Womenโ€™s Education and Vocational Skills Training Programme Lead Somalia

Tags: finance English language Environment
  • Added Date: Thursday, 03 April 2025
5 Steps to get a job in the United Nations

What we are looking for:

NRC is seeking a Programme Lead for the anticipated Somalia Empowering Women through Education and Skills โ€œRajo Kaabaโ€ Project, funded by the World Bank (WB) through the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Higher Education (MoECHE). The project aims to enhance literacy, numeracy, socioemotional skills, and market-relevant vocational training for young women and men (ages 15-35) across various regions of Somalia.

The Programme Lead will be responsible for ensuring the project is executed in alignment with the cooperative agreement, WB regulations, and internationally recognized quality standards. Additionally, they will serve as the primary liaison with MoECHE staff and the Project Implementation Unit (PIU), providing project updates, addressing challenges, and monitoring progress against targets. The role also includes representing the project in coordination forums, stakeholder meetings, and engagements with government officials and donors.

This position is contingent on NRC securing funding and is expected to commence in 2025.

What you will do:

Strategic leadership

  • Provide strategic and technical leadership to drive activities that ensure maximum impact toward achieving project objectives, incorporating effective youth participatory approaches.
  • Collaborate with key project staff to develop, review, and monitor annual work and performance plans, ensuring alignment with both long-term and short-term priorities.
  • Offer comprehensive technical and implementation support to field-based education staff and partners, including guidance on work plans, approval of expenses and procurement, recruitment processes, and reporting, in close coordination with team members.
  • Ensure adherence to Safe and Inclusive Programming (SIP) guidelines in alignment with NRC and WB standards, promptly addressing and resolving any reported breaches or concerns.
  • Advocate for and promote enhanced inclusion and accessibility within all education-related activities.

    Project managementย 

    • Hold overarching responsibility for the effective and efficient management of the Education project, ensuring alignment with the project management cycle, including high-quality reporting in collaboration with Finance, Somalia Logistics, external technical partners, and consultants.
    • Manage the overall project budget, maintaining appropriate burn rates and implementing solutions to address over- or under-expenditure issues.
    • Ensure compliance with NRCโ€™s contractual commitments and program quality standards throughout project implementation, with a focus on enhancing education and vocational skills training standards.
    • Oversee subcontracted partners by providing financial and operational support, ensuring optimized resource use through sound budgeting, consistent financial tracking, and timely donor reporting.
    • Ensure adherence to NRCโ€™s policies, guidelines, and procedures.
    • Coordinate and manage project implementation activities, budgets, and documentation in line with proposals, strategies, and donor requirements.
    • Take charge of risk management across all project aspects, including fiduciary and implementation risks, while upholding the principle of \"do no harm.\"
    • Ensure that financial and logistical systems and procedures, including supply chain management, are effectively followed by the project team.
    • Oversee the timely development and updating of procurement, recruitment, and spending plans for the project and ensure these are communicated to relevant colleagues.
    • Accountable for the timely submission of monthly project-specific cash forecasts to Finance and relevant Procurement Requests to Logistics.

      Compliance and Stakeholder managementย 

      • Submit reports to MoECHE and the State Ministry of Education through both formal and informal debriefings, including quarterly, annual, and semi-annual reports.
      • Provide leadership and guidance to ensure a robust youth participatory approach in the project, leveraging the insights, networks, and expertise of local youth partners and TVET service participants.
      • Foster and maintain active, cooperative relationships with key stakeholders such as government officials, project partners, implementing agencies, and relevant institutions.
      • Represent the project and the organization publicly, ensuring the dissemination of information on project achievements and lessons learned.
      • Support donor relationship management by participating in routine and ad-hoc donor meetings, and collaborating with project staff, Grants and Partnership teams, and subcontractors to prepare necessary updates.

        Learning ย and evaluationย 

Recommended for you