TEAM/PROGRAMME: Health & WASH Programme team
LOCATION: Myanmar Country Office, Yangon. May be remote for a period based on in-country situation.
GRADE: TBC
POST TYPE & Duration: 2 years
Child Safeguarding: Level 3: the post holder will have contact with children and/or young people either frequently (e.g. once a week or more) or intensively (e.g. four days in one month or more or overnight) because they work country programs; or are visiting country programs; or because they are responsible for implementing the police checking/vetting process staff.
ROLE PURPOSE:
The Health & WASH (HW) Sector Lead provides strategic leadership to Myanmar Country HW Programmes. The Sector Lead plays a lead role in setting strategic direction for the sector, designing new programs and projects, and identifying and pursing strategic partnerships. S/he is responsible for ensuring program quality and donor accountability for a range of projects, and directly supervises the heads of Health and WASH, Technical Advisors and implementation teams. S/he plays a senior representational and advocacy role with key national and international stakeholders, and works on a regular basis with SC members and internal stakeholders to maximize program delivery. The Sector Lead ensures that program learning, research and evaluation findings are channelled towards advocacy, continuous improvements, innovation and new program design.
SCOPE OF ROLE:
Reports to: Program Director.
Technical report: Strategy, Evidence and Impact Director (SEID)
Dimensions: The position will be responsible for strategic direction and oversight for Myanmar Country Office.
Staff directly reporting to this post: Heads and Advisors of Health and WASH programs.
Staff indirectly reporting to this post: None
KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:
Strategic Direction, Program Design and Development
- Take lead role in formulating CO’s vision for long-term programming in Health & WASH in Myanmar aligning with country strategic plans for 2022-2025.
- Introduce innovative ideas and approaches to support children HW issues in Myanmar; Identify needs and opportunities for potential programs, through situation analyses/feasibility studies, networking, and leveraging research and evaluation findings from both internal and external sources.
- Encourage and facilitate implementation of a Strategic Learning Agenda for HW in Myanmar for systematic and a coordinated approach to evidence generation and learning.
- Work with Save the Children staff to develop funding strategies and proposals to expand the HW portfolio in line with strategic priorities and technical best practice from a range of sources. This will involve continuously developing concepts and innovations and packaging them for a range of donors, both for proactive and reactive fundraising efforts.
- Continuously assess staffing patterns and competencies to ensure that right staff are in place to support sector needs and development.
- Identify and pursue opportunities for synergistic, inter-sectoral programs to address the holistic needs of children, especially the most deprived.
Programme Quality:
- Identify internal and external capacity building opportunities and resources to provide high quality technical assistance to HW projects, supporting technical staff, partner agencies and others to build knowledge and technical competence.
- Integrate programme learning across the sectors, ensuring coherence of technical approaches across programmes, identifying best practice, and ensuring inter-sectoral complementarity.
- Ensure that regular field based project review meetings take place and are attended by the relevant staff; Ensure that monitoring systems provide information in the appropriate form and at the right time (in different levels) to allow for effective decision making
- Develop and implement strategies to ensure gender equity, child participation and beneficiary accountability in all programmes.
- Complete the Silver Common Approaches Learning Program course and hold advance knowledge and skills of the Health and WASH Common Approaches and be able to provide training, mentoring and support to others.
- Ensure that sectoral and internal technical best practice, including SC’s Common Approaches, is applied in collaboration with relevant regional office technical colleagues.
- Proactively support the continued country uptake of Common Approaches, ensuring that they are adapted to the Myanmar context and implemented as planned, with fidelity and quality and using quality benchmarks.
- Share results, evidence and learning on Common Approaches in Myanmar and elsewhere.
- Ensure that all programs have an effective Monitoring Evaluation Accountability and Learning (MEAL) practices throughout the program cycle.
- Ensure that interventions are evaluated using appropriate methods, including process and impact evaluations, and that evidence is rigorously maintained, documented and disseminated internally and externally, to contribute to improvements in programme quality and advocacy efforts.
- Ensure that monitoring and accountability systems (i.e IPTT and FRM) provide information in the appropriate form and at the right time (in different levels) to allow for effective decision making and risk mitigation
- Working closely with MEAL, ensure that all programs have and follow the recommended MEAL practices throughout the program cycle
- Ensure that quality benchmarks are developed and rolled out for key interventions, as well as all new projects; ensure that ongoing analysis of QBs is used for adaptive management and programme quality improvement
- Support teams to identify and carry out operational research related to HW.
