Name of the position: Program Manager Youth and Work (PM Y&W)

Reporting to: Country Program Director (CPD)

Type of contract: Local full time open ended contract

Application deadline: 14th January 2021

Help a Child is a Christian international NGO specialized in community development with its headquarters in the Netherlands and it has been operating in Rwanda since 2008. Founded in 1968, Help a Child’s mission is to improve the wellbeing of children living in poverty and crisis through supportive communities.

In cooperation with local NGO partners, Help a Child Rwanda improves the resilience of households by implementing the Child Centered Community Development (CCCD) Program. In this holistic program, various thematic interventions are combined. Youth & Work is one of the Help a Child thematic expertise areas. Our vision for Youth & Work in Rwanda is to empower marginalized youth to prepare them for decent work opportunities, and to be able to grow out of poverty. This is done by setting up and strengthening youth groups and by supporting youth to learn modern farming techniques and exploit agriculture as an income generating opportunity. Other strategies are to provide technical and vocational training and to support youth groups to conduct joint advocacy on district level.

Main features

The Program Manager Youth & Work has the task to support the CPD by taking the lead to provide quality assurance for youth focused interventions implemented by Help a Child Rwanda. This involves ensuring that Implementing Partners fulfil their contractual obligations of reporting and collecting PMEL data at required standards. It also involves providing technical assistance and leadership to other colleagues in the Country Office to develop and use robust data collection and reporting systems. This position also has a special responsibility to develop fundraising strategy and plans for youth-focused program elements (Economic Program, Social resilience). He/she will have to reference and contextualize Help a Child’s global guidelines, then build the capacity of implementing teams to execute program plans, to monitor progress, and to evaluate results.

Result areas

Technical Assistance – Youth and Work programming

• Reference Help a Child’s global policies and program documents, as well as related government policies, to develop guidelines for how partners should implement child-centered activities focussing on Youth and other adult community members in a harmonized way and meet quality standards;
• Create new initiatives which will increase youth empowerment in the CCCD program with a particular focus to agribusiness;
• Build knowledge and technical capacity of implementing partners to deliver and monitor quality child-centered interventions, following set guidelines and using developed/adopted materials;
• Develop a (annual) plan of youth economic empowerment for Country Office and prepare guidance for implementing partners to do the same for coordinated activities country-wide;
• Collaborate with Implementing partners to link the farmers with the market and conclude delivery contracts with private actors;
• Expand agribusiness components implemented by Help a Child such as Green Curriculum, PIP, EPIC, Self Help  Approach, to reach more communities;
• Monitor implementation of planned activities at the field level to ensure that interventions are compliant with the standards and principles of not only the organization but also of the government and (back)donors;
• Mentor project staff during field visits to improve their technical knowledge on best practices for holisitic child development and provide immediate feedback on implementation to address gaps observed;
• Contribute to the development, use, and revision of tools for monitoring child-centered activities on daily basis as well as measuring change at the outcome level.

Result: (Annual)Program plans are developped and implemented according to plan and budget, meeting the requirements of Help a Child and (back-)donors.

Fundraising & Grant Management

• Identify, create and capitalize on funding opportunities for further growth of the Help a Child program;
• Develop strong relationships with existing and potential donors in the sector to promote Help a Child’s approaches and results so as to attract new or suplementary funding;
• Stay alert to funding opportunities that come available and pursue relevant leads;
• Take lead in Youth and Work projects design and proposal development;
• Lead process to recruit qualified staff to implement new projects/grants;
• Supervise and mentor project staff and consultants to ensure that they implement according to the project design and donor’s expectations;
• Collaborate with Finance Officer and project staff to track spending properly, accroding to the set budget as well as targets achieved;
• Prepare reqular reports to share progress with the donor, following the donor’s specific requirements;
• Accompany donors on field visits to project activities and participate in all other required partnership meetings;

Result: Resources are mobilized to grow the program and budgets, once secured, are properly managed to further build Help a Child’s reputation and open the door to additional funding opportunities.

