Challenging Heights was founded by James Kofi Annan who is a survivor of child trafficking and worst forms of child labor. James later rose to become a university graduate and also rose to become manager at Barclays Bank of Ghana. James is the last and the only educated out of twelve children of his illiterate parents. He worked as a child fisherman in more than 20 villages along the Volta Lake from the age of 6 to 13, before he finally liberated himself at the time he could neither read nor write. In April 2007, James resigned from Barclays Bank of Ghana in order to devote full time to mobilizing resources to promote the mission of Challenging Heights – providing education for formerly enslaved and vulnerable children.
The need for this project is encapsulated in James’ story of how education can transform the life of deprived persons, provide boys and girls with hope for them to become agents of change.
Our mission is to ensure a secured, protected and dignified future and life for children and youth by promoting their rights, education and health.
Challenging Heights over the past years has delivered social justice interventions to children, women, and underserved communities in the coastal and farming communities of Ghana. It has also contributed to policy and creation of awareness and public discourse on issues affecting Ghanaian children.
From the humble beginning of being a one-man unregistered organization in 2003 to its present status of a formidable child-centered social justice organization which is at the forefront of fighting for the rights of children and underserved populations.
Challenging Heights is poised to reposition itself for purposes of sustaining its program gains and services and improving upon the quality it offers to both its clients and supporters.
Job Description
Reports to the President
Anticipated Started Date: June 2011
The Coordinating Director is therefore a leader of the project and communications team that will support the President in achieving its mission and goals in a more effective and efficient manner. The Coordinating Director shall therefore be the operational nerve of the organization, and shall be an enthusiastic, self-motivating and results-oriented individual.
Strategic program governance and development:
* Lead in defining roles and responsibilities and providing oversight for programs and projects
* Advise the president on policies that reflect and inform objectives (service delivery and policy), contributing to program and policy synergy
* Support development and implementation of monitoring and evaluation systems, baseline studies and results frameworks, project monitoring and evaluation plans, common indicators, and indications for CH and donor M&E frameworks and reporting requirements
Program Planning and management:
* Develop systems for planning, implementation and review of both projects and overall program operations
* Lead high-level sessions for program plan and schedule development and ensure conformance to CH Program strategy and major deliverable timelines
* Prepare, review and submit required progress reports on assigned projects from field teams for submission to donors and other stakeholders
* Support Program Officers in their implementation of programs
Client/Partner Relationship Management:
* Develop and nurture good relations with government institutions, traditional and emergent leaders, and the communities that CH operates in by maintaining an overview of all key activities; Contribute to the development of a relationship strategy with key stakeholders
* Collaborate and network with organizations to maximize the impact of CH goals
* Design capacity building support to new and existing staff
* Participate in necessary stakeholder meetings
* Establish monitoring and evaluation indicators with programs staff
Promoting learning and best use of technology:
* Establish learning and information flows within CH to support individual and team learning
* Build capacity of staff through project technical and soft issues advice and coaching
* Develop and disseminate documents on relevant best practice
* Review and link team and individual performance into learning
*Program Development and Fundraising:
* Provide support to fundraising efforts including writing, reviewing and editing proposals to generate concise & professionally sound donor specific program/project proposals
* Provide technical inputs to program development documents during program design workshops, especially on impact measurement, indicators, and M&E systems
* Advise on M&E staffing component in new project proposals
* Lead in the process of preparation of quarterly and annual work plans and budgets for programs and determine the extent to which these contribute towards achieving the objectives of the organization
* Prepare concise & professionally sound donor specific project reports
Awareness raising and Advocacy:
* Represent CH at fora with both government and nongovernment meetings.
* Create opportunities for holding duty-bearers accountable
* Write relevant press statements for the organization
* Write relevant media contents such as website documents for the organization
* Provision of strategic leadership and technical support in communicating with the organization’s public locally and internationally. The candidate will ensure that the corporate image of the organization is positive at all times
Required qualifications, Skills or Experience
Required Skills or Experience
Person specification:
* University Degree and or professional qualification in relevant subject (social sciences, Communication Studies/Journalism, project management, development studies).
* A Diploma in Information Technology and or master’s degree may be an advantage
Essential:
* Minimum of 4 yrs experience in Program planning, development and management at senior level
* Strong project management experience and knowledge of approaches, tools and phases of the project lifecycle, including evaluation and impact assessment
* Computer-literate (word processing & spreadsheet packages including power point)
* Exceptional communication skills – both written and verbal
* Able to work effectively at all levels in an organization across functions
* Excellent active listening, coaching and mentoring skills
* Excellent Problem solving and root cause identification skills
* Strong Monitoring and evaluation, analytic and decision making skills and abilities
* Must be a team player and able to work with and through others
* Successful history of high level partnership development and representation, including working with various donors
* Training and process facilitation
* Passionate, and love for social justice
How To Apply
All applications and CVs may be submitted to:
The Executive Director
Challenging Heights at
challheights@yahoo.com or jameskofiannan@gmail.com
* Deadline: May 15, 2011
* Only short-listed candidates will be invited for interview.
* Personal telephone calls are not encouraged.
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