Earn over 137m as Project Management Specialist (Youth & Child Development) – United States Embassy / US Mission
Job Title: Project Management Specialist (Youth & Child Development)
Organisation: United States Embassy, US Mission in Uganda
Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda
Salary Grade: FSN-11 (UGX 137,483,245 – 202,072,484 per annum inclusive of allowances).
About US Embassy:
Welcome to the United States Embassy in Kampala, Uganda. The United States has enjoyed diplomatic relations with Uganda for over 30 years. Ambassador Deborah R. Malac currently heads the U.S Mission to Uganda. The Mission is composed of several offices and organizations all working under the auspices of the Embassy and at the direction of the Ambassador.
Among the offices operating under the U.S Mission to Uganda are:
United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
Centers for Disease Control
Peace Corps
Job Summary: The Project Management Specialist (Youth & Child Development) is a key member of the EYCD Office responsible for carrying out a range of responsibilities for planning, designing, managing, and evaluating youth programming across sectors. S/he serves as a senior technical advisor, advising senior leadership at the Mission on policies and programs for vulnerable children and youth in Uganda, including innovations and new strategic directions. The senior advisor is also responsible for management and coordination of USG interagency and inter-sectoral youth and children development activities. She/he will have comprehensive knowledge and experience in youth and children, with a specific focus on effectively addressing the needs of highly vulnerable children (0-18 years) including safety, wellbeing, growth and development and developing sustainable programmatic interventions that will improve the health, livelihoods, educational opportunities, and access to civic and democratic processes for youth (12-30) in Uganda.
Key Duties and Responsibilities:
Project Management and Leadership (55%)
- Provide project management of USAID funded grants and activities, includes technical, financial and programmatic oversight of grants and contracts as required by USAID Agreement Officer Representative/Contracting Officer Representative (AOR/COR) designation. Ensure USAID supported activities are implemented within the USG foreign assistance framework and are directly linked to attainment of USG and USAID’s strategic objectives with an emphasis on vulnerable children and youth; review and approval of annual workplans, performance monitoring plans, and quarterly/annual reports; reviewing quarterly financial accruals and pipelines; quarterly (minimum) site visits; and monitoring of planned outcomes.
- Analyze health, social, economic, political, and other trends affecting activities in youth development across sectors, and in line with cross-sector themes important to the Mission, such as gender, nutrition and disability. Develop internal awareness and capacity in achieving outcomes in wellbeing through multi-sector youth development activities including emphasis on education, civic participation and livelihoods. Increase awareness of the most effective interventions for improving health, education, and livelihood outcomes among youth through technical leadership and outreach.
- Provide strategic guidance and leadership to the implementation to the Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS). This multi-year youth strategy seeks to improve the health, livelihoods, educational opportunities, and access to civic and democratic processes for youth (12-30) in Uganda. Oversee and manage the Mission’s contribution to the youth strategy including coordination and strategic alignment of education, health and HIV/AIDS programs. Develop and forge strategic partnerships with development partners, government agencies and civil society organizations supporting children and youth. Provide strategic input and technical expertise on proposed service delivery activities, policy initiatives, and research proposals.
Outreach and Communications (45%)
- Ensure the Mission consultation with the Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development (MGLSD), UNICEF and youth through different funding streams, including PEPFAR, child survival, malaria and education is strategic, integrated/coordinated and reflects theories, concepts, principles, practice and current research in the development, implementation and management of children and youth focused activities. Requires close collaboration and communication with other technical/senior advisors working in the same areas. Provide strategic and technical mentoring to USAID implementing partners and staff.
- Play a lead role in public outreach and communications for the youth activities across the health, education, economic growth and governance programs. Summarize information and conclusions in written and oral form, for presentation to senior USG and other decision makers, and for incorporation into other USAID/Uganda activity documents, as appropriate. Organize site visits, conferences, and seminars to ensure maximum exposure to emerging trends and various points of view, and for monitoring activities. Share lessons learned from youth programming and promote utilization of that knowledge across different USAID and Embassy offices.
