Administrator

Administrator

St Joseph’s School for the Hearing Impaired, Ernest Bai Koroma Road, Makeni, Sierra Leone

1 year contract, renewable up to 3 years

About

The Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny (Registered Charity number MDLG/FBO/0346) is a religious and apostolic, congregation of Missionary Sisters with special emphasis on female education. The Congregation has been involved in Sierra Leone since 1866 and at present has six communities there.

Origins of the School

St Joseph’s School for the Hearing Impaired, founded by Sister Mary Sweeney SJC, opened within Makeni Catholic Mission with a handful of deaf children in 1979. By 1991 when civil war broke out it was a well-established school under the direction of The Cluny Sisters and was accepting boarders from all over Sierra Leone. The violence spread to Makeni in 1998 when the rebels arrived and the sisters were forced to close the school and flee the country. The abandoned school was ransacked and largely destroyed by the rebels and later occupied as a store by the UN Troops. Soon after peace was restored in 2001 the sisters and some of the school staff returned and slowly began to rebuild the school.

Today the school has over 280 pupils. It has the only audiology laboratory and trained audiologist in Sierra Leone.

The school founder, Sister Mary Sweeney, retired and returned to Ireland in 2020.

The prospective school administrator will examine the existing school management structures with a view to establishing robust and transparent policies and procedures and in agreement with the school manager, Sister Amala SJC to implement and oversee their effective implementation.

The three areas to be addressed are

• administrative systems
• financial management
• donor relations and reporting

It is intended that the administrator will be appointed for a period of two years. Their remit would be that, under the direction of the school manager, the administrator would draw up school budgets, erect a suitable management structure, foster good donor relationships and most importantly, train a local counterpart.

The key learnings from the process which identified the need for the administrator are:

• The importance of maintaining good relations with institutional donors through regular contact and proper reporting.
• The importance of a transparent management system with policies and procedures that can facilitate orderly succession.
• The recognition that support networks that may be available to Irish missionaries may not be available to missionaries from other countries who succeed them

Sierra Leone, according to the Concern Worldwide, is the sixth poorest country in the world. It is officially designated as a ‘Fragile State’, heavily dependent on overseas aid. St Joseph’s works with a very marginalised group, deaf children. If St Joseph’s ceased to exist these children would be relegated to the margins of one of the most deprived countries in the world. The government of Sierra Leone does not have the necessary services or resources to run such a school.

The school will need donor support for the foreseeable future, this is acknowledged and accepted by existing donors, therefore donor relations will be of critical importance and a major function of the administrator.

Viatores Christ (VC) is a Dublin-based development organisation working within faith-based international development. VC works with over 30 partners across a range of sectors and countries. VC addresses needs through development and humanitarian assistance interventions and recruits, trains and places skilled personnel. The focus of VC’s work is working with partners to help provide access to health, education and livelihoods to local project stakeholders. VC is now working with the Cluny Sisters to recruit a suitable School Administrator to establish robust administrative and reporting systems, and to train a local counterpart, in order to ensure the sustainability of St Joseph’s School and good relations with its donor base.

Summary

The appointed administrator will undertake to ensure that the proposed project will enhance the capacities of the management of St Joseph’s in the following ways:

• By establishing a formal management structure with clearly defined roles and responsibilities.
• By establishing and adopting formal policies and procedures regarding the management of St Joseph’s.
• By training local staff members to take over and work these procedures.
• By training local staff in how to work with institutional donor agencies in a professional manner.
• By giving local staff the confidence to continue the development of St Joseph’s.
• By giving the local management the confidence to develop the potential of the existing assets in St Joseph’s such as the farm, the carpentry workshop, catering facilities, etc.

Duties

The role envisaged for the administrator will be to set up a transparent administrative system which will facilitate the running of St Joseph’s and to initiate and oversee the administrative procedures necessary to ensure that best practice is maintained throughout the school.

They will also be responsible for donor relations and generating regular reports for the donors. They will be tasked with training the administrative staff, clarifying their individual roles and providing each with a detailed job description.

They must be flexible in their approach to the role and be prepared to address whatever challenges present themselves.

Secure and sustainable financial management will give confidence to donors and allow the local team to better plan for and invest in the future development of the school, thus enhancing the services provided to the students. It is intended that the security in their finances and confidence in their own ability will encourage staff to re-engage with the audiology departments in overseas universities.

The Administrator, reporting to the local director Sr. Amala Santhiagu SJC, will be responsible for the following tasks over a period of 36 months (initial 12 month contract, renewable):

• Undertake a root and branch organisational review – to be completed within the first three months of placement
• Put in place and operate a financial management and control system, producing monthly financial statements.
• Put in place a system for monitoring the costs, on a monthly basis, of each vocational area of the school, the school itself and the boarding section.
• Set up a system for recording all income and expenditure on the farm and ensure that all proposed expenditure is approved by the Director.
• In agreement with the donor liaison committee, Sr. Amala, Linda Freestone and Joe Manning, create and operate a donor relationship procedure, providing regular and transparent reports to the various donors.
• Attend all school management meetings and keep a record of all decisions taken.
• Take responsibility for the overall management of the finances of the school and present monthly reports to the school director.
• Ensure that all staff have clear and appropriate employment contracts with the school, including clear job descriptions.
• Together with the school director ensure that the assistant administrator will be trained to take over the position of school administrator.
• Attend VC Venture online training programme
• Attend VC Network/mentoring meetings (monthly)

Additional areas

• Flexibility to assist in other areas may be required at certain times
• Attendance at training events, conferences and other functions as necessary
• Compliance with current policies and procedures
• Attendance at fundraising or networking events as required**

Results/Expected Output

• Local staff will have knowledge of the basic principles of management and leadership.
• Local staff will have knowledge of the principles of financial management. They will have knowledge of book-keeping and recordkeeping.
• Staff will understand the requirements of institutional donors.
• Staff will put into practice good leadership with emphasis on teamwork.
• Local staff will have a good overview of the financial needs of the school and will be capable of drawing up a budget for the school and keep track of it through the financial year.
• Staff will be able to deal confidently with institutional donors and provide the information they require in a clear and timely manner.

Person Specification

• Degree in development studies or equivalent
• Proven experience in a project/programme management position (i.e. someone who has managed a donor funded programme)
• Experience of establishing monitoring systems
• Proven experience of managing financial systems
• An understanding of managing for results or Results Based Management (RBM) and Project Cycle Management
• Facilitation and training skills to a high level
• Approachable, willing to be flexible, committed with a sense of humour.
• Fluency in English
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills

• Ability to work with a wide range of people in a respectful and collaborative manner

• Understanding of development issues in Sierra Leone would be an advantage

• Experience of applying for and managing successful funding proposals for major donors an advantage

• Excellent communication skills (both written and verbal) and excellent organisational and interpersonal skills are essential, with an ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines.

• Outgoing with an ability to interact with different groups of people

Salary & Benefits

Local salary range of €14k – €17K (176,188,440 SLL – 213,943,106 SLL) with benefits