Program Quality & Reporting Officer

ISLAMIC RELIEF KENYA

Kirichwa Road, Next to Kirichwa Heights Apartment

P. O Box 417 – 00202, KNH, Nairobi

Tel: 0727531220

Website: www.islamic-relief.com

Position

Program Quality & Reporting Officer

Job Type

Full Time

Reporting To:

MEAL Coordinator

Qualification

• A Bachelor’s Degree in International Development, International Relations, Project Planning and Management, Monitoring & Evaluation, Statistics or other in one of the program’s sectors required.
• Minimum of 3 years’ experience in relevant field-based project management experience with an NGO supporting program quality, reporting and compliance roles required, with preferably at least 2 years working in Education, livelihoods, Health, Nutrition, WASH and/or Resilience sectors.

Location

100% Nairobi Office with frequent travel to field offices

Job Field

Programmes

Posting Date

6th November 2024

BACKGROUND

Established in 1984 in the UK, Islamic Relief is an international NGO seeking to promote sustainable economic and social development by working with local communities through relief and development activities. Islamic Relief Kenya (IRK) commenced operations in Kenya in 1993, initially running Orphan Sponsorship Programme in Mandera County implemented through a local partner organization. It opened its full-fledged country office in Nairobi in 2004 and first field office In Mandera in 2006 at the height of drought in the Horn of Africa. Since then, IRK’s operations have expanded to other counties to provide humanitarian and development assistance to the most vulnerable and marginalized communities in Kenya. In 2010 and 2011 Islamic Relief extended their operations to Wajir and Garissa respectively, in 2017 and 2018, Kilifi and Marsabit offices were established and in 2020, Islamic Relief extended its humanitarian operations to Tana-River County. IR works with the needy and vulnerable regardless of race, religion or gender and currently implement our work within the following themes: Women& youth empowerment, Inclusive education, emergency programmes, Livelihood/resilience projects, Protection as well as Peace building.

IRK is currently focusing on three major themes: Sustainable Community Empowerment, Food security and livelihoods, Disaster Risk reduction (DRR); and Inclusive and protection.

Islamic Relief Kenya is in pursuit to support and strengthen its operations, seeks to employ motivated, hardworking, and pro-active individual to fill in the following position.

Job Purpose:

The Program Quality and Reporting (PQ&R) Officer reports to the MEAL Coordinator, the role focuses on Supporting the MEAL Coordinator in ensuring effective systems and processes are in place for continuously improving the quality of implementation and the impact of all IRK programs. You will ensure the application of Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS) and IHSAN quality standards and support all IRK staff in the application of these standards. In addition, working closely with programmes, communication and finance team, you will lead the preparation, review and submission (if need be) of donor reports.

Roles and responsibilities

Program Quality (50%)

• Ensure that the IRK programmmes are implemented in line with IR program quality standards (IHSAN), donor guidelines, and industry best practices.
• Coordinate the identification of the priority areas for program quality, develop and implement related standard operating procedures (SOPs) and action plans.
• Coordinate with all field offices on the implementation of Quality Assurance (QA) measures to improve the quality of IRK interventions and to enhance impact. This includes priority strategies in Sequencing, Layering and Integration (SLI) and sustainability of all activities.
• Oversee technical assistance and capacity strengthening activities in program quality for all staff, including design and delivery of innovative training and accompaniment on IR Program Quality standards.
• Work closely with all MEAL team to strengthen the IR timely use of data, information and learning to make informed decisions to improve the quality of the program.
• Support the integration of innovations and best practices across IRK interventions.
• Collaborate with Senior Management Team and other staff to plan, prepare and co-facilitate Program Review meetings.
• Make frequent visits to the field to monitor the implementation of workplans and propose recommendations to the MEAL Coordinator, Programme Manager, Country Director, and other IRK staff.
• Maintain the program issues log and follow up on outstanding actions.
• Provide program oversight, ensuring that program is meeting reporting & documentation standards, goals, and implementation objectives as per program strategy.
• Support in review of monthly project reports, interim and final narrative reports on a timely basis according to the organization reporting rule.
• Work closely with the MEAL Coordinator, Communications Coordinator, Programme Manager and Finance Manager to develop/improve standard reporting templates and tools that will support improved narrative and financial reporting.
• Keep the MEAL Coordinator informed of any reporting and documentation gaps and inabilities to meet contractual obligations and report submission to be able to actively mitigate risks through proposing remedial solutions.
• Compile and respond to information requests from IRK field offices.
• Ensuring questions and comments from donors, auditors and internal evaluators are addressed by reminding field offices and departments of the internal and external deadlines.
• Ensure that cross-cutting issues such as participation, gender, age, and disability are effectively addressed/ mainstreamed in all project implementations as part of ensuring accountability according to IR SADD (Sex, Age, Disability Disaggregated Data) framework.

Program Reporting (30%)

Program documentation and communication management (20%)

• Coordinate regular monitoring of the project activities as well as regular and timely project reviews.
• Oversee a comprehensive information management and filing system, ensuring donor contractual documents, reports, and key correspondences are consistently and frequently filed.
• Document all revisions, modifications, no-cost extensions, or budget realignments.
• Provide support to the MEAL Coordinator in liaison to donors, tracking key donor correspondence.
• Ensure effective channels of internal and external communication relating to IRK programmes are established and respected.
• Participate in IRK Programs meetings including planning and progress review meetings.

Any other duties that may be assigned by the line manager

Qualifications: Education, Knowledge, Skills and Abilities.

• A Bachelor’s Degree in International Development, International Relations, Project Planning and Management, Monitoring & Evaluation, Statistics or other in one of the program’s sectors required.
• Minimum of 3 years’ experience in relevant field-based project management experience with an NGO supporting program quality, reporting and compliance roles required, with preferably at least 2 years working in Education, livelihoods, Health, Nutrition, WASH and/or Resilience sectors
• Ability to exercise sound judgment and make decisions independently.
• Highly developed interpersonal and communication skills include influencing, negotiation, and coaching.
• Strong results orientation, with the ability to challenge existing mind sets.
• Excellent self-motivation skills.
• Excellent communications skills in English, and Swahili languages both oral and written.
• Excellent reporting skills and ability to communicate clearly with the team and the other stakeholders.
• Ability to work both as a motivating member and a leader of a diverse team.
• Experience in participatory research methods using quantitative and qualitative approaches. ·
• Experience monitoring projects, collecting, analyzing, and sharing relevant data, using mobile data collection and management applications such as SPSS, Stata etc.
• Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information management systems as well as use of mobile data collection software (ODK, KoboCollect) and knowledge of GIS software.
• Full Knowledge and understanding of quality and accountability standards such as CHS among others.
• Experience in and proven ability to support, train and mentor staff and partners in monitoring and evaluation methodology.
• Must be able to stand above religious and cultural diversities.

Note: Please note that this recruitment, shortlisting will be done on a rolling basis.