Somalia/SomalilandCountry Office

Level 3:  the role holder will have contact with children and/or young people either frequently (e.g. once a week or more) or intensively (e.g. four days in one month or more or overnight) because they work in country programs; or are visiting country programs; ore because they are responsible for implementing the police checking/vetting process staff.

Reports to: Deputy Country Director – Program Development & Quality

Role Purpose:Working in partnership is central to Save the Children’s Theory of Change on how to maximize our impact for children, and is a key element of the Somalia Country Office’s 2019-2021Country Strategic Plan (CSP) where we work with local partners both to increase the depth and breadth of its programming but even more importantly to improve sustainability, and promote local ownership and the development of a strong civil society that that can promote child rights and accountability for children. Save the Children has a Global Partnership Framework, which aims at ensuring that across the Save the Children movement we have a shared understanding of what partnership means. In addition, this role will be critical inapproaching partnership more strategically and to advance our commitments to the localization agenda, including the operationalization of the localization policy, and to implement organizational adjustments needed to adhere to GrandBargain principles and CHS verification outcomes aimed at operationalizing local partnerships. S/he will work together with internal and external stakeholders and our local partners across the country program to advise, facilitate, coordinate, monitor and support the successful implementation of the Partnership Framework and our Country Office Partnership Strategy; coordinate and monitor the capacity strengthening of our partners; play a lead role in strengthening Save the Children Somalia’s approaches to partnership, building on SCI’s global partnership principles; work across departments to establish systems and approaches for identifying, pursuing and maintaining effective partnerships that contribute to Save the Children’s strategic direction and support reaching breakthroughs for children in Somalia; and engages in internal and external forum on partnerships and localization, contributing to learning and leveraging best practices from other contexts.

Staff directly reporting to this post: None

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY

Strategic Planning

·         Ensure the partnerships component of the Theory of Change and organizational Partnership Framework informs country strategic planning, annual plans, humanitarian response strategies, other delivery approaches, including to implement organisational adjustments needed to adhere to GrandBargain principles and CHS verification outcomes aimed at operationalizing local partnerships

·         In close collaboration with Awards, PDQ and Operations, lead the development/review of the Somalia Country Office’s partnership and localization strategy in line with Save the Children’s global Partnership Framework and Localization policy, thatclearly articulatesour vision and help promote that vision with Save the Children staff and stakeholders

·         In collaboration with Awards and PDQ teams, lead the CO in systematic approaches to scoping, assessing and selecting partners, and in identifying and pursuing strategic partnerships, to build high performing and diverse partnerships to achieve our strategies, priorities and plans

Partner Management &Capacity Strengthening:

·         Support programs in ensuring quality partnership management and knowledge sharing, regularly review partnership management practices are aligned with the partnership principles, and identify and follow up on actions to improve management practices;

·         Facilitate partners’ active involvement in Country Office strategic planning, program design and proposal/concept paper development and ensure partner support costs are adequately resourced

·         Coordinate across teams to carry out partner organizational capacity assessments and support partners to develop capacity strengthening plans, and ensure that partner capacity strengthening plans are resourced during proposal development

·         Work with IT to establish and maintain a partnership database that centralizes our partner scoping, assessment and capacity strengthening plans for better tracking, monitoring and reporting

·         Coordinate implementation of partner organizational and programmatic capacity strengthening, including tracking spending against relevant budget lines, and monitoring and reporting on progress and achievements

·         Coordination with external agencies working with the same partners, ensuring a partner-centered approach and minimizing duplication ofcapacity strengthening efforts

·         Ensure that partners are trained on and apply SC standards such as Child Safeguarding, SCs Code of Conduct, and essential humanitarian principles and Core Humanitarian Standards

Partnership Monitoring and Learning:

·         Coordinate with the MEAL andprogram teams to ensure the development and implementation of appropriate project and partner M&E, and program management tools and systems for use by partners, and that appropriate training and ongoing support is provided to partners on use of the same

·         Develop a system for accountability towards partners where Save the Children regularly and proactively seeks feedback from partners, including organisingannualpartnership meetingsand feedback surveys, partnership conferences, complaint & feedback mechanisms and and work withrelevant departments to address feedback;

·         Support MEAL and Operations teams to analyse results of on-going partnershipsand results on the ground to produce lessons learnt to inform project design, implementation and strategic decision-making

Representation &Networking

·         Participate in internal and external partnership fora (working groups, conferences, workshops, meetings and webinars) and provide regular update to the CO on new developments, best practices, learning and trends in partnerships and localization

·         Embed partnerships in relevant dialogues, discussions and debates at all parts of the organisation, notjust functional leads but also thematic leaders, account managers, partners and others;

·         Participate in any Working Groups that will support the operationalization of the partnership strategy and localization policy

People Management

·         Work closely with programme quality, awards and operations teams in a matrix management and remote management environment for development and implementation of high quality projects

·         Provide training, coaching/mentoring and support for learning, development and capacity building of relevant Country Office staff on partnership strategy, principles, management process/procedures, framework, policy etc

·         Support the development of an organisational culture that reflects our full spectrum programming, promotes accountability and high performance, encourages a team culture of learning, creativity and innovation, and frees up our people to deliver outstanding results for children

COMPETENCIES AND BEHAVIOURS

Ambition:

·         Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves (and the team)

·         Future orientated, thinks strategically

·         Maintains a broad strategic perspective at the same time as an awareness of the detail of a situation

·         Widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others

Accountability:

·         Establishes clear and compelling objectives with teams and individuals and monitors progress and performance

·         Holds themselves accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Savethe Children values

·         Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities – giving them the freedom todeliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and challenges underperformance

·         Creates and applies measures and metrics to track performance

Applying Technical & Professional Expertise:

·         Makes decisions based on professional expertise and experience

·         Shares knowledge and best practice on technical solutions so that others can make best use of that expertise

·         Actively seeks new ways to develop the application of technical and professional standards within the team

Problem Solving & Decision Making:

·         Gathers the right information and uses critical thinking and exercises judgment to make effective and timely decisions

·         Demonstrates awareness of the wider external influences,opportunities and risks to make informed strategic decisions

·         Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions to overcome challenges

Collaboration&Networking

·         Builds and maintains effective relationships with a broad range of stakeholders

·         Clarifies their role and responsibilities within the team to maximise impact

·         Actively listens to new and different perspectives and experiences of those they work with

·         Demonstrates understanding of their skills and how they complement those of others within diverse teams and groups

·         Builds trust with contacts through openness and honesty

·         Participates effectively in sensitive, complex and/or high impact relationships and networks

·         Spots opportunities to bring together partnerships/working alliances that have not been used before

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

·         Post graduate or Master degree in International relations, Social Sciences, project management and development relevant field

·         Minimum 5 years work experience in the humanitarian sector/with NGOs, with at least 2years’ experience in partnership based programming or community based programming

·         Sound knowledge of child- and human-rights frameworks, including rights-based programming and in-depth understanding on core elements of approaches and principles to working in partnerships

·         Experience in organizational capacity strengthening processes, including excellent training/facilitation, presentation, and communication skills.

·         Proven experience in field level representation and networking with key stakeholders and co-ordination with other NGOs/UN

·         Proven commitment to and experience in participatory approaches and beneficiary accountability

·         An excellent team player with good skills in team work and consultative approach to decision making

·         Excellent communication skills, both oral and written, with a high level of written and spoken English

·         The capacity and willingness to be extremely flexible and accommodating in difficult and sometimes insecure working circumstances.