Regional Program Manager

Position: Regional Program Manager – Middle East

Location: Any country of RI operations in the Middle East (or UK proven the individual has the right to work in the country). Frequent travel in the region at minimum of 30% of time.

Reports to: Regional Program Director – Middle East

Direct Reports: Middle East Regional Program Intern, Dotted line technical support to Country Program Managers in all Country Offices within the Middle East region

About Relief International:

Relief International (RI) is a leading non-profit organization working in 15 countries globally to relieve poverty, ensure the 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 Middle-East Region:

RI currently operates in five countries in the Middle East region: Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Turkey, with a focus on the four RI sector pillars: Health, WASH, Education and Economic Opportunity. RI currently employs almost 4,000 staff (direct and indirect) in the Middle East region and implements a range of humanitarian and development programs valued over 70 million USD on an annual basis.

Position Summary:

As part of the Regional Programs Team within the Regional Support Office (RSO) for RI’s Middle East Region, the Regional Program Manager (RPM) will support Program and Portfolio Management across the Middle East region and be responsible for program and grants management backstopping for the Middle East 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 Middle East program portfolio, currently consisting of humanitarian and development programs across the five countries as assigned to by the Regional Program Director. 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 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 country-level project mobilization for all new projects in the region, as well as closeout for existing projects, involving relevant country programs, regional, and GSO departments and ensuring follow-up and appropriate documentation is in place.

· Participate in project review meetings with Program Managers for ongoing 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, and M&E plan as set out in RI’s Mobilization Tool.

· Actively participate in monthly Portfolio/Project Risk review meetings with RSO and country teams, ensuring documentation of program implementation status, challenges, achievements, and risks and follow-up on action items in a timely fashion, flagging risks and issues for under or overspending 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.).

· Support the Regional Program Director with the reporting of Programs KPI to GSO and support 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 work plans, monitoring of established indicators, and utilization of results to inform program adaptation.

· Travel to country offices to provide support, monitoring, and 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 staff, country grant focal points, and any other relevant new RI team member on the required tools and processes set out in RI’s Program Management Framework, RI Program Strategy, and RI System Approach.

· Provide program input for monthly updates to RI’s Leadership Team.

Grants Management Support

· Work with the Regional Awards Manager to facilitate initial compliance and close-out calls with country offices, engage country teams in delivering mandatory mobilization and close-out tools, and flagging relevant reporting information to country teams.

· Work with the Regional Senior Awards and Reporting Officer, Awards Managers, and Program Directors to ensure the quality and timeliness of all donor reports.

· Ensure high-quality content and compliance with guidelines and requirements for donor reports. Provide final copy edit and/or support in writing assigned sections, upon request. Ensure submission under certain donors’ dedicated platforms in coordination with country offices. When needed, deploy to country programs to assist in writing reports.

• Ensure regional grants and reporting trackers as well as online grant folders are updated regularly in coordination with Regional Senior Awards and Reporting Officer and Regional Awards Manager as necessary.

· Lead on 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 and in coordination with Regional Awards Manager.

Program Development Support

• Review proposals and supporting documentation and annexes for accuracy and compliance with donor regulations as required.
• Use lessons learned and program approaches documented throughout reporting review, grant review meeting and field visits to input at project design phase.
• Support assessments and program design workshops as needed ensuring strategic alignment with country and regional strategies.
• 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.
• Support in the review process of newly awarded agreements in close coordination with the Awards Management Team (AMU).

Communications and Representation Support

· In collaboration with the Regional Program Director, serve as a focal point with donors (i.e. USAID, BHA, PRM, and ECHO), coordinating with appropriate RI colleagues to ensure accurate and timely communication. Actively participate 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 Middle East 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.

· Produce and update regular programmatic updates/briefing materials/capacity statements/country profiles for business development purposes.

· Ensure Middle East Intranet is up to date on a regular basis and liaises with country offices and RI’s global Communications & Development Team to gather content and stories for use on RI’s website, social media, and other channels.

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 of 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 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, and 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

To apply for this post, click on https://phg.tbe.taleo.net/phg01/ats/careers/requisition.jsp?org=RI&cws=4&rid=1803

You will be asked to upload a CV and Cover Letter. The cover letter should be no more than two pages long and explain why you are interested in this post with Relief International and how your skills and experience make you a good fit.

Closing date – Please apply immediately we will be reviewing applicants on a rolling basis, therefore may withdraw the position for the job board closing date.

Due to limited resources, only short-listed candidates will be contacted

Relief International is committed to protecting our staff and the communities we work with from abuse and harm including sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, and sexual harassment.

All staff is expected to abide by our Code of Conduct. Recruitment to all roles in Relief International includes criminal records self-declaration, references, and other pre-employment checks, which may include police and qualifications checks.