

• Working with People: Ability to respect the views and contributions of team members, demonstrating empathy, reflective practice, active listening, and support. Consults others, shares information and expertise, builds team spirit, and adapts to the team dynamics.
• Flexibility: Ability to adapt to changing circumstances and priorities, tolerate ambiguity, and modify personal style to suit different people and situations.
• Drive for Results and Efficiency: Ability to set quality standards, monitor and maintain work quality, and establish goals for continuous improvement.
• Relationship Management and Consultation: Ability to manage interactions effectively, provide excellent service, and support the organization while building strong internal and external networks.

  Ability to guide organizational stakeholders and apply creative problem-solving to meet business needs.

• Leadership: Ability to lead and contribute to initiatives and processes that promote change and continuous improvement within the organization.
• Communication: Ability to effectively exchange information, deliver critical messages, gather insights, and communicate clearly with others.
• Global and Cultural Effectiveness: Ability to value and consider diverse perspectives and backgrounds, and work effectively in cross-cultural environments.
• Ethical Practice: Ability to integrate Maestral’s vision, mission, and core values, maintaining integrity and accountability in all organizational practices.
• Critical Evaluation: Ability to analyze information to inform business decisions and recommendations based on best practices and an understanding of desired outcomes.
• Developing Others: Ability to support and enhance the performance and professional growth of team members.

Education: Minimum of a master’s degree in social work, public administration, law, social sciences, child development, international development, public health, psychology, or related field.

Skills and Experience

• A minimum of ten (10) years of progressively responsible professional experience in social services, child protection, and care, or social protection is required. At least five years of this experience must have included program management and data and policy analysis of social sector programs.
• Prior experience as a Chief of Party (COP) or in senior leadership roles (e.g., Deputy Chief of Party, Program Director) is highly preferred.
• Experience managing USAID or other donor-funded projects in systems strengthening strongly preferred
• Demonstrated knowledge of USAID procedures pertaining to project design and implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and financial management and reporting.
• Proven ability to lead large-scale, complex projects, particularly those involving consortiums or multi-partner arrangements.
• Proven leadership skills in managing large, multi-disciplinary teams in challenging environments, ideally within Ghana.
• Extensive experience working with local and national government agencies, civil society organizations, academia, and media stakeholders in Ghana
• Proven technical experience in child protection system strengthening experience, with care reform, social service workforce, public finance for children, ECD, disabilities, child marriage etc and added advantage
• Experience managing child protection programming/activities and services, strengthening quality of child protection services and supporting scale-up
• Experience working in diverse and inclusive teams
• Experience working in Ghana required
• Proficiency in at least one of Ghana’s local languages is required

Language

Professionally proficient in written and spoken English with the ability to produce high-quality reports and presentations for diverse audiences. Proficiency in at least one Ghanaian language is required (northern regional language preferred).