The Save the Children Fund, commonly known as Save the Children, was established in the United Kingdom in 1919 to improve the lives of children through better education, health care, and economic opportunities, as well as providing emergency aid in natural disasters, war, and other conflicts. After passing a century, which it celebrated in 2019, it is now a global movement made up of 29 national member organizations which work in 120 countries.

ROLE PURPOSE:

Save the Children in Ethiopia implements a wide range of both humanitarian and development programs with partners across the country.  We work with UN agencies, donors, Government of Ethiopia, International and local organizations, research centers, academic institutions and media agencies. The head of the Partnership & localization takes the lead as the focal point for Save the Children’s engagement with all implementation partnership with in Save the Children Ethiopia country office, guiding and supporting a strategic process to ensure adequate attention is given to strategic thinking in partnerships, build partners’ capacities and identify opportunities for potential partnership and ensure active participation of partners in program design, project planning and implementation. The head of partnership & localization is responsible to create strong coordination and synergy among different function of Save the Children across the partnership cycle and ensure the partnership department sufficiently lead and support throughout all stages of Partnership management.

The Senior Partnerships and Localization Manager also play a critical role in turning the localization roadmap in to action. He/she will be an experienced and entrepreneurial generalist with in depth understanding of localization and partnership management with a proven track record. H/She will engage with Country Offices team to identify critical operational issues that hinder or accelerate localization. S/he be able to work closely in line with the roadmap and pathway to the Localization Ambition and working groups as well as the advisory councils where the outcomes and feedback influence processes, policy, system, investments and process at country office and beyond.  The incumbent is responsible for overseeing partners’ selection and partnership development, capacity assessment and capacity sharing of partners, conduct joint monitoring.  H/she is responsible for the development and roll out of partnership specific standards, compliance and guidelines to relevant stakeholders. In general, the position holder plays coordination and facilitation roles across thematic, finance, programs, awards, Child Safeguarding and other key functions to ensure implementation of Save the Children’s internal policies and standards on partnership management & localization.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to:  APA Director

Staff directly reporting to this post:  1-2 staffs

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY

Engagement with Partners

• Assess the current partnership portfolio; conduct analysis to identify Strength, weakness and opportunities and threats and inform the decision making process
• Develop and update the partnership strategies based on the direction set out by the country office Strategic plan/CSP and EPP plan and ensure it is rolled out to all relevant functions within the organization and scalability to all partners.
• Facilitate regular dialogue, review meetings and information sharing with partners including government, non-government, research, academics and other types of partners
• Facilitate partner involvement in SC proposals and budget preparation and input directly to ensure partner design and costs are appropriately represented and adequately resourced.
• Strengthen, develop, and optimize both existing and new partnership opportunities, across the country, maximizing influence
• Facilitate partners’ involvement in strategy and Proposal development, program planning, budget preparation and ensure all activities are adequately costed and resourced
• Coordinate effective relationships between partners and relevant country office thematic sectors as well as staffs to facilitate collaborative support and mutual learning
• Facilitate stakeholder analysis, partner mapping, Partner selection and partnership approach  in line with partnership principles and the country context.
• Understand the evolving need of partnership in humanitarian and development setting, support the design of strategies such as EPP and ensure preposition of high performing partners both for development and humanitarian response
• Propose, design and pilot innovative approaches to working in partnership to deliver upon SC programs and partnerships strategies

Technical support on Operationalizing localization

• Coordinate with thematic lead on a regular bases to track the progress of the main activities under the seven dimensions of Localization.
• Participate in the national and in – house Localization working group to create awareness on Localization and advocate to advance the agenda.
• Engage thematic lead, operation, and other relevant functions to design a project with a localization touch and contribute to the localization sections of the project proposal.
• Asses, analyze and document the good practices of the localization models and draft a quarterly brief.
• Identify models that support localization and try to adopt with the localization roadmap.
• Provide support towards the development of the seven-dimension model.
• Support the roll-out, review, webinar and capacity-strengthening of localization and partnership.
• Gather and disseminate evidence of operationalizing localization approach documenting the effective model and pain points.
• Engage in the mapping of localization champions such as UN, local and national government and private sectors, Child led initiatives and academia.
• Work closely with the Area Directors (South, North and East) to identify the areas of support which could be related to system strengthening, resourcing or remote guidance.
• Customize the country office localization roadmap to area and field office to compliment with the overall global and regional localization ambitions.

