Plan International AGI-K Project Manager Job in Nairobi Kenya

Position: Project Manager - Adolescent Girls Initiative Kenya Project (AGI-K)
 

Grade: D1
 

Department & Location: Programs

Reports to: Programme Manager - Education

Purpose: Founded 75 years ago, Plan International is one of the oldest and largest children's development organizations in the world. We work in 50 developing countries across Africa, Asia and the Americas to promote child rights and lift millions of children out of poverty particularly those who are excluded or marginalized. We deliver high quality programs that deliver long lasting benefits and work in partnership with others.

Plan's vision is of a world in which all children realize their full potential in societies that respect people's rights and dignity. Plan is independent, with no religious, political or governmental affiliations and is an equal opportunity employer.
 

The Adolescent Girls Initiative Kenya (AGI-K) project, funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), provides a unique and exciting opportunity to reach out to 6000 adolescent girls ages 11-14 in two marginalized areas in Kenya – Wajir in Northern Kenya and Kibera slums in Nairobi. 

A range of interventions in the health, violence prevention, wealth creation, and education sectors will be implemented and evaluated through a randomized control trial to provide evidence on the most cost effective combinations with the greatest impact.
 

The main purpose of the Project Manager is to oversee the implementation of the interventions in the Kibera slums. Guided by the Plan Kenya House gender framework, the incumbent will ensure gender sensitive planning, implementation, personnel management, resource management, monitoring & evaluation, associated stakeholder and partner relationship management and timely and quality reporting. 

Designing and development of complementary or new funding proposals is expected and the Project manager ensures quality of project activities/results including coordinating external technical support/expertise as required.
 

The Project Manager will be primarily responsible for the management of a Plan DFID Adolescent Girls Initiative Kenya (AGI-K) Project. S/he must be familiar with DFID amongst other donor guidelines.

 S/he will have managed project budgets over and above USD2 million preferably across various implementation sites and have worked with partners, including interventions that are part of a rigorous research study. 

Please note this position will be available to be transferred or incorporate management of other projects as advised by senior management. 

The Project Manager must be familiar with Kibera or other urban slum (informal settlements) settings in Nairobi.

Dimensions of Role: The Project Manager will report to the Programme Manager-Education. 

S/he supervises two (2) Project Officers, and One M&E Coordinator in Nairobi on the project team and has oversight of all other contributing staff on this project. 

S/he will uphold Plan Core Values, promote mission and vision, programme principals (transparency, gender equity and diversity), to enhance programme impact. Ensure modelling of Plan’s values among all project staff.

Typical Responsibilities - Key End Results of Position:
 

Key Result Areas:

• Planning and implementation of project activities, oversees programme alignment to government requirements, compliance with design methodologies and approaches. 
• Monitoring progress and quality in concert with M&E team
• Project and budget management; monitors expenditure against approved budget and revisits plans to ensure budget performance is in-line with regulations as well as expected deliverables
• Ensures compliance with donor rules and regulations
• Ensures implementation of AGI-K program is inline with the research protocols
• Team personnel management and coordination with urban programme staff, ensuring welfare, contract, compliance, performance
• Timely preparation and submission of accurate reports
• Smooth / efficient project performance and effective management of and communication with project team. 
• Contribution to proposal development inclusive of evidence-base/learning within project, technical expertise, field-based data collection for design, communication/liaison with relevant stakeholders/partners.
• Provide timely feedback to the management team on a monthly basis for effective budget management and updated plans to fast track activities where necessary
• Work in close collaboration and coordination with Population Council and other AGI-K partners:

Oversee & Coordinate Project Implementation (40%)

• Ensure that urban interventions are planned and implemented for maximum impact, synergy and cost effectiveness.
• Establish targets by interventions and thematic areas
• Ensure compliance with established targets and quality of project outputs.
• Ensure proper management of project database, records, files
• Ensure implementation is inline with the research design prescribed by overall AGI-K project managers
• Oversee any contractual partner deliverables and ensure deliverables are met in timely manner and with high quality. Serve as the main point of communication for implementing partners on her/his project in close collaboration with Finance.
• Submit accurate project reports on time according to plan internal and donor regulations.
• Maintain regular contact with counterparts at Population Council and Save the Children working on AGI-K
• Attend relevant cluster coordination meetings including Population Council meetings

Manage Project Resources (20%)

• Prepare a breakdown/s of project budget by interventions and activities
• Monitor expenditures by interventions and ensure compliance with approved budget.
• Review expenditure reports on a monthly basis.
• Ensure timely budget adjustments and revisions in compliance with donor regulations. Ensure compliance with plan internal and donor policies, contracts, and agreements.
• Take advantage of the other Plan Kenya urban programmes and exploit opportunities and for synergies without jeopardizing the research design

Build and maintain stakeholder relations (10%)

• Create awareness on project design and research outcomes with relevant Plan staff, and ensure that they sensitize county and sub-county level government authorities about project activities, beneficiary selection criteria and policy and procedure of project implementation. Take advantage of Plan Kenya’s relations with Government institutions like the gender and FGM boards to promote gender.
• Ensure that project strategies are timely shared with all stakeholders. Promote effective working relations with county and sub-county stakeholders Liaise with donor desk officer and National Office (UNO) programme staff.
• Motivate the communities and local government officials to contribute and participate in implementation of project activities. Attend periodical project-related meetings in the area of operations and brief supervisor. Coordinate with other NGOs, UN/donor agencies, and private sector players working within the operational areas to avoid duplication of efforts that could potentially jeopardize the result.
• Coordinate with other project managers and other internal stakeholders on resource allocation/mobilization and information and ensure that appropriate synergies with others are achieved as it relates to implementation of multiple projects in the same districts.
• Coordinate the Kibera level External Advisory Committee (EAC) in consultation with Population Council and project TOR documents

Human Resources Management (10%)

• Ensure that project staffs know and execute on their roles and responsibilities.
• Communicate /share work plans with all players.
• Conduct staff performance appraisals regularly.
• Coach and mentor direct reports to enhance their skills for current and higher positions.
• Conduct training for project staff in overall project objectives, implementation strategy, reporting system and internal controls, inter alia.
• Ensure that staff welfare issues are communicated through appropriate HR and management structures as well as back to/with staff.
• Handle grievances and participate in disciplinary hearings as relevant.

