Head of Programmes At Trócaire

Trócaire works in partnership with local organisations in developing countries, and with people in Ireland, to tackle the root causes of poverty and injustice. Together, we create positive and lasting change.
Trócaire works in up to 20 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.
We have 5 Goals: Defend Human Rights; Achieve Climate & Environmental Justice; Ensure Women & Girls’ Protection, Voice & Influence; and Mobilise the Public on the island of Ireland to achieve Global Justice.
Our work is rooted in Catholic Social Teaching and in our values of Solidarity, Courage, Participation, Perseverance and Accountability.

This is an exciting new opportunity to work with the growing Trócaire team to lead and develop a diverse portfolio of governance, women peace and security, GBV and women’s empowerment programming in Myanmar and Thailand. Based out of Trocaire’s new regional Thailand office in Chiang Mai, the right candidate will be a leader in the team, joining the Country Management Team and taking on responsibility for the delivery of our current programming and pushing the direction of our new programming. For the candidate with the required experience and passion for the role, Trócaire offers a competitive package of salary and benefits.

The regional office in Chiang Mai delivers support to Trócaire’s work in Myanmar and Thailand. The Head of Programmes (Chiang Mai) will takes overall responsibility for the implementation of women, peace and security, GBV and women’s em-powerment programming in Myanmar. The role will also focus on supporting local and national civil society organisations to work in the changing environment in Myanmar.

The Head of Programmes (HoP) Chiang Mai is a senior and strategic role for the Trócaire team, leading our growing portfolio of partnership programmes and a newly restructured team. The HoP (Chiang Mai) will also work closely with his/her counterpart, the Head of Programmes (Yangon), who will be focusing on humanitarian preparedness and response and nexus programming in Myanmar. We currently work with 27 national and local civil society partners.

Reporting to the Country Director, this is a Fixed Term Contract of two years, with the potential to renew, and is based in Chiang Mai, Thailand but with frequent travel to the programme locations in Myanmar. The candidate will man-age a growing Programmes team based both in Thailand and Myanmar and including around 10 people. The HoP will directly manage 4 team members (GBV Coordinator, Women’s Empowerment Coordinator, Programme Officer, and the Women and Peace Programme Manager) a dotted line management relationship to the MEAL Manager based in Thai-land).

Safeguarding Pro-gramme Participants Policy: Trócaire is committed to safeguarding people within our programmes from exploitation and abuse and has specific policies on this commitment (including a Global Code of Conduct) which outlines the expected behaviour and the responsibility of all staff, consultants and other organisational representatives.

Any candidate offered a job with Trócaire will be expected to sign Trócaire’s Safeguarding Policies and Global Code of Conduct as an appendix to their contract of employment and agree to conduct themselves in accordance with the provisions of these documents. All offers of employment will be subject to pre employment checks including satisfactory refer-ences and appropriate screening (e.g. police/garda vetting, counter terrorism and anti-trafficking).

Trócaire also participates in the InterAgency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme and all em-ployees will be subject to this as part of contract of employment.

Key Duties & Responsibilities

Programme Development and Management:

• Manage and deepen the current portfolio of thematic programmes on governance, women peace and security, GBV and women’s empowerment that responds to the local context, and contributes to a clear strategic country vision and theory of change in line with Trócaire’s new Strategic Plan 2021-2025 and the Trócaire Myanmar Country Strategic Plan.

• Ensure that Trócaire in Myanmar has a clearly identified niche and that our added value contributes to our partners’ work.

• Work in close co-ordination with the Head of Programmes, Yangon to ensure strategy coherence across programme, MEAL, business development and partner capacity strengthening.

• Ensure that different thematic areas of work are mutually reinforcing and contribute collectively to the achievement of country-level outcomes in view of an integrated programming approach and to ensure strong linkages between our development, peace and humanitarian work.

• Ensure that the programmes in Myanmar and Thailand contribute to Trócaire’s overall Strategic Plan and deliverables.

• Ensure safeguarding and accountability are considered in programming.

• Ensure that all our programmes promote policy and advocacy work, research and innovation.

• Ensure that all programmes effectively mainstream gender throughout the programme cycle.

• Ensure there is constant and open communication between the country programme team and head office, in particular the Programme team and Programme Impact and Learning Unit. This should facilitate joined up thinking and learning that can contribute towards organisational goals and priorities.

• Identify learning priorities within each programme and facilitate the sharing of this learning with partners, across programmes, and externally as appropriate.

• Ensure regular communication with the Business Development Manager (BDM) in country and the Unit in HQ to identify new funding opportunities and guarantee all programmes meet the requirements of back donors and that relevant support is given to Programme Co-ordinators and Officers as needed to meet these requirements.

