Programme Officer

Overall aim:
As Programme Officer you will support the Programme Manager, Head of Programme Management and colleagues across Tree Aid’s Anglophone portfolio in Africa in monitoring donor contracts and compliance with donor requirements; timely project delivery and budget utilisation; adherence to the charity’s policies and standards.

Key objectives:
• Backstopping Tree Aid programmes – work closely with in-country team to ensure projects are adequately resourced and delivering agreed targets within budget.
• Monitoring and Reporting – Reports are prepared to a high quality within the deadlines set by the donor, and have gone through the necessary internal reviews
• Knowledge Management – Ensuring Tree Aid systematically learns from successes and challenges and that best practice for project and resource management is upheld.
• Financial Support and Resource Mobilisation – Preparing and submitting invoices on-time to ensure that Tree Aid projects have healthy cash flow.

Key roles/ tasks:
PROJECT BACKSTOPPING
– Carry out regular calls with in-country programme staff to update on progress, escalating any concerns with your manager in weekly check-ins
– Support the team to ensure the budgets are used effectively and efficiently,
reforecasting where necessary
– Produce/support development of partner contracts.
– Build capacity of colleagues in Ethiopia and Ghana on digital tools for project management.
– Support review of ToRs, contracts, deliverables, reports relating to Agroforestry, natural resource management, entrepreneurship and forest-governance.
– Participate in field trips to Ethiopia and Ghana as required

MONITORING AND REPORTING
– Work alongside MEL team to establish clear MEL plans for each project and support the in-country teams to deliver to these.
– Take a lead in the management of the reporting cycle for Tree Aid’s
anglophone portfolio. Ensuring that the reports are prepared to a high quality within the deadlines set by the donor and have gone through the necessary internal reviews.
– Participate in internal quarterly review meetings.

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND COMMUNICATION
– Ensure all the important project documents are on SharePoint and support
colleagues to do likewise.
– Make use of MS tools to ensure that there is good understanding across the team of the critical actions and deadlines.
– Play a critical role in the systematic and automatic capturing of lessons learned
– Participate in building capacity of in-country colleagues for use of internal tools.

FINANCIAL SUPPORT & RESOURCE MOBILISATION
– Ensure that each project has an up-to-date claims and invoice tracker
– Submit invoices to donors according to the schedule and or milestones being met.
– Submit Budget Change requests to donors, with support from Programme
Manager and Finance colleagues.
– Work with Finance colleagues to ensure that financial reports are accurate and submitted on time.

LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT
– Participate in an annual appraisal to reflect on personal progress and set new development goals
– Benefit from Tree Aid’s support in exploring growth opportunities and pursuing your professional development interests
– Option to participate in weekly French classes.

Person specification:
E = Essential criteria D = Desirable criteria
Personal qualities
• A commitment to Tree Aid’s values (E)
• Able to work as part of a cross-cultural team particularly with staff for whom English is not their first language (E)
• Able to work flexibly and be adaptable (E)
• Shows Initiative, and can work with minimum supervision (E)

Experience
• Minimum 3 years’ experience of project management ideally in an international development / environmental organisation (E)
• Experience of budgeting and donor reporting (D)
• Experience of database management (D)

Skills/Knowledge
• Excellent organisational skills, ability to work quickly and efficiently with high levels of precision and prioritise a busy workload (E)
• Ability to thrive in cross-cultural teams, working effectively with colleagues and partners for whom English may not be a first language, with enthusiasm for building capacity where relevant (E)
• Strong IT proficiency, particularly in Excel (E)
• Excellent writing skills, with high attention to detail and a track record of
producing high-quality donor reports (E)
• Understanding of Monitoring and Evaluation frameworks in the International Development context (D)
• Comfortable with preparing and managing financial reports (D)
• Enthusiastic and comfortable to travel to West Africa (1-3 times per year) (D)
Qualifications
• Educated to Degree level in a field related to International Development,
Environmental studies, social sciences (E)
• Masters in a field related to International Development, Environmental studies, social sciences (D)

How to apply:  To apply, please send your CV and a supporting statement setting out how you meet the person specification to recruitment@treeaid.org