As a member of the Senior Management Team (SMT) in Mali, the Director of Programme Development and Quality (PDQ) plays a key role driving the country office program strategy and creating a culture of impact.

S/He is also responsible for ensuring development of high quality, evidence based, innovative programs for children, in all contexts, that contribute to Save the Children’s global Breakthroughs: Learn, Survive, Be Protected. The Director of PDQ ensures that programme principles and standards are upheld, and a robust monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning (MEAL) system is in place, and that reliable data is used for decision-making. One of key aspects of the role is ensuring capacity building, mentoring and coaching of technical specialists.

The PDQ Director will develop strategic partnerships that contribute to organisational commitments to localisation. The Director of PDQ supports donor engagement and business development to ensure that the country office strategy and humanitarian response plans can be delivered. The post holder will also oversee the Advocacy Team and work with the Awards Management team to ensure that both grant reports are compliant to donor requirements.

The Director of PDQ works with thematic specialists and advisors, and in partnership with the programme implementation team, to develop evidence-based strategies, programs and projects, and to spearhead/support advocacy and campaigning initiatives.

S/he takes a lead in establishing systems for program monitoring, quality improvement, accountability, evaluation and learning, and in ensuring that results are captured, shared and used to inform programme design and implementation. The Director leads the Country Office in developing and carrying out its partnership strategy with national NGOs and other strategic partners. As a senior leader in the country office s/he plays a representational role with the government, donors, partners, peer agencies, Save the Children (SC) Members and others.

The PDQ Director has the responsibility to build the capacity of mentor and coach SC teams and individual staff in areas related to PDQ, ensuring the development of a strong national team. S/he manages the New Business Development (NBD) Manager and ensures the development of high-quality design for funding proposals.

Requirements

• Master’s Degree in relevant social science, human rights, development studies, NGO management or equivalent fields, or equivalent experience
• A minimum of seven years of progressive senior management and/ or development experience in an NGO environment, including experience directing and implementing programmes for children; humanitarian experience is desirable
• Experience in more than one of Save the Children’s thematic sectors: education, child protection, child rights governance, health and nutrition, child poverty, emergencies
• Basic understanding of advocacy, policy, and government systems in the host country
• Experience or understanding of fundraising (unrestricted funds) or business development (programme/restricted funding), particularly strong program development and project design skills
• Credibility to advocate, influence and represent Save the Children at all levels
• Experience working with high level government agencies and academics on issues related to children
• Strong skills and proven experience in leading strategic planning, change management and program management processes; also from a knowledge and learning perspective
• Developing and managing monitoring, evaluation and learning systems
• Excellent listening, inter-personal, communication and networking skills; and an ability to work with diversified populations
• Skills such as training, capacity building, coaching, mentorship, problem solving, and understanding of project cycle management and coordination
• High level of self-awareness and commitment to growth and self-development
• Ability to research, write and represent well, manage time, multi-task and delegate tasks
• Fluency in French, both written and spoken essential with knowledge of English desirable.

Responsibilities

*As a member of the Senior Management Team, contribute to*****:

• Leadership of the Mali Country Office.
• Support the development of an organisational culture that reflects our dual mandate values, promotes accountability and high performance, encourages a team culture of learning, creativity and innovation and frees up our people to deliver outstanding results for children and excellent customer service for our members and donors.
• Help design and implement a coherent organizational structure that is consistent with agency practices and appropriate to programme needs.
• Help establish, maintain, and improve active and regular working relationships with host government authorities, partner agencies including humanitarian and development donors, and local and international NGO.
• Ensure the Mali Country Office complies with all relevant Save the Children Quality Standards.
• Demonstrates leadership in ensuring that programs are safe for children and achieve positive outcomes.
• Ensure that all required support is provided promptly, at scale and in line with the rules and principles during emergencies, working closely with the Regional Office and the members.
• Ensure that programs are relevant to children in Mali and to the global program and advocacy objectives of the Save the Children members.