Specific to Programme Design:

• Provide/ co-ordinate technical support to the programme staff (women’s empowerment, GBV, resource rights and peace) to ensure that the programmes are designed, implemented, monitored and evaluated within the Trócaire Programme Management and Accountability Framework (PMAG).

• Provide the necessary support to the country team to undertake analysis (contextual/poverty/ power etc.) that informs appropriate programme strategies, location and target population.

• Ensure that team members have access to technical support required to carry out programme baselines and evaluations. This includes supporting the process of identifying appropriate consultants and other technical support where necessary, and providing guidance to the MEAL team.

• Ensure that HQ-based Programme Teams are aware of and engaged in the programme design process in order to create synergies across country programmes and that technical advice from the Programme Teams is taken account of.

Specific to Programme Implementation and Monitoring:

• Ensure that all programmes are being implemented within a clear engendered M&E framework that includes regular monitoring by the team, supported by technical advice from the MEAL Manager.

• Monitor the standardised reporting system for all programme partners in Myanmar, in line with organisational policy and any institutional funding requirements.

• Through a regular programme review process with the Programme Managers, Co-ordinators and/or Officers, ensure that programmes are on track and challenges are dealt with.

• Assist programme staff to deliver high quality Annual Programme Reviews and donor reports that provide clear evidence of progress (or lack of) on an annual basis and that can be used for programme management, and ongoing learning and adaptation, as well as to highlight case studies for communication and advocacy.

Specific to Programme Evaluation:

• Ensure that all programmes are evaluated according to Trócaire’s evaluation policy and that learning from evaluations is incorporated into new programme design.

• Promote evaluation methodologies that foster internalisation of learning, and where possible promote elements of peer review and evaluation including with Partners.

• Together with Programme staff, identify and encourage participation at relevant thematic working groups, networks and learning forums at national (and possibly international) level in order to improve programme and advocacy impact.

Human Resource Management

• Implement an effective performance management system in line with organisational policy.

• Support, mentor and coach the team members as part of their professional development and to help them to be highly effective in their work.

• Ensure close coordination of finance staff with the Finance and Administration Manager and Business Development Manager on all aspects of partner financial management and grants management.

• Establish a team approach to programming and partner capacity building, ensuring that programme staff work together to share learning and to exchange skills.

• Ensure regular team meetings for information exchange and strategic discussions as well as to facilitate rolling out of organisational programme processes and policies within the country team.

• Ensure that all programme staff complete an induction process that equips them to confidently and effectively deliver on their role.

Financial and Admin Management

• As a member of the country senior management team, support the CD and FAM to develop annual country budgets and participate in regular budget reviews.

• Organise and maintain quarterly team meetings together with the finance and programme officers to have oversight of programme budgets and to review and monitor expenditure of all programme partners in close coordination with the Finance/Admin Manager and the Business Development Manager

• Ensure regular visits by finance or programme staff to all programme partners to review systems and financial management and to provide support to partners in line with Trócaire’s Partner Governance and Finance Policy.

• Ensure that all programme financial reports are produced in a timely manner and to a high standard.

• Provide the necessary support to the finance/programme officers to take appropriate actions if problems with financial management or organisational governance are identified.

• Jointly with the BDM ensure that finance/programme officers are familiar with internal, and where relevant external (e.g. back donor), financial management guidelines and policies, including fraud policies, and that these are adhered to.

• Support the CD and BDM to develop, implement and review an Institutional Funding Strategy for Trócaire.

• Support the CD and BDM in identifying possible funding opportunities in-country.

Partner Relationships and Support

• Ensure that the Partnership Policy guides Trócaire’s engagement with partners in Myanmar and that all Programme staff are familiar with and implement the policy.

• Co-ordinate with the Capacity Strengthening Co-ordinator to develop a Partner Capacity Building Programme with and for all partners in Myanmar. This should be developed using the Trócaire Partner Capacity Building Framework and should have a corresponding monitoring and review element for each partner.

• Provide the necessary support to Programme Staff to ensure that all necessary capacity assessments are carried out and analysed prior to entering into any new partnerships.

• In close coordination with the CD liaise with other Caritas/CIDSE/other like-minded agencies, in order to avoid any duplication, reduce transaction costs for partners and collaborate on capacity building, programming or advocacy initiatives.

• Manage any solidarity grants with Church partners of missionaries.

Policy, Advocacy and Communications

• Support the CD and the POs to proactively drive an evidence-based advocacy agenda, informed by a contextually relevant power and stakeholder analysis, as well as a thorough risk analysis regarding sensitive messaging.

