Programme Manager – Sri Lanka

LAW is an independent, non-profit organisation comprised of human rights lawyers working in fragile and conflict affected areas in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia. We have a particular focus on gender equality and sexual and gender-based violence, natural resource exploitation, rule of law, and transformative justice, working to bring justice to those who need it most. LAW’s ground-breaking work has received international and local media coverage, including in Reuters, the New York Times, the Times of London, the Guardian, Al-Jazeera, France24, Voice of America, Huffington Post and Foreign Policy.

LAW’s thematic areas of focus is gender justice, particularly the needs of women and children victims of sexual violence and abuse. LAW’s approach is to empower national actors to drive the justice process, including victims and survivors. LAW Sri Lanka provides legal capacity building and technical assistance to justice institutions, legal academic institutions and lawyers.

Sri Lanka Programme

The Programme Manager will work closely with the senior management team to develop and deliver LAW projects in the region, will lead on coordinating and will ensure delivery of workstreams including research, operations, advocacy, and partnerships.

This is a fantastic opportunity for an exceptional individual to work collaboratively with consortium partners, institutions and stakeholders delivering LAW’s strategy on human rights, gender equality, policy and advocacy work. The post holder will be the interface with all our partners in the region. S/he will take the lead in implementation of activities to ensure the achievement of project objectives and the delivery of project outputs.

POSITION DESCRIPTION

Reports to: Operations Director

Duration: 12 months – extension subject to funding

Direct Reports: x 5**

Location: Preference Colombo Sri Lanka or flexible – within the region (same time zone)

Hours: Full-time, 40 hours per week

Role Overview and Responsibility:

The Programme Manager will manage the projects and donor grants ensuring the programme is running smoothly and effectively in compliance with LAW and national obligations including engaging with partners in the regions to ensure the delivery of the programmes and managing the teams. The post holder will perform duties in accordance with the responsibilities outlined below:

Leadership and Programme Management

· Develop and maintain strong relationships with key actors including international humanitarian, governments, partners and community groups in Sri Lanka**;**

· Ensure projects are implemented in accordance with proposals, budgets, LAW policies, procedures and donor regulations;

· Lead and coordinate policy, research, legal advocacy efforts and identify strategic cases and other legal interventions;

• Design and organize trainings, workshops, roundtables and other events for justice actors

· Oversee the projects, ensuring high quality programming and robust monitoring and evaluation methodologies and that learning is integrated into project design and development;

· Develop and lead on LAW’s strategy work with survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, including overseeing casework of Gender Justice Legal Network attorneys.

· Design national strategy and action plan ensuring alignment with the LAW global strategy and theory of change;

· Build the capacity of partners, delivering technical assistance to transitional justice mechanism, monitoring, fundraising, M&E and security, safeguarding and other relevant skills;

· Coordinate with LAW’s Senior Management Team, and other programme managers as needed.

Finance Management and Accountability

· Develop a fundraising strategy to identify opportunities to ensure the sustainability and expansion of programmes; **

• Development of project proposals and fundraising in relation to Sri Lanka **

· Prepare budgets and oversee programme expenditure, ensuring accurate projections of spend and implementation of expenditure plans;**

• Ensure timely and quality narrative reporting to donors and compliance with donor grant requirements and LAW policies and procedures **

Advocacy and Communications:

· Develop an advocacy strategy and design products that can be shared with both internal and external stakeholders, based on evidence gathered from the programmes;

· Develop the profile and visibility of the programme and represent LAW on national and regional platforms;

· Establish networks with local NGOs, diplomatic missions and Government bodies and participate in coordination mechanisms at a regional level;

· Coordinate high-level legal and project strategy, research and events

· Responsible for the website and social media content related to the programmes is up to-date and engaging with audiences;

· Contribute to LAW’s advocacy tools, including factsheets and the LAW Annual Report;

· Develop and implement a high-level advocacy strategy in line with global priorities that engages national, regional institutions and the international community.

People Management

· Lead the team effectively ensuring high calibre staff are recruited and retained;

· Create an enabling environment for innovation and high performance, ensuring staff are appropriately supervised, develop work plans and engaged in training and development opportunities;

· Manage network of technical experts and their consultancy agreements

· Oversee LAW’s Gender Justice Legal Network (a network of Sri Lankan attorneys who are funded to provided legal assistance to victims of SGBV)

· Ensure the Sri Lanka office is compliant with all relevant legal requirements relating to employment law as well as safety, security, health and safety regulations.

· Any other task relevant to the position as requested by the Executive Director

Experience, Skills and Qualifications Required:

· Masters degree in law and/or human rights;

· Qualified lawyer with demonstrated 5-10 years’ experience in international humanitarian law, human rights law, justice and accountability, criminal law, or refugee law;

· Track record of working across insecure or conflict-affected and fragile environments;

· Demonstrated experience in programme /project management, including planning, design, M&E, and budget management;

· Experience representing vulnerable individuals is essential, with experience in cases of sexual and gender-based violence preferred;

· Demonstrated experience in fundraising for legal and protection projects in complex or conflict-affected environments and liaising with donors;

· Proven management skills and experience to lead and motivate a geographically dispersed team;

· Substantive knowledge and experience in implementing legal aid services, working with vulnerable communities and gender programming;

· Proven experience in developing and implementing advocacy strategies;

· Managing a large, variable workload and meeting tight deadlines;

· Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite and strong technical literacy;

· Excellent written and oral required in English, also research and drafting skills;

· Experience advising government or judicial institutions preferred;

· Experience working in South Asia preferred;

Benefits Package

This is a project funded position for which a full and attractive package commensurate within the nature of the position will be offered including; allowances and rest and recuperation to reflect your duty station, 25 days annual leave per annum, public holidays, flight cost at the start / end of your contact plus private medical insurance. The contract will be renewable on the basis of performance and availability of funds.