Chief of Party, BHA/Somalia Resilience Food Security Activity (RFSA) Full Time

Summary: 

Save the Children is seeking a Chief of Party (COP) for an anticipated five-year BHA-funded Resilience Food Security Activity (RFSA) in Somalia. The RFSA will work at the individual, household, and community levels using the Graduation Approach to address the underlying causes of food insecurity in the face of shocks and stresses. The Somalia RFSA will target urban and peri-urban internally displaced persons (IDPs) and the surrounding host communities in Mogadishu, Afgoye, Jowhar, Baidoa, Hudur, or Kismayo. The estimated implementation timeframe for the RFSA is 2024 – 2029. Hiring is contingent upon successful award of the project and USAID approval of the candidate.

The proposed program will be an integrated, multi-sectoral food and nutrition security intervention. The COP is responsible for the overall management and representation of the activity and is ultimately accountable for the delivery of desired program results, an effective adaptive management approach, relationships with a range of stakeholders, and management of the program team and consortium.

What You’ll Be Doing (Essential Duties):

• Manage the overall administrative, financial, and technical activities of the program.
• Lead overall program planning, putting in place team structures, technical and operational approaches, infrastructure, monitoring and evaluation (M&E), and feedback loops required for program delivery and success.
• Lead partnerships within the program consortium, as well as with external stakeholders as needed, to foster the teamwork required for program success.
• Represent the program to donor officials, host government officials, partner representatives, local stakeholders, and team members.
• Ensure alignment and cross-learning with Save the Children’s program and technical priorities in country and with the US Office.
• Build a strong program leadership team ensuring effective coordination between key technical, operational and administrative functions.
• Review, approve and contribute to major program strategies such as the M&E plan, the learning plan, the Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) approach, the gender strategy, and technical or thematic strategies. Provide oversight and quality control to the program’s thematic approaches and implementation, leading course corrections as required.
• Lead annual planning processes and associated donor resource requests, monitoring implementation progress as compared to these plans.
• Ensure the quality of all program deliverables, inclusive of activities, outputs, documentation, and reporting.
• Lead risk management, overseeing the delivery team to ensure compliant and accountable program monitoring and evaluations, staff and asset safety and security, and fraud, PSEA and extortion risk mitigation.
• Ensure sound program financial management and reporting.
• Ensure sound program logistical and operational structures and management.
• Ensure compliance with donors, host government, and Save the Children policies and procedures.
• Recruit, develop and manage the program team, ensuring that adequate and appropriate capacity building plans are in place and that human resources policies are appropriate for team retention and high performance.
• Demonstrate a commitment to gender and youth integration in both the programmatic and operational aspects of the activity.
• Ensure that the program deploys an effective CLA approach, such that the activity can evolve in a changing context to achieve desired outcomes.
• Oversee the program’s security management approach, working with country office counterparts.

Required Background and Experience:

• A master’s degree in development studies, international relations, agriculture, economics, business administration, or a related field and a minimum of seven years of increasing management responsibility in international development projects; OR an undergraduate degree in a related field and 10 years of increasing management responsibility in international development projects.
• Proven leadership skills managing projects of a similar size and scope in developing countries facing complex, volatile, and uncertain contexts.
• Experience with USAID and US Government regulations.
• Prior experience effectively managing USAID development or resilience activities; preferably involving the Graduation/enterprise development approach in urban/peri-urban areas.
• Demonstrated experience in managing program implementation, financial reporting, reporting procedures and systems, and staff.
• Experience in recruiting and strengthening the capacity of program staff.
• Proven ability to build and maintain relationships with host country government’s, donors and other key stakeholders
• Previous work experience working in Somalia and technical expertise in urban/peri-urban, off-farm livelihoods, enterprise/financial inclusion.
• Familiarity with the social, political, economic, and cultural landscape of Somalia is preferred.
• Understanding and demonstrated commitment to the importance of gender and youth dynamics in FNES programming.
• Skills in adaptive management and learning techniques highly preferred.
• Proven success serving in a leadership role for a project addressing issues related to food security, nutrition, resilience, agriculture, natural resource management, livelihoods, or similar, preferably in Somalia.
• Fluency in English is required, and professional proficiency in Somali and/or Arabic is preferred.

Why you should join the Save the Children Team…

Save the Children US offers outstanding benefits that include health, dental, vision and life insurances, short-term and long-term disability coverage, an Employee Assistance Program, 403(b), generous vacation, personal sick leave, family leave, parental/adoption leave, commuter benefits, dress for your day, and much more.

 Click here to learn more about how Save the Children US will invest in YOU!

About Save the Children

No matter your role when you join Save the Children, each and every day you will challenge yourself to devote your skills, talent and expertise to changing the world for kids. It’s an ambitious goal, and a meaningful one no matter how you see yourself professionally: an accountant, a writer, a data analyst, a teacher, a driver, a designer, or any one of the hundreds of dozens of roles we’re looking to fill every day.

You see, Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. In the United States and around the world, we give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. We do whatever it takes for children – every day and in times of crisis – transforming their lives and the future we share.

Our work for children and their families requires that we commit—at every opportunity—to work together to identify and dismantle persistent systemic and structural racism, inequality, and any other forms of discrimination in this country and beyond.  As an anti-racist organization, Save the Children will not tolerate discrimination in any form—in our employment practices, amongst our staff, in our leadership or toward the people we serve. We stand in solidarity with all people to fight for equal rights, justice, inclusion, and belonging.

We provide equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, ancestry, sexual orientation, national origin, age, handicap, disability, marital status, or status as a veteran. Save the Children complies with all applicable laws.

Save the Children is committed to conducting its programs and operations in a manner that is safe for the children it serves and helping protect the children with whom we are in contact. All Save the Children representatives are explicitly prohibited from engaging in any activity that may result in any kind of child abuse. In addition, it is Save the Children’s policy to create and proactively maintain an environment that aims to prevent and deter any actions and omissions, whether deliberate or inadvertent, that place children at the risk of any kind of child abuse. All our representatives are expected to conduct themselves in a manner consistent with this commitment and obligation.

Save the Children is committed to minimizing safety and security risks for our valued employees, ensuring all are given training, support and information to reduce their risk exposure while maximizing the impact of our programs for children and families. Our shared duty, both agency and individual, is to seek and maintain safe working conditions for all.