Roots For Growth Project Manager - Assiut/Cairo

CHILD SAFEGUARDING:

Level 3: the post holder will have contact with children and/or young people either frequently (e.g. once a week or more) or intensively (e.g. four days in one month or more or overnight) because they work in country programs; or are visiting country programs; or because they are responsible for implementing the police checking/vetting process staff.

ROLE PURPOSE:

The Roots for Growth Project Manager will lead the implementation of a multi-year results-based financed project in Assiut Governorate, designed to empower household-led microenterprises and improve child well-being through sustainable income growth. The role requires a high level of flexibility and adaptive management, including iterative planning, quarterly learning workshops, and co-design sessions with partners. The post holder will oversee program delivery, payment indicator achievement, budget management, partnership coordination, and compliance with SCI and donor standards, while ensuring gender-responsive and child-sensitive approaches across all activities.

In the event of a major humanitarian emergency, the role holder will be expected to work outside the normal role profile and be able to vary working hours accordingly.

Brief Project Scope:

Roots For Growth Phase one is a 27-month project designed to achieve sustainable economic empowerment and strengthened resilience among vulnerable households with children in Upper Egypt, particularly in Assiut, to increase investments in children’s development and well-being. The project targets 800 household-led microenterprises across four cohorts (200 per cohort), providing initial entrepreneurship and business development training within pre-selected value chains. From these, 630 micro-enterprises will be selected to receive a comprehensive package comprising seed funding, tailored technical training, business coaching through household coaches, market linkages, and individualised support for business growth. Grounded in a theory of change that emphasizes gender-responsive, tailored capacity building; sector-specific technical development; mentorship; inclusive market access; and early-stage growth capital, the program aims to strengthen microenterprise performance and promote improved financial planning, saving practices, and child-sensitive household financial management. By addressing discriminatory gender norms and ensuring equitable participation and benefits for women and youth, the project seeks to enable households to sustainably grow their enterprises, generate predictable income, and reinvest in their children’s education, health, and overall well-being, ultimately contributing to long-term resilience and sustainable economic empowerment.

Implementation will be delivered through a local incubator to deliver all business mentorship and capacity-building aspects and community-based organizations (CBOs), which will serve as hubs for coaching and market linkage support. These partners will provide continuous hands-on guidance to households and help embed project practices within existing community systems. Leveraging their local networks and contextual knowledge will ensure outreach to the most vulnerable yet viable groups and promote long-term sustainability beyond the project’s duration.

The project will also pilot a Results-Based Financing (RBF) model to strengthen and build on SCI Egypt's expertise and adapt our implementation approach so that it becomes technically and institutionally fit for future RBF programming. Through this pilot, the PM, the team, and livelihoods TA will refine operational processes, reporting mechanisms, and partner engagement models to align with RBF requirements and ensure readiness for broader scale-up. RBF is a financing approach in which payments are partially or fully tied to the achievement of measurable and pre-defined results, aiming to improve performance, enhance accountability, and ensure that resources directly drive high-quality outcomes.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: Upper Egypt Field Office Manager, Dotted-line Livelihoods Technical Advisor

Staff reporting to this post: Project Senior Officer, Operations Officer, and dotted-line oversight of MEAL Senior Officer.

Budget Responsibilities: Yes

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY :

1. Program Management.

• Lead the design and implementation of project activities to unlock payment milestones
• Update the results framework: Align activities with measurable outputs and outcomes. Ensure clarity on agreed indicators, milestones, and payment triggers.

· Manage the Project Management Unit (PMU) and coordinate monthly field consortium meetings with incubator, partner CBOs, and private-sector partners.

· Facilitate co-planning workshops with partners and quarterly learning sessions to refine strategies based on evidence and context.

