Senior Program Officer, HARD

The Senior Program Officer will lead the Programs Team and Technical Team to oversee and support the programming component of the Horn of Africa Response to Drought. The Senior Program Officer will have an influential role in supporting the Horn of Africa Response to Drought (HARD) Country Offices with the design, monitoring, reporting, technical input and evaluation of the Response PNS. The incumbent plays a crucial role in oversight of the regional programs team including Program Officers, Quality Assurance, Information Management and Technical Specialist and oversight of their peers in the Country Officers. The Senior Program Officer will need to carefully balance resource acquisition with management capacity and the needs of the division. They will also need to manage a relational role of support with the Country Offices. Whilst this position holds no direct line management responsibility over implementing staff, the incumbent will influence and guide many aspects of the project implementation cycle. To achieve this level of influence, excellent negotiation, interpersonal and skills in persuasion are required.


KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Management
• Lead the Programs Team to carefully balance/ prioritize use of available time & resources to support the development and monitoring of a sustainable portfolio of Response projects.
• Manage Programs Team to ensure proper tracking of grant implementation, funding, reporting and communication with Donors, Support Offices, field officers and other relevant stakeholders.
• Lead Technical Team to ensure: Country Offices are supported by the Regional Response Office and gaps are filled, program implementation is to the highest possible standard aligned with international and sector guidelines, sectoral capacity building is undertaken at a field level and WV builds and maintains relationships with key sectoral stakeholders.
• Provide support to the Response Manager in ongoing operations and programming
  Resource acquisition:
• Assist Country Offices with proposal development according to donor specifications and LEAP standards, which are aligned with Response strategy and integrated sectoral best practice.
• Support the development and compilation of Response strategy at a regional and country level, and operational plans at a country level.
  
  Monitoring and Reporting
• Oversight of team’s field monitoring to support solutions to Country Office implementation challenges.
• Lead Response reporting process guided by the Disaster Management Standards and LEAP lexicon.
• Assist Country Offices in the compilation and fine tuning of professional reports ensuring they are presented in a timely manner and meet donor,
• Support Office requirements.
• Assist in timely and efficient regular internal response and management reporting.
• Ensure Reporting is both technically and programmatically accurate.
• Guide teams to project sites for the purpose of project evaluation/monitoring, familiarization with the situation on the ground, involvement with on-site training for program officers, sector coordinators and technical personnel in relevant areas.
  
  Coordination
• Ensure information flow and coordination between Country Offices for the HARD Response.
• Ensure information flow and coordination between external agencies including sectoral clusters, OCHA, UN agencies and other relevant stakeholders.
• Ensure programmatic sectoral integration in HARD Response activities and integrated sectoral support to Country Offices.
  
  Donor Relations
• Maintain good communication with and represent the HARD Response to Support Offices, Donors, and other relevant stakeholders.
• Participate in joint agency assessments, task-force teams and workshops, as appropriate.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & ABILITIES:

REQUIRED:
• University degree in management, development, or related field.
• Requires at least 3-5 years work experience in emergency response programming and hands on operations.
• Working knowledge of humanitarian codes, standards, principals and practice.
• Empirical knowledge of emergency program administration, program response, design and implementation.
• Proven track record for multi-sector program design and implementation in large and complex emergencies.
• Requires cross-cultural experience, understanding and sensitivity.
• Ability to facilitate appropriate information flow and coordination amongst a complex range of internal and external stakeholders.
• Must have a clear understanding of major donors’ perspectives, requirements and standards and the ability to represent WV to major donors and other external stakeholders in a manner that is professional.
• Requires excellent organizational and time management skills.
• Requires experience in project design, monitoring and implementation.
• Must have proven analytical/problem-solving abilities with an attention to detail.
• Requires excellent interpersonal and written and oral communication skills.
• Requires English fluency, both written and spoken. Must be computer literate.
  
  PREFERRED:
• University degree in management

Senior Program Officer, HARD