Back Regional Program Manager - Africa/Asia

Position: Regional Program Manager - Africa/Asia

Location: Nairobi, Kenya, or within the time zone range of CAT to PKT; frequent travel in the region at minimum of 30% of time (dependent on developments with COVID-19)

Reports to: Regional Program Director – Africa/Asia

Direct Reports: Regional Program Assistant (RPA) & dotted line technical support to Country Program Managers in all Country Offices within the Africa/Asia region

About Relief International:

Relief International (RI) is a leading non-profit organization working in 16 countries globally to relieve poverty, ensure well-being and advance dignity. We specialize in fragile settings, responding to natural disasters, humanitarian crises and chronic poverty.

RI combines humanitarian and development approaches to provide immediate services while laying the groundwork for long-term impact. Our signature approach – which we call the RI Way—emphasizes local participation, an integration of services, strategic partnerships and a focus on civic skills. In this way, we empower communities to find, design and implement the solutions that work best for them.

RI includes the four corporate members of the RI Alliance: RI-US, RI-UK, MRCA/RI-France and RI-Europe. Under our alliance agreement, we operate as a single, shared management structure. **

About the Africa-Asia Region:

RI currently operates in nine countries in the Africa/Asia region: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan, with a focus on the four RI sector pillars: Health, WASH, Education and Economic Opportunity. RI currently employs more than 3,000 staff (direct and indirect) in the Africa/Asia region and implements a range of emergency response and development programs valued at approximately $50 million USD on an annual basis.

Position Summary:

As part of the Regional Programs Team within the Regional Support Office (RSO) for RI’s Africa & Asia Region, the Regional Program Manager (RPM) will support Program and Portfolio Management across the Africa and Asia region and be responsible for program and grants management backstopping for the Asia and Africa portfolio. The RPM works with the Regional Program Director to provide ongoing support to country program teams and ensures close coordination with the Global Award Management Unit (AMU), the Global Program Development (PD) Team, the global Technical Assistance Department (TAD), and other departments at the Global Support Office (GSO). The RPM will also liaise with donors, working with country, regional and global team members to ensure that RI is accurately and promptly complying with donor requests related to program and grants management.

This position will undertake key tasks and deliverables for the Asia & Africa program portfolio, currently consisting of humanitarian and development programs across the nine countries as assigned to by the Regional Program Director Africa/Asia. Periodic field travel will be expected, to provide direct support, gap filling, monitoring and serve as surge support in response to humanitarian crises.

ESSENTIAL RESPONSIBIITIES and DUTIES:

The RPM will execute the following common set of duties and practices related to portfolio management, contributing excellent writing, analysis and communication skills and exhibiting initiative, flexibility, creative thinking and problem-solving skills:

Program Development Support

• Write, review and edit proposal narratives, concept notes, and other business/program development documents when assigned as part of proposal teams.
• Review proposals and supporting documentation and annexes for accuracy and compliance with donor regulations as required
• Support assessments and program design workshops as needed ensuring strategic alignment with country and regional strategies
• Support countries with the development and implementation of country program development and donor engagement strategies in collaboration with the Regional Program Director and the Program Development (PD) Team
• Ensure all submitted proposal packages are filed and accessible to country and regional teams in close collaboration with the PD Team
• Provide other proposal development support in collaboration with RI’s Program Development Team and as directed by the Regional Program Director. This may include in-country support whenever needed.
• Facilitate review of newly awarded agreements in close coordination with the Awards Management Team (AMU)

Program Management Support

• Provide comprehensive in-person and remote guidance and support with the implementation of sound project cycle management in accordance with RI’s Program Management Framework (PMF)**
• Support timely project mobilization for all new projects in the region, as well as close out for existing projects, involving relevant country program, regional and GSO departments and ensuring follow-up and appropriate documentation is in place**
• Participate in project review meetings with Program Managers for on-going projects as assigned and provide regular project progress updates to the Regional Programs Team
• Support and ensure that the program teams regularly update, share and follow project management tools, such as detailed implementation plans, spending projections, procurement plans, M&E plan as set out in RI’s Mobilization Tool
• Support the Regional Program Director with the reporting of Programs KPI to GSO and take a lead in the roll-out of KPI feedback processes and improvement plans
• Work with the Regional MEAL Manager to support MEAL activities and ensure they are carried out regularly, including data collection & analysis, monitoring of project progress against established workplans, monitoring of established indicators and utilization of results to inform program adaptation
• Travel to country offices to provide support, monitoring, capacity building as per program needs, including gap filling of key program positions and/or surge capacity as needed
• Provide program coverage for country offices during peak times or Program Director gaps

• Actively support the constant improvement of program quality and management efficiency through contributions to country, regional and global initiatives, such as SOP/tool/template development/refinement

• Lead the induction and onboarding for newly recruited Program Managers and country grant focal points on the required tools and processes set out in RI’s Program Management Framework

