Deputy Chief of Party (DCOP)

Job Description

Job Title: Deputy Chief of Party

Reports to: Chief of Party

Location: Monrovia, Liberia

Breakthrough ACTION is a five-year cooperative agreement funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to lead its social and behavior change programming around the world. Led by the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP), Breakthrough ACTION partners include Save the Children, ideas42, Think Place, Camber Collective, the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), and Viamo. Breakthrough ACTION has received USAID funding to implement activities under the Strengthening Social Behavior Change in Liberia project. The vision of the Breakthrough ACTION Liberia project is to deliver effective quality social and behavior change (SBC) activities in Liberia that will result in improved demand, access, and use of health services for malaria; maternal, neonatal, and child health (MNCH); family planning/ reproductive health (FP/RH); adolescent health; and water, sanitation, hygiene (WASH) and engage communities in behaviors to prevent zoonotic and non-zoonotic infections in line with the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA).

Summary:

The Deputy Chief of the Party will be responsible for day-to-day implementation and oversight of BA-Liberia’s Social Behavior Change Advocacy interventions, as well as BA-Liberia implementation at the county level. S/he will also be responsible for strengthening collaboration with and building capacity of the project’s government partners at all levels, and through advocacy, strengthen relationships with other non-governmental stakeholders in the counties. She/he will report to the Chief of the Party.

Roles and Responsibilities:

Programs

• Facilitate review meeting preparations, soliciting and collating feedback, and drafting content.
• Responsible for delivering Breakthrough ACTION objectives and activities at the county level, ensuring program implementation follows work plan timeline and budget considerations.
• Supervise county staff as needed, conducting at least quarterly performance reviews, identifying and recommending appropriate professional development activities, and providing coaching and mentoring to promote their continued professional growth.
• Ensure and facilitate strong linkage between county teams and program team leads at the central Monrovia office.
• Build relationships with district and national-level stakeholders.
• Support Program staff to sustain stakeholder engagement in relevant health areas.
• Coordinate with partners to arrange meetings, acquire documents, and conduct consultations.
• Brief the Chief of Party and headquarter offices on programs- progress.
• Represent CCP at relevant meetings, as delegated by the Chief of Party

Operations

• Assist in the development and monitoring of project startup and closeout plans. Maintain systems to track the status of those plans. Assist program teams to utilize those start-up and closeout system tools and identify for senior managers key challenges in startup and closeout.
• Ensure projects close out smoothly by assisting with lease terminations, property dispositions, bank account closings, and financial settlements.
• Manage implementation of operational policy and procedure. Once policies, procedures, and plans are approved and implemented, monitor operations to ensure compliance.
• Assist staff with the implementation of regulatory and financial requirements to include adherence to JHU’s policy manual, country-specific manuals, and host country requirements. Monitor sponsored programs for compliance and adherence to policy.
• Ensure staff orientation to compliance procedures, such as procurement, and certify that staff is oriented annually.
• Present information and respond to questions from program teams, HQ, sub-recipients, vendors, independent contractors (ICs), donors, host government officials, and other external parties.
• Assist program teams, the HR, and the Finance Departments to ensure that overseas operational documentation is developed, implemented, and followed appropriately per JHU and sponsor guidelines. This includes assistance with ensuring processes are followed for the development or updating of local in-country Personnel Policy Manuals and Emergency Plans.
• For emergency plans, maintain updated contact information monthly. Assist where necessary in coordinating emergency response.
• Work with program teams to ensure that finance and administration procedures are implemented in a timely and thorough manner. Assist them to implement those procedures where appropriate.
• Implement the JHU sub-monitoring procedures to include a bi-annual detailed review of sub-recipient expenditures.

Administration

• Manage and supervise human resources (HR) functions, including:
• Carry out supervisory responsibilities for identified staff, including ongoing review of work based on measurable criteria, quarterly discussions on progress, challenges, and performance, and annual performance reviews.
• review the portfolio of work of supervised staff.
• interview, hire, train, and mentor core support (administrative, HR, IT, and finance) staff members within JHU’s HR organizational policies and procedures.
• Support the project management team in annually reviewing and updating Breakthrough ACTION – Liberia policy and procedures.
• Ensure compliance with Liberian labor laws and competitive compensation plans.
• Ensure severance requirements are reviewed against labor laws periodically and that severance is being budgeted and accrued appropriately.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• Supervise the Finance, Administrative, and Operations unit.

Minimum qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree required in a related field.
• A minimum of 10 years of working experience in Operations, Finance, or Administration in the NGO sector; work experience with an international NGO experience a plus
• A minimum of 5 years of working experience on a USAID-funded cooperative agreement required
• Has experience working in partnership with U.S. Government agencies or other large donor agencies?
• Experience working with Government and development partners at the national and sub-national levels in Liberia.
• Experience supervising and leading teams, using strong communication and interpersonal skills strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated organizational skills and strong track record in meeting deliverables and deadlines and the ability to provide oversight of financial and operational aspects of programs is preferred.
• The ability to travel extensively within Liberia is required.
• Fluent in written and spoken English.

Preferred qualifications:

• A master’s degree in communication or development studies, public health, social or behavioral sciences, psychology, or related studies
• Has at least five (5) years of experience leading administration (reporting, financial management, and compliance) of medium (defined here as having a budget of $3 – $6 million annually) health and development contracts or agreements that serve clients in low- or middle-income countries (LMIC), strongly preferred.