What Our Donors Want to Know

ROLE DESCRIPTION

Opportunity International is looking to hire an experienced Senior Programme Manager to work within the International Programmes Team. The position is for at least 12 months with a possibility to extend.

The Senior Programme Manager will be the focal point of Opportunity Internationals £2.5 million Girls Education Challenge Programme. Responsible for end to end management of the programme from field implementation, financial management and control, compliance, partnerships management and monitoring, evaluation and learning as well as donor management through the fund manager Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) and match donors.

PROJECT CONTEXT

In Uganda, drop-out rates are very high. In 2014 almost 70% of girls and boys completed primary school, but only 13% of girls finished secondary school. High attrition rates for girls are linked to early marriage and pregnancy. Nearly half of Ugandan girls marry before they turn 18, and a quarter become pregnant in their teens, rising to one third of girls from the poorest rural households.

Education quality is also a challenge. Insufficient classrooms and/or trained teachers, creates over-crowding, and many schools lack appropriate educational resources. High teacher absenteeism, outdated teaching methods and curricula contribute to poor learning outcomes. Girls’ education is particularly undermined by a gender bias and discrimination in schools, textbooks, curricula and teachers’ attitudes.

PROJECT BACKGROUND AND ACTIVITIES

In 2013 Opportunity partnered with DFID’s Girls’ Education Challenge (GEC) fund to improve access to and quality of girls’ education in Uganda. The project received a Civil Society Achievement Award at the 2016 Child and Youth Finance International Global Inclusion Awards and was shortlisted for the European Microfinance Award.

In May 2017 the project received a three-year extension. The Girls’ Education Challenge – Transition (GEC-T) project continues Opportunities work with a focus on supporting girls to transition through key stages of their schooling to enable them to complete a full cycle of education. The project aims to reduce the number of drop-outs through a combination of teacher capacity building, life-skills training and targeted use of financial services alongside raising awareness about the value of girls’ education and lifting educational standards through governance improvement. The project is being implemented through a consortium of seven partners to bring in skills and expertise from across the education, finance and development sector.

Project activities

• Building the self-esteem of 19,600 girls in Girls’ Clubs through life-skills and entrepreneurship training.

• Improving the quality of education for 48,000 children through teacher training, curriculum development, mentoring and support from educational specialists.
• Providing 132 school improvement loans to improve school facilities. This will increase access to high quality education for approximately 25,000 girls.
• Providing school fee loans to assist the continuing education of 4,000 girls preventing drop-out and improving transition rates from primary to secondary.
• Opening 2,000 child savings accounts to help girls save for their education and future.

PROGRAMMING, GRANT MANAGEMENT AND COMPLIANCE 40%

• Provide support to the day-to-day project coordination, through the Consortium Lead, relating to project; set up, processes, implementation, reporting, partner and consultant management and budget management to ensure overall delivery of the Girls Education Challenge-Transition (GEC-T) Fund in accordance with the outcomes and outputs agreed with DFID.
• Ensure timely submission of all donor reports and fund requests, including financial, narrative, milestone tracking, management information, risk and programme assets. This includes compiling and writing sections of the report, as well as liaising with partners for quality, accuracy, and style. Ensure all reports are submitted on time and comply with donor requirements, including contract management, due diligence processes, and adherence to International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI).
• Oversee both the internal and external monitoring and evaluation processes, ensuring a full understanding of fund guidance and monitoring compliance and quality of deliverables submitted by the external evaluator for the baseline, mid-line and end-line evaluations.
• Manage processes related to Payment by Results (PbR) most notably programme adaptations in response to programme learning, technical monitoring and six monthly Review and Adaptations Meetings (RAM) with PwC. This involves completing systematic reviews of project outcomes against objectives and how we can improve these.
• Monitor progress through field visits and meetings with project staff, communities, partners, local and provincial government, and other key stakeholders.
• Ensure reporting of fraud cases and other relevant incidents through appropriate reporting mechanisms.
• Ensure compliance to child safeguarding and ethical conductrequirements.
• Ensure accurate programme information is maintained on relevant programme information databases.

