PROGRAMME DEVELOPMENT MANAGER UGANDA

War Child Holland
War Child Holland is an international NGO aiming at providing psychosocial relief to children in (former) war and/or conflict zones. War Child invests in the peaceful future of children affected by war. War Child’s goal is the empowerment of children in war-affected areas, through psychosocial, child protection and education programmes in which creative and sports activities are used to reinforce the psychological and social development and the welfare of the children and to create public awareness of the problems of children in (former) war zones.
Closing date: 20 Apr 2010
Location: Uganda - Kampala

Title: Programme Development Manager (PDM)
Specialization: Education and Psychosocial Support
Organization: War Child Holland
Job Location: Uganda, Kampala
Starting date: May 2010

War Child program in Uganda:

Since 2004 War Child Holland is working in Northern Uganda in Gulu, Amuru, Kitgum, Pader and Lira districts and from the countries’ head office in Kampala. The programme aims at improving well being of children and young people, through child protection, education and psychosocial support interventions. To this end War Child seeks to empower children and young people and promote a supportive and protective environment.

The job:

The Programme Development Manager (PDM) will be responsible for managing the multidisciplinary Programme Development Unit (PDU), coordinating content development and ensuring programme quality. The programme is partly implemented by War Child staff and partly implemented by local partners. The PDM builds the capacity of WCH staff and local partners to ensure programme sustainability.

The PDM is the technical/content advisor to the Country Director (CD) and Field Location Managers (FLM’s). He/she takes the lead in the process of developing sustainable intervention strategies in the above mentioned areas and including advocacy, child participation, gender and other cross cutting issues. He/she will make sure that programme development is in line with national policies of the Government of Uganda and good practice. In addition he/she has a thematic focus on Education and Psychosocial Support and is responsible for content development in those areas.

The PDM reports to the Country Director and is a member of the Management Team.

Responsibilities:

1. Realisation of War Child’s country Programme:
- Contributes to the development of the Country Strategy and the production of the annual plan;
- Ensures that programmes are in line with the Country Strategy and are feasible in terms of staff capacity, methodology, available tools and are based on assessments, lessons learned and best practises;
- Leads and facilitates the process of developing programme and project proposals (with a focus on content components) and ensures that they correspond with War Child’s mandate (as a delegated responsibility of the Country Director);
- Monitors continuously local needs and developments, by (amongst others) performing in-depth needs assessments (in close collaboration with the CD and FLM);
- Monitors programme implementation and measures programme effectiveness;
- Proactively advises CD and FLM on programme/project content, direction and implementation;
- Develops tools and formats for planning, monitoring and evaluation (in close cooperation with the Programme Support Department at HQ) and supports programme staff and local partners in application of these tools;
- Reports to the CD on programme implementation and programme effectiveness;
- Leads and facilitates a process of further developing the education strategy, corresponding guidelines, policies and/or manuals to ensure sustainable education programming in regards to basic formal and non formal education;

2. Management of staff:
- Manages staff of the PDU (this does not include the implementing programme staff on the different locations);
- Leads the process of development of annual and 4 monthly work plans of the PDU
- Prepares terms of references and is involved in recruitment of staff for the PDU;
- Conducts performance appraisals and discusses career perspectives with staff of the PDU;
- Manages well-being of the staff of the PDU;
- Reports to the CD on HR issues within the programme unit;
- Advises the FLM and CD in recruitment of (implementing) programme staff;

3. Coaching and capacity building of staff:
- Coordinates implementation and monitors facilitation of the programme by coaching the concerned staff;
- Delivers input to the Field Location Manager for performance appraisals of the implementing programme staff;
- Assess’ staff training needs; provides on-the-job training and advices the Country Director on staff training;
- (Co)Develops training manuals and carries out training of programme staff and local partners;
- Trains, coaches and monitors social workers in the identification of education and psychosocial issues and how to respond to these issues;
- Evaluates effectiveness and quality of project activities with the implementing programme staff and or partner organizations;

4. Selection, coordination and monitoring of national implementing partners:
- Leads the process of Identifying and selecting appropriate national implementing partners in cooperation with the FLM’s and CD;
- Coordinates and monitors the implementation of education and psychosocial support interventions of national partners, with a focus on content.

5. Maintain network of contacts/ representation:
- Represents War Child in his or hers expertise related meetings and coordination platforms;
- Coordinates the liaison with different line Ministries and other agencies within the PDU
- Liaises with Ministry of Education and Sports, universities and National Teachers Colleges;
- Liaises with professional counterparts of (inter)national authorities and organisations;
- Attend technical/content interagency /govt meetings;

Profile
- +/- 5 years of international experience in education projects in a (I)NGO post conflict context;
- A relevant academic background (Education, Pedagogy, Psychology);
- Knowledge of quantitative and qualitative monitoring & evaluation tools;
- Proven management, advisory and coaching skills
- Experience with training and capacity building of senior and junior staff;
- Experience with liaising with government agencies and national and international implementing partners;
- Strong analytical skills and the ability to assess social/ political situations;
- Written and oral expressions skills for writing proposals and reporting;
- Able to act upon delicate situations in a diplomatic way;
- Good problem solving and social skills;
- Creative, able to think of innovative or alternative solutions;
- Stress-resilient to be able to cope with deadlines and complex problems;
- Affinity with War Child’s mandate;
- Required: English.
How to apply
Interested and qualified candidates are invited to send a CV and a letter of motivation before April 20th (please mention PDM Education and Psychosocial Support in the subject line) to recruitment@warchild.nl (your letter and CV should not exceed 5 pages).