Background:

The International Rescue Committee (IRC), one of the world’s largest humanitarian international NGOs, provides relief, rehabilitation and development support to vulnerable people and communities over 30 countries. IRC began work in Ethiopia in 2000 in response to severe drought in Ethiopia’s Somali Region and are currently providing assistance to Ethiopians and refugees in six regions in the country, implementing emergency and development programs in health, water and sanitation, economic recovery and development (ERD), women’s protection and empowerment, education, child protection, and multi-sectoral emergency response mechanisms.

Scope of the work:

IRC is seeking a project manager for a one year project, “protection and health services to vulnerable people in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Somali Region, Ethiopia”, funded by Global Affairs Canada (GAC). This is a COVID -19 integrated SRH/GBV project in Fafen Zone, the region. S/he will work with the field coordination unit, including health and community well-being Initiative (CWI) coordination units in the country office. S/he will also be responsible for coordinating across the above mentioned two sectors, partners, and governmental actors to ensure the project delivers with good outcome programming for the target populations. The project manager will ensure the project achieves the set results and is implemented as per the donor agreement, donor regulations, and internationally recognized quality of assistance standards. The manager is expected to assist in beneficiary feedback mechanism initiatives, and will spend close to 40% of his time in the field.

Major responsibilities:

• Represents the program teams in regular donor and partner coordination meetings, briefings, field missions, and visibility or recognition efforts related to the project;
• With support from Health and CWI teams coordinates the development and timely preparation and submission of government and donor reports and submit to grants team;
• Maintains open and co-operative relations between key program implementation partners, governmental actors, and donors through regular consultations, meetings and effective coordination;
• Moves forward for the timely and duly management of the project and implementation of all activities listed in the Work Plan;
• Leads the establishment of multi-stakeholder coordination and steering committee forums in the targeted areas, and facilitate the required support from government bodies for the intervention activities under the two sectors;
• Jointly with health and CWI sectors, develops detailed plan of actions for the operation of interventions periodically (quarterly and biannually) through close engagement of stakeholders. This includes regular monitoring of project executions;
•  In coordination with program staff and governmental actors, develop, review and supervise work and performance plans to ensure long-term and short-term priorities are on track;
• Regularly communicate and coordinate with the two sectors coordinators and focal points, including field managers on technical and project management issues;
• Collaborates closely with operations (HR and Supply Chain) on project transportation ,  recruitment and procurement needs, adhere at the same day to all IRC policies and procedures;
• Conducts field visits to project sites and thoroughly document findings and recommendations that include a final review of any rapid assessments conducted or any other project learning and evaluation activities;
• Ensures good project M&E to demonstrate a good plan project implementation and project outcomes. Assist in planning throughout the project cycle. Ensure that all project requirements and indicators are met and are of high quality-cost effective, this includes activity guidance, tools, or any innovative approaches are developed to improve program quality and support the implementation at field level across the sectors;
• Closely and regularly follows up on the implementation of planned activities under the project in a timely manner;
• Ensures proper and timely budget utilization in compliance with donor requirements and IRC’s financial policies;
• Ensures the achievement of project deliverables within in the given project time frame.

Minimum qualifications and skills

• Applies technical or administrative skills requiring intermediate knowledge of procedures and systems to perform the requirements of the job; skills and knowledge are typically acquired through formal education;
• MA/MSc or equivalent to Public Health (MPH), Social Science, Humanities, or another related field of study/BA;
• Minimum of 3/4 years of professional work experience for MA and BA subsequently ;
• At least one year of experience in a manager/coordinator level position, preferably with experience in the field of humanitarian response and project management working for an international NGO, UN agency or relevant ministry or local authorities;

Skills required:

• Proven management skills;
• Project management experience;
• Proposal and report writing skills;
• Excellent representation skills;
• Fluent in spoken and written English;
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills;
• Demonstrated leadership, communication, and facilitation skills.