Strategic Planning

• Lead the development/updating of the Child Rights Situation Analysis, including analysis of country context and taking into account child rights principles, ensuring participation and buy-in from all relevant staff, partners and other stakeholders as necessary.
• Lead the SLT to develop/update and drive forward the Country Strategy Plan (CSP) that is in line with the global strategy, Ambition 2030, with child rights at the core of all programming and advocacy work.
• Provide leadership on the development of the Annual Implementation Plan, monitoring of progress against the plan, and completion of accurate, on-time Country Annual Report of outcomes and impact for children, aligned with the Global Results Framework.
• Facilitate the development and pursuit of thematic and cross-cutting strategic priorities in line with the CSP, including gender equality and climate change, to guide current and future SC programming and Humanitarian Strategies.
• Support ownership and commitment to the Country Office strategy by all staff and departments through clear communication, regular feedback on progress and engagement of all functions in updates.
• Participate in global discussions and working groups to represent the country office, and the voice of children, in strategy design and policy development.
• Support change processes and roll out new ways of working to improve the achievement of the CSP.

Program Design and Development

• Ensure that every partnership is formed in the context of the Theory of Change and is designed and managed so that the partnership furthers achievement of Save the Children’s global strategy and strengthens local and national capacity to deliver for children.
• Based on tracking provided by the Awards Management team, review and position for opportunities that will drive the CSP.
• In consultation with the Country Director, Members and the NBD Manager, ensure technical engagement with donors to pre-position and prepare for opportunities, and engage in strategic positioning work directly as appropriate.
• Plag a leading role in designing proposals, including;
  • Engaging with technical experts as needed to ensure high quality, evidence-based designs that draw on needs assessments, learning from past programs and child safeguarding principles.
  • Ensuring partners are identified and appropriately engaged in program design, linl‹ing with Operations and Awards teams as need be for assessments, especially to strengthen gender sensitivity at the design stage.
• Ensure that every partnership if formed in the context of the Theory of Change and is managed to that the partnership furthers achievement of Save the Children’s global strategy and strengthen local and national capacity to deliver for children.
• Ensuring proposal designs and their budgets include robust MEAL plans that are aligned with the Global Results Framework (and therefore advance towards our Breakthroughs), incorporate Common Approaches as relevant, and build in critical learning questions.
• Ensuring the project budget will enable the project to be delivered as designed.
• Incorporating child and community participation into design, as relevant.
• Ensure that all sectors apply a risk lens to program design and implementation in line with the Save the Children policy on safe programming.

Program Quality

Technical support

Ensure the country program delivers high-quality, multi-sectoral programming in both development and humanitarian contexts (as appropriate);

• Monitor and advance the technical and operational quality of programmes, including conducting regular field visits to provide feedback on quality benchmarks, soliciting inputs for the design of new programs and collecting ideas for innovation.
• Monitor program Key Performance Indicators and, in partnership with other functions, take steps to improve the quality programming platform to meet agreed-upon standards.
• Work closely with the Director of Operations to ensure Quality Framework standards are met and procedures are followed throughout the project cycle and across the portfolio.
• Ensure technical experts proactively and regularly communicate planned requirements for program design, learning and implementation to relevant CO departments/functions.
• Build and lead a team of program technical experts needed to successfully deliver against the CSP.Ensure effective working relationships with SC global, Member and regional technical advisors, procuring technical support as needed to support program and advocacy efforts, including during Emergencies.
• Ensure that program technical experts engage in larger communities of practice within and external to Save the Children, to link with the most relevant and evidence-based approaches and conduct timely and useful reviews of project reports to support quality reporting for Members and donors.
• Ensure that the different technical sectors of the Country Office are coordinated and integrated and support each other to optimize programs and projects.
• Ensure that child safeguarding and safe programming is embedded in program design and considered throughout implementation to ensure that we do all we can to ensure children in our programs are safe and in line with our child safeguarding policy.
• Oversee Save the Children Mali’s operational research programs, deliver existing projects and develop new ones.Ensure the publication of results.
• Spread information relating to the outcome of research projects widely and – in particular – to the Government and to other humanitarian and development actors.

