Senior Programme Manager, Rwanda At Interpeace

Reporting to: Rwanda & Great Lakes Representative

Location: Kigali, Rwanda

Application closing: 04 May 2022

Contract Type and Duration: 2 years renewable (depending on performance and donor funding).

Background

Interpeace is an international organization for peacebuilding that supports locally led peacebuilding initiatives around the world. Interpeace tailors its approach to each society and ensures that the work is locally driven. Together with local partners and local teams, Interpeace jointly develops peacebuilding programmes and helps establish processes of change that connect local communities, civil society, government, and the international community. As a strategic partner of the United Nations, Interpeace is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland and has offices around the world. For more information about Interpeace, please visit www.interpeace.org

Position within the Organization

The position is recruited to provide support to the Rwanda programme. The Senior Programme Manager is a member of the Programme Management Unit which manages and implements Interpeace’s active and ongoing programmes around the world. The Programme Management Unit is led from the Headquarters office in Geneva, although team members are based in various locations including in East and Central Africa, West Africa, Europe and the MENA region. The Senior Programme Manager reports to Rwanda and Great Lakes Regional Representative. For this position to be effective, the Senior Programme Manager will draw on support from the Programme Management Unit in the region and at Headquarters and with the Programme Development and Operations teams as well as within the network of Programme Managers based in other countries of operation.

Purpose and General Overview

The Senior Programme Manager assumes responsibility for the timely delivery of the programme in Rwanda. S/he provides leadership and strategic direction to Rwanda Programme team, in collaboration with the Rwanda and Great Lakes Representative. The Senior Programme Manager contributes to the management of relations with government, international and local organisations, networks, and media under the general guidance of the Rwanda and Great Lakes Representative. S/he is responsible for day-to-day management of programmatic activities within the pre-agreed programme budget or funding allocation.

Duties and responsibilities Strategic Engagement:

• Guides and mentors Programme Officers and other staff under his/her supervision.
• Supports implementation of the strategic direction and delivery of programmes in Rwanda necessary to enable Interpeace to implement its mandate.
• In close collaboration with the country representative, takes initiative in the development of proposals for Interpeace’s programmatic work.
• Contributes to relationship building with implementing partners and conducts horizon scanning for new partners at implementation level in close consultation with the country representative.
• In line with organizational priorities, supports the country representative to develop the country portfolio in size and scope to ensure the relevance of Interpeace and its work to the contemporary context of the country.
• Coordinates the strategic direction of existing programmes ensuring high quality delivery of all agreed outputs on schedule and within agreed budgetary and financial management parameters.
• Maintains programmatic/technical level relationships with implementing partners, donors, and others necessary for the development and management of Interpeace programmes in Rwanda.

Programme Management & Development

• Identifies and develops opportunities to expand the programme within the country, in collaboration with the country representative and the programme team, implementing partners as well as the Programme Development Unit.
• Provides technical leadership to Rwanda programme annual planning and budgeting processes as per organizational guidelines and local context.
• Ensures effective implementation of activities and compliance with the overall Finance & Associated manuals and complies with procedures required by grant or contract agreements.
• Ensures the highest level of project quality and accountability.
• Monitors openings for funding, in particular from new and diverse sources, and advises Interpeace country representative on relevant opportunities.

Representation

• Focuses on Tracks Two and Three engagements and supports the country representative on Track One relationships when required.
• Engages and builds relationships with implementing partners and technical level staff of partner government institutions.
• Represents Interpeace in technical meetings, conferences, forums, and other public events and contributes towards consolidating and raising the profile of Interpeace
• Contributes to occasional media engagement when required and in-line with Interpeace communication policy.

Management – institutional coherence

• Ensures compliance of programmatic work at activity level with internal controls.
• Has a close operational coordination at working level with other teams in Interpeace and with implementing partner organizations.

Management of Personnel and Resources

• Manage and mentor a team of programme officers and other programme support staff
• Delivers all activities and achievement of results in annual workplan for country programme
• Monitors, evaluates, and documents the individual performance of direct reports through a staff development lens.
• Designs and delivers all activities and achievement of results through an annual workplan for the country programme.

Qualifications

Education:

• Advanced degree in international relations, political science, development, management, or relevant field Experience.
• At least 7 years of professional experience in programme management (strategy, planning, reflection, implementation, monitoring, evaluation).
• At least 5 years of field experience in community-level peacebuilding Rwanda programmes in Rwanda. Specific experience working on societal healing in Rwanda will be an advantage.

Competencies:

• Demonstrates effectiveness and strong experience with short and long-term planning; financial, personnel and program management.
• Advanced knowledge and experience of project cycle management including using project planning and management tools.
• Knowledge of current thinking on peacebuilding issues and methods; and demonstrable ability to anticipate emerging needs and integrate them swiftly into priority programme setting.
• Ability to work in a multicultural environment successfully and to demonstrate gender responsive and non-discriminatory behavior and attitudes.
• Excellent ability to interact with people respectfully and with tact.
• Strong writing and communications skills in English and Kinyarwanda are required.

Interpeace Competencies

• Collaboration and Weaving
• Communication
• Drive for results
• Adaptability and Continuous Learning
• Respect for Diversity Success factors
• Identifies with and is committed to Interpeace’s core values and working principles
• Commitment to inclusiveness
• An innovative, critical thinker with extensive problem-solving skills
• A strategic manager who is accountable, leads by example, mentors, and empowers a team and works to create work-life balance Interpeace values diversity among its staff and aims at achieving greater gender parity in all levels of its work.