• Provide programs input for monthly updates to RI’s Leadership Team

• Work with the Regional Program Assistant to develop, maintain and regularly update a quarterly Asia/Africa Watchlist, providing humanitarian context analysis and monitoring of crisis indicators

Grants Management Support

• Take a lead role in monthly Portfolio/BVA review meetings with country teams, ensuring documentation of program implementation status, challenges, achievement and risks and follow-up on action items in a timely fashion, flagging risks and issues for under or over spending of budgets, under-achievements and other implementation challenges. Liaise with country teams on issues that need support from GSO or RSO units (HR, Ops, Security, AMU, Finance, etc.)
• Facilitate grant mobilization and close out calls, engage country teams in delivering mandatory mobilization and close out tools, and flagging relevant reporting information to country teams
• Work with the Regional Reporting Officer, Awards Manager and Program Director to ensure quality and timeliness of all donor reports.
• Ensure high quality content and compliance with guidelines and requirement for donor reports. Provide final copy edit and/or support in writing assigned sections, upon requested. When needed, deploy to country programs to assist in writing reports.
• Work with the Regional Program Assistant (RPA) to ensure regional grants and reporting trackers as well as online grant folders are updated regularly
• Where needed, support overall coordination of grant modifications between country offices, RSO and AMU, facilitating reviews/input from regional and global departments as needed
• Provide other grant management and compliance tasks as needed

Communications and Representation Support

• In collaboration with the Regional Program Director, serve as a focal point with selected donors (i.e. USAID, BHA, GAC, ECHO), coordinating with appropriate RI colleagues to ensure accurate and timely communication. Lead and coordinate on program related meetings and calls with donors, providing program updates and facilitating information sharing between country program teams and donors
• Attend and participate in external meetings, workshops, conferences etc. and brief the Asia/Africa team as needed
• Coordinate and participate in regular management meetings with field, RSO and GSO colleagues, including the documentation and sharing of the minutes and action items, encourage overall program cohesion through coordination and information sharing with and between program teams, RSO and GSO
• Work with the RPA to produce regular programmatic updates/briefing materials/capacity statements/country profiles for business development purposes
• Liaise with RI’s global Communications & Development Team to gather content and stories for use on RI’s website, social media and other channels – supported by the RPA
• Work with the RPA to produce updates and content from Asia/Africa country offices for the RI Intranet

Safeguarding

• Uphold and promote RI’s commitment to ensuring the safeguarding and safety of the vulnerable communities we serve.
• Consistent with RI’s safeguarding and protection policies, ensure all people who come into contact with Relief International are as safe as possible.

QUALIFICATIONS & REQUIREMENTS:

This position demands a highly dynamic, proactive, autonomous and flexible individual with solid and effective, quality project cycle and grant management skills who is ready to provide substantive contributions and explore advancing their leadership capacity for achieving results in a demanding and fast paced environment. An excellent communicator and team player with fluency in English and who is at ease working in a highly diverse team, capable adapting communication styles to different audiences.

· Master’s degree in International Development, Humanitarian Studies, Management Studies, or a related field in alignment with the relief and development sectors

· Demonstrated progressive professional experience managing humanitarian/development programming or supporting the management of programs in a regional capacity; including field experience

· Exceptional and demonstrated skills in program cycle management, covering the entire program cycle

· Familiarity with US Government grants, as well as ECHO/EC and or/ UN grants

· Excellent independent and collaborative report writing and data analysis skills

· Demonstrated ability to coordinate complex activities, meet deadlines, and exercise sound judgment and discipline

· Logical and critical thinking skills, and a comfort working with complex budgets and spreadsheets

· Strong independent task management skills and techniques, ability to prioritize and organize own workload

· Willingness to think outside the box, approach challenges with creative solutions

· Comfortable absorbing workload under stress periods

· Superior oral and written communication skills in English, including consensus building and triangulation of information from multiple stakeholders

· Demonstrated ability to work effectively as part of a team with a high degree of drive, initiative and autonomy

· Willingness to accept and absorb direct critique and participate in two-way dialogue with peers and managers to improve work quality and results

· Proven high level of computer literacy and advanced Microsoft Office Suite skills (with emphasis on Word, Excel, PowerPoint)

· Ability to travel internationally to support country programs

RI Values:

We uphold the Humanitarian Principles: humanity, neutrality, impartiality and operational independence. We affirmatively engage the most vulnerable communities.

We value:

• Inclusiveness
• Transparency and Accountability
• Agility and Innovation
• Collaboration
• Sustainability

How to Apply

Interested candidates are required to submit a detailed CV and cover letter latest by September 29th, 2021. We greatly appreciate your interest in working with RI, but we’ll only be able to contact shortlisted candidates. Due to the urgency of this role, applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and selected candidates interviewed prior to the closing date that may appear on any of the job boards where this vacancy is posted.

RI’s talent acquisition procedures reflect our commitment to safeguarding the rights and dignity of all people - especially children and vulnerable adults - to live free from abuse and harm.

RI is an Equal Opportunity Employer - EOE/M/F/D/V.*