Job Details

JOB TITLE: Programme Officer – Sida Civil Society Strengthening Program

TEAM/PROGRAMME: Program Operations

GRADE :  4

LOCATION: Lusaka

POST TYPE: National

Safeguarding :

Save the Children does not tolerate any form of exploitation, abuse, or harassment against any person. It is the responsibility of all employees and representatives to protect all people who come in contact with our organization. Save the Children commits to applying the same standards to all its employees and subject them to the same processes regardless of their position, influence, or reputation within or outside of the organization.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Save the Children International’s Diversity Policy, aims to promote equal opportunity in employment and to ban any kind of discrimination based on sex, age, social class, disability, HIV status, religion, race and ethnicity.

ROLE PURPOSE:

The incumbent will support Child Rights Governance Programmes and will consolidate and scale up Save the children work on research, capacity building and advocacy activities at national level to hold governments accountable and ensure more and better spending on children by government and local stakeholders.  This will be achieved through advocacy, capacity building and strengthening community and child engagement in the development, planning, implementation and monitoring, support CSO organisation capacity development.

The Programme Officer will support the Child Rights Governance team in MEAL processes, including the Sida CSO Programme partners. This will be achieved through strengthening of partner’s capacity in monitoring and documentation of key programme outcomes. Supporting the strengthening of partner’ structures to influence good practices in programme implementation in Child Rights Governance, in line with Save the Children’s three breakthrough. Programme Officer will work closely with the Program Manager and MEAL staff within SCI and other MEAL staff from implementing partners

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: Manager – Sida CSO Programme Manager

Dimensions: none

Staff directly reporting to this post: None

KEY AREAS OF PROGRAM ACCOUNTABILITY:

• Supporting the partners to implement programmes under the Sida CSO Programme under the Child Rights Governance and Child Protection thematic area at all levels (District, provincial and national level).
• Documenting programme/partner experiences to capture the good practices, results and impacts achieved and any other experiences relevant for sharing with others.
• Ensure effective implementation of national level work on Investment in Children.
• Responsible for setting up meetings and ensuring CRG and Child Protection interventions under the programme are on track.
• Establish an innovative model of how SC can engage in new communities through working with them in a systematic manner that could be adopted and institutionalized elsewhere.
• Establish a consistent and well documented approach to local level engagement (communities and local government, private sector and civil society an engagement) and be known for it in Zambia
• Scale up/sustain work on influencing local and national budgets, tracking expenditure and influencing resource mobilization to invest in children
• Prepare quality semi-annual and annual reports as per the requirements of the agency and the grants on time.
• Liaise with other practitioners in a similar field of work and with government on policy and practice issues and informing them of our interventions and work
• Monitoring and Evaluation-Conduct site visits to assess programme progress, development of relevant data collection tools and support Child Rights Governance team in the use of relevant data collection/monitoring tools
• Work with the MEAL team in conducting studies/assessments
• Work with MEAL to provide capacity building of partner staff in the use of SCI MEAL tools and facilitate timely partner reporting to SCI

KEY AREAS OF SUB-AWARD MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTABILITY

• Responsible for partner finance-related due diligence, assessments, vetting, selection processes and be part of the process of awarding sub-grants/sub-contracts.
• Ensure timely disbursement of funds to implementing partners including ensuring efficient utilisation of funds.
• Analyse reports and funding requests from the partners, providing feed-back and recommending transfer of funds
• Reviews potential sub-grantees’ proposals and budgets
• Review/amend/draft partnership agreement
• Organize/provide necessary technical assistance/capacity building trainings to cover capacity gaps identified
• Reviews sub-grantees / sub-contractors financial reports and ensure all variances between the budgets and actuals have been properly explained
• Conducts field visits to sub-grantees to check the financial report supporting documents.
• Ensures compliance with all donor requirements and advises budget holders on compliance issues.
• Ensures donor regulations are communicated to partner staff and all activities meet donor requirements
• Lead on sub-award and sub-award close out processes and reconciliation

SKILLS AND BEHAVIOURS (our Values in Practice)

Accountability:

• Holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values
• Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities – giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved

Ambition:

• Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves (and their team), takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages others to do the same
• Widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others
• Future orientated, thinks strategically

Collaboration:

• Builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, members and external partners and supporters
• Values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength
• Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to

Creativity:

• Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
• Willing to take disciplined risks

Integrity

• Honest, encourages openness and transparency

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• University degree in Social Sciences or a relevant area with basic College graduates/studies related to Accounting and MEAL
• At least 3 years of relevant working experience with right-based issues; preferably children’s rights within civil society sector;
• Strong knowledge of Children’s rights and governance.
• Demonstrated skills in the design of human rights programmes
• Good analytical and report writing skills
• Demonstrated basic Knowledge with various donors financial policies and guidelines.
• Understanding of financial systems and procedures.
• Demonstrated ability to set and achieve objectives
• Demonstrated skills and knowledge in MEAL
• English language proficiency a must, local languages an added advantage
• Strong communication (verbal and writing skills) , interpersonal and representational skills
• Flexible and adaptable to dynamic changes and fast-paced work environment
• Ability to work with minimum supervision
• Knowledge of word, Microsoft excel and power point

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS:

QUALIFIED APPLICANTS SHOULD ONLY ATTACH A COVER LETTER AND AN UPDATED CV.

The closing date for receipt of applications is Tuesday 31 ^st December 2024 . Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Save the Children reserves the right to re advertise if suitable applicants are not found.

Save the Children is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer that does not engage in any practices which discriminate against any person employed or seeking employment based on race, colour, religion, gender, national or ethnic origin, age, marital status and we will never ask that you pay for anything as part of the selection process or thereafter.