Sarah B. MAYANJA

Email: ad23mx@r.postjobfree.com Tel: 202-***-****

Fully Work Authorized No Visa Sponsorship Required

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY

Dedicated and focused Certified Project Management Professional with experience in diligently managing donor funded global education, health and youth programs in multicultural environments in Sub Saharan Africa, South Asia, and the USA. Hands-on experience in designing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating programs for local partners in conflict/fragile and post conflict environments Conversant in USAID and UK funding regulations ensuring delivery of quality programs in a compliant manner. Flexible, detail-oriented and adaptive team player, well-versed in guiding associates to exceed client and stakeholder expectations. Recipient of the coveted USAID Foreign Service National Award for outstanding professional service.

Currently seeking program management opportunities in the international development sector focused on home office program management focused on education globally, Skilled at transferring experience in knowledge from the donor funded side to the program implementer side with an understanding of the needs of field and country office teams abroad.

KEY SKILLS

Program Planning and Management

Program Evaluation

Program Budgeting

Performance Evaluations

US government funding regulations and compliance

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Delivery and Return Specialist Feb 2020 to date.

Chemonics International Inc., Washington DC

Chemonics International manages the USAID Global Health Supply Chain (GHSC) Program, over $200M contract that is working globally to achieve stronger, more resilient health supply chains.

Providing logistical support to USAID Global Health Supply Chain Program, to ensure timely and cost-effective and efficient delivery of over $1 million worth of Covid-19 response materials to Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Rwanda, Tanzania and Ukraine.

Preparing documents to facilitate the movement of non-emergency medical goods from supplier to beneficiary countries to ensure no stock outs due to delayed/interrupted service deliver.

Participating in the migration to Nexus, and advanced logistics software program, in an effort to improve efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery to recipient countries.

Strategic Partnership and Projects Manager Apr 2018 to Jul 2019

Promoting Equality in African Schools, Kampala, Uganda

PEAS is a UK Pounds 600,00 activity that creates high-quality, sustainable secondary schools that contribute to long-term societal change, poverty reduction and the empowerment of young people in Uganda and Zambia.

Prepared proposals to advocate for public: private partnerships and to raise funds to support the expansion of PEAS work by increasing enrollment in PEAS schools from around 6,000 to over 10,000 vulnerable learners.

Carried out research and did a needs assessment for the school-going refugees from South Sudan and with that information, lobbied and secured PEAS participation in operationalizing the Ministry of Education and Sports’ (MOES) $11million Education Responses to Refugee Planning under Education Cannot Wait funding. The PEAS School Monitoring and Inspection model was incorporated into the design of the first response, in refugees and host schools in Northern Uganda

Facilitated a working relationship between MOES and PEAS to pilot the PEAS School Monitoring and Inspection model in five schools with a total population of 2,500 pupils.

Project Manager – Education Apr 2013 to Mar 2018

United States Agency for International Development, Kampala, Uganda

USAID/Uganda in partnership with the Government of Uganda works to educate and train an increasingly younger population of Ugandans to be more productive and more involved in economic development as citizens.

Provided technical guidance and day-to-day problem solving and support to projects. This included reviewing and approving work plans, accruals, quarterly and annual reports, preparing technical notes for senior management site visits, and acted as a liaison between project staff and host country ministry, for the $60 million Early Grade Reading (EGR) Program to enable at least 3.1 million learners using 12 languages in 30 districts throughout Uganda to improve their reading skills in a period of 6 years.

Provided education information (ministry priorities that were aligned to the PEPFAR objectives and statistics) for designing the education component of a $1.5m PEPFAR’s Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored and Safe (DREAMS) Initiative program, to increase health-seeking behaviors for at least 500,000 young adolescents, through provision of age-appropriate HIV/AIDS and life skills messages, and thereafter managed the education component to ensure that the life skills outlined in the program are implemented as planned.

Drafted routine contractual documents and prepared a Concept Note and budget estimates for a new EGR program and provided technical input to designing the Request for Proposals for another $46m EGR program that also aimed at reducing school-related gender-based violence and increasing retention for at least 1.3 million learners in over 3,000 public primary schools in an additional 32 districts.

