Senior Program Officer

The Asia Foundation’s Lao PDR Office in Vientiane is seeking to recruit a qualified and motivated Lao national for the position of Senior Program Officer (1 position). This position is full-time and will be based in Vientiane Capital.

The Asia Foundation (TAF) is a nonprofit international development organization committed to improving lives and expanding opportunities across Asia and the Pacific. Informed by decades of experience and deep local expertise, our work across the region is focused on governance, women’s empowerment and gender equality, inclusive economic growth, environment and climate action, and regional and international relations.

The Legal Aid Support Program (LASP) is a seven-year cooperative agreement with USAID, commencing in 2018. LASP is implemented by TAF, in partnership with the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), the Laos Bar Association (LBA), the Association for the Development of Women and Legal Education (ADWLE), Bridges Across Borders Southeast Asia Community Legal Education Initiative (BABSEACLE), and Village Focus International (VFI). TAF contributes a cost-share through a grant from The McConnell Foundation (TMF).

LASP’s goal is to promote the rule of law in Laos through fairer, more consistent, and more transparent delivery of justice according to the law—inclusive of women, the poor, and traditionally underserved populations. LASP is achieving this goal through the implementation of three mutually reinforcing activities under three strategic objectives: 1) Increasing the capacity of MOJ and its legal aid services; 2) Increasing the capacity of the Lao Bar Association (LBA) and Non-Profit Associations (LPA) legal aid services; and 3) Increasing sensitivity to women’s rights and empowerment in law-related professions.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Senior Program officer will carry out the following responsibilities:

• Program activity implementation:
  • Lead the implementation of activities and deliverables in accordance with the program’s workplan and result framework.
  • Provide training, technical assistance, and mentoring to program participants.
  • Conduct monitoring, evaluation, and learning tasks to support program learning and adaptative implementation.
  • Track developments in the law and justice sector, review draft legislations, and conduct analysis to inform understanding of the implementing context.
• Sub-award management:
  • Support the work of sub-recipients (individuals, organizations) that have been engaged to deliver activities/interventions to contribute to the program result framework. This will include developing, monitoring, evaluating, and revising (as needed) sub-recipient agreements, workplans, budgets, outputs, and outcomes; preparing activity monitoring reports; and providing technical assistance as needed to sub-recipient.
• Other project related tasks:
  • Prepare progress reports for donors and participate in monthly and quarterly donor meetings.
• Prepare procurement requests, payments requests, cash advances and expense reporting.
• Contribute to program development: identify new programming and funding opportunities; design and write proposals; participate in and translate during program development meetings/visits.
• Maintain good professional relations with partners, clients/donors, and stakeholders.
• Perform translation and interpretation from Lao into English and vice versa as needed.
• Other tasks as assigned by the Chief of Party/Program Director.
• Provide training to staff, partners, and other project stakeholders on MEL.