Project Coordinator – Fathers Who Play, Children Who Thrive Project

Job Title: Project Coordinator – Fathers Who Play, Children Who Thrive Project

Reports to: SAFE Program Lead

Supervises: District Project Officers, Project Assistants, Para Social Workers (technical oversight), Consultants and other project staff as assigned

Project: Fathers Who Play, Children Who Thrive Project (GCC Project)

Duty Station: Kyangwali Refugee Settlement with frequent travel to Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement

Organizational Background

Bantwana Initiative Uganda (BIU) is a Ugandan non-profit organization committed to strengthening community-led systems and solutions that improve the wellbeing and resilience of vulnerable children, adolescents, youth, and families.

With support from Grand Challenges Canada (GCC), BIU is implementing the Fathers Who Play, Children Who Thrive Project, an innovative bundled family intervention that integrates the REAL Fathers model and Community-Based Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) approaches. The project seeks to improve nurturing care, father engagement, violence prevention, and child learning and development outcomes among refugee and host communities in Kiryandongo and Kyangwali refugee settlements.

Job Summary

The Project Coordinator will provide overall technical, operational, financial, and administrative leadership for the project, ensuring achievement of targets, donor compliance, quality implementation, evidence generation, and sustainability planning in collaboration with BIU REAL Project staff, OPM, UNHCR, implementing partners, CSOs, and District Local Governments.

Key Responsibilities

Project Leadership and Coordination

• Provide overall leadership and management of project implementation.
• Coordinate all project activities across implementation sites.
• Lead development and execution of annual, quarterly, monthly, and weekly work plans.
• Monitor implementation progress and recommend adaptive management actions.
• Represent BIU during donor visits, technical working group meetings, and stakeholder engagements.
• Ensure program targets and quality standards are achieved and aligned with BIU outcome indicators.

Technical Leadership and Adaptation of the REAL Fathers Model

• Lead adaptation and contextualization of the REAL Fathers model and ECCE interventions for refugee settings.
• Ensure intervention fidelity and quality assurance through supervision, mentorship, and coaching.
• Oversee adaptation of implementation tools, manuals, and training materials.
• Lead capacity building on the REAL Fathers Curriculum, Community-Based ECCE, Learning Through Play, and Positive Parenting.

Grant Management and Donor Reporting

• Ensure compliance with GCC grant requirements and BIU policies.
• Coordinate preparation and submission of high-quality donor reports.
• Track implementation progress against approved grant deliverables and milestones.
• Support donor assessments, audits, and learning visits.

Budget Management and Resource Stewardship

• Develop project spending forecasts and budget projections.
• Monitor budget utilization and expenditure trends.
• Review financial reports and ensure effective resource utilization and accountability.
• Identify financial risks and recommend mitigation measures in a timely manner.

Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning and Research

• Actively participate in implementation of MEL and research activities.
• Ensure quality data collection, analysis, reporting, and documentation.
• Support baseline, midline, and endline assessments.
• Generate learning products, success stories, case studies, and technical briefs.
• Coordinate with the MEAL team to maintain an effective monitoring, evaluation, and planning system.

Scale-Up, Sustainability and Systems Strengthening

• Participate in developing project scale-up and sustainability strategies.
• Strengthen integration within existing Para Social Worker models and government systems.
• Document the project’s value proposition for future investment.

Stakeholder Engagement and Partnership Management

• Maintain productive relationships with OPM, local governments, line ministries, refugee structures, and partners.
• Coordinate stakeholder meetings and partnership forums.
• Ensure functional Child Wellbeing Committees.
• Strengthen linkages, follow-ups, referral systems, and community ownership.

Team Leadership and Supervision

• Work closely with technical teams and departments on project implementation.
• Provide direct supervision and mentorship to project staff.
• Conduct performance reviews and coaching sessions.
• Build staff capacity through mentorship and support supervision.

Safeguarding and Risk Management

• Ensure compliance with safeguarding and child protection policies.
• Monitor safeguarding risks and support incident management.
• Promote ethical standards and confidentiality.

Required Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Social Work, Development Studies, Education, Public Health, Social Sciences, or a related field.
• Master’s degree is an added advantage.
• Minimum of 7 years of progressively responsible experience managing donor-funded projects.
• Experience in parenting, child protection, ECD, ECCE, Learning Through Play (LTP), refugee, or community development programming.
• Strong grant management, partnership, and donor reporting experience.
• Experience supervising multidisciplinary teams.

Applications including CV and supporting documents must be emailed using the application link below.