Program Manager at Spark Microgrants

ABOUT SPARK MICROGRANTS

Spark Microgrants believes in a world where everyone lives with dignity and determines their own positive future. Decades of prescriptive aid have sidelined the poor from the very programs meant to uplift them. We believe in local solutions and catalyzing rural villages facing poverty into action.

At the heart of Spark’s model, the Facilitated Collective Action Process (FCAP), are ‘town-hall’ style weekly meetings, in which women, men, young, old, plan together for their community’s future. Each village elects a leadership committee, establishes a village savings account, and launches a project of their choice. Members receive training on financial management, transparency, leadership, village planning, and advocacy. Each village then receives $6000 – $15000 in seed funds and additional management support to turn their project ideas into reality.

Spark trains partner organizations and works with governments to scale the FCAP as the model of choice to advance social and economic development, improve lives, and secure lasting change. Spark is now active in 500+ villages in 6 countries, improving the lives of more than 500,000 people.

ABOUT THE ROLE

Spark is seeking a highly organised, detail-oriented Program Manager who will provide overall leadership in creating long- and short-term operational plans and will manage partnership with local organisations and government engagement at district level. The Program manager will input into quality program design and monitoring and evaluation of the Spark Microgrant’s interventions through partners. The program manager will foster the development of strategic collaborative partnerships with key stakeholders in Spark Microgrants districts of program focus for the fulfilment of the organization’s goal of empowering communities to become self-reliant. The Program Manager will report to the Country Director – Malawi.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Lead day to day running of program activities, ensuring timely delivery of expected results.
2. Network and develop strong partnerships with the programs implementing partners, local Government officials, community leaders and other key stakeholders in districts of focus.
3. Represent the Country Director in strategic external meetings within districts of program focus.
4. Lead program staff in budgeting, and monitoring budget expenditure against planned activities.
5. Lead capacity building initiatives for implementing partners, Community Based Facilitators, and other district stakeholders, ensuring that the process is done in an inclusive and transparent manner.
6. Ensure a team approach in the development process; including managing workloads, prioritisation of backlog, and ensuring that the program team are working efficiently and in a coordinated manner.
7. Ensure timely completion and submission of quality narrative and financial reports to management.
8. Provide regular updates to management on the risks the organization is exposed to, and mitigation strategies of how to manage the identified risks.
9. Take the lead in the recruitment and orientation of the program team, ensuring that they have clear annual performance management and professional development goals, and that grievances and discipline matters are handled in accordance with Spark Microgrants set procedures.
10. Join like minded organizations to promote and strengthen advocacy for policy related issues affecting the development of rural communities.

WHO YOU ARE:

You are an up-and-coming program manager looking for your next step. You thrive in bringing order to chaos, understanding a variety of stakeholders, requirements and priorities and bringing them all together into coherent and systematic processes for delivery. You enjoy being part of a team with ambitious ideas and you gain energy from turning those ambiguous ideas into a pragmatic reality. You are a clear communicator, understanding differing styles and backgrounds and you bring things up to your colleagues proactively that need to be discussed.

REQUIREMENTS:

Qualifications, experience & skills:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Social Sciences, Humanities and Development Studies or other related disciplines from a recognized tertiary institution.
• A minimum of 10 years demonstrated experience in program implementation with a minimum of 5 years of team management experience.
• Demonstrated track record of managing large scale program implementation in formal partnership with government at local and national levels.
• Strong report writing, presentation and negotiation skills.
• Experience in working independently with discretion, tact, patience and diplomacy.
• Good planning, organizational, supervisory and interpersonal skills
• Tact and diplomacy in dealing with staff and other stakeholders – related to work environment needs
• Ability to maintain effective working relationships with all levels of staff and public Incredible attention to detail.

OTHER INFORMATION

Job Location: Malawi

Start Date: As soon as possible

WHAT WE OFFER

• A competitive salary, depending on experience.
• Talented and welcoming colleagues, 90% of whom are based in the countries where we work.
• A supportive environment with plenty of professional development opportunities.
• A chance to help shape the future of international development.

Method Of Application

Follow the Link to apply: https://sparkmicrogrants.bamboohr.com/careers/67

Applications will be considered on a rolling basis, with preference given to early applicants.

SAFEGUARDING

Our safeguarding follows a do no harm principle. All Spark staff are expected to respect and uphold the safeguarding procedures and principles to minimise harm to stakeholders, program participants, and the environment, in compliance with the World Bank Environmental and Social Framework and Rwandan Legislation.

Please note that we are able to sponsor visa applications for this position.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

Spark Microgrants provides equal employment and advancement opportunities to all individuals. Employment decisions at Spark are based on merit, qualifications, and abilities. Spark does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, gender identity, age, disability, marital status, or any other characteristic protected by the law. Spark will make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with known disabilities unless doing so would result in undue hardship to daily operations.