Provincial Lead  Aawaz II Programme for Punjab

Peace & Justice Network (PJN) Pakistan is a national civil society grassroots justice network working across Pakistan for protecting the right to life, liberty, equality and justice for all with a vision of a peaceful and inclusive society governed by laws where the rights of individuals are secure. PJN is looking for a dynamic and hardworking person with extensive experience in large scale program management with national and international organizations focusing gender based violence, child marriage, promoting and protecting rights of transgender, persons with disabilities and religious minorities as Provincial Lead for Punjab under Aawaz II Programme based at the PJN's Provincial Secretariat Office in Lahore.

AAWAZ II PROGRAMME INTRODUCTION:

Aawaz II works with local communities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Punjab provinces to promote the rights of children, women, youth, religious minorities, persons with disabilities and other marginalised groups, to facilitate and strengthen their development. The programme is managed by the British Council. Aawaz II works with the district level downstream partners (DSPs) and two provincial partner organisations to implement the community-based interventions in KP and Punjab. The community component focuses on providing information referrals, facilitate citizen-state engagement for uptake of services and enhance capacities of local communities for behaviour change to reduce community acceptance of child marriage, gender-based violence (GBV) and intolerance. Peace and Justice Network (PJN) is the provincial partner of Aawaz II in Punjab province. 

TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR AAWAZ II PROGRAMME PROVINCIAL LEAD PUNJAB:

The Provincial Lead will be responsible for steering and managing programme interventions at provincial level while ensuring that community concerns, on Aawaz II thematic areas are shared with relevant stakeholders. Key tasks include providing technical and administrative support to the Aawaz II Provincial Forum, stakeholder management in Punjab, liaison with downstream partners, relevant provincial departments and others. Key responsibilities also include planning and implementation of programme activities, oversight of the activities of provincial and district teams, efficient implementation of workplan to achieve stated results, quality assurance of programme interventions. Key responsibilities:

Programme Management

• Build and strengthen linkages with programme stakeholders including relevant provincial government departments and civil society, downstream partners and other FCDO programmes including the United Nations Joint Partners (UNJP).
• In consultation with the Aawaz II Strategic Lead and Provincial Team and DSPs, prepare a Provincial Advocacy Strategy with a focus on the Aawaz II themes and target vulnerable groups.
• Implement a strategic plan for taking forward the issues raised by communities, with a provincial and district focus in support of the Strategic Lead.
• Represent Aawaz II in meetings, and strategic discussions with provincial and district stakeholders including civil society forums.
• Lead and manage activities of Aawaz II Provincial Forum (PF) and PF Executive Committee including advocacy initiatives, meetings, consultations, and seminars.
• Provide technical advice to Aawaz II provincial and district teams and stakeholders, as needed.   
• Provide support to orientation and capacity building activities of Aawaz II in the province.
• Provide technical advice to Aawaz II community structures and establish regular coordination and liaison mechanism between the provincial and community forums.
• Collect and share information, updates and guidance about the Aawaz II themes and target vulnerable groups from the provincial level stakeholders and share with the DSPs/DFs for dissemination at the district and community level through the relevant teams.  
• Regularly coordinate with PMU of Aawaz II for technical advice and closely coordinate with the relevant Pillar Leads and Head of Programme Delivery for technical input and guidance.
• Lead and Manage provincial Aawaz II team and provide support and technical assistance to the team for achieving programme results including planning for team members activities and quality assurance of results.
• Support PMU in the project close out and ensure that project documentation is completed and stored/ updated in online database/ folder.

Knowledge Management

• Develop programme specific policy briefs and other documents relevant to the priority areas of Aawaz II with support from the strategy manager and PP team.
• Document and share best practices, case studies and lessons learned from the programme.

Reporting and Communication

• Develop high quality programme reports including quarterly and annual reports and programme updates.
• Develop event reports, presentations and documents, as needed.
• Update monthly tracker of the programme.
• Assess and analyse programme risks, update risks register and share updates with PMU on high-level risks on monthly basis and immediately where escalation is required.
• Provide information as requested to support the PMU team.
• Provide support to programme’s communications activities including campaigns and IEC material dissemination.
• Manage Aawaz II visibility on relevant platforms including website of PJN.
• Lead Weekly Team Meetings of the Aawaz II Provincial Team for progress review and action plans.

