Deputy Country Director – Programs At CARE Deutschland

Location: Kyiv, Ukraine with travels to other CARE Ukraine Offices.

Reporting to: Country Director

Responsible for Managing: Program Implementation Lead, Program Quality Lead, Program Development Lead, Partnerships Coordinator, Communications Coordinator, GEDI/Safeguarding Coordinator

Duration: 12 months (International Contract)

Conditions: Employment contract, gross monthly salary starting from €6,120, Risks allowance of €400/month (medium risks areas), Programme Management Allowance €600 medical insurance and repatriation insurance and accommodation provided. Visa fees covered. Contribution to the luggage transportation up to €250. R&R (5 working days plus 2 travel days) every 8-12 weeks with an allowance of €1,000. Annual leave of 28 days per calendar year.

Starting date: As soon as possible

CARE INTERNATIONAL

CARE International (CI) is among the world’s largest international non-governmental humanitarian relief and development confederations. Drawing on more than 75 years of experience, CI’s work reaches over 110 countries worldwide to save lives, defeat poverty and achieve social justice.

CARE’s vision is to seek a world of hope, inclusion, and social justice; where poverty has been overcome and people live in dignity and security. CARE focuses heavily on women and girls, and the areas of gender equality, diversity, and inclusion are at the center of our work because we know that we cannot overcome poverty and social injustice until all people have equal rights and opportunities.

CONTEXT IN UKRAINE

On 24th February 2022, the invasion of Ukraine marked a significant escalation to the conflict that started in 2014. It continues to profoundly impact the lives of people across the country at various levels. The front line is continuously shifting and there are areas under Russian military control, as well as cities under siege. Attacks on military installations and critical civilian infrastructures are conducted in the whole territory of Ukraine, often resulting in collateral civilian casualties. The conflict has caused the largest population movement in Europe since World War II, with over 5 million currently displaced within Ukraine and 6 million refugees across Europe. OCHA (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) had counted 14.6 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.

An ongoing priority for the international humanitarian response is to reach newly accessible areas in the East and South of Ukraine, and to provide aid to previously unreachable and particularly hard-hit areas of Ukraine.

CARE UKRAINE

As CARE, we strongly believe in the importance of localization and recognize the invaluable skills and knowledge present in the local context. By working together, we can achieve quality responses and make a lasting impact on the lives of those we serve. CARE seek to establish long-term, sustainable partnerships with civil society organizations especially WLOs/WROs that lead to more effective, locally driven, and impactful humanitarian responses, recovery, and development in Ukraine, improving the lives of the most vulnerable populations.

In the first few weeks after the escalation of the war, virtually all humanitarian aid inside Ukraine was organized and implemented by local actors. These groups (together with local authorities) remain the principal aid providers but are quickly being exhausted of funds, fuel, and physical energy. Thereby, a considerable proportion of CARE’s resources is dedicated to strengthening and supporting the capacities of local partners.

As of September 2024, CARE Ukraine has established partnerships with over thirty local/national organizations (incl. WLO’s/WRO’s). From the more than 75 million euro that have been raised for Ukraine thus far, more than 77% is allocated to national partners. Through the activities that have been implemented so far, CARE Ukraine has been able to reach more than 1,4 million people.

While CARE Ukraine’s country office is currently located in Kyiv, we also have offices in Lviv, Dnipro, Odesa, Mykolaiv and Kharkiv.

JOB SUMMARY:

As a member of the Senior Management Team and under the direct supervision of the Country Director, the Deputy Country Director – Programs (DCD-Programs) plays a leading role in developing and implementing high quality programs in Ukraine. The DCD programs is responsible for new business development, ensures projects are implemented on scope, time and budget and leads quality management and impact efforts of the entire project portfolio. The DCD-programs line manages the Program Implementation Lead, Program Quality Lead, Program Development Lead, Partnerships Coordinator, Communications Coordinator and GEDI/Safeguarding Coordinator, and ensures close coordination and consultation with other departments.

