HEAD OF PROGRAMS & INFLUENCING – GHANA CO

The Organisation

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls.

We believe in the power and potential of every child. But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it’s girls who are most affected.

Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children.

We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood. And we enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.

We have been building powerful partnerships for children for over 85 years, and are now active in more than 80 countries.

THE OPPORTUNITY

Plan International Ghana is looking to recruit a qualified and experienced professional as its Head of Programs & Influencing to provide strategic leadership and operational oversight for designing, implementing and evaluation, quality, gender transformative programmes and influencing. The role will also require the successful candidate to provide support in the achievement of country program goals that are aligned with Plan International Ghana’s program guide which aims at advancing children’s right and equality for girls in Ghana. 

ABOUT YOU

The ideal Head of Programs must be able to demonstrate their experience and capacity as a true professional who:

• Leads and provides strategic and oversight support to the design, implementation, and evaluation of gender transformative programmes and influencing initiatives that fully align to key global purpose, theory of change, strategies, country context, and other agreed standards
• Supervises and co-ordinates a team of seven (7) direct reports who are playing management, and specialist roles.
• Works with and maintains sound and credible (win-win) partnerships that promote girl-friendly policy and practice; and culture of learning/knowledge management to improve program quality
• Member of the Country Leadership Team
• Reports to the Country Director;
• Impact of this role is significant internally and externally to Plan International Financial measures or statistics relevant to post such as budget; list of direct and indirect reports

ACCOUNTABILITIES

The key areas of accountability and focus will will encompass but will not be limited to these focal areas and subject matter.

• Policy alignment and Influence
• Strategy design
• Program/Project Implementation
• Child Sponsorship
• Partnerships and Networking 
• Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL)
• Staff Development

KEY RELATIONSHIPS

• Works closely with the Country Director
• Liaises with the Business Development Manager and Head of Operations with regards to grants projects design/execution; and budgets respectively
• Maintains high contact with staff working on monitoring, evaluation and research and program activities at PII level to offer support for understanding and implementation of monitoring, evaluation and research related activities

TECHNICAL EXPERTISE, SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE

Qualification and Experience:

• At least Master’s degree in Development Studies, Social Sciences or any related area
• Understands Plan International Ghana’s work, and implements processes and practices that support the programming delivery.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office suite, including Word, PPT, Excel and Outlook.
• Demonstrated excellence in the delivery of health, education water and sanitation, grants support management and community development.
• Proven experience in a similar senior management level in a reputable international organization
• Speaks, reads and writes English fluently

Essential:

• Functional Area Experience: Good knowledge and experience in policy analyses and formulation, rights-based and gender transformative programming, and influencing. Experience working and collaborating with diverse sets of stakeholders, such as local NGOs, government officials, donor representatives, local and international staff.

• Strategic thinking and innovation: Set strong strategy in own team; makes an effective contribution to wider strategy, sees contribution of own team in wider Plan and external context, balances future vision with practical delivery; critically evaluates work effectiveness and searches for better ways of working.

• Striving for high performance: Strongly drives performance forward in policy and programming; involves others in setting and achieving goals; creates a strong sense of purpose within own team and with stakeholders. 

• Decision making and risk management: Sound judgement and decision-making in complex situations; alerts others to risks inside and outside the organisation; willing to make judgements about managing risks and ready to take responsibility for such judgements.

• Influencing and Communications: Effective communicator using clear messages drawn from Plan’s work; cross-culturally adept; ready to work to influence leaders in governments, partners and communities; can reach out and influence large groups of people; effective communicator with children and young people. 

• Building effective teams and partnerships:  Acting as a team player, even if this results in adjustment of own priorities; develops mutually trusting relationships with complex partnerships to deliver excellent programme/project outcomes. 

• Developing people: Supports learning and a sense of mutual purpose in diverse teams; sets a strong learning culture; effective coach, adaptable to high performers and those in difficulty; uses opportunities across Plan to develop others.

• Self-awareness and resilience: Remain calm and positive under pressure and in difficult situations; aware of impact on others and adjusts own behaviour accordingly; has a positive impact on those around them; leads major change while keeping staff and partners on board.

TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS

This position entails 30% travelling to the field to support communities, staff and partners in the Program Units.

Please click on this link to see the full job description, our organisational values and full job profile: Full Job Description -Head of Programs – 2023.docx

Location: Country Office (Accra)

Type of Role: Program Development & Management

Reports to: Country Director

Employment Type: Fixed-Term 

Closing Date:10th January, 2024

Equality, diversity and inclusion is at the very heart of everything that Plan International stands for.

We want Plan International to reflect the diversity of the communities we work with, offering equal opportunities to everyone regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.

Plan International is based on a culture of inclusivity and we strive to create a workplace environment that ensures every team, in every office, in every country, is rich in diverse people, thoughts, and ideas.

We foster an organisational culture that embraces our commitment to racial justice, gender equality, girls’ rights and inclusion.

Plan International believes that in a world where children face so many threats of harm, it is our duty to ensure that we, as an organisation, do everything we can to keep children safe. This means that we have particular responsibilities to children that we come into contact with and we must not contribute in any way to harming or placing children at risk.

A range of pre-employment checks will be undertaken in conformity with Plan International’s Safeguarding Children and Young People policy. Plan International also participates in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. In line with this scheme we will request information from applicants previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment. By submitting an application, the job applicant confirms their understanding of these recruitment procedures.

Please note that Plan International will never send unsolicited emails requesting payment from candidates.