About Self Help Africa and the Project:

Self Help Africa (SHA) is an international NGO dedicated to the vision of an economically thriving and resilient rural Africa. We have 50 years of experience working with smallholder farmers, farmer associations, cooperatives and agribusinesses across Africa to help farmers grow and sell more food, improve diets, diversify incomes and make their livelihoods more sustainable and resilient to external shocks. SHA also builds awareness of issues affecting smallholders and represent their interests at policy and institutional level.

SHA is a core member of The Gorta Group which is composed of a group of innovative organizations driving sustainable economic and social change across Africa. Comprising Self Help Africa, Partner Africa and TruTrade, the Gorta Group combines expertise in market-based solutions to poverty and rural development; climate change mitigation and resilience; trade facilitation and farmer and worker rights; underpinned by an inclusive ethos that specifically targets women and youth. In August 2021, United Purpose joined the Gorta Group, which operates as Self Help Africa (SHA), bringing together two organizations with proud histories of assisting those in greatest need. United Purpose, formerly Concern Universal, has worked for more than 40 years as a leader in community-led development and grassroots innovation. SHA now has over 700 staff worldwide, as a result of the merger, and a global turnover of over €40m. We are currently implementing a portfolio of 80 projects in Bangladesh, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda and Zambia funded by a variety of institutional and private donors including the European Union, Irish Aid and World Food Programme. In 2020, we supported close to eight million people in rural communities across sub-Saharan Africa, Brazil and Bangladesh.

SHA-Ethiopia currently seeks to recruit a project manager/team leader who will provide guidance and other technical support on the Rural Resilience Initiative (R4) project implemented in 16 woredas of Amhara region financed by WFP.

The goal of the R4 project is to improve food security, nutrition and livelihoods of over 54,000 smallholder farmers vulnerable to climate-related shocks. This will be realized by achieving four inter-related outcomes/components:

Component 1) Risk Reduction – improved natural resource management and disaster risk reduction through asset rehabilitation and creation.

Component 2) Risk Transfer – Assist farmers in coping and stimulating faster recovery to extreme climate events;

Component 3) Risk Retention – strengthen financial literacy, savings capacity of food insecure households; and

Component 4) Prudent Risk Taking – Enhanced smallholder access to microloans/credit and technical assistance to diversify and increase their incomes

Job Purpose:

The project manager/team leader will lead the project and coordinate all activities of the R4 project: administrative and technical.  He/she is responsible for overall project planning, inception, implementation, closing of the project. He/she will also manage the workforce of the project, and ensure all deliverables are achieved within scope, budget, timeline and acceptable quality levels as specified in the FLA signed with the donor and other relevant stakeholders. The post holder maintains relationships with the partner, local government, SHA Ethiopia Management and Technical Teams, and other stakeholders to the effective implementation of the project. The project manager/team leader ensures the core principle and administrative procedures according to SHA and donor guidelines. Overall, the post holder will lead planning, reporting of the project and is responsible to provide leadership and technical guidance to the R4 project team for the successful implementation of the project.

Key Responsibilities

Specific duties include but not limited to the following:

Programme Management and Reporting

• Initiate implementation of the project plan upon approval of donor and sector leader and/or country director, in accordance to the SHA project execution procedures, relevant SHA structures and procedures, accounting principles, donor requirements and contracted commitments.

• Prepare quality and timely detailed Implementation Plan (DIP) for the project

• Prepare quality and timely monthly, quarterly, bi –annual and annual project report and review project monthly financial reports.

• Oversee project results and expenditure tracking with responsible project-based teams, Program Quality and Finance departments

• Takes responsibility for the (technical) content of a project and assure that the R4 projects are implemented in line with Technical Programme standards and FLA

• Ensure office operations are running effectively and are compliant with all internal and external regulations. Supervise the physical status and available resources of all planned project interventions in order to achieve the overall goal of the projects

• Regularly communicate project status including progresses, successes, risks, challenges, and opportunities for timely intervention to correct lags or capitalise good practices.

• Manage and account for full compliance of administrative, finance and HR components of the project with SHA internal procedures and requirements specified in the donor, and government contracts.

• Ensure that approval for, coding and booking of all expenditures is done according to the relevant procedures and authorization levels.

• Discusses and obtains approval of donor for contract and budget deviations.

• Fully understands procurement and comply with requirements and contracts.

