Back Project Support Officer

Responsible to: WABRA Cluster lead – Country Director, Senegal, The Gambia and Cameroon

Base: Banjul, The Gambia-50% west Africa and brazil cluster (WABRA); 50% the Gambia & Senegal programme

Contract type: Permanent, full time

Salary: £5,000 p.a. with comprehensive benefits package

Benefits: Local living allowance (approx. £450 per month), annual return flights to home country, accommodation, insurance and 25 days annual leave

Objectives, WABRA:

· To support the implementation of a WA&B Cluster strategy and action plan (10%)

· To support the cluster to learn and share – programmatic (15%)

· To support the cluster to develop multi-country and single-country proposals – fundraising (25%)

Objectives, Gambia/ Senegal:

To support fundraising for the Gambia and Senegal programme – fundraising (25%)

To support excellence in grant and information management in the Gambia and Senegal programme (25%)

The Gambia & Senegal programme

The PSO supports a Country Programme with projects in the Gambia, Senegal, Guinea Bissau and also Cameroon with staff based across three offices. The country program works with over 17 local partner organisations with a diverse portfolio. The Country Director is based in Dakar, Senegal, with a small team, while the main programmes and support staff are in the Banjul office in the Gambia. The PSO will be a member of the Country Programme’s Senior Coordination Team.

An advantage to have:

1. Willingness and ideally experience in donor networking and representation
2. Sectoral experience in one or more of: Livelihoods/agriculture development, nutrition, resilience, peace building & conflict resolution, social business development, sport for development, ICT for development, youth programming
3. French language skills

West Africa and Brazil cluster

The cluster co-ordinator plays a critical role in supporting UP’s global cluster structure. The aim of the clusters is to enable UP to operate as one global programmes team. Clusters are intended to enable support, learning and prioritisation at a decentralised level, and to support fundraising, in particular for multi-country projects and key country gaps. The West Africa and Brazil cluster covers 8 countries, over 80 staff, an annual turnover around £4 million and 50 partners. The role directly contributions to the cluster objectives, including: 1) strategy and planning, 2) programmatic learning, 3) learning for viability and management; 4) fundraising (priority); 5) team and communication. It is an exciting and unique role for someone that can thrive in and support a global, remote, varied team.

Responsibilities – The Gambia & Senegal PSO:

Fundraising (25%)
· Identify and track relevant donors and assess funding opportunities in response to the needs of the country programme.
· Coordinate/ support proposal and budget development processes (internally and externally with partners), and write and submit concept notes and proposals.
· Assist in building donor relations, including attending meetings and identifying opportunities for closer coordination and communication.
· Identify and build relationships with relevant partners, including local and international NGOs, government entities, private sector, and research institutions.
Grant and Information Management (25%)
· Support effective information management, and report programme and pipeline information to the UK office on a monthly basis.
· Advise and support project managers on donor guidelines and contractual obligations, particularly on reporting, co-funding, procurement and visibility requirements.
· Support project managers to submit high-quality donor reports.
· Ensure there is regular content for programme communication, including case studies, technical briefs, photos, and videos for brochures, posters and social media.
· Build capacity of staff in project reporting, presentation, and case study development.
Other
· Further value-added tasks as agreed with line manager.

Responsibilities – WABRA cluster (50%)

To support the implementation of a WA&B Cluster strategy and action plan (10%): Ongoing team consultation and feedback; Maintain the cluster objective monitoring sheet and help facilitate regular reviews of progress; Support network links analysis every 6 months to monitor impact of cluster; support administration of cluster Balance Score Card (internal compliance/ support mechanism); Help maintain WABRA Project Monthly Report (internal financial reporting). Work with relevant team members to develop and share systems, procedures and best practices on agreed priority areas; Support global roll-out of safeguarding policy; Support development and implementation of policies and procedures for multi-country projects and activities.**