- Under the guidance of Uganda’s national frameworks including the National Development Plan, the National Policy and Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children, the National Youth Policy, the Peace, Recovery and Development Plan, and others, provide strategic guidance in USAID’s support to the MGLSD and the Ministry of Education and Sports (MOES) to support vulnerable children and youth. Through close consultation with the MGLSD, MOES, UNICEF and other key partners, including organizational development experts as needed, ensure USAID’s support to the MGLSD and MOES promotes and fosters their goals and objectives for supporting youth and children in Uganda.
- Cultivate and maintain a wide range of contacts with government, private sector, and voluntary institutions as well as other multilateral and bilateral donors on matters related to youth to ensure proper activity design and implementation. Engage youth themselves in order to best map their needs, inform Mission activities, and evaluate programs in youth development. Emphasize the need for coordination, cooperation and information sharing among the different programs involving youth across sectors and within the Embassy.
- Foster USG leadership to advance a cross-sector youth agenda in development and diplomacy (e.g. Trafficking in Persons, Public Affairs Section annual youth conference and Department of Labor activities on exploitive labor). Represent USAID on other interagency working groups as needed, including the PEPFAR OVC Technical Working Group.
Qualifications, Skills and Experience:
NOTE: All applicants must address each selection criterion detailed below with specific and comprehensive information supporting each item.
- The ideal candidate for the United States US Embassy Project Management Specialist (Youth & Child Development) career opportunity should hold a Masters’ degree in a field relevant to development assistance in the social sectors such as health, education, social welfare or development.
- At least 15 years of progressively responsible, professional experience in the field of youth and child development of which at least seven years’ experience in development assistance, or related work for USAID, other donor agencies, host government organizations or civil society/private sector organizations in the field of youth and child development; and five years of which the candidate was living and working in a developing country required.
- Knowledge of US Government policies, regulations, procedures, and documentation.
- Track record in managing for results and attention to the development of evidence base.
- Experience in managing grants and contracts, including technical, budgetary and human resource components.
- Experience developing policies and procedures governing the development, management, administration, implementation and evaluation of youth and children development programs at all levels.
- Able to develop creative approaches to new or unfamiliar problems.
- Experience with youth workforce development and developing the socio-economic security of vulnerable households is preferred.
- Strong leadership and strong interpersonal skills (written and oral) in order to manage and coordinate multi-agency, multi-sectoral activities.
- Ability to build and maintain positive working relationships with a variety of stakeholders including the U.S. Ambassador, USAID Mission Director and other heads of USG Agencies, senior levels Government officials, senior level managers and technical staff of development and implementing partners.
- Must be able to represent and defend USG development policies and programs and to explain and interpret host-country attitudes, priorities and concerns to senior USG officials.
- Multitask and exercise sound judgment and decision-making in a very fast paced, dynamic environment.
- Independently and effectively plan, organize and manage and evaluate important, responsible and complex activities to accomplish broader Agency and Mission goals.
- Advance a learning agenda; obtain, analyze and evaluate data; present in meaningful terms to others.
- Excellent analytical skills to develop policies and programs and review and provide substantive feedback on concept papers, program designs, workplans, quarterly and annual reports and other government and donor documents.
- Prepare factual and interpretive reports addressing complex, subject matter. Provide information and advice with detachment and objectivity.
- Language Proficiency: Level IV (fluent) English language proficiency, speaking and writing, is required. Knowledge in other local languages is desirable.
How to Apply:
All qualified candidates should submit the following;
- A signed AID-302-3 Offeror Information for Personal Services Contracts, Download Here
- Cover letter clearly indicating the position for which you are applying and describing how you meet the minimum requirements
- Updated Curriculum Vitae/Resume
- Copies of Academic Transcripts
- Names, contact numbers, and e-mail addresses of three (3) professional references. At least one of the references must be a prior or current direct supervisor.
- U.S. citizen, Resident Aliens and other nations (resident in Uganda) must attach a copy of a valid work permit.
Send them to: KampalaHR@state.gov in standard file types such as Microsoft Word (.doc) or Adobe Acrobat (.pdf). All should be in one document which should not exceed 10MB.
Deadline: 29th June 2018
: List of Current Job Vacancies / Opportunities in Uganda