CARE Ethiopia Program

 CARE started working in Ethiopia in 1984 in response to severe drought and famine that devastated the population and claimed the lives of nearly one million people. Since then, the organization’s activities have expanded to address the root causes of poverty and vulnerability.

In 2008, CARE Ethiopia’s office moved from a project-based approach to a more focused and strategic program-based approach. Over the eight years since that transition, CARE Ethiopia has implemented a series of programs with successful outcomes, while simultaneously impacting the policies and practices of government, serving as a thought leader amongst NGOs, and bringing transformative change to rural communities. These broader and deeper impacts go beyond the direct impacts of its programs and are a result of CARE Ethiopia’s overall country strategy, which enables CARE to design for scale.

CARE Ethiopia works in various sectors but has particularly targeted the following: Food Security and Resilience; WASH+; Nutrition; Dignified Work; Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and Humanitarian Response as cross-cutting (focusing on the above sectors).

I.  JOB SUMMARY:

The purpose of the Project Manager (PM) position is to provide overall leadership and coordination for ensuring the implementation and accomplishment of the objectives of the project under his/her responsibility in line with CARE’s vision, goals, and program principles, standards, approaches and Long Range Strategic Plan. Beside in close collaboration with the project team and SRH unity team, will lead and develop  SRH and life skill manuals for out of school girls intervention and men and boys engagement manual for the project.  In consultation with the supervisor and in collaboration with the project staffs and partners she/he develops annual implementation plans and budget, allocates appropriate resources to accomplish the plan, secures qualified staff and ensures that an appropriate monitoring system is in place to track progress and deviations of project implementation. To promote the highest level of staff performance the PM ensures that all supervisors provide coaching and counseling to the project staff.  He/she establishes and maintains effective working relationships with key government partners and NGOs working in the same geographic areas. 

II. RESPONSIBILITIES AND TASKS:                

Job Responsibility No. 1: Project Implementation.  % of Time:  50% 

§  Develop scalable evidence based comprehensive and contextualized out of school girl’s life skill curriculum and implementation guideline.

§  Develop evidence based comprehensive manual for men and boys engagement

§  Organizes the implementation process of all set targets planned for each project with respective supervisors, experts and other concerned staff working within program departments;

§  Ensures that all staff have updated monthly and quarterly implementation plans;

§  Periodically visits field activities and provide formal and informal feedback to the project staff in terms of adequate and inadequate progress as well as recommendations for improved performance;

§  Builds the capacity of project staff and its partners in technical issues pertinent to the sector including SRH, HTP and livelihoods;

§  Coordinate with LDM unit to inform project planning and monitoring as required

§  Maintains ongoing communication with project stakeholder regarding project progress and challenges;

§  Continuously assesses project’s context, assumptions and changes in the working environment to ensure that the project focus, strategies and activities remain relevant and to proposed adjustments when needed.               

Job Responsibility #2: Project Planning.  % of Time:  10% 

§  With the project team and LDM unit analyzes past experiences to systematize and incorporate lessons learned into the planning process;

§  Based on past accomplishments and achievements adjusts project targets, strategies, resources and delegation of responsibilities to ensure appropriate progress toward project objectives;

§  Shares draft plans with project management team, staff and partners involved in the implementation and incorporate their input into the plan;

§  Submits annual plans as per established schedules to all project stakeholders.

Job Responsibility No. 3: Staff Management. % of Time:  10%

§  Supervises, leads, guides, orients, trains, coaches and supports the project team leaders  

§  Builds the technical and managerial capacity of the field staff in planning and implementing projects effectively and efficiently;

§  Recommends or initiates personnel actions such as merit increases and other salary adjustments, promotions, transfers, terminations, and disciplinary actions including performance improvement plans;

§  Ensure that all project staff have appropriate individual operational plans linked to project priorities;

§  Completes all performance management activities including: performance planning, monitoring, and annual performance appraisals;

§   Provides ongoing feedback to project officers, recognizing and praising successes and pointing out failures that needing corrective measures.

§  Over see partner staff performance especially those sector offices directly linked and working with the project.

Job Responsibility #4: Project Monitoring, Evaluation and Reproting. % of Time: 10%

§  Ensures that project under his/her supervision include an appropriate log-frame and baseline design;

§  In consultation with LDM unit organizes a monitoring system to collect baseline and periodic data for tracking project performance and decision making;

§  Plans and conducts quarterly and annual project review meeting to assess progress, adjust plans, and draw/disseminate lessons learned;

§  Write monthly/quarterly/annual comprehensive and high quality project progress reports;

§  Implement audit recommendations related to the project.

