OVC Vacancy January 2017: Technical Director

Save the Children is the world’s leading independent organisation for children. We work in 120 countries. We save children’s lives; we fight for their rights; we help them fulfil their potential.

Save the Children is seeking to recruit an experienced Technical Director for a USAID project that will provide support to orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) in select districts within Zimbabwe.

The Technical Director will be responsible for the technical oversight of the project and is specifically responsible for project implementation that relates to community, orphans and vulnerable children and families, and ensures strong linkages with facility level and other service delivery points. S/he will report directly to the Chief of Party (COP) and will advise and support the COP in providing technical direction to project implementation and ensure the project meets stated goals, expected results and reporting requirements. S/he will take a technical leadership role in coordination with GOZ, local community organizations, and other partners. S/he will be knowledgeable about evidence-based and state-of-the-art social service delivery approaches.

Role Purpose:

• Provide technical leadership in the development and implementation of strategies, interventions and activities that address the holistic needs of vulnerable children in a friendly manner, including their health, education psychosocial, protection and economic strengthening needs.
• Ensure that the project engages children in all stages of the project to promote child participation, leadership and ensure that their perspectives are taken into consideration.
• Ensure that project strategies and activities addressing children and adolescents are evidence-based and in line with state-of-the-art, globally-recognized best practices; as well as aligned with Zimbabwe’s National legislation and policies.
• Ensure the project addresses the needs of highly vulnerable sub-groups of children, such as adolescent girls, HIV positive children and children living with disabilities.
• Ensure all child -focused strategies are gender-sensitive and promote equitable programming.
• Promote integration across a range of services for children to take a holistic, family-centered approach to improving their wellbeing.
• Build capacity of staff, implementing partners, government counterparts, and other stakeholders in working in child-related services under the project.
• Contribute to work plans, quarterly and annual reports, financial reports, and other reports and papers summarizing project results and evidence.
• Monitor and maintain relevant manuals, training materials and reports for youth interventions.
• Assist the COP and sub-partners to ensure quality, timeliness and efficiency of all deliverables on household economic strengthening component of the project.
• Provide technical leadership and oversight for high quality implementation of the household economic strengthening components of the project.
• Facilitate linkages with government safety net programs and other stakeholders to ensure that activities complement other economic strengthening initiatives and adhere to country and global standards.
• Work closely with the MEAL team to deliver project quality benchmarks, baseline, monitoring, evaluation and key lessons learned.

  Contract Duration: TBC

           Location: Harare, Zimbabwe

          Qualifications and Experience

• Master’s Degree in social sciences, development studies or related field.
• Eight years of experience implementing OVC programs in a development context, with five of these years in Sub-Saharan Africa, preferably Zimbabwe. During this period s/he should have been involved with social services and or public health project design, implementation, system strengthening, reporting and evaluation, including evaluation of evidence-based economic/livelihood projects for vulnerable groups, such as OVC or graduation programming.
• Demonstrated state-of-the-art experience at a mid- or senior level in at least three of the following areas: child protection, household economic strengthening, social protection, education, health and nutrition including HIV/AIDS care and support; quality improvement; social service systems strengthening, including social services workforce; M&E; and operations research.
• Demonstrated experience in managing, coordinating and supervising a team working with local community organizations, families and communities.
• Demonstrated skills in project design, implementation and reporting, preferably for USG funded programs.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively with government representatives, for-profit private sector entities, local community organizations, donors and other stakeholders, particularly at the sub-national level.
• Professional level of oral and written fluency in English language.
• Strong writing skills about program activities, outcomes and impact.
• Extensive experience working in Sub-Saharan Africa; work experience in Zimbabwe highly desirable.
• Qualified Zimbabwean nationals are highly encouraged to apply

Please apply in English saving your CV and covering letter as a single document, including your salary expectations for this role.

We need to keep children safe so our selection process reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse. Employment is subject to our Child protection standards including background checks and adherence to our Child Safeguarding Policy

Save the Children is an equal opportunity employer and seeks to employ and assign the best qualified talent.

Disclaimer:

Save the Children International does not charge any kind of fee at whichever stage of the recruitment process and does not act through recruitment agents