Chaired the Technical Evaluation Committee and prepared the Technical Note that incorporated all the scores and comments on the 4 bids that were submitted for the new EGR project and also participated in the post-award conference with the new implementing partner to review the contract requirements and discuss the inception report design that was required to kick off the project.

Provided justification based on the USAID Education Strategy 2011-2015 to guide the designing of the $100m Global Partnership for Education program and ensure Provided education information (priorities that were aligned to the PEPFAR objectives and statistics) for designing, that it included a component of EGR that was based on the USAID EGR model. As a result of this the coverage of EGR increased to another 25 districts and targeted at least 3,000 new schools, bringing the EGR coverage to 85% of the country.

Worked in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Sports to set up a Project Management Unit for the new EGR project, including identifying office space, selected government counterparts, and setting up and leading the delegation to meet and introduce the new EGR project team to the Minister top management.

Project Advisor – Education Apr 2013 to Mar 2018

United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Kabul, Afghanistan

USAID implemented programs to build the capacity of Afghan nationals to enable them to meaningfully contribute to their country’s workforce and economic development.

Worked with a subcontractor to prepare for a mid-term evaluation of a US$90 million Public Administration program, and participated in the evaluation including visiting three universities that were benefiting from the program. Based on the recommendations, prepared memo to justify the program’s restructuring and increased funding to enable at least 50 public officers to complete their graduate program, so as to improve their administration capabilities in various government sectors.

Provided day to day oversight for the $145m Higher Education Project, to build capacity for at least 100 Afghan faculty members to improve teaching of education programs in up to ten universities, and eventually produce better qualified teachers for Afghan secondary schools.

Conducted a complex contract, which included negotiations with Afghan government officials to shift an ongoing program from one implementing partner to another in a record period of 3 weeks.

Introduced the concept of a Higher Education Donor Coordination group, based on the Ugandan model of Education Funding Agencies Group, to bring together at least ten donors funding to the subsector to coordinate their projects to ensure optimum support to the sector.

Supervised, and mentored three mid-level professionals on USAID contract management principles, report writing and reviewing.

Conducted periodic visits to project sites to get firsthand information about the project's performance and challenges, to guide future interventions.

Project Manager – Education Jul 1997 to Jun 2009

United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Kampala, Uganda

USAID/Uganda supported the Ugandan Government to operationalize the Primary Education Reform Program which led to the introduction of the 1997 Universal Primary Education act.

Executed a ten-year $105m program to finance the government’s education reforms through budget and project support activities targeting at least 5 million learners in 22 districts in Uganda. This including developing milestones with host country and managing project activities that supported the achievement of the milestones.

Undertook research, statistical data collection and information analysis to support designing the education component of the USAID Integrated Strategic Plan 2001 and Country Strategic Plan 2006

Managed project finances which included developing budget estimates for new business, approving implementing partners’ work plans and budgets and reviewed, and conducted quarterly financial analysis and approved quarterly project accruals,

Senior Economist Jan 1990 to Jun 1997 Ministry of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development, Kampala, Uganda

The Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development’s mandate is to formulate sound economic and fiscal policies, mobilize resources for the implementation of government programs, disburse public resources as appropriated by Parliament, and account for their use in accordance with national laws and international best practices.

Economist Oct 1985 to Dec 1989

Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, Kampala, Uganda

The Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development’s mandate is to formulate sound economic and fiscal policies and mobilize resources for the implementation of government programs.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT/AFFILIATIONS

Pre-Capture and Capture Consultant August 2019 to January 2020

Creative Associates International Inc. (CAII), Kampala, Uganda and Washington DC, USA

Preparations for CAII proposal for a new US$148m USAID /Uganda Integrated Child and Youth Development program to bid on the new education and youth program.

Technical lead on local contacts, meeting set up, information gathering, document review and identifying potential project personnel for new business development.

Served as a country -specific and subject matter expert around education sector knowledge, partnering and local staffing.

EDUCATION

Master of Science (economic Policy and Planning)

Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Post Graduate Diploma in Education (Mathematics and Economics) - January 1985

Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda

Bachelor of Science (BSc), Economics - January 1984

Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda

COURSES

Project Management Planning (PMP) Certificate February 2023

Montgomery College, Rockville, MD

Project Management Professional (PMP) Certificate - October 2022

Project Management Institute

Evaluation - August 2002

USAID/Uganda, Kampala, Uganda

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