THRIVE Project Director

GOAL

South Sudan

Job Purpose

The THRIVE Project Director will provide overall leadership and management of the THRIVE Programme. S/he will ensure that the project consortium is managed in close consultation with the Steering and Advisory Committees. S/he will lead Project Management Unit and liaise with Technical Support Unit for programmatic consultations. The Project Director will support implementation of high-quality Market Systems Development (MSD) programs, through capacity-building of teams, support in conducting market assessments and designing interventions and building relationships with key market actors from the private sector and government. The Director will also participate in designing and writing new proposals for MSD programs, and helping to ensure robust Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning and Accountability (MEAL), working with our national Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Manager (in charge of Learning and impact). S/he will also play a lead role in representing the organization’s MSD work externally, through building relationships with key donors and participating in relevant coordination and learning events. To support the country team to define and achieve GOAL’s strategy, the position holder will also be a member of the organization’s senior leadership team.

The THRIVE Director, works closely with the South Sudan Programme Director and other members of the Programmes and Systems Team, enforcing GOAL’s core values and ensuring that it trickles down to National Non-Governmental Organizations that each of the consortium members partners with and private sector that the project targets.

Main Areas of Responsibility

The THRIVE Project Director will provide dynamic programmatic leadership and strategic direction to ensure technical and financial integrity of the THRIVE program.
Support program teams to conduct high quality assessments including ARC-D, R4S and Livelihoods Assessment, providing the foundation for program design.
Support program teams to design interventions for MSD programs, using tools such as Results Chains and ‘Who Does, Who Pays?’ matrices.
Support program teams to develop and implement work plans for MSD programs, maintaining a clear focus on facilitation principles.
Work with program teams as they develop partnerships with private sector and government actors, and lead the process of developing partnerships with key ‘Lead Firm’ actors, such as large businesses and government.
Oversee program planning (i.e., development of work plans and operating budget) and reporting (i.e., review and approve periodic budgets and reports), assuring they are delivered on time and to exceptional quality standards.
Manage the THRIVE program budget through monitoring program implementation of activities versus spend rates, and ensuring that that donor budget is adhered to, and modified, as necessary.
Play a lead role in setting a strategy for mainstreaming gender and women’s economic empowerment into our MSD programs, and support implementation of this strategy.
Ensure cross-cutting themes e.g. CHS & relevant technical standards, such as Sphere, are mainstreamed in the THRIVE programme, where appropriate and relevant.
Encourage a learning and dynamic environment that facilitates two-way learning with various stakeholders, including other parts of GOAL.
Promote semi-annual programme learning and reflections to strengthen the quality of the program and to document learnings.
Coordinate closely with other programme department heads (Food Security and Livelihoods Coordinator, Health and Nutrition Coordinator, MEAL Quality Coordinator, Grants Coordinator and GESI Manager) to ensure integration and collaboration amongst the different GOAL approaches.
Liaise with the Systems and Finance Departments to ensure the THRIVE programme has:
- the appropriate staffing and resources required for effective and efficient programme delivery;
- quality and timely supply chain management and delivery of project commodities and equipment.
Timely budget and expenditure monitoring.
Assure that THRIVE team understands and is adhering to Financial, HR, Procurement, Logs and IT policies and procedures.
Provide oversight on strategic programming issues, promoting alignment between GOAL and partners in key approaches, methodologies, and principles.
Ensure inclusion of partners into program design, grants management processes and program quality activities.
Represent the organisation at academic events, conferences, media forums, etc.
Identify and nurture strategic partnerships with other organizations and institutions.
Present concepts and ideas to donors, partners, and peer organizations that influence them to drive innovation and positive change.
Ensure GOAL is appropriately represented in external coordination mechanisms including the sector- specific clusters and technical working groups both nationally and at the state level
Work with the Director of Programs and the MEL Coordinator to ensure that monitoring and evaluation is practical and reflects best practices for MSD programs
Contribute to consortium and agency-wide initiatives such as donor meetings, exhibitions and joint monitoring visits.
Support new and ongoing programs with best practice advice and assistance on assessment, implementation, research, and evaluation needs.
Conduct assessments; write case studies, learning documents, short articles, and blogs; and develop internal and external dissemination plan for all products.
Nurture partnerships with universities, research institutions, and other organizations to produce case studies, assessments, and other learning documentation, as well as enhance program quality.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in a field related to economics, international development, business management or subject with relevance for market systems development are preferred
Participation in MSD training is strongly preferred, for example the two-week Springfield training in Glasgow/Bangkok
5-7 years of practical experience working on market systems development programming, that includes:
- Undertaking market assessments and writing market assessment reports
- Participating in the design of MSD programs and supporting proposal development
- Providing training for team members on MSD theory and practice
- Supporting development of robust results measurement systems, measuring impact on beneficiaries and system change
- Demonstrating strong theoretical and applied knowledge of the field of expertise.
Practical field experience, typically over the course of 2 years, that includes:
- A combination of successful temporary duration field assignments (under two weeks), longer-term field assignments (two or more weeks), and/or living in a field location for an extended period to work in a country or field office
- Several emergency response assignments or other crisis response work that demonstrates the ability to successfully adapt support and assistance methodologies to real-world complexities
- Willingness and ability to travel frequently to the organisation project sites and field locations, including traveling to insecure environments
- Proven managerial experience in food security and livelihoods, WASH, emergency programming or related fields in a management capacity
- Demonstrated track record of working across teams and fostering partnerships across a variety of stakeholders at a senior level