Programme Quality and Development Coordinator At Concern Worldwide

Concern Worldwide is present in Burundi since 1997 and Rwanda since 1994. Since that time we have grown into one of the leading humanitarian organisations operating in those countries with operations in the domains of social protection, food security, health & nutrition, WASH, climate change & resilience and refugee reintegration. The role of Programme Quality and Development Coordinator is an exciting opportunity to create and maintain business opportunities for Burundi and Rwanda and make sure they correspond to the highest quality standards in both countries.

About the role: This is a 12-month role with unaccompanied terms based in Bujumbura, with frequent trips to programme locations in Burundi and Rwanda. The role is placed in Grade 4 (€44,133 – €49,038).

You will report to the Programme Director and will lead the programme quality team with line management of the M&E Manager, Gender & Communication (A&C) Officer. You will work closely with the Dublin M&E Technical Advisors, Desk Officer, and Technical Advisers in country.

We would like you to start in May 2024.

Your purpose: One of your priorities is to lead on the grants and compliance aspects of Concern’s programme in Burundi/Rwanda, including managing all grants, finalising reports and ensuring they are compliant with donor requirements and writing proposals based on Concern’s strategic objectives. You will ensure high quality programme design and implementation through the continued critical review of M&E systems, incorporate learning into programme design, and ensure that cross cutting issues, including gender and protection, are systematically included. You will support the communications function and will be the focal person for all mainstreaming and accountability issues, both internally and externally. You will also ensure that appropriate programme documentation, reporting and filing processes are in place.

You will be responsible for:

Programme Design and Quality:

• Support on proposal development with the support of Technical Advisers and programme and support teams to ensure a coordinated plan and strong programme logic in line with the programme strategy
• Coordinate processes to ensure programme quality including the full programme cycle, strengthening systems for proposal development, programme implementation, monitoring and evaluation and learning
• Monitor programme activities to ensure they are carried out in line with organisation’s internal systems and procedures and adhere to the Core Humanitarian Standard’s commitments on accountability.
• Communicate agreed reports and other information in a timely and relevant manner to various stakeholders.
• Oversee the implementation of a robust complaints and response mechanism (CRM) and ensure that any feedback or complaints from stakeholders are handled in an appropriate and systematic way.
• Ensure that Concern mainstreaming polices and “How Concern Understands Extreme Poverty” (HCUEP) are understood by all staff and are implemented at all levels.
• Develop a communications strategy and communications material on programme quality initiatives and best practices.
• Promote a culture of shared learning across all programme locations and with colleagues in the region including the organisation of quarterly project review meetings.

Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning:

• Oversee an integrated and results based M&E system that appropriately measures programme progress against agreed objectives.
• Support the M&E Manager in coordinating and strengthening programme-level M&E activities, including implementation of baseline, midline and endline surveys.
• Supervise the use of Concern’s Digital Data Gathering system for the collection of data.
• Support the M&E Manager in the implementation of technical surveys (e.g. SMART, KAP), working with the relevant programme teams to ensure that data collection techniques are robust, staff and agents involved have a good understanding of their roles, the data entry processes are timely and accurate, and that the data analysis is timely and coherent.
• Develop a knowledge management system to capture lessons learned and disseminate these within Concern.
• Ensure all aspects of the programme activities adhere to programme quality standards and policies (PM&E, accountability and mainstreaming) in a coherent and integrated manner.
• Facilitate support visits from technical advisors and ensure dissemination of learning.

Accountability and Gender:

• With the support of the Accountability & Gender Officer and Gender Adviser, drive the integration of Gender & Equality in all programmes/projects and develop tools and systems to monitor and evaluate effectiveness and impact
• Support training sessions by the Accountability & Gender Officer for all staff (Concern and partners) to improve awareness and integration of gender and equality issues in Concern (e.g. in programme implementation and recruitment processes).
• Manage the implementation of an effective complaints response mechanism across Concern’s programme areas
• Ensure feedback and comments from programme participants and stakeholders are regularly reviewed and considered and propose programme adaptations/improvements where necessary.