To support the cluster to learn and share – programmatic (15%): Facilitate planning, establishment and activities of community/s of practice on chosen sector pillar; Support proposal development and visibility by developing capability studies, programme and strategy summaries and other assets at country and cluster level; Work with the Southern Africa and Asia cluster to develop global capacity statements (or other) and to share learning; Support learning sharing through proposal development; Facilitate beneficial cross-country team links to enable learning; Work with the UK office to share case stories, examples of our approach and documentation; Produce quarterly cluster newsletters and contribute to global core brief; Co-ordinate and facilitate regular country director calls and other communication; Encourage cross-working and communication; Communicate cluster activities to UKO.; Act as a key focal point between UKO and cluster/ Cluster CPs; Support the cluster to source funding/ budget for in person cluster meetings. Lead event co-ordination**

To support the cluster to learn and share – fundraising (25%): Support the cluster to meet fundraising targets through leading/ supporting donor mapping, research and communication; Maintaining the cluster ‘pipeline’ sheet with upcoming and ongoing funding opportunities; Implementing and strengthening fundraising procedures; Co-ordinate or support the proposal development process, particularly for multi-country proposals; Maintain complete and organised filing systems; Support pipeline information management at country, cluster and global level – including analysis of success rate, donor trends etc; Support country programmes to meet and track co-funding obligations as required; Maintain and share summaries of our approach and track record; Provide surge support to single-country proposals; Supporting the cluster and CPs to maintain viable fundraising targets.**

Other tasks that contribute to existing or future WABRA and global strategy as agreed with line manager

Education and experience

Required

• MA/ MSc in International Development (or other relevant subject)
• 1 years’ experience in a relevant field/ position
• Experience working in international NGO/ donor sector
• Experience working in multi-cultural work environments and with remote teams

Desirable

• Additional post-graduate qualifications with relevance to our work
• 2 years’ or more experience in a relevant field/ position
• Experience working in a country office

**

Knowledge

Required

• Understanding of project budgets
• Knowledge of the key issues, trends and approaches in international development
• Understanding of current international development fundraising trends and donors

**

Desirable

• Knowledge of UP’s main strategic priority sectors: 1) supporting heathier lives and wellbeing; 2) creating jobs and better livelihoods; 3) developing sustainable energy and better environmental resource management; 4) tackling violence, exploitation and conflict
• Knowledge/ experience of West African and Brazilian contexts
• Knowledge of and experience applying the principles and processes of safeguarding policies
• Understanding of donor requirements
• Knowledge of/ experience working with UP’s main donors – eg EU, USAID, ECHO, AGRA, IFAD

Skills

Required

• Excellent proposal, report and communications writing skills
• Experience developing project budgets
• Experience supporting and co-ordinating proposal development process
• Experience co-ordinating remote teams to deliver proposals, events, conference calls and other collaborative projects
• Excellent ICT skills including Microsoft package, Office 365 etc

Desirable

• Knowledge and database management
• Networking and partnership development
• Communications – strategy, assets (case stories, brochures, photography, videography etc), copy (websites, capability statements, reports), publishing and design software, social media
• Experience co-ordinating (remote) learning groups
• Event management
• Fundraising strategy development and implementation including donor mapping, research, knowledge management, and taking a strategic approach to meeting targets
• Project management

Other capacities and attributes

Required

• Excellent written and spoken English
• A commitment of 12-24 months in the role
• Attention to detail
• “can do” attitude and pro-active approach to supporting the cluster functions
• Ability to work with team members from across the organisation, including “upward management” of senior staff
• strong self-management skills and motivation
• ability to manage project and reporting deadlines
• comfortable communicating with international partners

**

Desirable

• Facilitation and training skills
• Understanding of data protection requirements
• French and/or Portuguese language skills

Safeguarding

United purpose takes the safety and well-being of all those we work with, and our staff, very seriously and we have a zero tolerance policy on any form of abuse.

Our commitment to protect people from harm is reflected in our safeguarding policy which all candidates are expected to comply with.