§  Implement other M&E related tasks based on donor requirements

Job Responsibility No. 5: Project Budget Management. % of Time:  10%

§  In collaboration with finance staff prepares annual budget based on project proposal and ensures compliance with donor requirements;

§  Ensures appropriate utilization of fund codes for charging budget expenditures;

§  Monitor monthly budget burn rates and make adjustment when needed.

§  Ensure timely financial reporting is done and shared with the HO finance

§  Communicate with the coordination unit for any finance related challenges at the FO level      

Job Responsibility No. 6: Networking, Learning and Representation. % of Time:  10%

§  Establishes and maintain formal and informal communication mechanisms with government, community partners and other stakeholders;

§  Participate in steering committee meetings, and supervision visits  held at Regional, Zonal and Woreda level to discuss project related issues;

§  Keeps up to date with developments in the project, including best practice examples in-country and internationally, and ensure ongoing personal development and learning;

§  Make formal presentations to the counterparts about project progress, challenges, lessons learned and needed adjustments;                       

III.  PROBLEM SOLVING (Thinking Environment) 

All three levels of problem solving are pertinent for the position in one way or another. Since the incumbent deals with the management and coordination of the various day-to-day activities, development, implementation and maintenance of policies, procedures, objectives, short-and long-range planning of the project, he shall deal with all three levels of problem solving.

IV.   QUALIFICATIONS (KNOW HOW)

A) EDUCATION/TRAINING

Required:

§  BSC/BA. Degree on SRH, public health, social science or equivalent combination of education and work experience.

Desired:

§   MA/MPH/MSc. SRH, Public health, social science or related field 

B) EXPERIENCE:

Required:

§   6-8 years’ experience working on public health, sexual and reproductive health

§  Experience on manual development for community intervntion

Desired:

§   Experience in development-oriented NGO environment.

C) Technical Skills:

Required:

§  Proficiency in verbal and written English and Amharic;

§  Concept paper development, operational planning, budget planning and management, monitoring and evaluation, report writing;

§  Proficiency in standard office software packages;

§  Excellent communication and interpersonal skills;

§  Demonstrated leadership ability to inspire and empower others;

§  Demonstrated technical and managerial ability, sound judgment, ability to interact and work effectively with others at all levels;

§  Firm belief in teamwork, gender equality, sensitivity to HIV/AIDS, transparent and participatory management. 

Desired:

§  Skills in organizing and facilitating training events. Expertise in one or more of the following program areas: Sexual reproductive health, community mobilization, nutrition/health, especially with Gender & Rights Based Approach focus.

§  Driving license and driving experience. 

D) COMPETENCIES

Respect, accountability, courage, excellence, adaptability, stress tolerance, innovation, building partnership, communicating with impact, coaching, facilitating change, developing teams, information monitoring, planning and organizing, leading through vision and value. 

V. FREEDOM TO ACT

A. General accountability:

The incumbent's decisions are prime in terms of the daily functioning and operation of the projects in programming, management, financial and administration areas; his/her decisions are contributory in terms of the CO's long-term development focus and organizational polices and procedures. 

The PM is the key decision maker in terms of staffing in consultation & concurrence with Program Coordinator and takes into account input from the HRM at the CO. 

VI. CONTACTS/KEY RELATIONSHIPS

Internal:

·         PC – Coaching, Mentoring and overall guidance, (On all programmatic, administrative, financial, policy, procedural other related issues);

·         FOPOM - dotted line supervisor and supports the day to day operational and relational issues at the FO level

·         PD – The big picture (Organizational policies, programmatic focus and priorities);

·         Field level staffs - ensuring appropriate support is provided to field offices and maintenance of working relationships;

·         Finance – Consultation and information sharing on budgetary issues and technical assistance;

·         HRM and Administration – Consultation and information sharing on issues related to overall administration, policies, and procedures and secure appropriate program support for the projects.

External:

·         Communities, PA, Woreda Administration and relevant sector offices

·         Other development organizations working in the area where CARE works (NGO, CBO and the privet sector).

·         Special meetings with Woreda and Zonal (Regional when required) government partners and donor representatives when needed. 

VII. WORKING CONDITIONS AND LEVEL OF TRAVEL REQUIRED

The position is for a definite period of time( 3 years with possibility of extension) and is based in CARE Ethiopia country office, Addis Ababa and at least 30-40 % of the time will be spent in the field across six region of Ethiopia.