Egypt: Projects and Partnerships Manager (Fixed-term local contract)

1. ORGANIZATION BACKGROUND: 

Asmae is a French international solidarity NGO specialized in child development. It is independent, non-religious, non-political, and open to everyone. Created in 1980 by Sister Emmanuelle following her experience with scavengers in Egypt’s slums, Asmae keeps on respecting its founder’s values and methods: listening and proximity, pragmatism, respect of the differences, professionalism and reciprocity.

Asmae’s action aims to support vulnerable children and their families through providing tailor-made and long-lasting support to local stakeholders working on education and child protection.

Its vision, “A fair world which guarantees that children can live and grow with dignity within their environment, to become free women and men who contribute to society”, is broken down into four missions:

• Stimulate child development through a global approach. To do this, Asmae also works on family support by taking their environment into account;
• Build the capacity of local stakeholders involved in child development, boost cooperation amongst them and maximize their social impact;
• Stand up for children by raising awareness and advocating;
• Experiment, disseminate and share practices.

Nowadays Asmae supports education and child protection projects in six countries and manages a mother and childcare center in France.

In Egypt, Asmae is registered under the Ministry of Solidarity since May 2015. Currently, Asmae works in four thematic areas, namely: Access to quality education, protection, training & professional integration and living together peacefully.

Asmae is currently implementing three projects:

• Promoting youth participation, inclusion and protection project, funded by the French Agency of Development (AFD), in which, Asmae supports an Egyptian civil society organization that empowers youth to become agents for change in their communities and advocate for the rights of youth with disabilities.
• Safer Environment for Children project that works with two local civil society organizations to enhance their child protection mechanisms inside their centres and in four public schools.
• Youth Inclusive Empowerment Project funded by the EU, that supports 300 youth including youth with disabilities to get employed or open their own business.

Asmae Egypt’ team is based in Cairo with 11 staff members: Egypt Country Representative, 3 Project officers/managers, 2 Technical Advisors for Protection, 1 Technical Advisor for Inclusion, 1 Senior Administrative and Financial Officer, 1 Admin Finance Assistant, Operations and Procurement Officer and an M&E Officer.

GENERAL OVERVIEW OF POSITION / WORKING CONDITIONS: 

• Job Title: Projects and Partnerships Manager
• Location: Cairo, Egypt
• Line Manager: Asmae Country Representative

Main Functional Relationships:

• Country Office: Projects Technical Advisors, Projects Officers, Senior Administrative and Finance Officer, and Procurement and Operations Officer.
• Head Office: Programme Manager, Grants Manager, Education & Protection Technical Advisor

3. MISSION:

The Projects-Partnerships Manager implements Asmae’s strategy and leads the direction for developing Asmae’s interventions in Egypt. S/he coordinates and ensures the monitoring and evaluation of activities in collaboration with local partners, and facilitates relationships within the partnership. S/he capitalises on and promotes the supporting activities implemented within the country, and contributes to raising and monitoring of public and private co-funding. In addition, s/he leads and manages the staff under her/his direct supervision.

The Projects-Partnerships Manager will be responsible for the overall management, monitoring and reporting of all Asmae projects in Egypt to ensure their efficiency and effectiveness. S/he will be managing the work of Project’s Officers and technical advisors and support them in the implementation of their projects with quality.

S/he will be responsible of managing our strategic partnerships with different stakeholders, local NGOs, updating our partners roaster, and exploring new partnerships that expand Asmae’s portfolio in Egypt. This might include also carrying out organizational assessments to new partners for our new projects.

Should there be no Project Officer occupied for a certain period; s/he is also responsible for ensuring that this role is fulfilled.

The Project – Partnership Manager follows the local security and safety rules and procedures and participates to the security context analysis.

4. RESPONSIBILITIES:

4.1. Implementation of the Intervention Strategy in Country: 

• Contributes towards situation analysis (both geographic and sectoral) for the development of the Asmae interventions in-country
• Participates in developing strategic and operational planning (including: the strategy for supporting partners within the sector, provisional budget, annual action plan)
• Ensures the monitoring and evaluation of Asmae’s intervention strategy in country, as well as the operational monitoring of supporting activities and projects.
• Identifies, initiates and ensures the monitoring of relationships within the partnership (research, initiation, developing contracts, closure) and of projects implemented by local partners
• Manages needs analysis of partners, organizes regular monitoring field visits, ensures a support and advice programme, and mobilises sufficient resources in line with the action plan and country budget
• Leads on funding applications; supervises the monitoring, reporting and evaluation of projects
• Enhance communication channels (social media, documentary, success stories, etc.) for all Asmae projects to increase its visibility and share it with HO communication team.
• Ensures that all our projects promote inclusion, gender mainstreaming and youth participation and follows a rights-based approach in all our activities.
• Supervises the work of technical consultants contributing to the project, and facilitate their work with local partners.