- Ensure that Save the Children’s regional and global experience is reflected in HW programmes
- Share CO’s experience and organizational learning with COs as well as with relevant organizations over the globe
Policy and Advocacy:
- Coordinate closely with the Policy, Research, and Evidence sector on policy and advocacy work relating to HW
- Lead on policy and advocacy for the sector, ensuring that HW technical interventions are designed to inform relevant policy concerns. Develop policy briefs and position papers, ensuring the inclusion of technical input from the relevant project managers.
- Lead in networking and articulating Save the Children’s position, policy and strategy in national forums and meetings. Engage in key debates related to national HW sector policies and programs, in coordination with technical colleagues and other relevant staff.
- Identify appropriate strategic partnerships for joint advocacy initiatives on related issues
Programme Management:
- Direct line management and supervision of Heads of HW and Technical Advisors, overseeing HW programmes, and ongoing support, guidance and leadership to managers and staff working on those programmes.
- Ensure that Save the Children complies with donors and SCI regulations on all projects, including submission of high quality and timely reports.
- Lead in the development of a planning cycle for the sector, including annual, quarterly and monthly planning and work plan follow up.
- Ensure effective financial oversight of project and thematic budgets, maintaining timely expenditure in line with agreed priorities and donor guidelines.
- Build the capacity of staff in programme management, technical excellence and policy analysis and influencing related to the program.
- Build and nurture effective teamwork within the sectors both at central and field levels and ensure a
- cohesive workplace environment for optimum staff retention.
- Supervise team and provide necessary guidance to ensure that program targets are met.
- Respond as necessary to emerging emergency situations to provide humanitarian response in line with international standards.
Human Resource Management and Development
- Ensure the sector hires, retains and develops talents ensuring high performance for high quality programme delivery.
- Provide leadership to ensure a structure that fits for purpose.
- Establish, build and nurture effective teamwork within the sector and ensure a cohesive workplace environment for optimum staff retention.
- Supervise team and provide necessary guidance to ensure that program targets are met.
- Create opportunity for staff development in coordination with HR.
- Responsibility to create and maintain a managerial and operational environment where the Child Safeguarding Policy is effectively implemented.
- Ensure that your staff is providing all beneficiaries of your programme with ongoing, age-appropriate verbal or written information in relevant languages about Save the Children’s Child Safeguarding Policy and Code of Conduct.
Representation, Coordination and Networking:
- Maintain working relationships with relevant stakeholders.
- Identify partnerships/collaborations and build strong networks with other NGOs, CSOs, donors, UN agencies and academic institutions and the private sector working on HW to collaborate on programs, joint learning, analysis and advocacy initiatives
- Support the identification, selection, capacity strengthening and monitoring of new partners in HW.
- Ensure Heads of HW work closely with the partners for quality and timely program implementation (develop MEAL plans, review budgets, etc.)
- Ensure that the country office has effective representation on national, regional and international networks and forum related to HW, and that we participate in conferences/meetings that will enhance our reputation and programming
- Actively participate in technical coordination meetings to ensure synergies with other agencies in our development and humanitarian work, including sectors/clusters at local and national level.
- Ensure program teams play an active role in local coordination mechanisms.
- Maintain excellent relationships with donors, both in terms of strategic positioning and program delivery
- Represent CO on the Regional and Global meetings on HW, both internal and external.
QUALIFICATIONS
- Academic: Master degree in relevant field.
SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:
ESSENTIAL :
- At least 7 years of working experience in relevant field including at least 5 years in senior management position.
- Strong leadership abilities
- Excellent understanding and experience on key issues and strategies in Health and WASH
- Excellent skills on process facilitation and coordination with high standard.
- Excellent skills in Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning in HW
- Demonstrated experience in humanitarian response
- Excellent inter-personal communication skills
- Strong analytical capacity and proficient understanding of both qualitative and quantitative research methods
- Good presentation skills including policy briefing
- Good supportive supervision skills,
- Fluency in written and spoken English.
Location: Yangon
Employee Status: Fixed Term
Closing Date: Oct 5, 2021