Support to Programme Management:

• Liaise with your team and other colleagues to complete internal, HQ and donor reports as required.
• Work with the Technical Advisors, Grants Team, Programme Director in developing quality donor proposals based on the most updated contextual information
• Participate in preparing complete, accurate and realistic budgets for donor proposals and as part of Concern’s internal budget procedures, in collaboration with the Programme Director and Country Financial Controller and Technical Advisers
• Ensure the allocated budget for programme quality is utilised effectively and any necessary adjustments are requested in a timely manner in coordination with the budget holders
• Ensure high quality internal and external reports are prepared by the programme
• Ensure that all grant documents are properly filed for reference and retrievable for donor and other audits whenever required.
• Promote donor compliance, ensuring that programme managers understand and adhere to donor regulations as stipulated in donor contracts.
• Ensure that all grants are created on Concern’s Grant Management System (GMS) and that all grants related documents are saved on the GMS and the internal server.

Capacity Building:

• Oversee capacity building of M&E staff on project cycle management and M&E tools and support them if necessary.
• Build the capacity of the staff, specifically on the development and use of log frames for planning and monitoring of progress as well as in report writing in general with the help of technical advisors
• Ensure that new tools and approaches are shared and understood by staff and partners.

People Management:

• Manage the M&E Manager, the Communication & Gender Officer, contributing to their capacity building through technical support and on-the-job training and coaching, including a thorough an induction at the start of a contract.
• Ensure that they have tangible goals to follow up on and that they fully understand outcomes which are expected of them by setting SMART objectives.
• Ensure that they are aware of and comply with all of Concern’s policies and procedures.
• Monitor and review performance of these staff and hold them accountable for meeting their success criteria; give corrective feedback where required and take decisive action in case of poor performance.
• If any of these staff have line management responsibilities as well, ensure that they meet the requirements above for each of their team members.
• Ensure that work within the team(s) is planned and organised in a way which will meet the organisation’s needs in the most cost effective manner possible; ensuring that team members are given appropriate workloads and are working efficiently.
• Organise weekly meetings with each member of the Programme Quality team
• Promote a sense of responsibility, accountability and pride in striving for programme excellence within the team.

Accountability:

In line with Concern’s commitments under the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS):

• actively promote meaningful community participation and consultation at all stages of the project cycle (planning, implementation, M&E);
• work with relevant colleagues to ensure that the Complaints and Response Mechanism (CRM) is functional and accessible, that feedback and complaints are welcomed and addressed;
• work with relevant colleagues to ensure that information about CRM, safeguarding and expected staff behaviour is disseminated among programme participants and communities.

Other:

• Actively participate in collective exercises such as preparation or updates of in-country and international Concern initiatives.
• Ensure the highest standards of accountability through ensuring good communication and information sharing within and outside the organisation as appropriate
• Be aware of, understand and comply with all of Concern’s policies and procedures (P4, Safe Guarding, finance, logistics, HR, security management etc.).
• Contribute to ongoing security management and planning as necessary.
• Actively participate in any emergency response if called upon to do so (within the existing programme area or in a new one).
• Undertake other related duties as may reasonably be assigned by the Country Director or the line manager
• Represent Concern in national and where appropriate technical working groups, cluster meetings and technical for a

Your skills and experience will include:

Essential:

• Relevant graduate degree (economics, agriculture, development or equivalent)
• Three years relevant field based experience in the development/humanitarian sector
• Fluent English and French – written and spoken
• Demonstrated experience of proposal development and reporting for INGOs
• Demonstrated experience of working with rural communities
• Demonstrated experience in all stages of the PCMS (Programme Cycle Management Systems): assessments , programme development, including the logical framework approach
• Knowledge of M&E approaches
• Experience in preparing budgets and reports for international donors.
• People management and staff capacity development
• Computer skills
• Knowledge of mainstreaming Equality (especially Gender) and Protection
• Ability to work independently and under own initiative
• Ability to work under pressure and prioritise, often to strict deadlines
• Good networking skills, interpersonal communication, presentation and motivational skills
• Strong analytical and problem solving abilities.
• Empathy with Concern’s goals and a commitment to capacity building, protection and participation.
• Willingness to travel to rural areas up to 30% of the time between programme locations
• Excellent organisational skills.
• Cross cultural awareness and sensitivity.
• Creativity

Desirable:

• Post graduate degree in relevant discipline
• Practical experience of implementation of mainstreaming activities, especially in equality.