JOB TITLE: Director of Programmes
MANAGED BY: Chief Executive MANAGES: Country Directors, Heads of Programme Support. Monitoring Evaluation and Learning & Business Development and Senior Technical Manager
LOCATION: Flexible, one of Farm Africa’s operational countries in eastern Africa preferred
DURATION & HOURS: Permanent & Full Time
PURPOSE OF THE ROLE
The Director of Programmes leads, inspires and manages the development and delivery of Farm Africa programmes across the eastern Africa region, achieving our objectives around a just rural transition for smallholder farmers.
The role is accountable to the Chief Executive for the entire programme cycle, including programme design, grant funding, operational delivery, and the reporting and dissemination of learning and best practice.
As a member of the Senior Management Team the Director of Programmes shares responsibility for the strategic direction of Farm Africa as a whole, the delivery of the strategic plan, and the effective running of the organisation.
KEY TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Strategic
• Lead the development and delivery of Farm Africa’s programme within the framework of our strategic plan and technical approaches
• Deepen Farm Africa’s reach by building our programmes within the countries of operation to deliver our aims to create long-term food security, significantly increase household income and implement environmentally sustainable agricultural management practices.
• Increase the proportion of programmes designed to achieve long term change at scale by embedding work into government policy, building financially sustainable models and engaging with the private sector to ensure sustainable income growth for smallholders.
• Lead the development of innovative programmes that build on our technical approach to agriculture, environment and business.
• Represent Farm Africa externally to build relationships and reputation, and to advocate for change, with partners, donors and government counterparts.
Management, Delivery and Impact
• Provide excellent line management to country directors and other programmes team leaders.
• Lead and be responsible for the programme cycle, from design and fundraising through delivery and reporting to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our contract management and project delivery.
• Working with the Country Directors and Head of Business Development ensure Farm Africa’s portfolio of programmes aligns with our business model; generating comprehensive cost recovery for reinvestment in delivering larger and financially sustainable programmes.
• Working with the Head of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning, oversee high quality, organisation wide monitoring and evaluation function that enables a culture of learning and growth and ensures key project level lessons inform our technical approach and project design
• Working the Head of Programme Support to ensure excellence in grant management through regular project and budget review, contract compliance, and quality in reporting.
• Ensure a culture of partnership working that promotes the role of local and national organisations.
• Champion a results culture amongst the programmes team, encouraging a culture of continuous improvement and effective accountability and feedback mechanisms.
Represent Farm Africa
• Enabling us to build effective new relationships with corporate, policy and advocacy partners
• Working closely with the Director of External Relations to ensure effective relationship management with high level institutional donors
• Provide technical leadership to advise on the design and delivery of programmes
• Support the Communications and Advocacy team to form key messages and play a leading role in external communications and advocacy events
• As part of the Senior Management team, steward and role model the One Farm Africa culture
• Publicly represent Farm Africa as a specialist INGO to a range of technical and nontechnical audiences
Programme Funding
• Ensure quality in Farm Africa proposal development processes and submissions.
• Build and maintain a grants pipeline that meets strategic funding targets through a diverse set of institutional donors and that responds to changing opportunities and trends in the donor environment.
• Actively network to create new funding relationships and consortia that create opportunities to scale activities and impact.
Organisational Leadership
• As a member of the Farm Africa Senior Management Team, provide leadership across the organisation, contributing to the overall strategy and success of Farm Africa.
• Maintain compliance and capacity in relation to Farm Africa’s security policy, ensuring that teams operate safely within a changing security context.
• Work with the Chair of the Programme Advisory Committee to ensure a schedule of meetings which provide effective governance oversight of programme effectiveness.
• Ensure outstanding communication of programme information across the organisation, working closely with the other department directors and senior managers on internal learning and knowledge management
• Ensure strong security process and compliance in all operations, including leadership within the crisis management team
PERSON SPECIFICATION
Education, qualifications & other knowledge
Master’s degree or higher in relevant subject
Leading technical expertise in either social and economic development areas: agriculture or natural resource management
A deep understanding of the socio-political, economic climate of east Africa, or other regions in Africa, as well as key institutions
Experience
Experience of making a clear and compelling contribution to the strategic direction of a complex organisation or regional programme
Experience of working for an international NGO or private sector entity, delivering large scale programmes
Track record in securing long term and scale funding from a wide range of institutional donors
Delivering development outcomes at scale through building effective partnerships with private sector organizations
Skills & abilities
Strong networks with peer technical organization
Strong leadership and management skills, gained as a senior manager in a complex organization
Compelling communicator in writing and in person Strong conceptual and analytical skills
Ability to lead and manage across a range of nationalities and cultures Strong interpersonal skills
Ability to work under pressure, strong personal resilience
A talent for getting the best out of people, helping them grow and challenging poor performance
Inspirational and inclusive leadership
Commitment to continued professional development and ongoing learning
Ability to directly or indirectly influence external stakeholders
Strong emotional intelligence and self-awareness
If you want to be part of this change, send your full CV and a covering letter to recruitment@farmafrica.org by 9:00 am, Monday 16 August.
We expect stage one interviews to take place on the 23 and 24 August. Candidates will then be selected to take part in a final interview on 27 August.
Note: Farm Africa will not accept third party applications and recruitment consultants are respectfully asked not to get in touch with regards to this role.