Role purpose:
The Senior Project Manager (SPM) is responsible for the overall leadership, management, successful delivery, and achievement of results of the Ethiopia Local Governance Project (ELGP). The position provides strategic, technical, operational, financial, and partnership oversight to ensure that project objectives, outcomes, donor requirements, and Helvetas quality standards are achieved across the Amhara and Sidama regions. The SPM directly supervises the Governance Officer and the two Partnership and Capacity Development Officers, and oversees the performance, compliance, and capacity strengthening of sub-grantees (i.e. local CSO implementing partners). The role serves as the primary focal point for engagement with government signatories, including regional councils, planning bureaus, bureaus of finance, sector offices, and other strategic stakeholders, ensuring strong collaboration, ownership, and institutionalisation of project approaches. The SPM provides leadership in adaptive management, risk management, conflict-sensitive programming, Gender and Social Equity (GSE), localisation, and accountability processes, while promoting the sustainability and scaling of Integrated Community-Based Participatory Planning (ICBPP), social accountability, and participatory local governance systems. The position is ultimately accountable for the effective utilisation of project resources, achievement of project results, organisational learning, and the overall success of ELGP.
Key Responsibilities:
1. Provide strategic leadership and ensure effective delivery of ELGP results in Amhara and Sidama regions:
- Lead the overall planning, implementation, coordination, and adaptive management of ELGP in line with project objectives, donor requirements, annual work plans, budgets, and Helvetas policies.
- Provide strategic direction to project staff, sub-grantees, and partners to achieve project outcomes related to citizen participation, effective council oversight, and responsive public service delivery.
- Oversee project progress against targets, milestones, budgets, and contractual obligations, ensuring timely delivery of outputs and outcomes.
- Lead annual, quarterly, and monthly planning processes and ensure quality implementation across all project locations.
- Assess operational, programmatic, political, and security risks and ensure appropriate mitigation measures are implemented.
- Ensure Gender and Social Equity (GSE), conflict sensitivity, safeguarding, accountability, and localisation principles are integrated throughout project implementation.
2. Strengthen partnerships, institutional capacity, and local governance systems for sustainable impact:
- Provide leadership and oversight for engagement with regional councils, planning bureaus, finance bureaus, WCSA offices, sector bureaus, CSOs, CBOs, and other strategic stakeholders.
- Supervise and support Governance, Partnership and Capacity Development Officers and other project staff to ensure quality technical assistance and partner support.
- Oversee the selection, management, performance monitoring, and capacity strengthening of sub-grantees and local partners.
- Promote institutionalisation of Integrated Community-Based Participatory Planning (ICBPP), grievance redress mechanisms, Financial Transparency and Accountability (FTA), Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB), and other governance approaches within government systems.
- Facilitate collaboration and learning among government institutions, civil society organisations, community structures, and development partners.
- Represent Helvetas and ELGP in steering committee meetings, GO-NGO forums, Communities of Practice on Local Governance (CoP-LG), donor meetings, and other strategic platforms.
3. Ensure quality assurance, accountability, learning, and evidence-based decision-making:
- Lead project performance monitoring, review progress against indicators, and ensure effective use of MEAL data for decision-making and adaptive management.
- Ensure timely preparation and submission of high-quality technical, financial, donor, and organisational reports.
- Oversee budget management, financial compliance, resource allocation, and efficient use of project funds.
- Ensure implementation quality standards, operational procedures, manuals, and technical approaches are consistently applied across project locations and partners.
- Promote documentation and dissemination of lessons learned, best practices, success stories, and governance innovations from ELGP and its predecessor ALGP+.
- Support evidence-based advocacy, policy engagement, and scaling of successful governance approaches to strengthen accountable and participatory local governance systems in Ethiopia.