Chief of Party

Background

War Child Canada is a registered Canadian charity based in Toronto that works to accelerate peace and disrupt the cycle of violence by investing in and empowering local communities to build brighter futures through comprehensive, evidence-informed programs that foster resilience, self-reliance, and self-determination.

War Child Canada is globally recognized for our grassroots, community-driven model of humanitarian action that’s rooted in collaboration and entirely locally led. We have developed a solid track record of long-term, sustainable impact supporting children and families living in areas dominated by conflict.

War Child Canada works with some of the most vulnerable populations around the world and is a leader in developing and implementing programs specifically targeting and protecting children, women, and displaced people living in the most complex humanitarian environments in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda, and Yemen.

Context

The “Pathways to Empowerment” (P2E) project is a major new program funded by the Mastercard Foundation aimed at enhancing educational access, fostering economic empowerment, and strengthening institutional capacity to benefit marginalized groups, especially refugees, internally displaced persons, returnees, and host communities. Over a period of six years (2025–2030), the project is designed to provide sustainable opportunities and pathways to dignified employment among youth in affected regions of South Sudan.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the P2E project is to create supportive environments that enable marginalized youth, particularly young women and people with disabilities, to gain quality education and access to dignified work. The project aims to dismantle barriers to education and employment through various interventions, including teacher training, policy strengthening, and direct support for youth entrepreneurs.

Intended Outcomes

Key outcomes of the P2E program include:

1. Education Access and Quality Improvement:
   • Expand access to secondary and tertiary education, ensuring that youth can progress through quality education pathways.
   • Strengthen the capacity of educational institutions and teachers to create inclusive and supportive learning environments.
2. Economic Empowerment and Livelihoods:
   • Transition young people into employment and access fulfilling work.
   • Support youth entrepreneurs by connecting them with financial resources to foster business development.
3. Policy and Institutional Strengthening:
   • Equip government officials with the skills to enhance policies for refugee inclusion.
   • Build the capacity of Refugee-Led Organizations (RLOs) to increase their effectiveness and impact within communities.

This program is implemented through a structured governance approach involving multiple stakeholders, including government bodies, educational institutions, financial partners, and RLOs, ensuring that the outcomes align with the needs and goals of the target communities.

Position Summary

War Child Canada seeks an experienced Chief of Party (COP) to lead the “Pathways to Empowerment” project in South Sudan. The COP will be responsible for overall leadership and oversight, project management, ensuring that goals are met efficiently and sustainably. This includes providing technical and strategic direction, managing financial resources, and upholding compliance with donor requirements. The COP will oversee a diverse team and engage collaboratively with local and international partners, including government agencies, consortium members, and a range of stakeholders.

Working closely with the WCC Country Director, and all the consortium members, the COP will lead a coordinated approach to achieve project outcomes, which include enhanced access to education, increased job readiness, and strengthened policy frameworks for inclusion. This role requires a proactive leader with extensive experience in complex humanitarian contexts and in the development sector, particularly with domain knowledge of skilling challenges for the youth and barriers faced by displacement affected population. The desired position holder should have demonstrated hands-on experience on displaced persons skilling and employment at scale, and evidence of policy level work in the sector. The person should demonstrate strong commitment to War Child Canada’s mission of creating sustainable, community-driven impact and the Mastercard Foundation’s mission and values.

