Senior Programme Officer Community Health & WASH

About the organisation:

SEED Madagascar is a British Charity working in partnership with communities in the south east of Madagascar. We integrate high quality community health, sustainable livelihoods, education infrastructure and conservation programmes to support long term, sustainable change and add to international best practice through research and publication across all of our programmatic areas. We are now looking for early career officers and managers to work alongside national staff and expand our team.

Position Overview

Based in the coastal town of Fort Dauphin in the southeast of Madagascar, this post will provide support to the Community Health and WASH programmes run through the NGO. The successful candidate will work within a combined Malagasy and international team to assist in providing support in developing projects, writing proposals to secure funding, providing concentrated editing support and mentoring to interns and officers, supporting with the implementation of projects and evaluating their success. The role is predominantly office-based, and the diversity of activities undertaken will provide a wide-ranging experience for a development professional who can effectively and efficiently deal with a comprehensive range of tasks related to the complex world of overseas development work.

Title: Senior Programme Officer

Location: Fort Dauphin, Anosy Region, Madagascar Timeframe: 18 months extendable

Local, living stipend of 1,200,000 Ar a month, contribution to flights of £1,000, contribution to insurance of £400.

Reporting to: Director of Programmes

Duties and responsibilities:

Provision of advice and support in the development of projects including: preparation and editing of funding proposals; preparation and editing of reports for external stakeholders; monitoring and evaluation of current projects; developing and updating guidelines and templates for external-facing materials; liaison with the London project development team and local staff; and support and mentoring of Interns and Officers.

Core Duties

1. Managing donor compliance across several projects, working with the implementation team to ensure that project milestones are being met

2. Supporting Programme officers and interns in compiling funding proposals based on past evaluation, team discussion and international best practice in an engaging and professional manner

3. Supporting Programme Officers and interns in writing project reports that clearly demonstrate the successes and challenges of the projects, learning from the project and providing clear budgetary information

4. Providing first stage editing of all proposals and reports across the Department to a high standard and providing detailed, constructive feedback to interns and Officers

5. Working alongside the Head of Project Development in problem solving and providing additional support in line with emerging issues from project implementation

6. Managing pieces of long-term project work that requires a higher level of expertise and experience across the Department

7. Support in the recruitment of new staff and provide support, management, review and professional development to your team of Programme Officers.

8. Delegate and manage interns and officers work programmes to achieve departmental objectives and support organisational ethos and strategy

9. Foster essential cross-cultural collaboration, providing support to both the national and international teams to bridge gaps in understanding and priorities for project development and implementation

10. Provide personal support, guidance and act as a role model, both professionally and personally, for members of the International team to ensure SEEDs reputation is maintained

11. Support the Director of Programmes & Operations in overseeing and ensuring day-to-day support of SEED Madagascar staff and volunteers, both professionally and privately, including acting as an intermediary of organisational priorities to the wider team

12. Working alongside the Head of Project Development and Head of Finance in developing and managing the budgets relating to projects

13. Developing and updating resources to support project development processes, including proposal and budget templates and style guidelines

14. Assisting departmental MEL specialists in developing MEL tools and analysing data, delivering relevant training and implementing these programs in the field whilst assimilating best practice and lessons learnt

15. Supporting the development of Project Development procedures and guidelines and providing project specific information to inform policy development across the organisation

16. Working with the PD Officers and interns to ensure that statistics, research, funding trackers, photo database and handovers relating to the projects are accurate

17. Overseeing the project-specific website and social media content

18. Working with the Malagasy team and external partners in increasing their skills and capacity, providing mentoring or training where appropriate

19. Organising and delivering orientations for new PD Officers and Interns

20. Taking an active role in project management meetings, leading discussions and standing in for the Head of PD where appropriate

21. Forming part of the team representing projects or SEED when required

22. Liaising with the UK team in London ensuring clear communication at all times

23. Taking an active part in international team meetings and the support of other members of the team

24. Completing any other tasks required by the Head of Project Development or Director of Operations and Heads of Departments commensurate with this role.

Person specification

· Degree-level qualification or equivalent experience in international development, health or WASH or have equivalent experience

· Minimum of 2 years’ professional experience of securing funding, project management, donor compliance and donor reporting

· Familiarity with the use of project management tools including Logical Frameworks, Theory of Change models, Budgets, Activity Plans and Monitoring & Evaluation frameworks

· Fluency in written and spoken English with excellent written communication skills, to the level of editing English documents for publication to a very high standard

· Excellent proposal and report writing and editing skills, with previous experience compiling project proposals and reports and the ability to tailor written information to various audiences

· Demonstrate an understanding of and commitment to SEED’s ethos and approach and be a good ambassador for the organisation at all times

· Have passion, curiosity and motivation for the job and the ability to enthuse others

· Experience of living and working in a developing country with the ability and desire to work with teams from different economic and cultural backgrounds and across multiple language barriers

· Demonstrate proven ability to recognise and appropriately deal with challenging situations and problem solve.

· Demonstrate an awareness of and comfort with increased social and professional responsibility, working at all times with cultural sensitivity and respect

· Demonstrate the ability, social skills and confidence to give clear guidance and support to other members of the team in respect of the philosophy and procedures of SEED in order to protect both their safety and the reputation of the NGO

· Be able to work to and advocate for all of SEEDs policies and procedures, safeguarding those that SEED works with and reporting any concerns appropriately

· Be punctual and be able to work to tight deadlines in an organised manner and to a high standard

· Be able to work both independently and as part of a team

· Excellent listening and verbal communication skills and a flexible and patient attitude

· Ability and desire to develop and support a team of volunteers and staff and to support the Project Development internship programme

· Proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Word, Excel and PowerPoint

· Proficiency in written and spoken French would be an advantage

Practicalities:

The successful candidate will need to have their own laptop computer (non-tablet).