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES:

Program Strategy development

• Maintain deep understanding of the security, social, political, and economic context in Ukraine by initiating assessments in areas where CARE foresees needs for programme expansion
• Provide inclusive and cohesive leadership to CARE’s programme teams in Ukraine, ensuring that priorities and opportunities identified by partner organizations strongly contribute to the development and implementation of the Strategic Plan, the master budget and the funding strategy
• Adequately, support the review of a multi-year strategic plan for Ukraine centred on humanitarian needs, resources mobilizations, accountability framework, programme quality and impact.
• Ensure that in strategy and programme planning CARE’s role is defined in complementarity with capacities and strategies of other humanitarian actors intervening in Ukraine
• Ensure the mainstreaming of gender and protection issues in CARE’s related activities following guidance from the relevant clusters, to ensure that all concerns reported are properly addressed
• Support the CD in developing a funding strategy, diversifying and strengthening donors’ engagements
• Actively liaise with other programmes/actors in Ukraine, as well as CARE International’s technical units to maximize synergies and application of best practices across CARE’s confederation.

Oversight and Management of Program Implementation

• The DCD-program is responsible for overall program implementation and has delegated the delivery of high-quality programming in line with the objectives of the country strategy.
• In collaboration with Area Manager and SMT, define and implement an effective, efficient and sustainable operating model, including defining and developing the role of CARE and its partners, and ensuring that proper policies, procedures, SoPs and systems are in place to properly and adequately support program implementation.
• Ensure program partners have partnership agreements in line with CARE’s requirements including those for PSEA.
• Oversees timely, efficient and effective delivery of a high-quality protection and gender-focused and women right-based programs including:
• Oversee the setting and follow up of detailed project management tools, such as Grants Dashboard, Gantt Chart, Monitoring Plans, Monitoring reports and Assessment Plans
• Review of Budget vs Actuals reports and provision of variance analysis to facilitate decision making
• Compliance with donor and CARE regulations on all projects
• Have oversight and be accountable for all program and operations budgets; Ensure tight financial oversight of project and thematic budgets, maintaining timely expenditure in line with agreed priorities and donor guidelines.
• Builds the capacity of staff in program management, technical competency and policy.
• Ensure that Grants Interim Review meetings are held on a regular basis (depending on the duration of the project and the level of risk identified) and that any actions listed for CO are swiftly acted upon.
• Ensure that any bottlenecks between departments at Country Office level, as well as between area offices and country office are swiftly addressed and resolved.
• Ensure that programs are implemented in ways responsive to the communities, especially to women and girls, and in in line with CARE principles, values and strategic plans in compliance with CI procedures.
• Ensure preparation of timely and high-quality progress reports and donor reports by Program Managers.
• Organize regular field visits in coordination with area offices to solicit staff feedback and observe project sites.

Budget Management

• Serve as the overall budget holder for most programming ; manage and support budget holders for individual projects and grants.
• Ensure expenditure is authorized in accordance with the budget authorization procedures within the scheme of delegation (SoD) – including notifying Finance of new grants and who the relevant budget holders are.
• Maintain oversight over the forecast process, working closely with the Program Managers to ensure that financial forecasts are accurate and based on well-structured detailed implementation plans, lessons learned and operational realities.
• Monitor PeopleSoft for significant variances between budget and actual expenditure.
• Ensure appropriate action is taken for a budget under/overutilization working closely with the program managers and program implementation lead.

Partnerships and Capacity Building

• Develop systems and mechanisms to ensure fair selection of partners to work with CARE
• Ensure the pool of partners working with Ukraine are meeting CARE’s requirements for programming, through a proper due diligence process
• Develop partnerships framework agreements and ensure that a risks compliance mechanism is in place to address the risks identified
• Ensure CARE is providing enough support to implementing partners through mentoring, coaching and structured trainings that are pre-identified and scheduled using jointly approved capacity development plans
• Work with the Partnership Coordinator in conducting regular reviews of CARE’s partnership approach and partnership management system including contributions to the development and follow-up of the revision of the existing processes and tools
• Ensure that partner organizations are systematically involved in the design of the project proposals, including logical framework and budgeting

Business Development

• Feed into the overall program strategy, providing data and analysis as required for strategic purposes and new program design, including proposal development
• Lead on developing programmes that are adaptive and can respond to humanitarian crisis as and when necessary
• Lead role in ensuring coordination of all technical input to country strategy, proposals and reports in close coordination with the program development lead and program quality lead.
• Lead on developing protection-based programmes and sector log-frames aligned with strategy and partnership strategy
• Ensure beneficiaries participate in design, implementation and monitoring of the programs via partner organizations
• Support the Program development lead to manage the proposal development processes and ensure roles and timeframes are communicated and well understood by the proposal development team
• Lead the CO Resource Mobilization Strategy review processes, facilitating decision making to ensure that fundraising strategies and activities are relevant and remain aligned with changes in the context and programming
• Evaluate eligibility and provide summaries of opportunities and calls to support the CO Go-No-Go appraisal and decision-making process