Responsibilities

1. Project Management: Lead the overall management, implementation, and strategic direction of the project, to achieve objectives and results. Provide technical, strategic, and administrative guidance to drive project success.
2. Quality Assurance: Ensure the quality and timeliness of all project deliverables, maintaining high standards across activities and outputs.
3. Team Leadership: Lead the core project team, fostering a collaboration and inclusivity. Oversee performance management, risk management, gender integration, social inclusion, work planning, monitoring and evaluation, and reporting.
4. Risk Oversight: Monitor high-risk areas such as procurement, monitoring and evaluation, and staff security, taking proactive measures to risk mitigation, ensuring compliance and to safeguard project integrity.
5. Staff and Partner Empowerment: Cultivate a work environment that promotes teamwork, trust, and mutual respect, empowering staff and partners to take ownership and contribute to project goals.
6. Deliverables & Reporting: Ensure timely and complete submission of all required plans, technical deliverables, and reports, including work plans, M&E plans, quarterly and annual reports, success stories, and other project documentation.
7. Financial Management: Oversee financial monitoring, ensuring adherence with War Child Canada’s financial controls and compliance with Mastercard Foundation standards.
8. Consortium Leadership: Provide strategic oversight and guidance to consortium members, ensuring that all partners align with the project’s objectives and contribute to its success.
9. Coordination & Communication: Maintain regular, transparent communication with key staff and stakeholders on technical and financial matters, including co-ordination of working groups and consortia and key stakeholder adherence to governance structures, ensuring alignment and accountability in programming and reporting.
10. Capacity Building: Provide expertise, guidance, and technical support to consortia members on key capacity building aspects, including RDP livelihoods diversification and TVET components targeting youth in work readiness activities, and RDP workforce development in green jobs including apprenticeship and employment outcomes in non-farm sector.
11. Stakeholder Engagement: Represent the project in formal and informal engagements with the Mastercard Foundation and other key stakeholders, facilitating technical, management, and key decision-making interactions to meet expectations
12. Promoting learning and innovation: Support consortium partners to enhance program quality and increase impact through innovative program delivery models and youth employment solutions as well as creating a learning platform for sharing best or promising practices, innovations, and learning, highlighting effective practices at the CO and regional level.
13. Government & Donor Relations: Collaborate with the Government of South Sudan and other donor programs to coordinate activities, leveraging additional resources to enhance impact.
14. Safeguarding and PSEA: Ensure strict adherence to safeguarding and PSEA standards across all project activities. Implement policies to protect participants and staff, and mitigate the risks of exploitation, abuse, or harm.
15. Key Relationship Engagement: Serve as the Mastercard Foundation’s primary point of contact and liaison, participating in Foundation engagements and events to build greater synergies and impact, while fostering and maintaining effective professional relationships with government entities and implementing partners.

Qualifications

Experience & Knowledge

1. Master’s degree in a relevant field (e.g., International Development, Public Policy, Education, Policy Development and International Relations or related discipline), with technical expertise aligned with the project’s focus on education, livelihoods including small to medium business development, and institutional strengthening.
2. At least 10 years of relevant management experience, ideally including roles such as Project Director, Chief of Party, or Deputy Chief of Party on large donor-funded technical assistance projects.
3. Proven experience managing large-scale, multi-million-dollar budgets and coordinating across multiple partners in South Sudan or similar regional and conflict-affected contexts.
4. Extensive background in working with government departments, civil society, national NGOs, and stakeholders, including complex programs implemented by consortia in education, accelerated learning, vocational training, and job readiness. Experience with refugee-led organizations and in refugee contexts is a strong advantage.
5. Strong knowledge of private sector management, engagement and market system strengthening/development.
6. Strong understanding of best practices in youth programming, including Positive Youth Development, and familiarity with adapted TVET models and capacity strengthening approaches for TVET institutions, CBOs and RLOs.
7. Deep understanding of the political, cultural, and social dynamics of South Sudan, including knowledge of effective conflict-sensitive approaches.
8. Experience of integrating good governance and inclusive practices across sectors to enhance service delivery.
9. Direct experience working in South Sudan or comparable contexts.
10. Fluency in written and verbal English is essential.
11. Willing and able to reside and work in South Sudan.
12. Professional excellence including outstanding facilitation, strategic planning, and management skills.

Skills & Ability

1. Ability to articulate a clear vision and direction, fostering alignment with project goals and donor requirements.
2. Proven ability to work constructively with diverse development actors, balancing various interests to achieve project outcomes.
3. Skilled in financial oversight and compliance with donor requirements, with strong capacity to provide risk assessment and mitigation.
4. Past success developing and scaling solutions within a large/multi-partners project/program.
5. Excellent relationship-building, problem-solving, negotiation and interpersonal skills with government agencies, civil society, partners, community-stakeholders and donor representatives.
6. Adaptability to operate effectively in dynamic and challenging environments, with a proactive approach to complex problem-solving.
7. Demonstrated ability to integrate gender and social inclusion into program implementation and decision-making processes.

Compensation & Benefits

We offer a highly competitive salary and benefits package that is commensurate with your experience and qualifications.