Partnership Management

• Lead and manage provincial team including management of working days and review of timesheets.
• Be responsible for team performance and quality assurance of Strategy Manager, Programme Coordinator, Youth & Capacity Building Officer, and Field Monitoring Officer – approve their work plans and quality assure their outputs.
• Provide technical backstopping to provincial team including day to day management support and lead implementation of project workplan.
• Conduct field visits to project districts as necessary for programme implementation and technical oversight and advice field teams for effective implementation of programme interventions.
• Work closely with District Forums of Phase 1 as well as Phase 2 districts.

Safeguarding Anti-Fraud and Risk Management

• Monitor progress on the Safeguarding Action Plan and Safeguarding Risk Assessments of the PP in support from the Aawaz Safeguarding Focal Person.
• Be the Safeguarding Focal Point for the programme at the Provincial Partner level. Put in place the office and team management processes and ensure compliance with Aawaz II operational and safeguarding guidelines and procedures.
• Be the EWS /ERM Focal Point at the provincial level and follow due process as laid out in the SOPs.
• Assess and identify project and grant risks and escalate risk to the Strategic Lead.
• Comply with the safeguarding and anti-fraud standards in planning, implementation and monitoring of activities and escalate safeguarding related concerns /issues to the Safeguarding Focal Person, Aawaz II PMU.
• Monitor the safeguarding concerns at the field and escalate them to focal person at the Aawaz II PMU.

Financial Management

• Work closely with finance team to submit forecast of expenditures and variance comparison.
• Engage with PMU team for evaluation exercises and due diligence of partners.
• Responsible for demonstrating value for money of programme activities with support from Strategy Lead.
• Ensure PMU is made aware of all issues arising with contract or budget implications.

Key Deliverables

• Demonstrable progress on advocacy asks from the districts at the provincial level.
• Lead the Executive Committee and Sub Committees of the PF, organise and conduct meetings, prepare and finalise minutes and reports of the meetings.
• Lead on the implementation of the provincial advocacy tracker and report to PMU on monthly basis.  
• Monitoring of implementation of provincial and district workplans.
• Quarterly and annual progress reports.
• Consolidated district progress and other reports.

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATION AND EXPERTISE:

• University degree in social sciences or relevant discipline.
• 8 to 10 years of professional experience developing and implementing advocacy initiatives at provincial and grass roots level on gender, social inclusion and Aawaz II thematic areas.
• Good understanding of programmes and project management and experience delivering and managing programmes on gender and inclusion.
• Expertise in building and managing stakeholder partnerships with government institutions and civil society.
• Experience of steering policy consultations and policy advocacy, and expertise in building alliances and collaborations with civil society organizations and forums.
• Experience in designing and conducting training and and conducting learning events on gender-based violence, child marriage as well as social cohesion and interfaith harmony and other related areas, will be an asset.
• Demonstrable experience working with or coordinating partners with community and national levels organizations and networks.
• Willing to take initiative and lead programme team with minimal supervision.
• Maintain superior levels of professionalism while working under pressure in a fast-paced and sometimes difficult environment.
• Language: Fluency in English, Urdu and Punjabi/Seraiki.
• Excellent writing skills with demonstrable experience of developing briefing papers and reports in English.

How to apply?

If you feel that you are a suitable candidate for the position, please send your CV to the position at [email protected] not later than 11:59 p.m. 25th October, 2024. 

Please write Vacancy Title (i.e. Punjab Provincial Lead (Aawaz II Programme)) in the subject line of the email.

Only short listed candidates will be contacted for the test/interviews. PJN is an equal opportunity employer and promotes diversity. PJN reserves exclusive rights to select/ reject any application and declares no obligation in this regard.

Note: Women, minorities, transgender and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply.