Project Coordinator EU Grant Jobs – Farm Africa
Job Title: Project Coordinator
Organization: Farm Africa
Funding Source: European Union
Duty Station: 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.
About EU Project:
Farm Africa was recently awarded a grant by the European Union for a €615,000, three-year project supporting young coffee farmers in Western Uganda’s Kanungu district. The project focuses on building the capacity of Civil Society Organisations (CSO) to create employment and self-employment opportunities within the coffee value chain for 4,800 young women and men Kanungu district. A broad range of CSOs will be engaged in the project ranging from coffee growers cooperatives to national stakeholder platforms representing both young farmers and coffee farmers. Key project activities will include capacity building of four Coffee Grower Cooperatives (CGC) – in particular growing their membership of young women and men, delivering extension services using smartphones and promoting sustainable production methodologies to their members. At the same time the project will support the establishment of washing and processing facilities as well as specialist trainings to enable CGCs and their members to increase the quality and quantity of coffee produced, and ultimately enter export and premium markets.
Job Summary: The Project Coordinator (PC) is a key role in the senior management team in Uganda and is ultimately responsible for planning and leading the implementation of the Coffee & CSO (C&C) project by both Farm Africa and our implementing partner. The PC will be required to manage the planning, implementation, monitoring & reporting of all aspects of the C&C project. This will include playing a leading role in internal and external project reporting, financial management, partner management, monitoring and evaluation of the project activities, outputs and impacts, and ensuring that all stakeholders at the project area are fully engaged. The post-holder will be based in Farm Africa’s Kanungu office, and will be reporting in to the Country Director, Uganda (CD).
Key Duties and Responsibilities:
To plan and manage C&C implementation in accordance with the project’s agreed objectives, work plans and budgets
Project planning:
- Work in close consultation with the Country Director (CD) review and prepare the project’s work plan and budget as part of the quarterly and annual planning process.
- Manage monthly, quarterly and annual work plans for project activities and logistics, identifying and responding to the implications of interdependencies between different sub-project work stream activities.
- Ensure all project staff and partners are clear on project plans and required resources during planning.
Project delivery, implementation and internal reporting:
- Ensure the methodologies for each activity are clearly understood by the project team and delivered according to Farm Africa Approaches.
- Ensure that project activities are implemented and outputs achieved as planned and within the agreed budget.
- Review progress regularly, submitting quarterly internal progress review reports outlining progress, issues and actions being taken in the standard format.
- Participate in quarterly programme progress review sessions with the CD and other key staff including: in-depth review of financial spend/burn rate; achievement against activity and output plan, and a forward look on whether the project is achieving against its objectives, indicators and beneficiaries.
- Proactively identify and monitor any risks to non-delivery and, where required, develop and implement action plans to address issues identified;
- Provide high-quality and accurate narrative and financial reports in line with contractual agreements
Financial management and governance:
- Manage the project within the agreed budget
- Work with the Finance & Administration Officer (F&AO) and Finance & Administration Coordinator (F&AC) for Uganda to regularly forecast budgets in line with any changes in implementation plans, and where required, to reflect the changing financial context (e.g., inflation, exchange rates)
- Identify and analyse the causes of spend variances to the budget and take action as needed
- Implement internal project financial controls, ensuring that financial management in the project field office is in compliance with and exceeds the basic standards contained in the Farm Africa finance procedures manual
- Review budget monitoring reports, and provide timely explanations and corrective actions for any significant variances
- Ensure that all procurement of goods and services is carried out in line with Farm Africa procedures and also follows the terms and conditions stipulated in the financing agreement.
- Work with the F&AC, F&AO, CD to monitor financial risks, developing and implementing mitigation actions as needed
Monitoring and evaluation of the project’s outcomes and impact
- With support from the wider Monitoring & Evaluation team, develop and implement a Monitoring & Learning Plan (MLP) for the project in line with Farm Africa’s guidelines and the donor’s requirements
- Ensure the project’s log-frame and data collection plans are regularly reviewed and refreshed, and the project is collecting the breadth of indicators required at a frequency and timing in line with reporting purposes
- Lead the project’s annual self-assessment process ensuring that necessary evidence is collected and all staff are actively inputting into the process
- Ensure that the project is regularly conducting beneficiary surveys, collecting other data through relevant sources, developing case studies and collating photos
- Oversee baseline, mid-term, final evaluation and other external evaluations, ensuring that learning and recommendations from those evaluations are explicitly incorporated into the project’s future implementation activity
Supporting the contract management for the project, ensuring that donor reports are of a high standard
- Support annual PPR reflection processes to assess any adjustments needed to budget allocations for the project
- Produce accurately and timely narrative and financial reporting information for review and submission by CD and Programme Support Team
- Proactively identify any required changes to donor-agreed work plans, objectives and/or budgets, working with the CD and Programme Support Team to agree and implement any necessary contract revisions or renegotiations
- Ensure compliance with donor procurement and other contractual requirements
- Support management and oversee the quality of donor visits to the region
Leadership and management of project team
- Spend a high proportion of the time in the field visiting project activities to ensure activities are on track and are in line with Farm Africa Approaches/Methodologies
- Working with the Country Office team, lead on the recruitment of new staff to the project team
- Hold (at least) monthly staff meetings and send minutes and key action points to partners and any relevant stakeholders
- Provide leadership and motivation to all project staff building values-based team working and individual staff skills relevant to the project.
