Project Manager at Empower Rwanda (ER)

About Empower Rwanda

Empower Rwanda is a women-led nongovernmental organization that was established in Rwanda in 2019 to support women and youth through providing skills, knowledge, and resources that create sustainable change for them, their families, and their communities. Empower Rwanda provides a broad array of vital support to vulnerable youth and women in Rwanda.

The Programme

Empower Rwanda, in partnership with Mercy Corps, is implementing the Financial Inclusion for Clean Cooking Access in Rwanda and Sierra Leone (FICCARS) programme. The programme seeks to address the challenge of access to finance and clean cooking among women living in cities, particularly in urban informal settlements and slums in these two countries. The programme’s objectives are:

• To use access to financing for modern energy cooking technologies and fuels as a conduit for women to climb the financial inclusion ladder and access formal financing for household and business needs.
• To help local governments and other national-level stakeholders identify approaches to mainstream gender inclusion in access to finance and modern cooking as well as on environmental conservation and livelihoods.
• To lay the foundation for growth of a sustainable market by supporting the private sector to secure a foothold in the markets of Sierra Leone and Rwanda with their financial inclusion and clean cooking products.

The Position

This is a full-time position, based in Kigali, to manage the FICCARS programme and ensure quality delivery of project deliverables. The Project Manager (PM) is primarily responsible for planning and delivery of programme activities, and monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL). The PM will also provide technical expertise on delivering financial inclusion solutions for clean cooking access, and lead sector engagement in the fields of financial inclusion and clean cooking.

Essential Responsibilities

PROGRAMME MANAGEMENT

• Directly manage and quality check delivery of activities and outputs of the programme.
• Lead budgeting and resource planning for the programme, ensuring adherence to Empower Rwanda policies and standards, as well as donor requirements.
• Develop and oversee implementation of programme activities and work plans in adherence to Empower Rwanda policies and programme standards.
• Work closely with Mercy Corps’s Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) team to ensure effective monitoring, evaluation and reporting of programme activities and results.
• Provide quality checks and assurance to activity and community accountability and reporting mechanism (CARM) reports.
• Work closely with the Mercy Corps team to plan and coordinate stakeholder workshops in the programme. This includes supporting facilitation of events with stakeholders.
• Ensure effective documentation and filing of programme documents as per Empower Rwanda’s standards.
• Lead engagements with key stakeholders in the public and private sector and manage logs of engagements carried out throughout the programme. This includes participating in relevant sector working groups in the countries and representing FICCARS.

Supporting coordination of activities with the FICCARS commercial partners, and be the primary point of contact in engagements with programme participants

COMMUNITY ACCOUNTABILITY AND REPORTING

• Ensure the community accountability and reporting mechanism (CARM) is operationalized in the FICCARS programme in accordance with standards set by Mercy Corps and Empower Rwanda.
• Provide overall guidance to the Empower Rwanda team on overall CARM management.
• Ensure that programme stakeholders are proactively informed of the programme CARM feedback channels.
• Ensure that appropriate action is taken for all programmatic feedback and that it is appropriately incorporated into programme activities and overall implementation strategy.

RESEARCH AND LEARNING

• Work closely with the Mercy Corps team in carrying out research and learning initiatives that contribute to the programme's learning and adaptation needs.
• Represent the programme in conferences, workshops, webinars, industry events, and other sector meetings as a presenter, speaker, or participant.

 Supervisory Responsibility

• Project Officers.

Accountability

• Reports Directly To: ER Program Manager
• Works Directly With: The Empower Rwanda and Mercy Corps FICCARS team

Minimum Qualifications and Transferable Skills

• Graduate degree or equivalent in Energy, Environment, Economics, International Development, Urban Development, Climate Change, or other relevant subjects.
• 3-5 years of progressive experience in energy implementation within the context of international development. Experience implementing programmes in urban areas is advantageous.
• Demonstrated experience with managing projects and teams in a development organisation.
• Experience working with local and national authorities, the private sector, and non-government organizations as programme partners.
• Demonstrated ability to work with, communicate effectively with, and manage ethnically diverse team members of varied work styles.
• Excellent verbal and written communications skills in English.
• Demonstrated analytical skills and ability to draw insights from data for programmatic decision making.
• Ability to effectively represent FICCARS and its interests to key stakeholders.
• Experience developing programme reports.
• Demonstrated flexibility and creativity in planning and problem solving.

EXPRESSION OF INTEREST AND APPLICATION

Interested candidates should address their application enclosed with a cover letter, Curriculum vitae, academic documents, and other certificates to the Country Director of Empower Rwanda and delivered soft copy careers@empowerrwanda.org 

The deadline for submission is fixed on 30^th April 2024 at 5 pm.

Kigali, 20^th April 2024.

Olivia Promise KABATESI

County Director

Empower Rwanda

Founder and Country Director Former Acting Chairperson