• Write case studies, sharing of good practices, and documenting the entire lessons learned using all possible communication medias

• Ensure gender, nutrition, environmental and other cross-cutting aspects are mainstreamed in all project activities;

• Understand and put into practice the responsibilities under Safeguarding and gender equality and inclusion policies and SHA’s Code of Conduct and policies, ensuring that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures.

• Be responsive and appropriate to the local context;

• Facilitate/prepare training materials, proceedings, posters, etc as deemed necessary

Management of Staff and Stakeholders

• Lead, manage, supervise and provide technical support to the R4 project team

• Facilitate or provide technical advice, training and mentoring to staff of R4 project and partners in order to improve the technical quality of project implementation.

• Plan and assign deliverables and activities to project teams, review their progress, and addresses deviations in terms of timelines and quality, based on project planning, deliverables agreed and budget set.  

• Assure that all the R4 project staff and volunteers work to strengthen engagement and empowerment of the project target beneficiaries including women and youth in project implementation process for effective and efficient result.

• Facilitate team building motivate and maintain strong relationships, be passionate for the poor and achieving the project intended impact

• Ensure staff adherence to SHA and WFP core values and point out failures that need corrective measures.

• Set up/Plan regular meetings with partners and reviews project update.  

• Establish and maintain communication and dialogue with the project donor, partners and relevant stakeholders

• Works closely with project partners (including the target woredas government staff) in planning, implementing and monitoring and evaluation of the project activities;

• Work closely with the HoP, SHA technical team, project staff and partners

Monitoring and Evaluation

• Set up and follow field visits and monitoring visits with project key stakeholders including government. 

• Ensure periodic data collection for tracking project performance and decision making

• Work with M&E team to track and monitor project progress against set objectives, develop and update resilience sector database;

Key Relationships:

Internal

• Head of Programme (Line manager)

• R4 Project Team

• SHA Country Director (Head of Mission)

• SHA Programme Team/ Technical Advisors team

• SHA Finance and Administration Team

External

• Project Donor

• Local government authorities,

• Other project partner organizations,

Department: Programmes

Contract Type: One and half years fixed term contract

Reports to: Head of Programmes

Location: Addis Ababa, with frequent travel to the field sites

Job Requirements

Qualifications/Knowledge and Experience

Essential

• Master’s degree in project management, agriculture, rural development, development studies, Economics, Food Security, Disaster Risk Management,  or other related fields 

• At least ten (10) years of experience in the design and implementing of agriculture and value chain development projects, value chain analysis, building resilience, micro-enterprise/business/private sector development with demonstrated success in increasing income, especially targeting smallholder farmers and farmers/community organizations of which 3 years as a project manager with INGOs

• Experience in facilitation of learning process, networking, and knowledge management

• A good understanding of project cycle management approaches and tools

• Result-oriented, and demonstrated ability to take initiative, solve problems, facilitate, and coordinate teamwork in view of achieving expected plans and outcomes

• Experience and demonstrated skills in interacting with partners and allies, government, and stakeholders

• Exposure to project development and management, including the management of projects with a climate change and adaptation lens.

• Willingness to travel to all project locations.

• Practical experience of planning, designing, implementing, and coordinating agricultural and value chain development projects

• Proven experience in Monitoring and Evaluation and knowledge of M&E principles

• Experience in team management and coordination

• Knowledge of gender, climate and nutrition concepts and mainstreaming in value chain selection and implementation;

• Excellent communication skills, facilitation experience, reporting and presentation skills.

• Basic experience and knowledge in budget tracking and financial management

• Commitment to international and humanitarian NGO codes, standards, and practices

• High level integrity and high standards of personal conduct,

• A strong commitment to the aims, objectives, and values of the SHA Ethiopia Country Programme

• Very good level of spoken and written English

• Very good working knowledge of MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and general IT skills

Desirable

• Knowledge and experience of all R4 project components

• Experience in monitoring and evaluation of development programmes and in knowledge management and communication will be positively considered  

How to Apply

To download a copy of the Job Description and for details for how to apply, please visit our website:

CLICK HERE

Any candidate offered a job with Self Help Africa will be expected to sign Self Help Africa’s Safeguarding Policies and Code of Conduct as an appendix to their contract of employment and agree to conduct themselves in accordance with the provisions of these documents.

Specific roles may require police vetting.

Self Help Africa strives to be an Equal Opportunities Employer. Women candidates are highly encouraged