4.2. Financial and Budgetary Management: 

• Participates in the development of the Country Budget
• Contributes to the smooth running of financial audits, both of partners’ projects and of Asmae’s activities, in collaboration with the Senior Administration and Finance Officer.
• Manages project budgets in collaboration with Project Officers and Senior Administration and Finance Officer: allocation of expenditure for Asmae, reviewing quarterly budget, and validation of partner expenses on quarterly basis.
• Contributes to financial reports intended for the donor(s)
• Elaborates on project budgets with local partners for costs allocation of future projects.
• Ensures that technical and financial reporting are consistent, in collaboration with the project’s officers and Senior Administration and Finance Officer
• Ensures compliance with the procedures and budgetary framework of Asmae and relevant donors.

4.3. Management of Human Resources: 

• Lead and manage staff under his supervision
• Contributes to the recruitment and integration of relevant national and international staff
• Contributes to ensuring that Asmae’s practices are in line with existing national regulatory frameworks
• Ensures that security regulations are respected and implemented, and ensures the implementation of tasks assigned by the Country Representative
• Participates in the interviewing and selection process of new staff, technical advisors and consultants to be hired for Asmae projects.
• Participates in the induction of the new employees to get them acquainted by Asmae strategy, partners and current projects.

4.4 Provide support to Public and Private fundraising strategy and business development within the country: 

• Developing new project proposals for potential public and private sector donors
• Draws up letters of intention and project proposals with partners, mainly through brainstorming workshops
• Mapping of potential institutional and private donors
• Supports Country Representative in establishing fundraising strategy for the country
• Participate in developing Asmae Annual Action Plan & Strategy.

4.5. Facilitation of Internal and External Relationships: 

• Identifies, organizes and/or participates in thematic groups with stakeholders working in education, child protection and TVET.
• Participates in organizing visits from colleagues from Head Office, donors, Asmae partners and institutional actors
• Contributes to facilitating team meetings
• Contributes to implementing intersecting activities from the HQ Program department
• Contributes to the development of communication tools & support structures to enhance Asmae’s visibility in country.

5. PROFILE: 

Education / Experience:

• Master Degree in International Relations, Cooperation, Development, Humanitarian Aid or equivalent
• Minimum 7 years of professional experience working in projects management, funded by institutional donors, and grants management with local civil society organizations.
• Significant experience in Partnership relations with local non-profit organizations
• Good working experience in Education, Child Protection and TVET projects
• Experience in monitoring-evaluation, and project reporting.
• Team Management in a multidisciplinary and multicultural context
• Proven experience in gender transformative programming, and inclusion promotion.
• Fully aware of protection dimension, and safeguarding programming.
• Multi-sectorial knowledge is highly preferred.

Professional Skills:

• Autonomous and proactive
• Strong communication, multi-tasking and reporting skills
• Positive, respectful attitude and collaborative approach to problem solving and for offering support to partners.
• Demonstrated attention to detail; ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines and work independently as well as cooperatively with team members.
• Excellent writing and synthesis skills.
• Team Management in a multidisciplinary and multicultural context
• Donor Rules and Regulations working knowledge (French Development Agency, EU, USAID, UN Agencies, bilateral cooperation) is essential.
• Proficiency in English and Arabic (writing and oral) is essential. French is a plus.
• Proficiency in pack office management and relevant managerial software

6. PRACTICAL INFORMATION: 

• Duration: 1 Year (renewable upon satisfactory performance)
• Starting date: September 1st, 2024
• Contract: Egyptian fixed–term contract (Full time job)
• Location: Based in Cairo with limited travel internally in Egypt & France

How to Apply: 

Candidates should send their CV along with a cover letter in English Language, showing the persons motivation and expertise to recruitment.egypt@asmae.fr with the Subject: “Projects-Partnerships Manager 7-2024” no later than August 5th, 2024 before 5:00 PM.