• Ensure integration of gender equality and child-sensitive approaches across all components.
• Oversee value chain analysis and ensure interventions are market-driven and responsive to local needs.
• Ensuring that program reports are delivered according to SC and donor contractual requirements, within the agreed timescale and budget.
• Collect accurate, timely data to demonstrate achievement of results.
• Validate and report results: Ensure evidence is credible and auditable for payment claims.
• Ensure an effective award management system is in place at field level to ensure that donor and SCI requirements are met.
• Working with the Upper Egypt field manager and the PDQ team to revise the program plans and master budgets as needed and contribute to Save the Children’s updates to the overall CO strategy.

· Ensure that program activities are directly linked to payment milestones and activities not clearly linked to payment milestones are deprioritized

• Develop and implement participatory needs assessment to contribute to program planning and MEAL processes.
• Lead/support on partners’ identification and assessments, implementation monitoring and capacity building
• Oversee program implementation to ensure timely delivery of program activities (for example: DIPs, IPPTs, budget spending plans, etc.).
• In coordination with the CO HR team, lead and support recruitment processes and ensure that program/projects are adequately staffed.
• In collaboration with the CO Safety and Security team, develop and implement effective safety and security procedures for the program, ensuring that these procedures are updated and revised at regular intervals.
• Manage and motivate program staff to perform highly in their respective roles and responsibilities. This will include leading on staff structure, recruitment, performance management and implementing staff wellbeing policies.

2. Budget Management and Compliance

• Manage program financial processes in close cooperation with the Finance team and in line with SCI finance policies and procedures.
• Link budget to results: Track how spending contributes to achieving targets.
• Cash flow planning: Anticipate payment delays and manage liquidity.
• Responsible for financial management of program budget; forecasting, planning, tracking of expenditures, and burn rates.
• Ensure expenditures are approved and in accordance with the budget lines and payment milestones
• Ensure sub-grants and contracts are managed in line with SCI’s award policies.
• Ensure that SCI regulations are communicated to the program staff and that all activities meet SCI’s requirements financially and technically.
• Monitor, update, and adapt the budget in response to market fluctuations and payment milestones.
• Oversee grant and micro-loan disbursement mechanisms (seed grants) and ensure compliance with seed-funding SOPs and social contract requirements.

3. Technical Assistance and Capacity Strengthening

• Provide technical oversight on livelihoods, financial inclusion, and entrepreneurship development.
• Provide technical oversight on the value chain connections and participants' selling channels.
• Recruit and manage all technical consultations in close coordination with the PDQ technical team
• Lead and manage the incubation program of the participants, and oversee the incubator service provider who will provide the services.
• Lead the interventions provided to the participants by the national partner on coaching, mentoring and seed fund provision.
• Support capacity building for project staff and partners on adaptive management, gender integration, and child safeguarding.
• Ensure MEAL systems are aligned with RBF requirements and performance-based reporting.

4. Human Resources support

• Recruit, manage, and motivate project staff to deliver high-quality results.
• Implement performance management and staff well-being measures, especially during intensive learning cycles.
• Foster a collaborative and inclusive team culture.
• Utilize the Performance Management System linked to payment milestones, define expectations of staff members, develop work plans and improvement plans as needed, and provide technical support for staff development.
• Ensure communication and mainstreaming SCI policies and procedures as well as accountability and child participation practices, throughout the program activities.
• Ensure field staff receive required training on gender, child protection, Technical Intervention Package, and M&E tools.

5. Representation and Networking

• Represent SCI in coordination meetings with government, donors, and private sector stakeholders.
• Advocate for gender-responsive and child-sensitive economic empowerment approaches.
• Ensure visibility of project achievements through communication products and events.

6. Safeguarding, Risk, and Compliance oversight:

• Support the implementation of child safeguarding policy within the project cycle, including identifying and addressing risks to children that are caused/exacerbated by project design and intervention.
• Ensure that project activities are safe for children and that all steps are taken to ensure their meaningful and safe participation.
• Provide leadership and guidance in the implementation of the child safeguarding policy and the code of conduct within the project.
• Maintain the project risk register and implement mitigation actions (including GBV, child protection, inflation, and market dynamics), in coordination with all departments.
• Ensure donor reporting, timely narrative and financial reports, and support external independent evaluation processes.

