Programme & Partnership Lead - Ethiopia

Permanent. Full time

Location: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Salary: Competitive

If we receive a high volume of applications, we reserve the right to close the advert before the scheduled closing date. Therefore, we encourage interested applicants to apply at their earliest convenience. 

About us

Christian Aid exists to create a world where everyone can live a full life, free from poverty. We are a global movement of people, churches and local organisations who passionately champion dignity, equality and justice worldwide. We are the changemakers, the peacemakers, the mighty of heart.

We’re committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, and recognise the value this brings in forming strong, creative and high performing teams. We welcome applications from all sections of the community, and from those with experience from outside of the voluntary sector. And no, you don’t have to be Christian to work here – we encourage people of all faiths and none to apply. We just ask that everyone lives out our values of dignity, equality, justice and love. We value a good work-life balance, so we’re open to part-time and flexible working. We also offer hybrid working for our office-based colleagues and the option of being a homeworker for most of our roles too.

Learn about our vision, mission and values

About the role

Reporting in to the Partnership & Strategy Lead, the Programme & Partnership Lead for Ethiopia will be the most senior and key programme, partnership and lead role for each priority country, maintaining oversight of a dynamic and responsive partner portfolio that aligns with organisational values and goals.

The post-holder will ensure Christian Aid's work in partnership employs a decolonised approach to improve locally led work and maximise impact. The role is key in exploring and contributing to multi country programme initiatives across the cluster. The role provides 
oversight and leadership to embed a culture of impact. The role plays a lead role in convening spaces with partners and key stakeholders, including faith leaders, and catalysing for change. It plays a key role in strengthening civil society, and fostering coherent linkages among programme, humanitarian and advocacy interventions across priority countries.

The role works collaboratively with partners to shape our response to poverty across the priority countries, to enable a culture of continuous learning. The role leads on ensuring that initiatives contribute to impact in CA’s four global thematic areas.

Some of the main responsibilities of the Programme & Partnership Lead - Ethiopia include:

• Drive and lead the programme/project delivery ensuring that it is connected to work across the cluster.
• ‘Horizon scan’ to identify new potential partners that would enhance impact, and review portfolio under each of the 4 CA thematic areas (plus sub-themes of resilience, protection and inclusion) to maximise impact.
• Drive and enhance collaboration with partnerships and Christian Aid (convening) to effectively co-design, develop, plan, budget, implement, evidence, learn and communicate the impact from interventions within the programme. This will involve strengthening our collaboration with church leaders and FBOs, as part of bringing to the fore our faith identity and aligning with organisational values and goals.
• Manage a priority programme partner portfolio and ensure a collaborative approach in project design and delivery with partners to drive meaningful change.
• Be accountable for donor reporting and compliance, supporting proposal co-development and design with partners to foster a mindset of support and connection
• Lead in convening regular programme review, learning and reflection spaces with partners and key stakeholders, and when we bring CSOs together to enhance our mutual impact.
• Lead on representation for the programme and on country specific issues, and on ACT Alliance collaboration, including exploring joint programming.
• Lead on cross programme sharing and learning, to foster a culture of continuous growth and development.
• Manage and support Programme Partnership Coordinators and Government Liaison Officer to ensure operations provide a strong underpinning for our programme, ensuring high-quality and consistent delivery that aligns with organisational values and goals

About you

Who we are looking for

Essential:

• Master’s Degree ideally in development studies, social sciences or substantial equivalent professional experience.
• Demonstrable experience of living and working in a developing country.
• Substantial experience of collaborative approaches for programme appraisal, financial management, working with partners and capacity sharing with local indigenous partner organisations.
• Substantial management experience.
• Detailed understanding of development issues and key poverty drivers in the context of the specific priority programmes.
• Detailed understanding of development issues in the context of priority countries, of programme management tools and techniques, including financial management tools.
• Detailed understanding of organisational development and working on new operational models.
• Highly developed analytical skills.
• Highly developed problem-solving ability.
• Developed report writing skills.
• Highly developed communication skills which are written, verbal and presentational.
• Highly developed stakeholder engagement skills.

Desirable:

• Substantial experience working with decolonised and localised partnership approaches.
• Substantial experience working with the private sector or private sector-led development programs.
• Substantial experience in multi-sectorial knowledge and/or experience in the four Christian Aid thematic areas.

Further information

At Christian Aid we strive to be an inclusive and diverse employer and recognise the value that this brings in helping to build strong, creative and high performing teams.

We are actively encouraging racialised minorities, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities, returning parents or carers who are re-entering work after a career break, people with caring responsibilities, people from low socioeconomic backgrounds, women, and older workers to apply. This is because these groups are under-represented within our teams, especially at senior level, and we recognise and value the contributions members of these groups make to strong, creative and high performing teams. 

We have a strong Christian ethos and we encourage applications from all faiths. Applicants will be expected to demonstrate an understanding of and sympathy with Christian Aid’s faith identity. 

All successful candidates will require a DBS/police check appropriate to the role and location and a Counter Terrorism Sanction check as part of your clearance for commencing your role with us. We also participate in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme.  In line with this Scheme, we will request information as part of the referencing process from job applicants’ previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment. By submitting an application, the job applicant confirms their understanding of these recruitment procedures.

This role requires applicants to have the right to live and work in the country where this position is based and undertake the role that you have been offered. If you are successful and we make you an offer for the role, we will be required to conduct a right to work check on your immigration status in the UK. We will contact you regarding the documentation you will need to provide to evidence this. 

You can expect a wide range of rewards and benefits, please refer to the benefits booklet for your location to see our full list of employee benefits. 

For Salary details for this role, please refer to the Salary band by location.

• Type of contract:Permanent
• Contracted hours:35
• Location:Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
• Closing date:16 October 2025

Documents for Application

Further Information

As a volunteer, you will receive:

• Support and supervision from a named contact within Christian Aid
• Appropriate induction and training for your volunteering role.
• Out-of-pocket expenses as agreed.
• Our regular volunteers e-newsletter
• Access to our Volunteers’ Hub for all our latest news, events and resources

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