Programme Development Officer

Job Title: Programme Development Officer

Function: Programme support

Job Group: Programmes

Duty Station: Erbil, Iraq with frequent travel to Federal Iraq

Administrative Line Manager: Programme Development Manager

Line Management Responsibility: N/A

ABOUT US

Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP) envisions a worldwide culture of peace where conflicts within and between communities and nations are managed through nonviolent means. NP is a global civil society organization that works with people affected by violent conflicts to enhance their security and dignity through unarmed civilian protection (UCP) and by helping to transform the world’s response to conflict situations.

JOB PURPOSE

The Programme Development Officer hereafter referred to as the PDO, is responsible for the development of programs and leads grant management to maintain support and programme quality. The PDO is responsible for supporting and overseeing field and country office teams to ensure donor compliance is adhered to, monitoring and evaluation systems are implemented, and programme quality is maintained for the best results to achieving NP’s organizational goals. More specifically, the PDO works to: conduct assessments, establish and maintain donor relationships, write proposals, manage grants, monitor, and evaluate projects, and report to donors as per contract agreements.

KEY OBJECTIVES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

Commitment to NP Principles

• Demonstrate a commitment to NP’s mandate and principles
• Maintain a positive image of the organization full time while in the field
• All NP employees are expected to work in accordance with the organization’s guiding principles:
• Nonviolence
• Non-partisanship
• The primacy of local actors
• Civilian-to-civilian action

These principles and beliefs shall guide our actions and relationships in protecting civilians in violent conflicts through unarmed strategies

Support program development strategy, preparing proposals for donors, and negotiating contracts

• Contribute substantively to developing and adapting the organization’s fundraising strategy, including identification of funding opportunities and tracking calls for proposals.
• Establish and maintain positive relationships with donors and potential donors; including maintaining relevant contact lists and meeting notes.
• Develop proposals, log frames, and proposal budgets. This includes soliciting ideas from field teams and program staff, contributing creative ideas, and packaging proposals to meet the specific needs of different donors.
• Proactively follow up with the donors following proposal submission to monitor progress, answer questions and amend submission, as necessary.
• Conduct and assist in the negotiations of donor contracts, ensuring that costs including overheads are recovered, that NP systems can generate the compliance information required by the contract, and that NP’s best interests are represented.
• Help programme colleagues ensure that all project costs are included in budgets – where necessary by submitting proposals to more than one donor.

Grants Management

• Maintain orderly files and involve all internal stakeholders in communications on fundraising issues.
• Prepare grant inception package for programmes and finance staff following the successful negotiation of donor contracts, ensuring that salient information regarding grant management is clearly flagged and communicated and that all relevant paperwork is made available.
• Convert donor budgets into internal budget formats, including for monthly variance reporting, and use budget lines that allow the NP accounting system to be used to generate donor finance.
• Assist programmes in interpreting the terms of, and in re-negotiating ongoing donor contracts when requested.

Monitoring & Evaluation

• Develop M&E tools to facilitate the accurate collection of data needed to measure the efficacy of programming and report to donors.
• Assist in the process of rolling out M&E tools to the field and provide field teams with technical support to implement them. This may include conducting workshops for field staff on monitoring, evaluation, and reporting.
• Monitor project outputs, track progress towards indications, and measure the impact of projects.
• Design and implement a data management system for routine programme monitoring.

Reporting

• Coordinate data collection from programme staff and write/edit narrative donor reports.
• Liaise with the finance department regarding financial reporting to ensure that financial reports are submitted on time, in adherence to financial reporting requirements, and that they correspond to the narrative reports.
• Support the development of ad-hoc donor requests for activity/programme reporting,
• Prepare quarterly narrative programme reporting for submission to NP’s Board by SMT
• Contribute to team-wide communications and knowledge management and participate in organization-wide events and discussions on related topics/projects.

Other

• Travel to field sites to enhance understanding of the context and programming for the purposes of developing proposals and reporting to/liaising with donors. This includes trips to remote field sites with challenging physical conditions.
• Undertake other tasks reasonably expected of her/him

Programme Development & Fundraising

• Support the Iraq country team in defining program development strategy, preparing proposals for donors, and negotiating contracts.
• Work with the country management team to establish and maintain positive relationships with donors and potential donors including acting as the focal point for donor relations
• Lead the development of proposals, log frames, and budget narratives. This includes soliciting ideas from field teams and program staff, contributing creative ideas, coordinating with the programme management team, and packaging proposals to meet the specific needs of different donors
• Pursue funding opportunities other than direct grants from donors, e.g. as a subgrantee or consortium member.
• Support in budget development for new proposals ensuring that all project costs are included in budgets

Grants Management & Reporting

• Compile and analyze data from field activity reports to align with grant deliverables
• Support the monitoring of project outputs, track progress towards indicators, and measure the impact of projects
• Lead grant inception process, interim grant management meetings including BVAs, and grant close-out process with programs, operations, and finance teams.
• Lead in drafting narrative donor reports and coordinating with the finance department to ensure that financial reports are submitted on time, in adherence with financial reporting requirements, and that they correspond to the narrative reports.
• Contribute to team-wide communications and knowledge management and participate in organization-wide events and discussions on related topics/projects
• Ensures consistency of means of verification (MoV) of all programme activities across all field sites. This may include conducting workshops for field staff and technical support on monitoring, evaluation, and reporting.

Other

• Travel to field sites in order to enhance understanding of the context and programming for the purposes of developing proposals and reporting to/liaising with donors.
• Support programmatic input into relevant advocacy efforts, whether in-country or at a global level

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Education, Knowledge, and Experience

• Excellent English oral and written communication skills, including the ability to analyze and present a cogent argument both in writing and orally.
• Track record of developing successful proposal packages, including narrative, log frames, and budgets.
• Significant experience developing narrative donor reports
• Completion of financial reporting for donors.
• Experience tracking donor trends and opportunities.
• Experience developing, implementing, and utilizing M&E tools.
• Experience of managing and prioritizing a high workload with a flexible approach to changing environments.

Context-specific

• Experience implementing programmes in the field, ideally in humanitarian emergencies
• Knowledge or demonstrable interest in civilian protection, human security, violence reduction and/or peacebuilding
• Knowledge of the context in Iraq and the Middle East

Skills

Independent Judgment/Analytical:

• Ability to solve problems, analyze data and prioritize a high workload with a flexible approach to changing environments.

• Ability to work and meet strict deadlines

• Ability to manage information with discretion

• Attention to detail

• Ability to be creative and innovative in generating new ideas and undertaking research

• Enthusiasm to learn and apply new skills

• Ability to work under pressure and under difficult conditions

Interpersonal:

• Ability to work effectively and diplomatically in a multi-cultural environment

• Ability to be a collaborative team player, willing to proactively help colleagues

Languages and communication:

• Fluency in written and spoken English

• Information management oriented

Information Technology:

• Advanced skills in Microsoft Office applications