Program Associate

Ipas is a nonprofit organization that works with local, national, and global partners, to improve sexual and reproductive health and rights, with a focus on ensuring that high-quality safe abortion and contraceptive information and services are available, accessible and acceptable to women and girls.
Position Purpose
Reporting to the Senior health Systems Advisor, the Program Associate provides support to the technical staff in coordinating day to day project implementation of activities. S/he is responsible for activity budgets development and tracking across Uganda Projects, Contracts Management and implementation planning in accordance with the donor deliverables. This Position is also responsible for Organizing meetings, coordinating consultant’s agreements and support reporting, documentation and disseminating relevant program Materials. The Position is based at the Alliance office in Uganda, assisting the program staff with the overall program support by assuming responsibility for specific programmatic functions in the Alliance- Uganda office.
The Program Associate works to ensure efficient and effective integration of reproductive health perspectives of women, especially young women and girls, into Ipas country office products and strategies. The Program Associate provides strategic direction and technical assistance during the implementation and management of projects and works with partners and other stakeholders to advance key program objectives, youth and community engagement work. This position identifies, coordinates, and implements training and awareness programs and workshops within various community groups (adolescents, women's groups, schools and others) to increase knowledge and self-efficacy, reduce barriers, address stigma and improve social support around sexual and reproductive rights.

Summary of Responsibilities

• Contribute to the development of strategies, approaches, project designs, timelines, budgets and work plans for Health systems, and policy and community engagement in collaboration with the country team.
• Support the establishment and development of links with organizations, institutions, and interest groups to promote knowledge, skills and social support so that women can exercise their sexual and reproductive rights.
• Participate in the design and implementation of community interventions, training programs and sensitization workshops in coordination with institutions/organizations.
• Support partner organizations in the development of effective strategies and contribute to the monitoring of work plans and budgets, ensuring that the scope of the project is in line with Ipas strategy and donor requirements.
• Support in the development and delivery of capacity building trainings for NGO partners, CBOs,
• Contribute to the identification of new partnerships and initiatives, and support for the strengthening of existing partnerships at the regional level, to promote the inclusion of abortion and / or youth in programs and projects; supporting local and regional youth-led events; and strengthen the external leadership role of Ipas on youth and SRHR.
• Participate in monitoring and evaluation processes of programs and projects and ensure that community organizations, youth groups and women's groups adhere to Ipas standard operating procedures with respect to proposals and activities reporting.
• Provide technical input to donor proposals and reports (narrative reports, work plans, etc.

Internal teams and external partners.

• Provides broad administrative support including scheduling and coordinating meetings and conferences, and travel planning.
• Provide administrative support in project work-planning and tracking.
• Supports project activity implementation monitoring of the activity management tool for the project under the direction of the program advisor.
• Oversees and follows through on contractual management under the project in liaison with the relevant units (finance etc.)
• Responsible for budget development for activities and reviews work-order over/under spends to propose corrective action.
• Ensures program activities are documented according to Ipas systems as required.
• Supports project reporting and documentation under the direction of the senior HS Advisor

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in project management, Public Health, Community Development or related field Advanced degree in Project Management will be an added advantage.
• Qualification and Certification in Project Management
• 2-3 years of Progress and relevant experience in Project Management, financial procedures and recording
• Knowledge of fund accounting, local and national tax laws, and accounting standards
• Experience in reproductive health care programs

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience managing grants, funds, and/or budgets.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite, particularly Excel 
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills
• Ability to work with clear targets with minimum supervision.
• Ability to coordinate with multiple stakeholders.

Minimum selection criteria

•  Collaborate with Snr HS Advisor to develop, enhance and implement health system, policy and community engagement activities and projects.
• Work with the Health Systems unit to create links between unit initiatives and coordinate activities.
• Communicate with Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor on field data and internal studies.
• Report to the Snr HS Advisor regarding the implementation of the community engagement program, timelines and related issues
• Communicate with external project consultants to ensure projects are implemented appropriately and community-specific content is highlighted as appropriate.
• Manages relationships with NGO partners, CBOs, youth groups and women's groups; monitor and assist in the implementation and management of the program.

Working environment

Ability to travel up to 10 - 15% domestically (with occasional regional or global trips if applicable)

Other desirable criteria

· Knowledge and experience in relation to community mobilization, capacity building and formation of community groups

· Working knowledge of grants management

· Working knowledge of community entry strategies

·Working knowledge of community entry strategies

Ipas is strongly committed to providing a work environment that is free from all forms of harassment, discrimination, and inequity. We recruit, employ, train, promote, and compensate our personnel without regard to race, age, sex, religion, national origin, color, creed, ancestry, citizenship, caste, ethnicity, regional identity, tribal identity, marital status, veteran status, disability, genetic information, gender identity, transgender status, sexual orientation, or any other personal characteristic protected by law or outlined by Ipas policy. Ipas acknowledges that these personal characteristics may differ in different contexts.