Democratic Republic of the Congo: Head of Programmes

War Child UK and War Child Holland have decided to merge their activities in DRC as part of the global merge of the two organization that started in 2023. The Head of Programs will be part of the joint country management team and oversee the programmes of both entities.

If you share our values and believe that children’s lives should not be torn apart by war, we want to hear from you.

About Us: 

War Child: the charity for children affected by war. We are a specialist charity for children in conflict, delivering high-impact programs that are rebuilding lives across Afghanistan, Iraq, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Central African Republic, Colombia, Ukraine, Uganda, Burundi, South Sudan, Jordan, oPT, Syria and Yemen. We understand children’s needs, respect their rights, and put them at the center of the solution - from reintegrating child soldiers in the Central African Republic to upholding the rights of children caught up in juvenile justice in Afghanistan. We look forward to a world in which the lives ofchildren are no longer torn apart by war. This is a vision that can only be realized through the collective actions of children themselves, communities and their leaders, organizations like War Child, governments and key decision-makers.

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: https://www.warchild.org.uk/whats-happening/news/our-child-safeguarding-policies-and- procedures

Your Role: 

An integral part of the Senior Management Team in country, the Head of Programmes will be responsible for ensuring good strategic leadership of programmes, managing key risks and supporting the Programmes team to deliver their goals in DRC; Kinshasa (Representation office), Goma (Coordination office for North Kivu), Bukavu (coordination office for South Kivu) Masisi, Kananga, Mbuji Mayi and Tshikapa, Fizi, Buniyakiri (Operational offices). It is a critical role requiring a motivated and experienced individual with a desire for a new and exciting challenge in a small but rapidly growing organisation. The role also ensures information from the country programme is shared across stakeholders and will represent War Child at the highest levels with donors, national authorities, clusters and national partners in DRC.

Your Responsibilities: 

• Actively participate, in coordination with the Country Director, Programme Quality Manager and Programme Implementation Managers, in programme 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 programme engagements.
• Participate in the country strategy development, ensuring to maximize the benefit of both War Child UK’s and War Child Holland’s programming expertise and strategies such as those on Scaling and on the Evidence Based Interventions
• Ensure War Child’s strategic positioning in DRC’s 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 programme teams in DRC, Head Office as well as with various internal and external stakeholders of the organisation to achieve DRC programme strategy. Monitoring of security context and contributing towards the problem solving and troubleshooting required to keep the programme 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 Programme Managers and, where gaps exist, Project Managers, ensuring they are well supported and guided to supervise the projects in line with the organisational Achievement and Development process.
• Lead on the organisation and chairing of internal capacity-building, strategic design and planning workshops/trainings for Programmes 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.

You Have: 

• Significant experience in successfully designing and delivering strategies for programmes.
• Substantial knowledge and experience of project management and implementation in complex multi-stakeholder programmes.
• 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 organisation 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 and French.

How to Apply: 

Please download the application pack from https://www.warchild.org.uk/who-we-are/jobs. All applications must be sent to recruitment@warchild.org.uk by 11:59pm on 7th April 2023

Due to limited resources, we will contact only the shortlisted candidates.

Interviews will be held the week commencing 17th April 2023.

Contact Information: 

To explore the post further or for any queries you may have, please contact: Marie Soudnie RIVETTE, Country Director – DRC, marier@Warchild.org.uk

For general information about working for War Child please visit: https://www.warchild.org.uk/who- we-are/working-war-child