Chief of Party (COP)

Chief of Party (COP)

m2m – mothers2mothers

Limpopo, South Africa

Job Description

The Chief of Party has overall responsibility for administration, programme management, performance monitoring and technical implementation and oversight of all aspects of the USAID-funded Children, Adolescents, and Families in the HIV Epidemic Activity in Limpopo Province. S/he serves as the principal institutional liaison to USAID/SA and has regular and transparent communication with the USAID/SA Agreement Officer’s Representative (AOR).

The Chief of Party provides strategic leadership for the programme. S/he has overall operational, financial, and management responsibility over the programme, links with and manages the project key personnel technical specialists and is ultimately responsible for delivering agreed outputs and outcomes on time and on budget. The position is responsible for ensuring the programme adheres and complies with all donor requirements and regulations.

This position is based in Limpopo Province, and reports to the South Africa Country Director.

Key Performance Areas:

Leadership and Management of Activity:

• Lead/conduct the development, implementation and review of the activity’s operational plans, including annual workplan and budget, aligned to donor priorities. Develop and/or oversee development, and ensure the timely submission, of high-quality donor reports, record-keeping, and compliance to all relevant donor requirements;
• Oversee project monthly workplans and project teams, monitor project milestones and deliverables development;
• Facilitate the employment, development, and performance management of high-performing activity staff, improving organizational, team, and individual performance while promoting teamwork and the values, mission, vision and culture of m2m at all levels;
• Build, maintain and manage effective and efficient operating systems to support programme service delivery such as finance, administration, IT, subaward management, and HR. Ensure the sound development, implementation and ongoing evaluation of all operating systems, policies and procedures to comply with organisational policy, donor regulations, and terms and conditions of award;
• Ensure the effective use of financial resources at all levels (including the utilisation of budget tracking, expenditure analysis, and forecasting) to support programme service delivery, holding fiduciary responsibility for the project. Work closely with Finance and Operations Manager to monitor project spend, foreign exchange fluctuations, and communicate regularly to USAID on project’s financial status. Monitor, with Finance and Operations Manager, subaward compliance and budgets;
• Accountable for project milestones and results in line with set service and impact targets;
• Direct and manage use of project resources and finances in line with implementation plans and within approved budgets; ensuring adequate project controls, processes and procedures to promote compliance and stewardship of resources.

Stakeholder Relations and Engagement:

• Represent m2m and the activity with national, provincial, and district stakeholders, partners, government, and USAID/PEPFAR in support of activity objectives, ensuring smooth operation of project and active involvement in key provincial processes;
• Relationship holder with USAID AOR, maintaining frequent communication and ensuring AOR is abreast of and supportive of all project activities, and a promoter of the activity within the mission;
• Serve as key relationship holder with sub-partners and other key partners for project activities. Lead project collaborative activities with sub-partners;
• Identify successes, challenges, lessons learned, and make recommendations; represent project in conferences and external fora.

Program Delivery:

• Oversee design of the project. Manage ongoing implementation of programming and oversee quality implementation of existing program services through programmatic assessment and evaluation. Lead project adaptations and improvements to respond to PEPFAR priorities;
• Lead programmatic aspects of project evaluations and knowledge management in collaboration with Strategic Information Manager and Senior Program Manager;
• Provide programmatic leadership of quality assurance/quality improvement in collaboration with technical support staff. Design and implement, with technical staff, corrective actions to improve project performance;
• Oversee, with technical staff, sub-partner performance and contribution to project outcomes. Implement corrective actions to improve sub-partner performance;
• Facilitate knowledge sharing and learnings across the project.

Job Requirements

Qualifications and Experience:

• A minimum of a bachelor’s degree in public health, Health Administration, Management, Social Work, or Business Administration with a focus on public health, social sciences, or related field, A master’s degree is preferred;
• A minimum of ten years of experience with progressively increasing responsibility designing, implementing, managing and leading large development involving multiple partners, stakeholders, and geographic target areas in South Africa;
• A minimum of five years prior experience as a Chief of Party or similar leadership role of a large public health (preference for OVC) program or activity funded by PEPFAR. Demonstrated experience managing large budgets (above $10M);
• Demonstrated ability through previous experience leading a technical activity through evidence and data driven decision making;
• Demonstrated ability through previous experience to liaise with senior government officials, dignitaries, executives of NGOs, FBOs, CBOs, and the for-profit business community, and senior members of the donor community; and Sound experience in working in a senior leadership/ management and/or technical advisory role;
• Strong understanding of the South Africa health care delivery system and relevant PEPFAR guidelines;
• Demonstrated ability through previous experience to establish and maintain productive working relationships with a wide network of partners and stakeholders;
• Excellent experience with managing project cycles including conceptualization and implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

Competencies:

• Demonstrated ability to design and lead execution of efficient project operations;
• Dynamic, innovative, results and action-oriented leader;
• Excellent organizational and interpersonal skills with experience managing human resources;
• Excellent written and oral presentation skills in English;
• Excellent working knowledge of and experience in using MS Office suite and ideally an understanding of statistical packages such as SPSS, Epi-Info, etc.;
• Possession of own car and valid driver’s license beneficial.

Internal relationships:

• Works directly with the project team, most closely the senior management team;
• Works closely with Head Office Operations, Finance, HR, and DPTS, specifically Senior Portfolio Lead, Finance Business Partner, HR Business Partner, Senior Technical Advisor, and SI Lead. Occasional work with Resource Mobilization team to foster private sector partnerships to complement project work;
• Works with South Africa Country Director and other country program staff as relevant

External relationships:

• Department of Health and Social Development (National and Provincial) & Local implementing partners;
• Funders – direct relationship holder with USAID AOR, M&E team and others;
• Other Stakeholders: funders, organisations doing similar work, tertiary institutions, research organisation, etc.

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