Programme Officer – Sida Civil Society Strengthening Program Save the Children International

Job Title: Programme Officer – Sida Civil Society Strengthening Program
Team/Programme: Program Operations
Location: Lusaka
Grade: 4
Post Type: National

Safeguarding:
Save the Children does not tolerate any form of exploitation, abuse, or harassment against any person. It is the responsibility of all employees and representatives to protect all people who come in contact with our organization. Save the Children commits to applying the same standards to all its employees and subject them to the same processes regardless of their position, influence, or reputation within or outside of the organization.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion:
Save the Children International’s Diversity Policy aims to promote equal opportunity in employment and to ban any kind of discrimination based on sex, age, social class, disability, HIV status, religion, race, and ethnicity.

ROLE PURPOSE:
The incumbent will support Child Rights Governance Programmes and will consolidate and scale up Save the Children’s work on research, capacity building, and advocacy activities at the national level to hold governments accountable and ensure more and better spending on children by government and local stakeholders. This will be achieved through advocacy, capacity building, and strengthening community and child engagement in the development, planning, implementation, and monitoring, supporting CSO organization capacity development.

The Programme Officer will support the Child Rights Governance team in MEAL processes, including the Sida CSO Programme partners. This will be achieved through strengthening the partner’s capacity in monitoring and documentation of key programme outcomes. The Programme Officer will also support the strengthening of partners’ structures to influence good practices in programme implementation in Child Rights Governance, in line with Save the Children’s three breakthroughs. The Programme Officer will work closely with the Program Manager and MEAL staff within SCI and other MEAL staff from implementing partners.

SCOPE OF ROLE:
Reports to: Manager – Sida CSO Programme Manager
Dimensions: None
Staff directly reporting to this post: None

KEY AREAS OF PROGRAM ACCOUNTABILITY:

• Support partners in implementing programmes under the Sida CSO Programme in Child Rights Governance and Child Protection at all levels (district, provincial, and national).
• Document programme/partner experiences to capture good practices, results, impacts, and other experiences relevant for sharing with others.
• Ensure effective implementation of national level work on Investment in Children.
• Responsible for setting up meetings and ensuring CRG and Child Protection interventions under the programme are on track.
• Establish an innovative model for SC’s engagement in new communities through systematic engagement, which could be adopted and institutionalized elsewhere.
• Establish a consistent, well-documented approach to local level engagement (communities, local government, private sector, and civil society).
• Scale up and sustain work on influencing local and national budgets, tracking expenditure, and influencing resource mobilization to invest in children.
• Prepare quality semi-annual and annual reports as per agency and grant requirements, ensuring timely submission.
• Liaise with other practitioners in a similar field of work and with government on policy and practice issues, informing them of our interventions and work.
• The post-holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.
• Monitoring and Evaluation:
  • Conduct site visits to assess programme progress.
  • Develop relevant data collection tools and support the Child Rights Governance team in their use.
  • Work with the MEAL team to conduct studies/assessments.
  • Provide capacity building for partner staff in the use of SCI MEAL tools and facilitate timely partner reporting to SCI.

KEY AREAS OF SUB-AWARD MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTABILITY:

• Responsible for partner finance-related due diligence, assessments, vetting, selection processes, and involvement in awarding sub-grants/sub-contracts.
• Ensure timely disbursement of funds to implementing partners, ensuring efficient utilisation of funds.
• Analyse reports and funding requests from partners, providing feedback and recommending transfer of funds.
• Review potential sub-grantees’ proposals and budgets.
• Review/amend/draft partnership agreements.
• Organize/provide necessary technical assistance and capacity-building trainings to address capacity gaps.
• Review sub-grantees/sub-contractors’ financial reports, ensuring all variances between budgets and actuals are explained.
• Conduct field visits to sub-grantees to check the financial report supporting documents.
• Ensure compliance with donor requirements and advise budget holders on compliance issues.
• Ensure donor regulations are communicated to partner staff and all activities meet donor requirements.
• Lead sub-award and sub-award close-out processes and reconciliation.

SKILLS AND BEHAVIOURS (Our Values in Practice)

• Accountability:
  • Holds self accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, and role modeling Save the Children values.
  • Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved.
• Ambition:
  • Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves (and their team), takes responsibility for their own personal development, and encourages others to do the same.
  • Widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engaging and motivating others.
  • Future-oriented, thinks strategically.
• Collaboration:
  • Builds and maintains effective relationships with team members, colleagues, members, external partners, and supporters.
  • Values diversity and sees it as a source of competitive strength.
  • Approachable, a good listener, and easy to talk to.
• Creativity:
  • Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions.
  • Willing to take disciplined risks.
• Integrity:
  • Honest, encourages openness, and transparency.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE:

• University degree in Social Sciences or a relevant area, with basic College graduates/studies related to Accounting and MEAL.
• At least 3 years of relevant working experience with rights-based issues, preferably children’s rights within the civil society sector.
• Strong knowledge of Children’s Rights and Governance.
• Demonstrated skills in the design of human rights programmes.
• Good analytical and report writing skills.
• Demonstrated basic knowledge of various donors’ financial policies and guidelines.
• Understanding of financial systems and procedures.
• Demonstrated ability to set and achieve objectives.
• Demonstrated skills and knowledge in MEAL.
• English language proficiency is a must; local languages are an added advantage.
• Strong communication (verbal and written) skills, interpersonal skills, and representational skills.
• Flexible and adaptable to dynamic changes and a fast-paced work environment.
• Ability to work with minimum supervision.
• Knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.