Job Title: Director of Programs

Purpose of the Role
The Director of Programs leads, inspires and manages the development and delivery of Farm Africa programs 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 program cycle, including program 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 Programs shares responsibility for the strategic direction of Farm Africa as a whole, the delivery of the strategic plan, and the effective running of the organization.

Key Tasks and Responsibilities
Strategic
• Lead the development and delivery of Farm Africa’s program within the framework of our strategic plan and technical approaches
• Deepen Farm Africa’s reach by building our programs 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 programs 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 programs 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 programs team leaders.
• Lead and be responsible for the program 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 programs aligns with our business model; generating comprehensive cost recovery for reinvestment in delivering larger and financially sustainable programs.
• Working with the Head of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning, oversee high quality, organization 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 Program 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 organizations.
• Champion a results culture amongst the programs team, encouraging a culture of continuous improvement and effective accountability and feedback mechanisms.
• 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 programs
• 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
Program 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.
Organizational Leadership
• As a member of the Farm Africa Senior Management Team, provide leadership across the organization, 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 Program Advisory Committee to ensure a schedule of meetings which provide effective governance oversight of program effectiveness.
• Ensure outstanding communication of program information across the organization, 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
Essential Desirable 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
  • Leading technical expertise in gender focused social and economic development
  • 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 organization or regional program
  • Experience of working for an international NGO or private sector entity, delivering large scale programs
  • 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. More information about Director of Programs role can be found in the job description.

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