Networking and Visibility

• Develop and maintain good relations with the government at the central and district level (for projects implemented directly by Help a Child);
• Represent Help a Child in appropriate thematic networks and influential groups at the national level to stay informed of national developments, share the work Help a Child, and collaborate with government and civil society partners;
• Learn from the experience of other actors in the same thematic area by attending learning workshops, organizing joint field visits with other parties, and participating in professional events;
• Create formalized collaborations with sister organizations when possible in order to share resources and harmonize approaches;
• Develop appropriate visibility tools to inform different networks and partners of the work Help a Child is doing and the impact it is making;
• Join forces with sister organizations, and/or bi-laterally with government, to conduct advocacy for needed services and/or policy changes affecting project beneficiaries;
• Host periodic visibility events to showcase the work of Help a Child to a variety of stakeholders in the sector.

Result: The country organization is well represented towards the government, donors, and cooperating partners so that 1) the country office has established visibility and good reputation and 2) opportunities for strategic cooperation and growth have been created.

Quality Assurance

• Lead the process of designing templates for planning and reporting for both Country Office and implementing partners to use, which meet Help a Child’s global requirements but are customized to local needs;
• Hold partners accountable to contractual deadlines for planning and reporting;
• Lead the process of reviewing partner reports on a quarterly basis and assisting partners to corrrect errors or discrepencies that are found;
• Facilitate capacity building sessions for Country Office and implementing partner staff on best practices in planning, monitoring, evaluation, and learning as well as data management and documentation of success stories;
• Provide strategic advice to CPD on how to address partnership management and program quality gaps.

Result: Implementing Partners and Country Office fulfill their contractual obligations of reporting and collecting PMEL data at required standards.

Organizational Development & Learning

• Contribute to team meetings to share lessons learned, harmonize planning, and achieve team goals;
• Support the process of customizing global policies to the country context and developing as well as implementing relevant procedures and templates;
• Stay connected to strategic developments within Help a Child and collaborate with staff from the global office to benefit from their technical guidance or support them in achieving their objectives;
• Provide input into strategic planning at the country-level as well as document and share lessons learned which can influence global strategy;
• Conduct capacity assessments for existing and potential partners and document recommended actions to follow up from the assessment;
• Ensure that HR policies and best practices are implemented for staff under his/her supervision so that staff are adequately supported to grow in professional skills, meet expected targets, maintain high morale, and contribute to the organization as a whole;
• Design and implement innovative ideas as a pilot project, when funds are available, which can become a niche for the organization;
• Ensure that evaluations and evidence gathered (internally or externally) are shared for maximum organizational learning.

Result: The country office and program of is in line with good practices and quality standards from the global office but also innovates and documents ideas which can strategically develop and influence the broader organization.

Qualifications & Desired Skills

• A relevant post-graduate qualification in Business Administration, Agronomy, Agricultural Economy or related field;
• Minimum of 5 years of progressive responsibility work experience in managing and implementing multi-faceted donor-funded development projects, preferably in Africa;
• Ten years of experience with market development and inclusive business;
• Solid experience in project management, preferably in local funded projects;
• Able to strategically inspire and energies project teams;
• 10 years experience with community-based programming supporting youth economic programs including Self Help Groups
• Multidisciplinary profile to support the different specialist in the team;
• Experience in designing strategies and approaches for enhancing agricultural production and rural livelihoods among smallholder farmers;
• Experience in working with micro, small to medium enterprises and financial institutions;
• Experience in Monitoring and Evaluation;
• Demonstrated experience in managing various stakeholders;
• Excellent social and networking skills, ability to engage with the private sector, civil society, and governments;
• Excellent communication (written and oral), reporting and presentation skills;
• Fluency in English is required;
• Willingness to travel to all project locations.
• Strong training and facilitation skills;
• At least 7 years of experience developing funding proposals for youth initiatives;
• Strong understanding of funding trends for NGOs in Rwanda.

Value Proposition

Help a Child offers the opportunity to become part of an ambitious, child-centered, and Christian international NGO with a dedicated team of professionals motivated to maximize impact. Help a Child offers a fair pay and benefits package that is justifiable to our donors. Furthermore, you will be offered an open ended contract.