Job Summary

As a member of the Action Against Hunger’s Knowledge and Innovation Hub and specific focal point for Program Development and Quality Assurance, the Deputy Hub Director will design day-to-day regional program management system and provide high-quality support services to country offices. S/he will proactively monitor/flag risks in the portfolio and identify actions required to remove bottlenecks to achieve organizational programmatic goals. S/he will also contribute to Action Against Hunger technical strategy within a multi-sectoral approach and will contribute to the overall program development and quality.

Purpose

Provide operational and technical leadership and expertise in program development and quality assurance to support all Action Against Hunger’s programs at the Regional and Country level.

Engagement

Engages with country teams, regional & global specialists and operations department to provide technical support for programming and operations. Participates in relevant national and regional sectors coordination, representation, and communication to amplify Action Against Hunger’s programmes, realize cross-learning opportunities and ensure representation of Action Against Hunger with governments, donors, partners, sister agencies and Action Against Hunger Network on programs-related work; and Manages a multi-disciplinary team of regional technical specialists.

Delivery

Delivers a comprehensive portfolio of regional and country programmes aligned to the global strategy while ensuring resource mobilization, impact measurement and program quality targets are realized; and ensures a robust monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning system is in place and accurate timely reports are shared across the organization for decision making

Essential Job Duties

Maintain an integrated dashboard and meeting rhythm to monitor strategic alignment of portfolio and grant performance across all the country offices & at the regional level

• Ensure strategic alignment of country programmes, and grants with Action Against Hunger ISP and Action Against Hunger USA strategy, technical framework, and donor strategies.
• Develop a dashboard / online tool to assess program & grant performance at all stages of the life cycle to ensure high-quality and on-time delivery of our work (monitoring, evaluation, learning and impact measurement).
• Coordinate calls for proposals involving several countries.
• Manage coordinated planning, preparation, technical review, submission, and follow-up of high-quality concept note and proposal submissions, in response to donor calls or unsolicited applications.
• Maintain an updated institutional donor database and provide regular and proactive alerts on funding opportunities to countries that align with annual targets and program objectives.
• Maintain a donor-reporting matrix and ensure timely review and submission of high-quality donor reports.
• Coordinate the development of Action Against Hunger s program standards that ensure adherence in project design and implementation.
• Liaise closely with the network to stay informed on programmatic developments within the region.

Develop a system to receive, organize, prioritize, and respond to Country Team requests in a timely and high-quality manner & ensure high quality and timeliness of Regional Technical Team services provided to Country Teams

• Create an online ‘ticketing’ system to capture all request and needs for support from the Regional Team
• Establish a regular working rhythm / review with the Hub Director to assess trade-offs or priorities
• Develop service-level agreements with Country Teams, promising a response within a certain time
• Issue regular ‘feedback’ surveys and implement improvement opportunities as needed to deliver high-quality on-time service to teams
• Monitor trends in requests for support, to identify if systematic / broader changes are needed
• Strengthen monitoring, evaluation and reporting processes and tools that directly support program quality at the local level including supporting design of need assessments, evaluations and documentation priorities that captures key practices and lessons and maximizes the impact of Action Against Hunger’s projects in countries.
• Improve existing program development tools and lead creation of new tools and guides to improve quality of proposal development, reporting, and documentation across the region.
• Advise or advocate for regional training in areas identified as regional/ organizational priorities or based on observed needs of teams.

Deploy staff effectively to respond to country needs, ensuring highest priorities are fully addressed

• Develop a clear set of criteria to prioritize requests and deploy team members
• Develop strong working relationships with Program Directors & their teams
• Identify capacity needs of program staff and facilitate training and professional development opportunities on quality issues (e.g., M&E, project reporting, proposal writing) in close collaboration with the regional team.
• Develop staffing norms for the team (e.g., identify the volume of activity / work that can be handled by each regional specialist, and trigger discussion with the Hub Director about need for new recruitments or process changes when norms are surpassed)

Coordination, representation, and communication

• Actively engage with and coordinate on strategic initiatives and working groups with other relevant internal and external stakeholders
• Collaborate with External Relation (ER) to attract non-institutional funding for country and regional operations
• Represent Action Against Hunger at relevant programmatic meetings at regional level
• Foster alliances and partnerships to further the quality of Action Against Hunger’s intervention in the region with international organizations, donors, academic and policy institutions.

Human Resources – Selection, Placement and Training

• Contribute to the recruitment process of program/technical staff at regional/country level, including job description development and technical selection.
• Ensure induction, briefing and debriefing of relevant Action Against Hunger staff at Regional and country level
• Provide technical feedback about and contribute to performance evaluation of Regional Technical Specialists & Program Directors
• Identify ongoing training needs of Action Against Hunger and if feasible, develop training material and provide capacity building.

Supervisory Responsibilities

• Technical Specialists in Horn and Eastern Africa Regional office (Regional Nutrition & Health, Regional Food Security & Livelihoods Specialist, Regional WASH Specialist, Regional MEAL Specialist and Regional SBC/Gender Specialist).

Working Conditions, Travel and Environment

• Must be available to work and travel outside normal office hours or on the weekends as needed or required.
• Must be able to travel coach fare for standard domestic and international business travel as well as to the country project sites.
• While visiting the field, the employee may be exposed to precarious settings under high security risks and/or very basic living conditions and outside weather conditions, as well as to infectious diseases.
• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is required to sit for long periods and to concentrate on work, including typing, and turn out heavy volumes of work accurately, within short time frames under stressful situations in the context of a moderately noisy office with interruptions.

Gender Equality Commitments

• Foster an environment that reinforces values of women and men, and equal access to information.
• Provide a work environment where women and men must be evaluated and promoted based on their skills and performance.
• Respect beneficiaries’ women, men, children (boys and girls) regardless of gender, sex orientation, disability, religion, race, color, ancestry, national origin, age, or marital status.
• Value and respect all cultures.

Requirements

Qualifications & essential experience

• Minimum Bachelor’s degree in any of our technical areas (Nutrition, Food Security, WASH, SBC, Gender, MEAL) or any other related field.
• A minimum of 5 years previous work in programs overseas with an international humanitarian organization in program management in an NGO sector

Requirements

• Experience working in humanitarian contexts, emergency and post-crisis, in all the steps of the Project Cycle Management;
• Experience with humanitarian coordination mechanisms
• Knowledge of the main humanitarian donors and of their reporting requirements; long term and developmental donors and foundations is an added advantage
• Capacity to write and review complex technical and donor reports
• Good anticipation, adaptation, and planning skills especially in a changing work environment, and good budgeting and grant management skills
• Good working knowledge of computer software, MS Office.
• Motivation to work within the humanitarian sector and to link it to other initiatives (research, external communication, outreach, etc.);
• Ability to manage and prioritize own workload, service mindset with strong problem-solving skills
• Ability to present clear ideas and arguments, providing distance support, training, and influence
• Proactive and taking initiative, autonomous and reliable
• Fluent written and spoken English; Working knowledge of French desirable

Benefits

• Action Against Hunger-USA provides all staff with an attractive salary & benefits package. We provide equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees & qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, ancestry, sexual orientation, national origin, age, handicap, disability, marital status, or status as a veteran. Action Against Hunger-USA complies with all applicable laws governing nondiscrimination in employment.