- Regularly provide both informal and formal coaching and feedback to all project staff
- Proactively mentor and manage Farm Africa-funded extension staff employed through CGCs as part of the project.
- Effectively and promptly deal with any poor performance and actively recognise and encourage strong performance
- Actively seek feedback on own performance and effectiveness from both country leadership as well as own project staff.
- Hold in-person supervision sessions with all line-managed staff at least once per quarter (to discuss progress against their personal development objectives and work targets) and carry out in-person annual appraisals with all line-managed staff
Manage and nurture mutually beneficial partnerships with stakeholders
- Proactively identify and raise with the CD (and others as appropriate) any project-related delivery risks, and work with project partner staff and other stakeholders to implement action plans to resolve identified issues
- Act as a regional level ambassador, promoting the project, including hosting visitors, speaking at workshops and conferences, and meeting donors and other officials when required
- Provide formal representation of the project at regional level with respect to key signatory government parties; ensure periodic reports are submitted to them on a timely basis
- Convene quarterly project meetings, involving representatives from all stakeholder groups
- Support organisation of external events, forums and conferences to share project lessons and experiences
Play an active role as a member of the Farm Africa Country team
- Contribute to the development and implementation of Farm Africa’s strategy
- Identify and explore opportunities to grow and expand the country project pipeline, both in relation to the current project or related to new project opportunities
- Work with the CD and the UK Programme Funding Unit to prepare funding proposals where requested, ensuring that any lessons learned during implementation are documented and built into future project design
- Participate in country-level or pan-Farm Africa programme meetings with other project coordinators, as reasonably requested
Qualifications, Skills and Experience:
- The ideal candidate for the Farm Africa Project Coordinator job placement must hold a Post graduate degree or equivalent in Agriculture, Agribusiness, Rural Development, Rural Livelihoods or other relevant field
- At least two years’ project management experience in an INGO or agri-business evidencing knowledge and understanding of project strategy, design, implementation, monitoring and reporting.
- Experience of operationalising project plans with multiple external stakeholders
- Experience in financial management, including the ability to develop, read and manage budgets; and rapidly spot potential issues and solutions
- Experience of capacity building CSOs and/or small or micro enterprises
- Experience of supporting producer organisations to formalise the operations and access finance
- Experience of supporting smallholder farmers to enter formal markets
- Experience of engaging youth in agricultural development initiatives
- Detailed understanding of the agricultural sector in Uganda
- Knowledge and understanding of the coffee value chain in Uganda
- Working knowledge of sustainable consumption & production (SCP) principles
- Detailed understanding of market-based approaches to development and particularly approaches which encourage greater participation of women and youth
- Desirable
- Further relevant academic qualification in the area of Agriculture, Agribusiness, Rural Development, Rural Livelihoods or other relevant field
- Detailed understanding of the coffee sector in Uganda and key dynamics and stakeholder within it
- Demonstrated leadership, line management and team building experience – including appraisal and managing under-performance.
- Ability to build strong relationships with stakeholders based on trust, collaboration, demonstrated commitment and impact, deploying a wide range of influencing techniques as required
- Excellent network and excellent relationship with government partners
- Desirable
- Experience in leading teams in problem solving
- Experience in combining coaching with effective and insightful feedback on strengths, development areas and ways to grow
- Excellent written and oral communication and presentation skills with the ability to work with both Government and Private Sector stakeholders
- Excellent record of writing including briefs, project reports, communication and dissemination materials
- Fluent written and spoken English
- Ability and willingness to travel widely and frequently within the sub-region and in Kampala
- Adept in Microsoft Windows including Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint
- Desirable: Fluency in Runyankore / Rukiga
Desirable
- Experience of working on EU-funded projects
- Experience of working within the coffee value chain
- Experience of working in Kigezi sub-region
- Experience of organising the delivery of ICT-based extension services
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 ‘Project Coordinator C&C’ 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 26th March 2018 at Farm Africa’s country office in Kampala. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
Deadline: 13th March 2018 by 5.00pm EAT
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