Representation and Networking

• Support in establishing, maintaining, and improving active and regular working relationships with partner agencies including humanitarian and development donors, and local and international NGOs
• Maintain a network across CARE International and the membership to secure technical resources to support the strategy
• Engage with UN Agencies on a sectoral or cross-sector basis regarding working group/cluster architecture to manage CI commitments and effective performance in hosting Co-Leads Partnerships
• Support advocacy and media campaigns by defining technical messaging in close collaboration with the Communication Coordinator.

Team Management and Coordination

• Monitor the recruitment, training and promotion of programmes staff to ensure core functions are filled, with focus on nationalisation of positions where feasible
• Manage the performance of direct reports using CI performance management policies and procedures as well as through appropriate coaching, mentoring, training and development
• Support the development/revision of job descriptions, management structures and performance management, of units under his/her supervision
• Work closely with program staff to promote a collaborative and productive team environment.
• In collaboration with the human resources department, identify capacity development needs of staff

The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties assigned by line manager.

QUALIFICATIONS & REQUIREMENTS:

• Master’s degree in development or other social sciences or relevant degree
• At least ten years of robust experience with an INGO in a complex emergency and development program cycle management, and with experience of working within a complex and matrix organization structure.
• A minimum of 5 years of senior management, including significant field operations experience running both emergency and development programs.
• A very good understanding of at least 3 of the sectoral programs (Protection, WASH, Shelter and Livelihoods) and a working knowledge of the program priorities of the Country Office
• Significant knowledge of international humanitarian systems, institutions, and donors, and of procedures, accountability frameworks and best practices in emergency management
• Substantial experience and knowledge of effective financial and budgetary control and securing and managing grants from major institutional donors.
• Solid project management skills related to organizational development projects and international, cross-functional teams with a proven history of delivering results.
• Ability to analyze information, evaluate options and to think and plan strategically.
• Previous experience of managing and developing a team and the ability to lead, motivate and develop others and excellent interpersonal, communication and presentation skills
• Fluency in written and spoken English.
• Ability and willingness to change work practices and hours, and work with incoming teams in the event of major emergencies and work in a setting with limited movement and security restrictions.
• Strong and recent knowledge of Ukraine humanitarian context is an asset.
• Ukrainian and/or relevant regional language would be an asset
• Proven experience in humanitarian advocacy and networking with duty bearers (negotiation and influence skills)
• Experience of training and capacity building.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills including influencing, negotiation, and coaching.
• Strong results orientation, with the ability to challenge existing mind sets.
• Commitment to the aims and principles of CARE.
• Experience of representation and ability to represent CARE effectively in external forums.
• Knowledge of institutional donors and experience of developing proposals.
• Politically and culturally sensitive with qualities of patience, tact, and diplomacy.
• Computer skills (including Excel and Word)
• Excellent interpersonal and diplomatic skills
• Good organizational skills
• Adaptation capacities to dynamic context
• Trustworthiness and sense of responsibility

Accountability:

A commitment to CARE values and CARE’s integrity framework is critical to working with CARE. Any candidate offered a job with CARE will be expected to adhere to the following key areas of accountability:

• Comply with CARE’s policies and procedures with respect to safeguarding, code of conduct, health and safety, confidentiality, do no harm principles and unacceptable behaviour protocols.
• Report any concerns about the welfare of a child or vulnerable adult or any wrongdoings within our programming area.
• Report any concerns about inappropriate behaviour of a CARE staff or partner.

Safeguarding:

Children and vulnerable adults who come into contact with CARE as a result of CARE activities must be safeguarded to the maximum possible extent from deliberate or inadvertent actions and failings that place them at risk of abuse, sexual exploitation, injury, and any other harm. One of the ways that CARE shows this on-going commitment to safeguarding is to include rigorous background and reference checks in the selection process for all candidates.

Gender equality:

CARE is committed to meeting the standards of the CARE International Gender Policy (2019). Through this policy, CARE seeks to promote the equal realization of dignity and human rights for girls, women, boys and men in all diversities, and the elimination of poverty and injustice. Specifically, this policy seeks to improve the explicit incorporation of gender in programmatic and organizational practices.