Resilience and Livelihood Programme Manager , Cordaid South Sudan

Cordaid works to end poverty and exclusion. We do this in the world’s most fragile and conflict-affected areas. We engage communities to rebuild trust and resilience and increase people’s self-reliance. Where poverty, conflict and exclusion divide societies, we connect people and communities. Cordaid is one of the leading internationally operating Non-Governmental Organisations in the Netherlands, working on health, education, sustainable agri-food systems, security and justice and humanitarian assistance. Cordaid has over 700 staff, working at Global Office in the Netherlands and in offices across the most fragile countries in the world. Within Cordaid we work based on trust, accountability, cooperation, and solution orientation. Cordaid recently merged with ICCO and thereby expanded its operations to more countries, themes and added over 300 additional staff.

For the Cordaid Country office in Juba, South Sudan, Cordaid is looking for a Resilience and Livelihood Programme Manager

Introduction

The Cordaid South Sudan office was established in 2009. Starting with only one staff in 2009, the office now counts 35 staff in Juba and 130 in a total of 8 field offices in various locations in the country. Through its own activities and through partnerships with local organizations, Cordaid South Sudan works on the following themes: Healthcare, Humanitarian Aid, Resilience and Sustainable Livelihood, Women Leadership, Access to Justice, and Private Sector Development.

Position and responsibility

The Resilience & Livelihood Programme Manager (PM) will manage and grow the department portfolio in South Sudan. These programs are on Resilience, Disaster Risk Reduction, Sustainable Agri-Food Systems and Market System Strengthening (hereafter: resilience programmes/activities/projects).

We focus on women and youth. Her/his main responsibility is to ensure quality programming and implementation that responds to the needs of vulnerable communities, in good collaboration with the department and GO thematic Programme Managers. Besides steering the resilience team, s/he will identify opportunities for Resilience programming based on ongoing assessments, market analysis and coordination with other agencies. The PM’s work will include bridging current short/medium-term recovery and develop a longer-term strategy in the current context of South Sudan. The PM is expected to continually validate and develop programs and strategies, based on field reality and new funding opportunities. The PM will also ensure strong collaboration and coordination with other actors such as cluster partners and Caritas Diocesan partners, other (I)NGOs, civil society partners, private sector and government line ministries.

Objectives

General Resilience Department leadership:

• Take responsibility for the planning, implementation and management, monitoring and reporting of resilience projects in South Sudan; ensuring that project objectives are aligned with Cordaid’s strategic objectives and consistently met, and that donor reports are of excellent quality and submitted in a timely manner.
• Lead the expansion and growth of resilience programming, and value addition in the conflict-affected areas.
• Provide leadership and managerial support to resilience staff in Juba and the field locations.
• Act as first focal point for team members and facilitate a sense of team spirit.
• Develop and implement innovative approaches for production, post-harvest, small business development, value chain addition, climate change risks mitigation, adaption and environment restoration and micro-finance to enhance project impact.
• Through a localization approach, work towards systems strengthening of community structures and line ministries’ structures at all levels.
• Through Tripple Nexus, work with other departments including Humanitarian Aid, Justice and Security and Health to promote integration with an aim of deriving sustainable outcomes.
• Network with key stakeholders including government, communities, other (I)NGOs and donors.
• Lead proposal development for new funding opportunities within the country and in collaboration with Cordaid Global Office for multi-country opportunities.
• Ensure compliance with Cordaid internal procedures and contribute to the timely development of required outputs such as the yearly Fundraising Strategy.

Management and Program Implementation:

• Ensure timely program planning, implementation and reporting of both short- and long-term program activities in line with signed contractual obligations with funding entities.
• Supervise and strengthen the capacity of project staff and Area Managers in the field and ensure that they meet individual and project targets/objectives.
• Collaborate with Program Managers and Program officers in Cordaid’s Global Office to ensure all program information is tracked according to program needs and donor requirements.
• Ensure regular and timely reports/program updates for sharing both internally and externally.
• Regularly communicate with the team and engage team members in key decision making.
• Continuously engage donors on project progress, challenges, and mitigation steps to ensure projects remain on track and true to set objectives.
• Ensure all programmes development and implementation adhere to and comply with Cordaid’s internal policies and procedures, and timely follow up on these in the Cordaid systems.

Partnership, Representation and Coordination

• Represent Cordaid (as delegated by Country Director) at the relevant cluster meetings, donors and Working Groups, focused coordination forums and platforms, etc.
• Through a localization approach, support the capacity strengthening of local partners for quality project implementation.
• Coordinate all resilience activities with other actors (international and national NGO’s. private sector) in the areas, seeking synergies and avoid duplication.
• As required, prepare project documents and other material to develop or promote coordination activities.
• Organize regular reflection meetings with key project stakeholders including donors, government, and consortium partners where applicable.
• Coordinate regular department meetings with team members.

Learning, Program Development and Growth

• Contribute to appropriate project tracking and knowledge management systems for all activities.
• Identify program areas for improvement and work with the Country Director, Humanitarian Aid Manager, and other program managers to design appropriate and sustainable solutions.
• Provide regular monitoring of and technical support for implementing partners.
• Identify public, non-profit, and private organizations for cross learning for the development and implementation of resilience and food security programs.
• Work with department team to collect success stories and lessons learned from our resilience projects and continuously update our track record and capacity statements.
• Liaise with Cordaid Global office staff on promoting learning and quality program leadership.
• In collaboration with team members, identify areas of staff improvement and support development and training initiatives.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in agriculture, geography, economics, international development, environmental studies or related field.
• Minimum five years’ experience working within international development, including direct experience in fragile and conflict affected settings in a developing country.
• Minimum three years’ experience in supervising complex teams.
• At least five years’ experience in disaster risk management and resilience building, experience working with value chain approach, agricultural recovery, small business development, agro-enterprise, micro-finance/banking, and/or livelihoods development, climate change and environment protection.
• Demonstrated ability managing grants and projects, including project design, proposal development, budget preparation, expenditure tracking, monitoring and evaluation, reporting, etc.
• Demonstrated experience exploring, managing, and strengthening partnerships with various stakeholders including donors, private sector, local partners, government and INGOs.
• Excellent analytical and organizational skills – innovative thinker.
• Ability to facilitate a healthy and motivating team environment and effectively coordinate with colleagues.
• Ability to manage time, prioritize tasks, respond quickly to requests.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English, leadership, inter-personal and problem-solving skills.

Specifics of station

This is a single (non-accompanied) posting.

Contract information

The contract period is for one year starting as soon as possible, with the intention to extend for a longer period. We offer a competitive, fair and comprehensive salary and benefits package that is justifiable to our donors. A Cordaid contract which includes R&R, a comprehensive insurance cover, social security and pension contribution, a holiday allowance, 13th month and hardship allowance.