Operation Manager (ECW) (FOR MYANMAR NATIONAL ONLY)

TITLE: Operation Manager (ECW) Education Cannot Wait – Myanmar Multi-Year-Resilience Program (MYRP)

LOCATION: Yangon, Head Office

Background

SCI’s 2022-2024 Global Strategy includes a priority objective on advocacy for investment in education, including through ECW. There is also a global education working group with accountability to deliver this.

SCI, UNICEF and PIM are partnering together in this consortium to address the most urgent of the needs highlighted above, contributing to the overall impact of the Myanmar MYRP 2023-2025 that children and youth in Myanmar, particularly the most vulnerable learners, can exercise their rights to quality learning and be trained in a safe, inclusive and gender responsive, and protective environment. The consortium will work towards the outcomes of access, quality, system strengthening and resource mobilization. These four pillars underpin the programme’s logic of interventions.

The ECW program “Education Cannot Wait – Myanmar Multi-Year-Resilience Program” start on January 1, 2023, for a period of 3 years. SCI will establish and lead a Consortium Management Unit (CMU). In this role, SCI will be responsible for coordination and management of the grantees to implement the MYRP 2023-2025. The ECW incorporates these major components.

• The most vulnerable children and youth have equitable and continued access to safe and inclusive education (Access)
• The most Vulnerable children and youth receive quality teaching and learning that is context-responsive, equity-focused and adapted to evolving situation (Quality)
• Communities and local education partners have sufficient capacity for a resilient, quality education response (Systems Strengthening)
• Resourcing for scale-up of quality, inclusive, safe, and equitable education provision is increased (Advocacy & Resource Mobilization)

The CMU will ensure the complementarity of partnerships within the members on the following areas

• Sharing and adapting best practices within and across partners
• Actions and approaches among the partners for referrals and cross-learning
• Joint assessments, research and communications and advocacy strategy
• Support on quality programme perspectives (e.g., gender, inclusion, psychosocial support, etc.)
• Adapting tools and methods of partners for quality supervision and MEAL
• Donor communications and ensuring that the global secretariat has up to date news and case studies to promote wider ECW objectives

SCI, UNICEF and Plan International Myanmar (PIM) are partnering together to deliver a three-year integrated and inclusive education programme to meaningfully contribute to the learning and wellbeing of children. The consortium is uniquely placed to target wider geographical areas in Myanmar and to work directly at the community level through its implementing partners.

ROLE PURPOSE: The Operation Manager will be based in Yangon. The Programme Manager has the overall management and technical responsibilities of the ECW project under Save the Children. The PM ensures that the project is implemented in line with agreed plans and quality standard, that project is effectively managed, and their teams are responsive to changing internal and external factors. The PM will lead coordination and liaison with the implementing partners. The PM will ensure building capacity of the project team and partner organizations in coordination with the Consortium manager, Thematic Leads, Head of Programmes and the Advisors and. The PM has the primary responsibility for periodic donor reports and budgets and also ensures that project reports are prepared to a high quality and submitted on time in line with agreed deadlines.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: Consortium Manager (ECW)

Technical line management: Thematic Advisors

Dimensions: The post holder has regular contacts, external engagements and in communicating with partners across all the regions of the operational areas.

Expected to travel to program areas: Frequent and regular monthly visit

Staff directly reporting to this post: Nil, Field PC (for Thematic report)

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY :

Programme Management

• Overall responsible for the management and implementation and quality of the project activities and staff;
• Provide guidance and technical support to the teams involved in the process
• Ensure the donor reports are prepared according to the guideline: the thematically related reports are consolidated and submitted in a timely manner
• Maintain a close relationship with the Finance & Award team on this grant, and in particular when issues or changes need to be brought to the donor’s attention.
• Ensure project staff safety and security and ensure all Save the Children policies and principles are upheld.
• Produce monthly data and regular narrative reports for different stakeholders as well as donor narrative reports of high quality (in collaboration with the Consortium Manager, Thematic Leads, Head of Programme and the Thematic Advisors) in timely manner and approve the financial reports (produced by the Funding & Grants team)
• Ensure regular coordination meeting is conducted to reflect on progress and to accommodate the lessons learned accordingly.