Capacity Building of Partners

• Support, guide, and oversee a full scale capacity assessment and facilitate support for partners.
• Oversee the entire process of the partners’ capacity building process, ensure proper planning in placed and coordinate inputs for capacity building plans and follow up implementation
• Effectively link partners to relevant departments in order to support partners’ effort in the areas of business development, fundraising, organizational capacities to improve their organizational and operational capacity proposal development from an organizational and operational standpoint
• Work towards allocating adequate budget for key capacity building activities and ensure costed and effective capacity building strategy.

Managing Sub awards

• Together with the Award focal person and the Ops/PDQ team, make sure that the partnership is the process owner and always takes the lead in conducting due diligence and capacity assessment, support the sub award agreement process, follow of capacity development plan as part of the agreement, organizing sector specific review meetings, organize annual learning forum, initiate partners’ feedback survey, monitor partner program delivery
• Design and follow up effective monitoring of partners’’ program delivery, risks and financial and operational compliances and verify partners reports through monitoring visit of partners in the field.
• Ensure award kick of meeting conducted as per the agreed schedule and procedures and                                                                                                                                                     encourage partners to have a separate pre close out and close out plan and create a culture of learning

Representation

• Ensure Save the children in general and Partnership unit in particular robustly represented in different networks, partnership meetings, business development initiatives, partners’ selection, teaming agreements and other important Events
• Prepare concise and clear capacity statement documents, present in different occasions, share to donors and partners and ensure Save the Children profile clearly communicated and generate positive feedback
• Maintain a strong role for SC in the interagency coordination on partnerships in Ethiopia response community, including the Partnerships Initiative

Staff Management

• Manage the performance of a team and provide supportive feedback to create high performing team members
• Provide on the job training and coaching to staff to support their performance and professional development
• Develop culture of open conversation and constructive critics to maintain positive relationship

SKILLS AND BEHAVIOURS (our Values in Practice) 

Accountability: 

• Holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values
• Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities – giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, 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, engages and motivates others
• Future orientated, thinks strategically.

Collaboration: 

• Builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters
• Commitment to member services, capacity building and development of partners through oversight and collaboration
• Organizational development support to implementing partners. It is specifically support in developing their systems like HR system, finance system, procurement and admin systems etc.
• Willingness to work in emergency contexts and deployment on emergency programs as part of our commitment to dual mandate.
• Values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength
• Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to

Creativity: 

• Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
• Willing to take disciplined risks

Integrity: 

• Honest, encourages openness and transparency commitment to Save the Children Values

QULIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor degree in relevant field such as Economics, Social science, business administration and Sociology
• Minimum 10 years work experience in NGOs sector
• Proven experience in Partnership and stakeholder engagement
• Experience of working in child focused organizations with excellent understanding of the child rights and safeguarding issues
• Strong program development and management experiences
• An excellent team player with good skills in team work and decision making ability
• Experience of M&E and beneficiary accountability
• Fluency in English language preferred.
• Commitment to the values, mission and principles of Save the Children
• Demonstrated ability to develop and manage productive relationships with wide range of stakeholders,.
• Experience of solving complex issues through analysis, definition of a clear way forward and ensuring buy in using inspiration and sticking to principles.
• Strong cultural sensitivity, with highly developed interpersonal and communication skills including influencing, negotiation, problem solving and coaching
• experience of working in networks, consortia and alliance resulting in strong working relationships
• Experience of solving complex issues through analysis, definition of a clear way forward and ensuring buy in

Desirable 

• Previous experience of managing Sub grantees, CSOs and other program stakeholders
• Good understanding on applicable government laws