• Support programme staff to embed advocacy within programme strategies, and oversee country level advocacy initiatives led by Trócaire which complements desired outcomes of programme strategies.

• Support the team to ensure Trócaire communications channels (online, offline) are being used to promote/highlight Trócaire Myanmar work.

• Support the CD and POs to respond to organisational needs for materials, or to host visits, related to organisational level policy, advocacy, campaigns, development education, fundraising and communications.

Risk Management

• Take responsibility for Risk Management at a programme level, ensuring that POs have the capacity to analyse and respond to risk at project and programme levels and that programme level risks are captured and managed as part of a country risk management strategy.

• As part of the CMT, support risk and security management.

Other Duties and Responsibilities

• Represent Trócaire at relevant external foram.

• Fulfil other reasonable duties and responsibilities, as requested by the Country Director, including deputising for the CD when necessary or appropriate.

Behavioural Competencies in Line with Trócaire’s Competency Framework

• Leading: Reflecting our values of Participation & Accountability, acts to inspire and lead others to achieve their potential, demonstrating Trócaire’s values with integrity in order to achieve our organisation’s objectives.

• Communicating: Reflecting our value of Participation, being one organisation, communicating clearly and trans-parently across, teams, units, divisions, locations and other external organisations. Getting our message across with impact.

• Collaborating: Reflecting our values of Participation & Solidarity, partnering effectively as One Trócaire organi-sation and, in solidarity, maintains positive relationships built on trust and respect.

• Stewardship of Resources: Reflecting our value of Accountability and decision-making around the best use of resources. Using our resources transparently, sustainably, ethically, fairly & with integrity; acknowledging Trócaire’s reputation in the use of resources.

• Delivering Results: Reflecting our values of Accountability & Perseverance, getting a quality job done through effective performance, planning and decision-making.

• Continual Improvement & Learning: Reflecting our values of Participation & Courage, constantly looking to learn and develop self, employees, and partners to better fulfil Trócaire’s’ mission.

• Flexibility & Change: Reflecting our values of Participation & Courage, adapts positively to change and to differ-ent ways of doing things; manages or takes part in change processes in a way that is appropriate to role in the or-ganisation.

Person Specification – Essential Requirements

(E) Qualification

• Third level qualification in Development, Humanitarian or related field of study.

• Masters or other post-graduate qualification in a relevant area, or significant experience beyond that outlined below.

(E) Experience

• At least 7-8 years of demonstrable experience in the management of development pro-grammes of substantial scale;

• At least 7-8 years’ experience of leading and managing teams as well as strong team-working skills and experience

• In-depth understanding of programming in a partnership model, working in a partner-ship-based NGO;

• Thorough understanding of safeguarding and accountability considerations in devel-opment work.

• Sound and up to date knowledge of development concepts, methodologies and tech-niques, including results based management, rights based approach and participatory methodologies;

• Demonstrable experience of promoting gender equity through programming and within an international organisation;

• Demonstrable experience of working to attract institutional donor funding and of manag-ing large and complex donor grants;

• Solid experience of managing teams in a multi-cultural environment and playing a leadership role in ensuring cohesiveness, inclusion and development of staff at all lev-els;

• Experience of working in a faith-based organization;

• Experience of working with management information systems.

(E) Skills

• Excellent leadership skills;

• Ability to motivate staff to align behind a shared vision and objectives;

• Demonstrated ability to think strategically and to develop and implement a clear country level strategy in the context of organisational strategy;

• Demonstrated ability to manage multi-cultural teams of national and international staff well, and to implement performance management effectively;

• Ability to coach and help others develop in their professional lives;

• Excellent interpersonal and relationship management skills and demonstrated ability in using these with internal stakeholders (Trócaire staff in different locations) and external stakeholders (partners, Church, donors, host government etc.);

• Demonstrated ability to manage budgets and financial systems on a significant scale, in development and humanitarian contexts;

• Highly organised, with excellent planning, prioritisation and problem-solving skills;

• Excellent verbal and written communications skills;

• Competent in Microsoft packages (Word, Excel);

• Fluency (written and spoken) in English.

(E) Qualities

• Understanding of, an empathy with, the role of the Catholic Church in development;

• A strong commitment to the work of justice and an empathy with the ethos and work of Trócaire.

(E) Other

• Ability and willingness to travel within country and internationally including travel to HQ in Ireland.

Person Specification – Desirable Requirements
(D) Skills

• Fluency in Myanmar language and/or any language spoken in Myanmar.