Overview
Provides strategic leadership, governance, and oversight for a multi-country Education in Emergencies programme, ensuring high-quality, inclusive, and accountable programme delivery while maintaining strong consortium coordination and donor compliance.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead the Consortium Management Unit (CMU) and ensure effective governance, coordination structures, and decision-making processes.
- Provide strategic direction aligned with donor priorities, organisational frameworks, and humanitarian standards.
- Ensure strong collaboration, transparency, and accountability across consortium partners.
- Oversee overall consortium management, coordination, and communication to ensure timely delivery of programme implementation.
- Represent the consortium with donors, stakeholders, and any other coordination platforms.
- Ensure effective governance processes, including meetings, documentation, and follow-up actions.
- Ensure timely and quality programmatic and financial reporting from all partners.
- Work closely with the Head of Programmes on budget management and operational oversight.
- Ensure delivery of programme outcomes on time, within budget, and aligned with the Result Framework.
- Oversee partner implementation to ensure quality, compliance, and integration of approaches.
- Lead adaptive management in response to risks, access constraints, and contextual changes.
- Ensure strong programme planning, documentation, and alignment with organisational and donor requirements.
- Monitor partner performance through regular reviews, field visits, and technical support.
- Ensure programming is gender-sensitive and responsive to diverse needs.
- Maintain and regularly update the programme risk register.
- Build good relationships with consortium agencies and local partners.
- Monitor partner performance and strengthen capacity in programme quality, safeguarding, MEAL, and financial management.
- Promote localization through increased leadership, ownership, and accountability of local partners.
- Ensure equitable, transparent, and partnership-based approaches in programme delivery.
- Ensure harmonized MEAL systems across the consortium to support performance, accountability, and learning.
- Ensure alignment between programme frameworks, partner workplans, and donor results framework.
- Oversee data quality, indicator tracking, and alignment between programme frameworks and workplans.
- Lead regular programme performance reviews to support adaptive management and decision-making.
- Ensure consistent use of MEAL tools, Quality Benchmarks, and information management systems.
- Strengthen accountability mechanisms, including feedback and response systems for affected populations.
- Promote learning and continuous improvement, ensuring lessons are documented and applied.
- Generate high-quality consolidated reports and oversee audits, spot checks, and verification processes.
- Engage relevant departments for evaluation as needed.
- Serve as main Budget Holder for organisational components and oversee consortium financial performance.
- Lead BvA monitoring, financial forecasting, and variance management across partners.
- Ensure alignment between financial data, programme performance, and reporting systems.
- Lead preparation, consolidation, and submission of high-quality donor reports.
- Ensure compliance with donor requirements and organisational financial policies.
- Provide regular financial and programme updates to senior management.
- Line-managed assigned staff with clear objectives, accountability, and performance management.
- Build a collaborative, inclusive, and high-performing team culture.
- Identify capacity gaps and support staff and partner development.
- Ensure compliance with organisational policies.
- Lead consortium-wide coordination mechanisms at strategic, country, and field levels.
- Ensure aligned planning across partners.
- Strengthen coordination between organisational country offices and consortium partners.
- Identify and resolve implementation bottlenecks.
- Maintain strong relationships with donors, coordination bodies, and external stakeholders.
- Ensure risks are identified, monitored, and mitigated.
- Ensure compliance with child safeguarding and PSEAH policies across all partners.
- Ensure timely reporting and response to safeguarding incidents.
- Promote safe programming and safeguarding awareness across all activities.
- Ensure beneficiaries receive accessible, age-appropriate safeguarding information.
- Ensure safe partnership practices are implemented throughout programme delivery.
Required Experience
- 6 years of professional experience in development with a minimum of 4 years’ experience in a leadership role in the implementation of education related projects.
- Demonstrated experience of working with partner organizations and consortia projects.
- Technical expertise and experience in Education.
- Highly developed relationship building, influencing, negotiating and inter-personal skills.
- Ability to analyze strategic trends and develop appropriate plans and responses to manage risks.
- Solid experience in implementation in complex and insecure environments.
- Proven experience in establishing information management and finance systems related to programme management.
- Ability to work both in an advisory and a hands-on implementation capacity.
- Proven capacity to supervise, train, mentor and coach staff.
- Experience of organizational representation in external fora.
- Experience leading on the coordination and writing of donor reports as the lead GAs.
- Politically and culturally sensitive, with qualities of patience, tact, and diplomacy.
- The capacity and willingness to be flexible and accommodating in difficult and sometimes insecure working circumstances.
- Commitment to humanitarian principles, principles of Save the Children, and donors.
- Previous experience in managing complex, multi-sector, and/or multi-stakeholder programmes (desirable).
- Experience with DFAT or similar donors (desirable).
- Experience across multiple sectors/organization (desirable).
- Knowledge of EiE, MHPSS, GEDSI, and inclusion frameworks (desirable).
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in education, Social Sciences, or relevant field (required)
- Postgraduate degree (desirable)
