Job Title: Head of Secretariat 

Organisation: Danish International Development Assistance (DANIDA)

Duty Station:  Kampala, Uganda

About Organisation:

Danida is the term used for Denmark’s development cooperation, which is an area of activity under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark. Denmark’s development policy aims to combat fighting poverty through promotion of human rights and economic growth. Danida has responsibility for the planning, implementation and quality assurance of Denmark’s development cooperation. There are local and posted staff at Danish embassies and missions abroad who are responsible for the administration and management of Denmark’s development cooperation with the individual country.

Job Summary:   In Northern and Southwest Uganda refugee and host communities testify to a changing climate that poses challenges to especially rain-fed agriculture, a livelihood pathway for many smallholder farmers in these areas. Uganda is a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention, and the leading pilot country for the implementation of the internationally agreed principles and objectives in the UN Global Compact on Refugees and its Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF), in which it is spearheading the concrete implementation of the humanitarian – development – peace-nexus. process.

In order to tackle these challenges, a Secretariat is established jointly by the two consortia lead organisations, Save the Children International and Danish Refugee Council. The Secretariat is responsible for the day-to-day coordination between the consortia and the joint practical issues of concern. In the management arrangements, focus should be on those areas where coordination is needed to ensure URRI as a coherent programme.

The objective of the Secretariat is to ensure URRI as one programme and assist the two consortia implementing URRI in efficient and result-oriented coordination and collaboration. The Secretariat is to be hosted in the lead organisations who on a rotational basis hosts the secretariat function. The secretariat reports directly to a joint management group consisting of the lead consortia organisations and the Danish Embassy. The Secretariat will be staffed with one full-time member (Head of URRI Secretariat) which will be an Adviser contracted by the RDE. The head of Secretariat will be supported by 1-2 staff.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:   The Head of URRI Secretariat will have the following key responsibilities:

Management, external coordination and  communication:

• Provide leadership and overall supervision of the Secretariat with a focus on support and feedback to enhance performance, strategic direction and continued development of the URRI programme.
• In liaison whit consortia leads, represent URRI in relevant meetings working groups and coordination fora, while also engaging with relevant Government entities, as agreed by the joint management group.
• Support the consortia lead organizations in maintaining close relationships with key stakeholders to ensure that URRI is coordinated with relevant ministries, organisations and development partners active in refugee affected areas, including the share of best practices on approach to capacity building of local partners and District Local Governments.
• Monitor and promote Danida’s visibility and interests including URRI Communication and Visibility Guidelines
• Ensure active and regular communication around URRI implementation and results.

MEAL and Reporting:

• Overall responsible for ensuring timely and quality consolidated joint reporting based on input from the two consortia, while also ensuring cross learning between the two consortia.
• Provide input to M&E surveys i.e. baseline surveys, monitoring surveys and impact studies if of relevance to all four lots or pertaining to joint indicators etc.
• Together with the Danish Embassy, plan URRI programme reviews e.g. inception review, midterm review, end of programme review, Value for Money studies, URRI’s inclusion in country programme reviews, and any technical reviews e.g. at outcome level that might be deemed necessary
• Support the lead organisations and the Danish Embassy in organising the multi-stakeholder annual Implementation Monitoring Committee meetings
• Guide the Consortia in preparing, consolidating and presenting the reports for the Portfolio reviews for the Ugandan Government
• Provide input for the Danish Embassy and Danish MFA’s results reporting and communication around activities and results
• Guide the consortia and the Embassy on expansion of the URRI project i.e. scaling up successful interventions or expanding to new geographies
• Support the Danish Embassy in ensuring that the two Consortia and their projects are adhering to MFA financial guidelines
• Maintain an in-depth knowledge of the programme relevant context in Uganda and advise the RDE on policy issues and strategic decisions with regards to developments in the refugee affected areas of Uganda and in the humanitarian/development nexus generally.

Internal coordination and management:

• Organise joint consortia meetings with all partners on a regular basis, acting as secretariat for the Joint Management Group
• Liaising between the two consortia leads and with the Danish Embassy
• Review Consortia reports and render briefs and periodic reports to RDE as agreed in the Joint Management Group
• Liaise with the Consortia to prepare documentation for mid-term and end term reviews
• Liaise with the Consortia leads to plan, organize and facilitate trips and visits for high level visits from the Danish Embassy/Danish MFA

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

Requirements and expectations concerning the candidates’ formal qualifications:

• An advanced university degree in a relevant area such as but not limited to social or political sciences, economics, law, development studies, management, public administration, organizational development etc.
• Solid relevant experience in management of development programmes
• Strong knowledge of, and experience with, issues related to building resilience in refugee and host communities
• Experience working with state institutions and civil society organisations in a developing country context
• Strong track record in management and leadership
• Experience with monitoring, evaluation and knowledge management
• Proven capacity of facilitating and organising events/trips etc.
• Excellent  communication skills in English, both verbally and written.
• Minimum of 10 years development corporation experience, preferably related to building resilience in a refugee.
• It would be an advantage to have worked in the East African region.
• Substantial experience in program planning, implementation and financial management,
• Experience of collaborating with governmental institutions and civil society organisations.

Requirements and expectations concerning the personal qualifications of the candidates:

• Open and positive approach
• Strong diplomatic and communication skills
• Ability to interact at senior political, policy and technical levels
• Ability to delegate and motivate staff members
• Strong interpersonal skills, and ability to establish and maintain effective working relations, incl. cultural sensitivity, assertiveness and negotiation skills.

You apply through the job posting at the Ministry of Foreign Affair’s website at the link below using the mandatory Danida Application Form wherein reference number 2024/UGA.01 should be stated.