Zero Out of School Children Project Director

CHILD SAFEGUARDING: Level 3 – the role requires frequent or intensive contact with children or young people through field visits to project locations

Anti-Fraud and Integrity Commitment: 

The organization maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward fraud, corruption, and unethical behavior. All staff are expected to uphold the highest standards of integrity and accountability, comply with internal policies and procedures, and report any suspected misconduct through the appropriate channels.
Please note: The organization does not charge any fees at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview, offer, or onboarding). Any request for payment should be reported immediately.

SCOPE OF ROLE

 Provide overall leadership of project design, implementation, monitoring, learning and reporting against the results framework and performance monitoring plan.

•  Coordinate consortium partners, project staff and stakeholders to deliver quality results on time and within budget.

•  Collaborate closely with the SCI Senior Management Team and MINEDUC in all planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting.

•  Work with Save the Children US and the Country Office SMT to meet all donor requirements to a high standard and on time, including timely reporting to EAC.

•  Reports to: Director of Programme Operations. Staff directly reporting: MEAL Manager; Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) Specialist; Finance and Awards Manager; Admin & Supply Chain Coordinator; Education Project Manager; Technical Inclusive Education Manager; Project Manager.

•  Key external contacts: EAC; MINEDUC, REB, MINALOC, MIGEPROF, NCPD and district authorities; HI; NUDOR; Save the Children US; education technical working groups.

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY

1. Strategic Leadership and Project Delivery

• Provide overall direction of the project and lead staff in planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting.

•  Lead the development and timely submission to EAC of work plans, Detailed Implementation Plans, Performance Monitoring Plans, semi-annual and expense reports, and other deliverables.

•  Oversee implementation of the work plan and use of the budget, ensuring timely completion of all planned activities and early identification and mitigation of delivery risks.

•  Lead the monthly project award review with the DPO, Finance and Awards and budget holders, and ensure corrective actions are implemented.

•  Ensure an appropriate segregation of duties to protect the integrity of project financial and administrative operations.

•  Respond to requests from Save the Children Rwanda, Save the Children US, EAC and MINEDUC.

2. Consortium and Donor Management

•  Lead consortium meetings regularly and oversee the quality and timeliness of work and reporting by NUDOR and Humanity & Inclusion.

•  Review and approve partner work plans, budgets and reports, ensuring alignment with the results framework and performance monitoring plan.

3. Government Relations and External Representation

•  Coordinate with MINEDUC on all planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting, and ensure the consortium steering committee meets at least quarterly, and its action points are followed up.

•  Represent the ZOOSC Project in Government, education, donor and partner forums and relevant technical working groups; share results, learning, challenges and solutions.

•  Build and maintain strong relationships with MINEDUC, other government bodies, EAC and partners, promoting government ownership and sustainability.

•  Share implementing partners’ views in SMT and other relevant meetings.

4. Technical Quality and Innovation

•  Provide technical leadership on OOSC identification, enrolment, retention, inclusive education, SBCC and teaching and learning quality, working with SCI technical advisors.

•  Work with the Waliku team and MINEDUC on upgrading SDMS to track individual attendance and support identification and enrolment of OOSC.

5. Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL)

•  Ensure MEAL findings inform programme decisions and quality improvements.

•  Support the MEAL Manager and technical experts, with MINEDUC, to establish systems for enrolment and attendance tracking of OOSC.

6. Financial, Risk and Compliance Management

•  Ensure budget management, forecasting, burn-rate monitoring and cost-share/match-funding compliance in collaboration with the Finance and Awards Manager.

Ensure compliance with donor rules, SCI procurement, finance, anti-fraud and audit requirements, and timely closure of audit findings.

7. People Management

•  Lead, coach and develop a multidisciplinary team through SCI Performance Management, objective-setting, regular feedback and development plans.

•  Review and approve timesheets for direct reports and ensure other managers do the same on time.

8. Child Safeguarding and Organisational Compliance

•  Understand and comply with the Child Safeguarding Policy, Code of Conduct and country procedures, and report any suspicion of abuse or exploitation.

•  Ensure all project activities integrate PSEA and safeguarding, and that serious concerns are handled in line with policy.

•  Ensure Background Record Checks are completed for all consultants (local and international) before they start.

•  Promote safeguarding with colleagues, partners, government counterparts and communities.

SKILLS AND BEHAVIOURS (OUR VALUES IN PRACTICE)

•  Accountability: holds self accountable for decisions and efficient use of resources; holds team and partners accountable.

•  Ambition: sets challenging goals, thinks strategically and takes responsibility for own development.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

Master’s degree in Education or a related discipline, with at least 8 years’ technical and management experience in education programmes.

•  Expertise in two or more of: teacher training, inclusive education, SBCC, dropout prevention, teaching and learning materials.