Head of Programs

War Child Alliance

War Child Alliance (WCA) is an independent and impartial international non-governmental organization investing in a peaceful future for children and young people affected by armed conflict. WCA has a presence in 10 countries to improve the resilience and wellbeing of children, delivering vital child protection, education and psychosocial support.

War Child Holland ‘s Program in South Sudan

War Child Holland has been working in the territory that constitutes South Sudan for more than 2 decades now. Following independence in 2011, South Sudan is still the newest country in the world but it has continued to be locked in a protracted conflict that is driven by a diverse set of historical, ethnic and political issues. Millions of children continue to be at risk and in need of protection, support for their psychosocial development and access to education in poorly resourced emergency settings.

Your challenge

The Head of Programs will be responsible for ensuring good strategic leadership of programs, managing key risks and supporting the Programs team to deliver their goals in South Sudan. It is a critical role requiring a motivated and experienced individual with a desire for a new and exciting challenge. The role also ensures information from the country program is shared across stakeholders and will represent War Child at the highest levels with donors, national authorities, clusters and national partners in South Sudan.

Responsibilities

The Head of Programs shall:

• Actively participate, in coordination with the Country Director, Program Implementation Manager and MEAL Coordinator, in program development implementation and funding strategy in the themes of Child protection, education, mental health and livelihoods, ensuring cross cutting themes (gender, disability, and accountability) are integrated in program engagements.
• Participate in the country strategy development, ensuring to maximize the benefit of both War Child’s programming expertise and strategies such as those on Scaling and on the Evidence Based Interventions
• Ensure War Child’s strategic positioning in Humanitarian Sector by ensuring active and
• constructive presence, in key humanitarian and development forums and clusters; foster strong operational partnerships with donors and partners (INGOs, local NGOs, authorities).
• Assist the CD in fundraising efforts at country level by providing strategic information and analysis for proactive fundraising.
• Lead on the management of all grants: coordinate and ensure timely and effective reporting
• (internal and donor/partner), monitor grant management plans and BVAs, proactively raise concerns and risks, and manage operational donor communication.
• Working with SMT and support teams to ensure that War Child and donor guidelines/policies are fully followed during all project implementation, reducing the risk of disallowable costs.
• Ensure the quality of projects implemented by War Child, by monitoring and driving their
• compliance with internal and sector standards. Maintain overview of internal and external
• programmatic audits and ensure any findings/ recommendations are acted upon.
• Responsible for operational support (supervision, coherence, coordination and collaboration) between all the program teams in South Sudan, Head Office as well as with various internal and external stakeholders of the organization to achieve DRC program strategy. Monitoring of security context and contributing towards the problem solving and troubleshooting required to keep the program progressing.
• Ensure that child safeguarding is central in all project designs, implementation and monitoring, in accordance with War Child’s child safeguarding policy and related management tools.
• Provide line management leadership to all Program Managers and, where gaps exist, Project
• Managers, ensuring they are well supported and guided to supervise the projects in line with the organizational Achievement and Development process.
• Lead on the organization and chairing of internal capacity-building, strategic design and planning workshops/trainings for Programs department by identifying needs, mapping internal capacities and knowledge sharing.
• These duties provide a framework for the role and should not be regarded as a definitive list. Other reasonable duties may be required consistent with the grade of the post.

Relations

The Head of Program directly Reports to the Country Director of War Child Holland South Sudan

The Head of Programs role forms an integral part of the Senior Management Team in country

Your experience

• Master’s degree in psychology, sociology, development studies or related social science fields
• Minimum of 10 years’ experience in successfully designing and delivering strategies for programs in management role.
• Substantial knowledge and experience of project management and implementation in
• complex multi-stakeholder programs.
• Varied and extensive experience of grant management and institutional fundraising.
• Technical competencies in child protection, education, mental health and livelihoods.
• Proven leadership skills and the ability to manage, develop and inspire a diverse team.
• Proven ability to represent organization at the highest level (government, UN agencies,
• donors, INGOs, partners) with the knowledge of broader developments and the ability to
• influence to achieve required outcome.
• Ability to collaborate, form and sustain effective partnerships with internal and external
• stakeholders with excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Strong planning and organizational skills with the ability to make effective decisions.
• Fluency in English
• Prior work experience in South Sudan or similar context in Africa is essential

Our Terms & Conditions

A challenging job, within an inspiring and motivated team of people and the support of a strong and professional organisation in the Netherlands.

A fair salary and comprehensive secondary benefits and opportunities to develop and learn professionally.

• Contract type: Local contract, salary grid and Terms & Conditions will apply. Expats will be offered an expat package.
• Contract duration: War Child Alliance will offer a 1-year contract with the intention to prolong into an open ended contract depending on mutual agreement and performance.
• Working hours: Full time, 40 hours per week.

Note: The position is based in War Child Offices in Juba, South Sudan and the position holder is expected to travel in War Child South Sudan field offices as needed.

Our Organisation
War Child is a dynamic organization. We try to keep an informal ambiance within our offices, with a lot of room for creativity, inspiration and self-initiative from employees. We practice what we preach: dynamic, innovative, integrity focused, and a drive to reach the highest possible results against the lowest possible costs. War Child Alliance offers a challenging job in an inspiring workplace. Please visit our website https://www.warchild.net for more information on the organisation and the programmes.

Child safeguarding

Our work with children to keep them safe is the most important thing we do. We are committed to the safeguarding of children in all areas of our work. Successful applicants will be expected to be compliant and sign up to our Child Safeguarding policy, which you can read here: How War Child upholds Integrity | War Child