Design, Monitoring & Evaluation and Reporting (20%)

• Establish proper collection of monitoring data, consolidation and reporting mechanisms at project level. 
• All data collection must be well structured to represent gender considerations and in line with the expectations of the overall AGI-K project management.
• Consolidate project reports and analyse outputs and aggregate as appropriate.
• Review and analyse monitoring and evaluation data and recommend adjustments to design as needed.
• Ensure that approved reports are disseminated among stakeholders
• Work with the project staff to ensure utilization of all the recommendations from project reports/field visits.
• Support design of new programmes based on evidence from project, context in the area of implementation and/or technical expertise.
• Liaise with program team to ensure learning is available to the wider organization and outside as relevant.
• Work with the project team and communication Manager to document project activities for improved documentation / knowledge management

Specific Factors Decision Making
 

The incumbent makes both programmed and non-programmed decisions that include.

• Work with project team on resource allocation within approved budget parameters.
• Work with the team on project priorities within approved project work plan.
• Work closely with HR department on the recruitment process of new project staff within approved project budget and work plan.
• Work with the project team on what skills are required to execute project stages within approved project proposal.
• Work with the project team on schedule for internal project field /monitoring visits and including locations for donor and stakeholder visits with appropriate approvals.

Pressure of Work

• Regularly makes decisions on relationship, personnel and resource management. 
• Pressures related to high targets, complex programming environment and necessity of high quality deliverables exist. 
• Seasonality and other environmental conditions may at times affect work pressure and need to be mitigated.

Controls and Checks

• Internal Purchase Request
• Summary Bid analysis
• Approve payment of transactions not exceeding delegated levels
• Approve project expenses
• Plan Operational and Child Protection Policy.
• Procurement policy.
• Work procedures and routines.

Consequences of error: Significant mismanagement exposes Plan to reputational risk as well as potential financial risk if resources are not used wisely. 

Similarly, poor personnel management practices can lead to staff dissatisfaction and adversely affect performance.

Knowledge, Skills, Behaviours, and Experience Required to Achieve Role’s Objectives:

Educational Qualification & Experience

• Advanced degree in social sciences; education or public health post graduate qualifications in a relevant professional discipline desirable.
• 7 years relevant experience in community development/child protection/education/financial education/gender working with adolescence girls in an Urban setting with minimum of 4 years at a supervisorial / managerial level.
• Experience in working in adolescents in urban settings a must.
• Experience working on interventions that were part of rigorous research studies preferred

Knowledge

• Thorough knowledge of programming processes, systems and principles, and the ability to provide leadership and support to staff working at community level.
• Sound understanding of integrated development issues and critical analysis of child poverty
• Knowledge of development issues, trends, challenges and opportunities and implications to community development
• Demonstrated knowledge of strategic planning processes
• Demonstrated capacity to implement a multi-thematic action research project.

Skills Specific to the Post

• Analytical and conceptual skills
• Interpersonal / Communication
• Report writing
• Results orientation
• Good Leadership, Teamwork and Cooperation, Motivation and Innovation
• Computer skills
• Budget and Cost Control
• Risk management
• Monitoring and Evaluation skills.
• Research skills
• Urban project design.
• Experience in working with youth and adolescent.

Competencies

• Believe in the potential of all people to succeed if given the right support and willingness to multi-task. 
• Ability to perform under stress, innovative, build relationships, coach and mentor, facilitate change, develop teams, initiate action, strategic decision making, planning and organizing. 
• Lead through vision and mission and a personal commitment to children’s development and protection.

Leadership Attitudes and Behaviours

• Supports learning in diverse teams
• Positively promotes team effort and high performance by all staff through shared successes Acts with high degree of integrity and professionalism.
• Relates to people in a friendly, open manner and engenders trust from other staff
• Holds self and others to account to deliver on agreed goals and standards of behaviour
• Dynamic, highly motivated and balances future vision with practical delivery
• Can reach out and influence large groups of people
• Remains calm and positive under pressure and in difficult situations
• Promotes innovation and learning
• Pleasant and polite attitude at all times; ability to reflect professional standards
• Ability to act as part of multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary team.

Internal Contacts:

• Other Plan Project Managers and Program Managers
• Technical Support
• Designated Project Accountant
• Finance, procurement, fleet, administration
• Kenya Country Office M&E
• Business Development Manager.

External Contacts:

• County/ Sub County Government, Administrators
• Government Technical Departments/Line Ministries
• Population Council – the prime organization for AGI-K and other AGI-K partner organizations
• Other INGOs, local NGOs, UN agencies and organizations implementing in the same geographic areas, program sectors, et.al.
• Donor desk officers responsible for project and other donors as relevant
• Key stakeholders at community level

Values: Commitment to Plan International Kenya’s values:
 

Physical Environment and Demands: Ability to spend 40% of the time in the field.
 

Level of Contact with Children: High contact - Occasional interaction with children
 

The position will be based in the Country Office with frequent interaction with children (adolescent girls).

How to Apply

CLICK HERE to apply online

Send your motivation letter and CV as one document when applying.

The closing date of applications is 3rd November 2014. 

Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.