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Project Overview and Role :
The Challenge Fund for Youth Employment (CFYE) is a 6-year and €114 million programme funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that aims to create a prosperous future for 200,000 young women and men in the Middle East, North Africa, Sahel & West Africa and Horn of Africa regions. The Fund will be supporting initiatives in 23 focus countries that will offer youth, in particular young women, opportunities for work that is demand-driven and productive, offering a stable income and safe working conditions, and that is contributing to their personal development and social protection.
Private sector, civil society and knowledge institutions have been invited to submit proposals geared to scalable solutions for creating more and better jobs and income generating opportunities for youth. Solutions will in particular focus on an integrated approach that addresses the shortcomings on the demand side (jobs) and supply side (skills) and bridging the mismatch between these two in the labour market.
The Relationship Manager will be responsible for representing the Challenge Fund for Youth Employment in Senegal, and acting as the primary point of contact for the Fund for Implementing Partners (IPs). The Relationship manager will act as ‘critical friend’ of the IPs, which will be reflected in closely monitoring the project performance on the one hand, but also discussing any emerging issues from that with the IP, in an open and transparent manner.
The portfolio in Senegal is expected to consist about 8 to 10 Implementing Partners. The Relationship Manager will ensure that IPs are compliant with the Fund’s delivery guidelines. This includes monitoring progress of the Implementing Partners’ projects, and supporting Implementing Partners with technical and financial reporting, providing strategic guidance, mobilizing technical assistance (TA), and any other needs that may arise.
The Relationship Manager will liaise with the Central Team (including Fund Management, Technical Assistance, Monitoring Evaluation and Learning, Financial Management, Communications, and Project Delivery) to report on progress, flag issues, and contribute to high quality learning from their portfolio.
Primary Duties and Responsibilities :
The responsibilities and duties of the Relationship Manager include the following;
Project and Relationship Management (30%):
- Represent CFYE in-country - oversee the delivery of projects and serve as the first point of contact for IPs during the project life cycle;
- Take the lead in in-country project operations and management including strategic advisory and periodic review of progress against project targets, due diligence improvement plan, risk management and oversight of projects’ spending against budgets;
- Coordinate the contracting of IPs and realisation of any required Contract Amendments.
Reporting and Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) (30%):
- Coordinate and chair the quarterly progress review meetings with each Implementing Partner (IP), and document minutes, observations, and reflections, including external conditions and local external factors relevant to project implementation;
- Ensure that Implementing Partners update their progress reports including result chains and related budget trackers in the CFYE IT System (Salesforce) in a timely fashion. In case of any issues, resolve them with support from the Fund’s Central Team;
- Provide guidance to the in-country MEL advisor in realizing the Data Quality Assessment (DQA) process to promote high quality data collection;
- Support partners to monitor and evaluate the impact of their projects in accordance with the CFYE MEL system, and validate documentation tied to Outputs and Outcomes for disbursements;
- Work with?MEL Manager and other relevant team members to analyse portfolio-level data to draw key insights, emerging trends, and lessons, and communicate these in a clear and relevant way internally and externally.
Technical Assistance delivery and management (20%):
- Act as a ‘critical friend’ of the IP with regards to the identification of Technical Assistance (TA) needs and TA delivery;
- Supervise the TA planning to the IP’s: coordinate creation of the TA assignment (SoW), requesting approval from central team;
- Support rather than coordinate recruitment and on-boarding of the TA provider. In the case of volunteers, work closely with the in-country local VSO country coordinator;
- Monitor TA delivery to IPs on a needs-based basis and report on a quarterly basis on the progress of ongoing TA delivery;
- Daily management of TA implementation (receipts, transport, Q&A, Sorting out travel arrangements in Egencia) as well as TA service provider management (Timesheets & invoice management for TA);
- Identify any common pain-points in the employment ecosystem, and work with the delivery team to design system-level interventions that can resolve those.
Communications, marketing and outreach (10%):
- Provide regular updates on progress and highlights from the portfolio, in weekly CFYE meeting, monthly newsletter and annual report;
- In case of any in-country events, support the Fund’s Central Team in their organisation; and support the Communications and MEL teams to ensure generation of relevant content and stories to be disseminated to share learning or raise the profile of the CFYE;
- Participate in calls and relevant conferences or events within or related to their country or region to exchange relevant programme learnings;
- Maintain the relationship with the NL embassy, represent CFYE in meetings and events organised by NL or other network partners.
Financial Reporting (10%):
- Guide and facilitate IPs in preparing financial information and supporting documents as part of quarterly and annual internal reviews or external project audits, as requested by the Fund’s Central Team;
- Liaise with the IPs and Finance team on invoicing and contractual payment processes;
- Alert the Finance Manager at HQ when issues arise in relation to financial management that require a response from the fund management team.
Level of Effort and Reporting
- The Relationship Manager will report to CFYE’s Delivery Manager. However, they will need to work and coordinate closely with other members of the Challenge Fund Team, as and when demanded by assigned tasks. The level of effort for this role will be full-time fixed employment, initially for 1 year with the possibility for extension.
Required Qualifications :
- Strong business acumen,?and understanding of?business?support?to private sector entities.?
- Strong?Project Management?skills.???
- Experience with Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning activities?is preferred.
- Strong affinity with youth?empowerment, gender and social inclusion,?and decent work.??
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills?in English.???
- Good organisational and planning skills.???
- Sound problem-solving and decision-making skills.???
- Comfortable to work with?Microsoft Office.???
- Ability to work?successfully as part of a team.??
Minimum Requirements :
- Based in Senegal.
- Relevant academic qualifications in a related field such as business administration, economics, HRM or finance.??
- Proven experience with project management and performing related strategic and administrative tasks.??
- Relevant technical work experience in one of the following areas; youth employment, private sector development, and/or business consulting.?