Grant Management

• Primary budget-holding responsibility for the grant. The post holder will delegate budget management to secondary budget holders in the field as required by the specifics of the project.
• Monitor the project to ensure that it is managed in line with the agreed budget, and that transactions comply with Save the Children’s and the donor’s financial policies and compliance.
• Monitor and discuss budget variances with the relevant delegated budget holders and field teams and ensure that variance issues are corrected speedily, and expenditures are in line with detailed implementation plan.
• Maintain an overview of the ECW project and ensure to develop timely solutions to project’s under and overspends in line with SC Member and donor requirements
• Lead the discussion on this grant at the monthly Finance & Award meetings in Yangon.
• Coordinate the work with Area Offices and rephase or revise budgets as required, and formally approve the budget change decisions.
• Approve the financial reports (produced by the Funding & Grants team).
• Ensure that partner receives sub grants in a timely manner by coordinating with Award and Finance teams

Programme Quality

• Organize and support program learning with a focus on identifying best practices and lesson learns
• Contribute to building the capacity of the implementation team, including partner staff, enabling them to make informed decisions using M&E data to maximize positive and sustainable outcomes for children
• Maintain a strategic overview of child-focused civil society in Myanmar and be aware of state-of-the-art technical approach in child rights-based approaches to development.
• Ensure to implement projects in line with project plans and that Project Managers and their teams innovate and are responsive to changing internal and external factors
• Provide programmatic inputs in operational risk matrix led by field team and develop contingency plan when/where required. Ensure that the project teams access adequate technical support to deliver high quality projects and support the establishment of innovative and collaborative working approaches to ensure continual learning and programme and operational improvement.
• Support project managers in identifying and supporting civil society partners, including: partner assessment/risk analysis, capacity building planning and technical support
• Spearhead the implementation of quality (i.e Quality benchmarks) and performance monitoring (i.e IPTT analysis) systems, and discuss findings during program coordination/review meetings.
• Lead in review of MEAL reports to highlight key project strengths and areas of improvement, and use learning from monitoring reports for project planning and implementation
• Together with MEAL team, ensure the project has a fully functional accountability mechanism and information is analysed to inform programme adaptation and risk mitigations

Coordination and Collaboration

• Build regular coordination with thematic advisors to ensure sound program integration and quality implementation
• Ensure regular communication and coordination within the project team, with the program team in Yangon, and with other support functions team for smooth and successful implementation
• Work closely with MEAL Manager and central MEAL team for tracking the progress, documentation, learning and adaptation of the project

Communication, representation and networking

• Primary contact point in Yangon regarding this project for the implementing partners and external stakeholders other than the donor
• Ensure high quality, accessible information about the project and its achievements is available for internal and external audiences
• Assist the Consortium Manager in establishing and maintaining good relationships with the consortium partners
• Regular coordination with management staff of partner organization

Partnership

• Build strong relationships with the implementing partners and act as a role model for the partnership values in all interaction with partners.
• Engage regularly with the implementing Partners to support them to deliver the project.
• Supporting partners to identify, document and share best practices from the project
• Manage the process of monitoring and supporting partners in effective project cycle management – annual planning, project monitoring, reporting, and project amendments.
• Follow-up and support the partners to ensure the implementation of the agreed program quality approach. Technical support for program quality assurance is to be coordinated with the consortium Manager, Thematic lead, HoP and thematic advisors.
• Manage on time and quality reporting from all the partners as per the agreed reporting framework.

General

• Participate in Save the Children Coordination meetings and attend other meetings, both within and outside SCI and represent ECW project SCI whenever requested by the Consortium Manager

Child Safeguarding Responsibilities

• Develop and pilot practical day-to-day approaches to increased awareness, commitment, and interest in child safeguarding amongst staff members.
• Make sure safe programme throughout the whole implementation process

Qualifications and Experience:

QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s degree, and preferably post-graduate university degree, ideally in a subject related to management or Education
• At least 5 years management experience of development/humanitarian programs, preferably in these thematic areas.

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

Essential

• Proven experience in effective programme planning and implementation, monitoring and evaluation, project development and report writing;
• Experience and demonstrated strong knowledge of working in partnership with INGOs/LNGOs and effective financial and budgetary control and managing grants.
• Experience of managing and developing a team, and the ability to lead, motivate and develop others.
• Ability to analyze information critically, evaluate options and to think and plan strategically.
• Demonstrated skills, experience, and knowledge of: community development; working with children and on children’s issues; and working in partnership with other organizations.
• Proven experience in establishing information management and finance systems related to programme management.
• Experience leading on the coordination and writing of donor reports as the lead of a consortium.
• Politically and culturally sensitive, with qualities of patience, tact and diplomacy.
• A high level of written and spoken English.
• The capacity and willingness to be flexible and accommodating in difficult and sometimes insecure working circumstances.
• Commitment to humanitarian principles, principles of Save the Children and the Consortium. In particular, a good understanding of the organisational and Consortium mandate and child focus and an ability to ensure this continues to underpin our support.