Save the Children will implement a cash grant approach for school meals through the PTAs, who will procure and prepare food, this intervention will complement food security and nutrition intervention Poor diet and child nutrition also affect education outcomes. SC’s rapid assessment showed that only 283 out of 820 schools provide school meals to their students, there will be intensive assessments including HEA integrated with child hazard analysis to enrich data to inform programming across multiple sectors, strengthen project cycle management, with emphasis on effective supervision of project implementation processes, programme development, reporting and continuous quality improvements. As part of this role, the incumbent will also ensure effective integration across other sectors within SC, as well as external coordination with Clusters, cash working groups and other implementing agencies, including the consortia. 

To carry out the responsibilities of the role in a way that reflects Save the Children’s commitment to safeguarding children in accordance with the Child Safeguarding Policy.

General

• Line management for School Feeding staff and PTAs/MoE staff.
• Responsible for all School Meal kick-off meetings, targeting, verification of beneficiaries, direct implementation of activities, monitoring, review and Closure meetings.
• Contribute to the development of School Meal sector strategy, technical SOPs, and guidelines by conducting need assessments and discussions with the community.
• Ensure that humanitarian international standards and approaches are adhered to (such as, but not limited to, Humanitarian Accountability Partnership International (HAP-I) Benchmarks, SPHERE, DAC Accountability Framework) and Save the Children’s Child Rights Programming tools and approaches.
• Ensure compliance of project implementation to Donor and SC regulations.
• Support the management of school meal awards, ensuring that operational aspects of projects and reports are delivered according to SC and donor contractual requirements, within the agreed timescale and budget.
• Act as school meal programming focal point in the field, social protection support in the management of the cash delivery service provider and transporters conduct periodic reviews and jointly develop improvement plans.

School Feeding Project Management:

• In collaboration with School Feeding Project Manager, 
  1. responsible for preparation and timely delivery of detailed project implementation, 
  2. procurement and budget spending plans whilst ensuring that off-targets are timely identified and mitigated.
• Develop tools and templates to monitor the progress and implementation of school Meal activities.
• Responsible for technical capacity support on implementation modalities, plans and strategies., including School Meal support programs.
• Manage effective planning, coordination and communication with service provider, transporter, logistics and field team to ensure cohesive implementation of the school Meal activities.
• Identify learning and training opportunities for staff and partners and work as a mentor and role model for less experienced staff. 
• Provide necessary technical training and develop appropriate technical guidelines and materials for SC’s and partner’s staff. 
• Line management of junior project staff/volunteers and conduct mid-term and annual performance reviews to ensure clear objectives are set and conduct regular feedback sessions.
• Ensure integration/coordination from both design and implementation of actions with other sectors (Education, WASH, Nutrition, Health and Child protection). 
• Conduct frequent field visits to project areas to ensure quality implementation and provide technical guidance.
• Conduct monthly project progress reviews including progress against objectives, indicators, and activities as well as budget vs actual and report on the project progress.
• Responsible for School Meal project monitoring, taking corrective measures and ensuring that resources are used effectively.
• Responsible for quality and timely preparations of internal reports, project progress reports and any other SC internal reports as required.

Programme Development and Quality:

• Support context analysis, identification of needs and participate actively in the development and review of FSL and school meal need assessments, 
• Monitor the monthly grants to each school, expenses/utilization, and compare prices and balance if any.
• Lead market price monitoring, Integrate and promote market-based responses with the lens of recovery, resilience and gender. 
• Contribute to FSL/school meal sector strategy development, annual planning, and reporting.
• With support from the School Meal PM and MEAL team, lead technical and needs assessment and timely submission of quality reports.
• Work closely with the MEAL team, to support continuous monitoring of project implementation, quality, and measuring of all indicators as well as ensuring that accountability mechanisms in place are reviewed, known to and utilized by beneficiaries. Review all complaints and work with responsible field technical teams or stakeholders to resolve them.
• Provide evidence and learning on Food Security and Livelihoods. Work with MEAL proactively lead and/or support documentation lessons learnt, best practices, case studies for projects to inform improved design of new projects and showcasing SC work to key stakeholders

Representation, coordination, and Advocacy:

• Liaise and collaborate with relevant local and national stakeholders, and represent SC in relevant coordination meetings. 
• Represent the principles and work of Save the Children to donors, United Nations, NGOs and INGOs, government and other forums at the state level as and when required.
• Ensure effective stakeholder participation throughout the project implementation.
• Responsible for the development of advocacy messages within projects, ensuring linkages to the overall country advocacy plan.
• In collaboration with senior programme staff, assist in advocacy activities that target decision-makers at all levels.

• University degree in Social Sciences, Development studies, Agriculture, Rural Development, Education, Nutrition studies, Economics and/or related discipline.
• Minimum 3 years of experience working as a Project officer in a humanitarian setting managing School Meal programming. 
• Management experience in operational aspects of School Meal Programming. 
• Understanding of field-level representation with key stakeholders and co-ordination with another NGOs/UN 
• Strong ability to work with diverse groups/individuals – ranging from local partners, local authorities, the humanitarian community and the private sector.
• Demonstrable understanding of M&E and beneficiary accountability 
• Excellent planning, management and coordination skills, with the ability to organize a substantial workload comprised of complex, diverse tasks and responsibilities. 
• Politically and culturally sensitive with qualities of patience, tact and diplomacy. 
• 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. 
• Good attention to detail. 
• Experience or knowledge of working and living in relevant regions/contexts.
• Experience in the FSL/school meal assessments, both field data collection and analysis.
• Commitment to the aims and principles of Save the Children. In particular, a good understanding of the mandate and child focus and an ability to ensure this continues to underpin our support. 

Females are highly encouraged to apply.

Kindly apply through the below link. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted for next steps. The closing date will be on 28/03/2024. Any application after this date will not be considered. All interviews will be done in the Save the Children office or remotely.

Disclaimer: Save the Children International does not charge any kind of fee at whichever stage of the recruitment process and does not act through recruitment agents. SCI will be undertaking child safeguarding checks for all candidates. The selected candidate will be asked to provide a police check before signing the contract.