Deputy Project Director, FCDO Girls Learning and Disability Inclusion – Sierra Leone

Job Description

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is among the world’s leading humanitarian relief and development organisations. For 80 years, the IRC has been at the forefront of every major humanitarian initiative to assist people uprooted by war, persecution, or civil conflict. IRC staff go to the toughest places, implement both immediate response and long-lasting programs, and conduct the type of applied research and advocacy the aid community needs to continually push itself to find better solutions for people. In all its country programs and in the US, IRC partners with local governments and others to achieve outcomes related to people’s health, education, safety, power and economic well-being. The IRC currently works in 40 countries at 198 locations with 11,000 employees. In 2016, more than 26 million people benefited from IRC programs and those of its partner organisations.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is positioning to tender for the FCDO funded Girls Learning and Disability Inclusion (GLaDI) Programme in Sierra Leone. We are seeking a Deputy Project Director to drive this strategic opportunity together with the Project Director, with an estimated value of £30 million GBP.

Background and objective of the GLaDI programme The GLaDI programme is a 5 year intervention with a potential budget of £30 million. The overall aim of the programme is to provide inclusive post primary education for a growing school-aged population, as well as to work alongside FCDO’s health and governance programming to deliver twin UK objectives – quality education for girls and better sexual and reproductive health information and services.

The expected outcomes of GLaDI are to improve access to education, learning, and sexual and reproductive health information for over 800,000 adolescent girls and children with disability over the life of the programme and lead to: A reduction in the number of adolescent girls out of school disaggregated by primary and secondary; An improvement in the learning conditions in schools leading to more girls passing the end of secondary school examinations; An increase in the number of girls, and children with disability, enrolled and progressing through school or provided with out of school learning opportunities; and A reduction in the rate of 15-19 year old adolescents who have begun childbearing.

The programme approach is likely to focus on strengthening education systems (including improving teaching and learning, reducing violence in schools, improving management of public finances, and improved use of data for monitoring and decisions), developing education policies (including support to curriculum reform, improving pre-service teacher training, reducing children’s travel distance to schools, and helping to respond to shocks such as Ebola), and engaging with communities (including challenging cultural attitudes towards keeping girls and children with disability in school and healthy, holding evaluation and health service providers to account, and to connect adolescent girls with SRHR services).

Scope of work

The DPD will have primary responsibility for overseeing, supporting, and mentoring the GLADI programme team , facilitating global, regional, and country-level partnerships, and achieving the project’s stated goals in country level programming. They will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the project, including the responsibility for overall financial accountability, staffing, and program delivery. The person in this role will also have the principal responsibility for representation of the project with host country counterparts and other actors in the country/ region. They will also act for and represent the Project Director, as necessary.

This position is contingent on award from FCDO.

Major Responsibilities

Responsible for supporting the Project Director in the day-to-day management of the project, including financial accountability, staffing, work planning, and reporting Manage staff in a matrixed system with a focus on adaptive management Support the development of the monitoring, evaluation, and learning plan and ensure linkages between evidence generation, global dialogue, and country actions Oversee and review technical writing products and deliverables Support the PD to provide management and implementation oversight and technical direction for the project. Oversee on-going quality assurance and quality improvement for technical activities Develop and maintain relationships with partners, and stakeholders at country and global levels Represent the PD, as necessary, to FCDO, implementing partners, host country government, project stakeholders, and counterparts in the public and private sectors Identify issues and risks related to project implementation in a timely manner and ensure appropriate program adjustments Perform other duties and responsibilities as required

Qualifications

This is a senior position which requires outstanding leadership, strategic thinking, and organisational, team-building and representational skills. We are looking for the following skills, experience and attributes from the Deputy Project Director: Advanced degree (or equivalent experience) in education, gender, disability or related field with at least 10 years working in international development in adolescent girls and empowerment; At least 10 years’ experience in senior roles managing/ supporting the management of large and/or complex donor funded programmes, and managing a diverse team of professionals and consortium partners; Extensive Experience working in Sierra Leone; Experience in SRHR programming, and girls’ empowerment programming; Experience and ability to provide leadership and direction in harnessing the multi-disciplinary skills of the technical personnel and consortium partners; Experience and ability to work with, and build effective partnerships between, a broad range of stakeholder groups including government, civil society, private sector, multi-laterals and other donors; Experience working with children and adolescents and an ability to apply safeguarding, ethics, and ‘do no harm’ principles; Excellent analytical, communication and writing skills and ability to articulate arguments and positions backed with evidence in order to promote causes and ideas; Ability to read, understand and manage high value budgets; The Deputy Project Director will be expected to align to and assure adherence to IRC’s internal policies, guidelines and ethics as well as DFID’s code of conduct and compliance requirements; Prior experience of managing/ supporting consortia comprising local partners will be strongly preferred Familiarity with FCDO compliance requirements will be preferred Duration and location This is a 5 year programme with an anticipated release of the opportunity by early 2022. These dates are tentative and could be delayed due to the current COVID-19 pandemic and DFID’s merger with FCO.

The Deputy Project Director role is envisaged to be full-time and will be based in Sierra Leone.

Please note that the JD is high level and indicative only at this stage and may be subject to change once the Terms of Reference for the programme is released and as the opportunity develops. This position will be contingent on the outcome of the bid.

Also note, qualified candidates from Sierra Leone will be STRONGLY preferred.