Join us to help break the barriers to education that steal children’s choices one by one until they have none. Together, we can foster an environment where education unlocks a world of choices, nurturing creativity, resilience, and hope for a better tomorrow. At Children Believe, we won’t stop until every child can dream fearlessly and grow up to live the life they choose to live.Children Believe is currently recruiting for the following position:  

Program Officer (Sponsorship & Child Protection) - Ethiopia Office

Responsible for providing technical leadership for sponsorship programs in assigned areas through developing staff capacities, supporting quality growth and accountability and ensuring sponsorship service and programming standards and guidelines. To work closely with the Program Manager in supporting, providing guidance and evaluating sponsorship activities and monitoring systems. Delivering strategic support for program partners in the quality assurance and quality improvement of the sponsorship activities and products. 

Support the Program Manager in the integration of sponsorship and child protection in the programmatic strategy.  Responsible for direct facilitation, training and capacity building of CB´s partner in sponsorship & child protection best practices, policies and methodologies. Strategic trainings like policy etc. to be jointly facilitated with PM.

 Facilitate information to the Program Manager for the coordination and submission of sponsorship operational and strategic plans as well as progress reports. Play a collaborative role as part of the country team to achieve CB’s strategic, CoE and Influence mandates.

Duties & Responsibilities

Strategic Sponsorship Management

• Support the Program Manager in the integration of sponsorship and child protection in the programmatic strategy and Grants (if applicable) by providing technical inputs.

• Provide guidance regarding sponsorship activities and monitoring systems in programmatic activities.

• Report and/or recommend corrective measures or enhancements and enforce policies, procedures and agreements as necessary to partners. 

• Supervise the Program Documentation & Information Associate and overseeing effective functioning of sponsorship responsibilities.

• Visit program sites to randomly monitor sponsorship administration activities regularly to ensure that enrolled children are receiving support, i.e. children no longer receiving support are reported for substitution and new children are submitted for assignment (as necessary), compliance with CB policies, procedures and to support the quality assurance and quality control initiatives and also to support program, project financial policies and procedure on behalf of counterparts in Country Office

Sponsorship Communications

• Responsible to maintain the overdue of sponsorship communication at the minimum level

• Provide direction and guidance to program partners’ staff in developing a correspondence plan, ensure that clear performance measurements are developed, and carry out related action items based on monthly monitoring reports provided by Toronto.

• Randomly review correspondence to ensure that standards (quality, correctness, content and translation) are met. Ensure responses to sponsor inquiries from partners to Toronto are prompt, accurate and detailed.

• Facilitate effective and regular communication with clients, partners, CB Country Offices and CB Toronto including conducting analysis and provision of required feedback and reports.

Capacity Building

• Identify training needs, develop training plans and conduct Train trainers (TOT) in partner organizations. Manage direct delivery of trainings related to sponsorship administration & child protection/safe-guarding requirements. 

• Facilitate capacity building among staff as appropriate in all strategic aspects of sponsorship programs and M&E reporting systems in collaboration with PM

Monitoring and Evaluation 

• Collaborate with M&E, Finance, Audit & Program colleagues to utilize agreed monitoring, evaluation, quality assurance tools and reporting procedures to effectively improve the quality of sponsorship and programming.

• Contribute to organizational learning by supporting the documentation of critical lessons learned in sponsorship quality improvement through operational research and critical reflection activities as appropriate

Administrative Support

• Coordinate sponsor visits in accordance with established CB sponsor visit policies and procedures.

• Orient and sign off Child Safe-guarding declarations from all stake holders

Other Assignments

• Comply with all CB policies and procedures.

• Perform all other related duties as assigned by the PM or the CD.

Job Requirements

The ideal candidate possesses:

• Degree in a relevant field

• Minimum of 5 years’ experience working in community development preferably with two years’ experience with a team lead role; 

• Minimum of 3 years ‘experience working with sponsorship programs 

• Experience in the development field with demonstrated results in Quality Assurance (QA) and Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) initiatives; 

• Strong organizational skills; able to conceptualize, maintain well-organized manual and electronic filing systems

• Good data analytics and presentation skills; able to read computer reports, identify issues and assess training needs.

• Fluent in English, both written and verbal

• Strong proofreading skills (including written grammar, sentence structure and flow)

• Strong computer skills in Microsoft Office (intermediate Word, Excel and Outlook; basic PowerPoint) and intermediate experience with customized databases 

• Able to travel locally to undertake field level engagement and capture change stories.

• Expressed commitment to CB’s Christian Vision, Mission and Values

Core values & competencies:

• Respect for Diversity

• Integrity

• Professionalism

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues

• Accountability

• Creative Problem Solving

• Effective Communication

• Inclusive Collaboration

• Stakeholder Engagement

• Leading by Example

How to Apply

If you believe you have that unique combination of a not-for-profit heart combined with the skills and interest for the “Program Officer (Sponsorship & Child Protection) - Ethiopia Office” position, please use THIS LINK

• Applications must be submitted in English.

• Applicants must be legally eligible to work in Ethiopia.

Consistent with our Child Protection/Safe-Guarding Policy the successful candidate must receive clearance by a criminal record check.Children Believe is committed to diversity in the workplace and is an equal opportunity employer.

We thank all applicants for applying, however, only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted.

People & Culture Team

Children Believe