Innovation

• Oversee Save the Children Mali’s operational research programs, deliver existing projects and develop new ones. Ensure the publication of results.
• Spread information relating to the outcome of research projects widely and – in particular – to the Government and to other humanitarian and development actors.

Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL)

• Maintain a robust MEAL system to measure achievement and progress toward program goals and results.
• Ensure compliance with Essential Standards for MEAL.
• Ensure internal and external program/project evaluations as necessary and ensure the execution of baseline, periodic, and final evaluations as necessary in coordination with Director of Programme Operations.
• Measure achievement and progress toward program goals and results through the MEAL system.

  Knowledge Management and communication

• Ensure learning by the country programme from relevant best practices internally and externally both nationally and globally and make learning from Mali available for other programs.
• Engage in relevant national and global networks.
• Ensure establishment and operation of an online system that will enable SC staff to access a centralized data and information system and ensure the setting up and maintenance of a resource library.

Advocacy:

• Support the ACCM Lead to develop an advocacy strategy and annuals plans linked to the Country Strategic Plan, with clear campaign deliverables, for the Mali Country Office.Support thematic leads to articulate their top priority advocacy objectives in line with the Country Strategic Plan.
• Ensure that Save the Children receives national recognition for achieving proven and innovative national impact from well-managed child development programs and emergency response.
• Oversee thematic leads/advisors and other program staff in their work, including development of a plan for achieving their priority advocacy objectives in both an emergency and development context.
• Represent Save the Children as part of advocacy and networking with government authorities, donors, partners, civil society actors, children, and other stakeholders to build relationships to facilitate the achievement of the Country Stratgic Plan strategic goals and the success of our projects for children.

Partnerships

• Play a key role in identifying nurturing and strengthening strategic partnerships with local and international civil society organizations, NGOs, governments, etc., in advancing the country and global strategy to inspire our three breakthroughs for the most deprived and marginalised children.
• Champion the localisation and partnership agenda to grow Save the Children’s work through and with partners and provide technical support and capability building to implementing and strategic partners.

*Staff Management, Mentorship, and Development*****:

• Ensure appropriate staffing within Programme Development and Quality.
• Build the capacity of staff and ensure systems and processes are in place to deliver high quality concept notes and proposals.
• Ensure that all staff understand and are able to perform their role in an emergency.
• Manage Programme Development and Quality team; define expectations, provide leadership and technical support as needed, and evaluate direct reports regularly.
• Ensure the recruitment, training, and promotion of staff as appropriate and ensure availability of appropriate professional development opportunities for staff.
• Oversee that all technical sector staff proactively build and maintain technical skills and competencies required for leading and/or advising first class programs – both development and emergency programs.

Safeguarding, safe programming and accountability:

• Contribute to ensure compliance of the programme and organization to the essential standards on safe programming, accountability and safeguarding as set out in the Quality Framework
• Integrate Safeguarding in professional objectives and performance reviews of the line managed team.
• Respect and promote the Safeguarding Policy and local procedures and enable environment for reporting on cases.
• Identify Safeguarding and accountability related activities (awareness, capacity building and communication material, set up of reporting systems) in project activities and budget while reviewing proposals.
• Support, in collaboration with the MEAL team, the set-up of complaint management system in communities.

*Risk Management responsibilities including fraud risk (SCARF)*****:

• Be fully committed to the fight against fraud in accordance with anti-fraud and whistleblowing policies.
• Cooperate with commitment in the investigation of allegations of fraud concerning supervised staff and other personnel.
• Ensure that any information relating to a suspected fraud privy to as supervisor is treated with utmost confidentiality.
• Implement effectively and in a timely manner post-investigation actions concerning his/her staff and department.
• Include commitment to fraud risk management in the performance objectives of supervised staff.