RISK, FINANCIAL REPORTING AND MONITORING 30%

• Oversee grant financial processes including management of the Financial Management System (FMS), preparation and submission of financial reports, claims, exchange rates, co-financing/match funding requirements and internal and donor audits, review and verify internal reports on match funding.
• Ensure GEC grant financial compliance standards are understood and applied by consortium partners (including procurement, contracting, asset and exchange management practices).
• Maintain internal and fund level donor financial reporting systems and budget revision tools including preparation and management of activity based budgets
• Oversee financial management alongside consortium partner finance leads including:

• Review of the quarterly forecasting, quarterly spend reports and variance explanations for all countries;
• Preparation of quarterly cash requests and quarterly financial reports for upload to PWC Fund Management System;
• Identify issues and challenges related to financial setup and management of GEC projects and oversee the remedy of these concerns through relevant channels.
• Support Consortium Partners to identifying required systems improvements and further training needs minimising the potential for fraud, underspend and disallowed costs.

PARTNERSHIPS MANAGEMENT AND SUPERVISION (20%)

• Direct line management of In-Country Consortium Lead
• Ensure good flow of project information from field level to external partners, between partners, internal to partners between operations, finance and M&E teams, with good communication plans for each partners are in place and implemented.
• Ensure clarity of partners and individual team members’ roles and manage individual behaviour and performance
• Review partners’ results, challenges and lessons learned each quarter. Analyse project progress and content and provide feedback for improving projects

REPRESENTATION (10 %)

• Manage relations with DFID appointed Fund Management Team at PwC and UK, Uganda, US and Netherlands based consortium partners
• Participate in GEC-T networking and learning events, including those convened by other GEC-T Fund holders.
• Represent the project to Ugandan and UK government, DFID and private and institutional donors.

WORKING RELATIONSHIPS AND KEY CONTACTS

• Reports to the Director of International Projects (internal)
• Head of Edu Finance and Director of Education Quality (internal)
• Finance Director and Teams (internal UK and US based)
• Portfolio Manager in PwC- Rwanda
• Finance Officer and M&E Officer in PwC-Belfast
• Finance and Technical Monitors in PwC- Kampala
• Consortium Partners CEO’s, Programme, Finance, M&E technical staff
• External Evaluator

The role will involve travel to Uganda2-4 weeks per year

QUALIFICATIONS, EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

At least undergraduate degree in Social Sciences or related fields

Minimum 5 years’ relevant experience in project management across a range of project types preferably – girls’ education, microfinance and/or children safeguarding.

Strong MEL experience with a proven track record of design, monitoring, evaluation and impact analysis and research design and supervision, specifically longitudinal cohort tracking.

Experience in operational aspects of delivery, preferably field based and in the education sector.

Proven and strong risk management skills with a determined attitude for a thorough approach to risk mitigation and management.

Experience of institutional donor relationship management, preferably with DFID, and an understanding of potential impact of programming work in influencing political and policy decisions.

Strong financial management skills and a proven track record in preparing and implementing pipeline analyses and quarterly spending targets

Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including familiarity with logical frameworks and the ability to write technical reports against performance indicators as well as managing large amounts of data.

Experience of communicating and monitoring compliance to complex donor regulations concisely and clearly to stakeholders with varying degrees of knowledge

Strong interpersonal, partnership brokering and networking skills. Experience of working with, managing and developing relationships with consortium partners.

Experience of working with colleagues based remotely and building staff capacity remotely and directly

Commitment to and understanding of Opportunity International's mission, vision, and values.

How to Apply

Please send a CV and covering letter outlining how your skills and experience meet the job description to:

Sally Vicaria - by Monday 5th March 2018

Interviews will be held week of 12 March 2018 in Oxford

We look forward to receiving your application and thank you for your interest in working for Opportunity International.

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