Company Profile

Lively Minds, an award-winning NGO, is partnering with Ghana Education Services (GES) to roll-out an innovative, early childhood development programme. We are hiring in Ghana to support our exciting plans to scale the programme to 60 districts, in 8 regions. To find out more about our programme, please visit www.livelyminds.org.

Job Description

The Northern Regional Manager will be responsible for ensuring that the programme is embedded at Regional and District level, so that the programme is sustained after we exit.  Key responsibilities include strategic and operational planning & implementation, staff management, financial accountability and developing and maintaining strong relations with policy-makers and stakeholders at regional, district, and local level and supporting at national level when required. The Regional Manager will directly line manage a team of around 15-20 field staff (Liaise Officers). This position will be based in Tamale and report directly to the Country Director.

MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Strategic development

• Support the Country Director in contributing to the national strategy for Lively Minds
• Implement plans to support the achievement of strategic goals and exit strategy in regions/districts

Implementation accountability

• Lead and support the Liaise Team to create and implement activities to ensure that our exit strategy is successful as stipulated in strategic and operational plans according to agreed business processes
• Adhere to and enforce execution rhythms and workplans to ensure that implementation is effective and regular, timely and comprehensive reports are transmitted
• Ensure workplans and delivery is in accordance with agreed upon budgets and financials procedures/systems
• Be the gate-keepers of quality- ensure quality standards and ground rules are clear and align Liaise team towards achievement of these
• Coordinate with Start-up managers and training team to ensure smooth transition of districts from start-up to embed and sustain phase
• Ensure that regions and districts achieve their KPI targets and expected outcomes, proactively mitigating against risks.
• Lead and manage the Liaise Team to ensure they function to the highest standards, coaching the team to proactively anticipate and manage risks, engage stakeholders, respond to challenges and make adjustments as necessary to ensure the successful running of the programme and achievement of desired outputs and outcomes
• Identify problems based on data, field observations, discussions with staff and stakeholders, and to create innovative and SMART actions to solve problems
• Collaborate with senior management team to identify ways to improve the programme, curriculum, approaches, systems and practices
• Support and work with the Curriculum Coordinator to prepare and develop all ongoing trainings and manage the programmes team customization of trainings

Stakeholder engagement

• Hold Regional Termly meetings and coach regional and district level partners to identify challenges and agree on actions.
• Hold regional and district level partners to account for fulfilling their agreed roles and responsibilities and ensure compliance with MOU; proactively identifying capacity gaps and solutions
• Identify capacity gaps in regional and district teams and opportunities to support the development of strategies to implement
• Advocate for ECCE and the LM programme through lobbying and participation in national government department events and working groups as requested.
• Feed into the design of and coordinate with Learning and Quality Manager to implement the regional and district stakeholder engagement strategy
• Work with decision-makers at district-level to lobby for the programme, including for investment for activities, as a contribution or budget line item.
• Support the Country Director on national advocacy and engagement efforts as requested
• Represent the Lively Minds Ghana office in stakeholders meetings and presentations as requested
• Support in activities conducted by independent evaluation team to ensure smooth running of evaluation in the Region

• Contribute to the identification of new and strengthen existing advocacy partnerships to support ECCE systems change within Ghana

Leadership and team development

• Manage the Liaise Team where necessary interview, recruit and train staff and/or contractors.
• Coach and train the Liaise Team ensuring strong individual development and performance.

Required Skills or Experience

PERSON SPECIFICATION

To succeed in this role you will need….

• to be a self-starter. You must be comfortable working with limited supervision and managing a complex and varied work load. Organise and prioritise time effectively for efficient implementation.
• to be innovative. We operate in resource-poor settings, with challenging stakeholders and with limited resources. You will need to adopt an analytical approach and be prepared to test and learn in order to find creative and sustainable solutions.
• to be hands-on. You will need to be out in the field in remote to understand the needs, operational realities and to supervise and assess your activities as they are implemented. 
• to have excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills. You must understand local government structures and ways of working, and find ways to gain their buy-in and uptake.
• To be an excellent project manager able to organise and lead a remote team and coordinate with other mangers. You must be willing to commit to systems & processes; using data and technology to inform decision-making
• To have excellent written and oral communication skills. You must be able to write emails, reports, letters, etc.

Experience and qualifications

Essential

• 2+ years professional project management & stakeholder management experience
• Experience coaching and training others
• Ability to manage a complex and varied work load and to work under pressure
• Experience of budgeting and accounting for projects
• Excellent communication skills, both oral and written and good typing skills
• Able to adapt to and learn new technologies quickly (e.g excel, smartphone apps, slack, Asana, KOBO/data collection, dashboarding, mobile money)
• Experience of working in rural communities

Desirable

• Experience working on ECD, education programme or women’s empowerment in rural settings
• Experience working with local government
• Experience working with international donors and grants