Program Director - ARE Activity

BACKGROUND

The Lebanon Agriculture and Rural Empowerment (ARE) activity, funded by USAID and implemented by Chemonics International, has a three-year base period, two Option Years, and One Increased Quantity Option. Both option years have been activated, bringing the activity implementation period to five years, and the IQO has been exercised in order to enable the incremental funding for scale-up of interventions in support of both of ARE’s expected results (objectives). ARE supports Lebanese rural and peri-urban communities to obtain technical and financial resources in order to facilitate increased productivity, sales, and exports, improved business income, while also ensuring livelihood sustainability. To support this purpose, ARE will increase jobs; improve incomes; improve female participation and employment opportunities; increase domestic and export sales; increase private sector investment; improve access to finance; link value chain actors to domestic and international markets; and improve production through improved practices, technology, increased volume, and/or decreased cost.

POSITION DESCRIPTION

The Program Director will serve as a key member of the Technical Assistance and Strategic Communications (TASC) team. The Program Director will overlook ARE’s Project Management Unit and will manage the Program Managers. He/She will be responsible for overseeing the management, coordination and oversight of ongoing and new interventions under the Strategic, Innovation, Technology and Sector Development (SITSD) fund, including ARE’s latest Tourism Cluster Development initiative. The Program Director will also lead on the design and validation of newly identified opportunities and interventions that will be implemented under the Strategic, Innovation, Technology and Sector Development (SITSD) fund and framework. The Program Director will coordinate closely with the assigned Grants Manager and the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Team to continually assess ongoing interventions and potential opportunities for interventions and plan tasks in line with project outputs and overall objectives.

DETAILED RESPONSIBILITIES

• Overlooks the implementation of ARE’s SITSD project management portfolio, including implementation of interventions, tracking progress and capturing results
• Leads on the SITSD portfolio budget tracking and projections
• Supports the process of developing new SITSD concept notes and interventions in light of ARE’s approved activity implementation plan
• Provides guidance, prioritizes and organizes actions and resources to streamline SITSD programming and intervention implementation
• Provides leadership in all aspects of program coordination to ensure intervention quality, and integrate cross cutting themes, lessons learned and best practices
• Liaises with the MEL team in order to capture and maximize programmatic impact under the SITSD portfolio and strategizes interventions and activities in order to reach and achieve set targets
• Lead on the implementation of specific SITSD grant activities as needed
• In coordination with SITSD program managers, ensures that all interventions are on time, scope and budget
• Supports program managers oversee partners performance and provides support in addressing challenges and programmatic issues
• Provides capacity building to program managers as needed in order to increase productivity and increase implementation capacity as needed
• Coordinates with ARE’s technical advisors as needed to conceptualize or validate technical implementations
• Coordinate learning and innovation around ARE’s agricultural strategy’s cornerstones.
• Stays abreast of best practices and industry trends in order to provide innovative insights to proposal design.
• Contributes to project deliverables like weekly, quarterly, and annual reports; annual work plans, as directed by the Deputy Chief of Party and/or Chief of Party;
• Other duties as assigned by the Deputy Chief of Party and/or Chief of Party.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• • Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in agricultural engineering, agricultural economics, marketing, management, business or other field related to ARE’s technical activities;
  • Demonstrated team management responsibilities preferably in economic development projects
  • Minimum 10 years of project management and/or technical advisory working on USAID-funded development and agricultural programs
  • Demonstrated experience in agricultural/agri-food product development, engagement in agricultural and agri-food products trade and access to markets;
  • Demonstrated experience in the design and implementation of economic development and agricultural programming;
  • Demonstrated ability to work independently as well as in a team structure, versatility, and integrity;
  • Strong interpersonal, analytic, and written communication skills
  • Fluency in spoken and written Arabic and English required.

LOCATION OF ASSIGNMENT

The Program Director will be based in the project’s main office in Beirut, Lebanon, and travel throughout the country as needed.

REPORTING

The Program Director reports directly to the Deputy Chief of Party/Chief Technical Officer, or his/her designee.