Programme Manager UK NGO Jobs – Farm Africa
Job Title: Programme Manager
Organization: Farm Africa
Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda
Reports to: Country Director
About US:
Farm Africa is an international non-governmental organization working to end hunger and bring prosperity to rural Africa. We work to increase the incomes and improve food security of smallholder farmers, pastoralists, agro-pastoralists, and forest dwellers in East Africa. A core part of our strategy is to ensure that our interventions are both economically sustainable and scalable. The systematic integration of market linkages in implementing programmes is crucial to our ability to scale our interventions cost-effectively. Farm Africa has the ambition to be the leading European NGO specialising in Agriculture, Natural Resource Management and Market Engagement.
Job Summary: The Programme Manager will be responsible for ensuring excellence in delivery of Farm Africa’s projects in Uganda in order to maximise impact and value for money at all times. The Programme Manager (PM) will play a key role in supporting Project Coordinators (PCs) to develop annual budgets and activity plans, and deliver against them in line with donor contracts and Farm Africa’s internal financial policies and procedures. The PM will also be responsible for ensuring excellence in contract management and compliance across the project portfolio and managing the donor reporting process, as well as supporting project delivery teams with monitoring and evaluation. The PM will provide leadership to the growing field teams, identifying and filling capacity gaps, challenging poor performance, and ensuring all programme staff are demonstrating Farm Africa’s values. In addition to managing the delivery of existing projects, the PM will also be required to contribute to the design and development of new projects, helping to ensure that budgets and plans are realistic and conform to the bid requirements. The post holder is a member of the country Senior Management Team (SMT) and will deputise for the Country Director (CD) when necessary. The PM will be based in Kampala but required to travel to the field on a regular basis.
Key Duties and Responsibilities:
Operations
- Support project teams to develop detailed activity plans and associated project milestones, and deliver against them in accordance with contractual requirements, including maintaining project spending in line with the budget projections.
- Work with the project delivery teams and Farm Africa’s team of Technical Managers to ensure technical excellence in delivery of our projects
- Work with the project delivery teams to embed Farm Africa’s approaches into their delivery plans, and ensure consistency in delivery in line with our approaches
- Support the PCs and finance staff to develop timely, realistic and accurate project budgets, and monitor and report against these budgets in line with internal and donor requirements and guidelines.
- Work with the Regional Programme Support Manager to facilitate rapid start-up of new projects, including supporting with recruitment, providing logistical and procurement support, supporting with partner management and contracting and organising inception and planning workshops.
- Plan and supervise project exit/closure to ensure the highest standards of professionalism and administrative efficiency in line with donor and government requirements.
- Support PCs and Project Accountants & Administrators to develop and implement monthly, quarterly and annual procurement plans.
- Support the CD and Business Development team with conceptualising and designing new projects and developing funding proposals
- Play an active role in the Farm Africa Uganda Senior Management Team (SMT)
- Deputise for the CD as required
Stakeholder and Donor Management
- Ensure the highest standard of project donor contract management and full donor compliance with regard to budgeting and financial management and reporting, including planning and quality assurance of reports against approved formats.
- Build and maintain strong and effective relationships with donors at the local and operational levels.
- Prepare and pursue applications for approval of all project agreement from relevant government authority and ensure that projects are compliant with these agreements.
- Represent Farm Africa to government, donors and other NGOs, etc. on programme matters.
- Ensure the necessary assessments such as due diligence and partner risk analysis are completed.
- Assist in the preparation of Partners Contracts and MoUs and monitor the progress of these, overseeing corrective action and capacity building support where necessary
Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning
- Plan and lead the quarterly reviews of projects, ensuring rigorous analysis, discussion and testing of progress, situation and plans in respect of activity implementation, budget utilization and finance, resourcing, etc. Ensure decisions are reflected in future plans and activities with appropriate follow-up.
- Oversee the preparation and implementation of accurate, realistic and effective data collection plans for all projects in the Uganda portfolio.
- Support and coach field teams to ensure ongoing use of data and related adaptation of projects within agreed project frameworks and contracts, identifying need for and arranging technical support as/when needed.
- Ensure the highest standards in the planning, preparation and submission of impact measurement exercises including baselines, mid-term reviews and final evaluations, which should be both donor compliant and serve the knowledge agenda of Farm Africa.
- Undertake regular visits to project offices and field activities for support, partner visits, monitoring etc.
Human Resources
- Line manage PCs and PMs including ensuring they have clear work plans and objectives in place, regular consultations (at least weekly), quarterly reviews, and annual appraisals.
- Lead recruitment of all senior project staff, and support project teams with managing the recruitment of more junior staff including preparation and review of job descriptions, interview questions and practical tests.
- Lead and co-ordinate the planning, induction and training for all project staff, particularly Project Coordinators.
- Ensure all project staff are equipped with the necessary skills, knowledge and tools required to perform their assigned tasks to a high standard.
- Ensure appropriate levels of awareness and adherence to Farm Africa’s organisational policies, procedures and regulations by all project staff.
Qualifications, Skills and Experience:
- The ideal candidate for the Farm Africa Programme Manager job placement must hold a postgraduate qualification in a relevant subject, such as project management, development studies, business administration, etc
- A minimum of three years senior management experience
- A minimum of five years project management experience in Uganda and/or another African country, including working with partners
- Experience of relationship building and management with major institutional, commercial and private individual donors
- Experience in working with the private sector to achieve development outcomes
- Experience of budget development, management, monitoring and review
- Experience of designing and implementing project monitoring systems
- Experience of drafting and negotiating project agreements, MOUs and partnership agreements,
- Experience of drafting and negotiating terms of reference for baselines, evaluations, and consultancies
- Experience of staff management and commitment to staff development and team building
- Experience of working with participatory approaches to development
- Fluent written and spoken English
- Excellent time management skills, with a proven ability to prioritise between tasks, deliver in a high-paced working environment, and self-manage
- High level of analytical and conceptual thinking
- Good budgeting and budget management
- Excellent IT skills, with a particular focus on Word, Excel and PowerPoint
- Strong sense of integrity and personal commitment to the Goals and Values of Farm Africa
- Excellent communication and team building skills with the proven ability to coach and mentor staff successfully
- Ability to undertake unaccompanied travel and operate away from the work station
Desirable
- Programme knowledge and experience in the agricultural, forestry, natural resource management, value chain development, and sustainable livelihoods.
- Senior management experience within a developmental NGO
- Experience of consortium leadership.
- Experience of managing relationships with EU, DfID, other bi-lateral donors
- Experience in project design and proposal development, including developing budgets for new projects
- Experience of designing and or leading the implementation of multi-million $ and cross-sector projects
- Experience of leading organisational and strategic planning processes
- Experience of capacity building field staff and other stakeholders such as local authorities and co-operatives
How to Apply:
All suitably qualified and interested candidates should send an updated CV, salary history, and a two-page supporting statement detailing how you meet the person specification to ugandarecruitment@farmafrica.org including ‘Programme Manager” in the subject line.
NB: Please DO NOT send additional documents such as certificates and references with your application. Shortlisted candidates ONLY will be required to provide these documents during the interview process. Interviews are expected to take place w/c 2nd July 2018 at Farm Africa’s country office in Kampala. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
Deadline: 20th June 2018 by 5.00pm EAT
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