7. Partnership & Localization

• Coordinate with business incubators, CBOs, and private sector actors to deliver technical training, mentorship, and market linkages.
• Strengthen local partners’ institutional capacity to sustain interventions beyond project closure.
• Ensure accountability and transparency in partner management and resource utilization.

8. General:

• Oversee documentation of good practices, success stories and learning products; support sustainability planning (VSLAs, incubator capacity building, private sector linkages) for scale-up beyond project closure.
• Work closely with the Livelihoods technical advisor to support the modelling and design for the RBF.
• Contribute to the development of communications products, in collaboration with the CO Communications team;
• Comply with Save the Children policies and practice with respect to safeguarding, code of conduct, health and safety, equal opportunities and other relevant policies and procedures;
• Ensure the security, health and well-being of staff and that staff management and other processes and policies and systems reflect SC 's principles of equity and fairness.

COMPETENCIES

Delivering results

Takes personal responsibility and holds others to account to deliver our ambitious goals for children, continually improving own performance or that of the team/ organization.

Applying technical and professional expertise

Applies the required technical and professional expertise to the highest standards; promotes and shares best practice within and outside the organization.

Problem Solving and decision making

Takes effective, considered and timely decisions by gathering and evaluating relevant information from within or outside the organization.

Innovation and Adaptation

Develops and implements innovative solutions to adapt and succeed in ever-changing and uncertain global and working environments

Working effectively with others

Works collaboratively to achieve shared goals and thrives on diversity of people and perspectives; knows when to lead and when to follow and how to ensure effective cross-boundary working.

BEHAVIOURS (Values in Practice)

Accountability:

· holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values

· holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved.

Ambition:

· sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages their team to do the same

· widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others

· future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale.

Collaboration:

· builds and maintains effective relationships with their team, colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters

· values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength

· approachable, good listener, easy to talk to.

Creativity:

· develops and encourages new and innovative solutions

· willing to take disciplined risks.

Integrity:

· honest, encourages openness and transparency; demonstrates highest levels of integrity

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

· Relevant university degree in Development Studies, Economics, Business Administration, Agricultural Economics, Social Sciences or related field; advanced degree preferred.

· Minimum 7 years’ experience in livelihoods, private sector engagement, or economic empowerment programs.

· Mandatory: At least 2 years managing payment by results, impact bond, Payment by outcomes projects

· Strong project cycle management experience.

· Demonstrate strong expertise in results-based management is a must, including designing, monitoring, and adapting programs to achieve predefined payment milestones

· Mandatory to have prior experience with Results-Based Financing or disbursement-linked projects, including linking payments to verified results, procedures for payments on results, monitoring outcomes progress in linkage to payments, and coordination with partners on results-based payments

· Strong expertise in entrepreneurship development, value chains in rural areas, enterprise development, and partnership management.

· Demonstrated ability to integrate gender- and child-sensitive approaches in programming.

· Excellent budget management and donor compliance skills.

· Demonstrable experience in beneficiary accountability.

· Strong experience in dealing with government officials at both strategic and operational levels.

· Highly developed interpersonal and communication skills including influencing, advocacy, negotiation and coaching.

· Strong results orientation, with the ability to challenge existing mindsets.

· Experience working through/with sub-grants and partners is a requirement.

· Experience with capacity building of local partners and communities.

· Fluency in English with strong written and oral communication skills.

· The capacity and willingness to be flexible and accommodating in difficult working circumstances.

· Commitment to the aims and principles of SC. In particular, a good understanding of the SC mandate and child focus and an ability to ensure this continues to underpin our support.

· Professional expertise in one of the Save the Children program areas is preferable.

Additional job responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within the reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.

Equal Opportunities

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI Equal Opportunities and Diversity policies and procedures.

Child Safeguarding:

We need to keep children safe, so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

Health and Safety

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with SCI Health and Safety policies and procedures.