Program Manager – Rohingya refugee response At Translators without Borders

Contract length: August 31, 2023 with possibility to extend
Hours: Full-time
Location: Cox’s Bazar – Bangladesh

Travel: Minimal

Reporting to: Cox’s Bazar Area Manager, Bangladesh

Remuneration: 240,000-270,000 BDT/month depending on experience

Application Deadline: February 6, 2023***
***Due to the urgency of this vacancy, screening and interviews will commence immediately and the candidate can be selected at any stage before the closing date.

CLEAR Global/Translators without Borders (TWB) is an equal-opportunity employer, committed to having a diverse team where individuals of all backgrounds collaborate and learn from one another. We believe we can be most effective with diverse experience and expertise in our team. We recruit on merit, actively seek diverse applicant pools and encourage candidates of all backgrounds to apply. We do not discriminate on the basis of disability, age, gender identity and expression, national origin, race and ethnicity, religious beliefs, marital or parental status, or sexual orientation, and welcome all types of diversity.

We offer in addition to salary:

Provident fund (both contributory): 10% of gross salary of individual staff members/month
14.4 days of annual leave per year
10 days of casual leave and up to 15 days of recognized public holidays per year
Festival bonus: twice a year on the occasions on festivals

The Role

The Program Manager (PM) is responsible for ensuring programmatic and operational quality, relevance, effectiveness and efficiency across CLEAR Global/TWB’s program in the region.The PM will ensure the timely and effective identification, planning and delivery, monitoring and learning of activities and contracts. They will contribute to shaping TWB’s creative and innovative program, ensuring that it’s proactive, remains constantly relevant and is locally driven. The PM will also coordinate and contribute to proposal writing and fundraising, financial and people management.

They are a primary champion of TWB’s organizational culture and code of conduct, they nurture a positive work environment of quality, innovation and drive to achieve.

Responsibilities

Design, implementation, and monitoring of program activities

Work with a small team to implement program activities
Develop and maintain an excellent understanding of the language issues affecting the Rohingya Response
Develop mutually beneficial partnerships/projects with local and international agencies to pilot/research/implement language interventions to improve humanitarian services
Coordinate the daily management, ensure timely high-quality delivery and monitoring of all activities agreed with partners and donors. This will include liaising with the in-country team and a specialized global team (translation team, editor, tech team, RAD team, etc…) for the activities under the PM’s direct responsibility
Ensure that learning becomes a systematic part of the program cycle

Fundraising, financial and human resources management

Actively contribute to the Cox’s Bazar Area Manager and the Country Director to write project proposals. Identify funding opportunities and network with partners and donors with a view to submitting funding proposals
Seek opportunities to expand the depth and breadth of the program in response to need, and relay information to that end
Monitor and manage delegated budget lines in compliance with CLEAR Global/TWB and donor requirements
Line manage team members
Maintain open and professional relationships with the CLEAR Global/TWB team, volunteers, partner agencies and donors
Contribute to a positive, innovative and supportive work environment

Humanitarian liaison and coordination

Liaise with and support partners, to ensure language is factored into activities
Actively represent CLEAR Global/TWB in different Working Group meetings and initiatives
Proactively contribute to CLEAR Global/TWB’s advocacy and communication efforts as needed in close collaboration with the Area Manager.

Reporting and knowledge management

Provide CLEAR Global/TWB’s contribution to the sector updates and other required reports
Document project activities
Ensure TWB complies with donor reporting requirements, including writing narrative reports and working with the finance team to contribute in preparing financial reports corresponding with narrative
Contribute other written materials that support CLEAR Global/TWB needs (brochures, summary project information, etc.)
Leverage CLEAR Global/TWB approaches and innovations for new projects under development
Perform other duties as assigned

Qualifications

The Program Manager should be a creative self-starter with a strong sense of initiative, experienced in humanitarian response management and enthusiastic about the importance of giving a voice to affected people, increasing accountability, and improving access to knowledge through language. The right candidate is an energetic team player who agrees with CG/TWB´s basic beliefs and values and who can work virtually with team members based throughout the world.

Required qualifications:

Higher education degree in one of the following fields: social sciences or other relevant international development field
Minimum five years of experience in managing, implementing and designing humanitarian programming with demonstrated understanding community engagement, communication and accountability
Experience in proposal writing, including conceptualizing and technical writing
Knowledge and understanding of the role of language in humanitarian response
Ability to work independently, flexibly and with remote teams
Demonstrated ability to lead with fairness, treating all team members with respect while also fostering individual growth and promoting a strong team dynamic.
Experience with/knowledge of one or more international donor organizations
Excellent communication, interpersonal and representational skills
Excellent English oral and written communication skills
Ability to coordinate people and processes

Desirable qualifications:

Experience of practical and creative solutions to deliver results in organizations with minimal resources
Understanding of language dynamics in Bangladesh/Myanmar
Experience in/familiarity with budget management of development/humanitarian projects
Experience in conducting research, analyzing data and report writing
Written and spoken Bangla or Burmese and spoken Rohingya an advantage

Background

Extreme violence in Myanmar has driven more than 700,000 Rohingya refugees across the border into Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh in 2017. This is one of the largest refugee crises in the world. This refugee population has distinct humanitarian needs such as food, shelter, and actionable information in a language they understand. The only language that everyone in this community speaks and understands is Rohingya; a language that has no written form and has, in the past, attracted very little research into terminology and structure.

To best respond to the Rohingya community’s acute information needs, TWB is working in consortium with BBC Media Action and other consortium and implementing partners, working groups etc. to generate research and create tools to assist humanitarian actors to communicate effectively, in the appropriate language.

About Translators without Borders

Translators without Borders believes that everyone has the right to give and receive information in a language and format they understand. We work with nonprofit partners and a global community of language professionals to build local language translation capacity, and raise awareness of language barriers. Originally founded in 1993 in France (as Traducteurs sans Frontières), TWB translates millions of words of life-saving and life-changing information a year.

Core values

Translators without Borders employees and volunteers are made of people who believe passionately about the value of this work and take personal responsibility for achieving the mission. Translators without Borders’ mission and organizational spirit embody the core values established in its strategic framework:

Excellence: As the leading voice for communicating humanitarian information in the right language, Translators without Borders is a leader in the translation industry and in the non-profit sector.
Integrity: Translators without Borders believes that every person, whether it is the people who we serve, our volunteers or our staff, has value, deserves respect and has inherent dignity.
Empowerment: Translators without Borders believes in using language to empower people around the world to control their own development and destiny.
Innovation: Translators without Borders recognizes and celebrates the power of innovation to address humanitarian and crisis issues around the world.
Sustainability: Translators without Borders recognizes that meeting our mission necessitates establishment and maintenance of a solid financial and organizational infrastructure.
Tolerance: Our staff and volunteers are highly knowledgeable and skilled; value each other, our partner and our recipients; create a supportive work environment; and conduct themselves professionally at all times.

TWB may re-advertise the vacancy, cancel the recruitment, offer an appointment with a modified job description or for a different duration at its discretion.