The Ugandan Jobline

Job Title:  Project Coordinator, AGRA Project

Organisation: Farm Africa

Duty Station: Eastern Uganda, Uganda

Reports To:  Country Representative

Duration & Hours: Fixed-term, full-time contract

About Organisation:

Farm Africa is a leading charity that works in partnership with smallholder farmers and small businesses in eastern Africa to improve the quality, quantity and value of their produce, so that they can support their families with more resilient livelihoods. We build the positive case for farming in harmony with nature, so that increasing yields goes hand in hand with restoring ecosystems and biodiversity.

About Project:

Farm Africa secured a two-year AGRA funded project to support farmers in Eastern Uganda. The project focusses on strengthening markets to facilitate the adoption of high-yielding climate-smart and nutrient-dense seed varieties of maize, beans, and rice by smallholder farmers (SHFs).

Job Summary:   The Project Coordinator (PC) will be responsible for program quality and delivery. S/He will directly supervise the project teams and be responsible for delivering the project models and approaches. S/He will be responsible for coordination, planning and implementation of the AGRA project by Farm Africa. The PC will manage relationships with key stakeholders and have overall responsibility for delivering and reporting on all project activities. You will work closely with smallholder farmers, local government, collaborating partners, anchor firms, village-based advisors (VBAs) and project staff to deliver high-quality training programs and support the adoption of healthy diets in households

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Project planning: Plan and manage the AGRA project implementation in accordance with the objectives, work plans and budgets agreed with the donor

• Develop a detailed implementation plan and budget in line with AGRA’s requirements, milestones and contractual plans for the overall programme.
• Prepare the project’s work plan and budget as part of the monthly, quarterly and annual planning process.
• Manage monthly, quarterly and annual work plans for project activities and logistics, identifying and responding to the implications of interdependencies between different sub-project work stream activities.
• Regularly review delivery progress against plans, highlighting areas of concern in a timely manner and proactively addressing them in good time.

Project delivery, implementation and internal reporting:

• Ensure the methodologies for each activity are clearly understood by the Farm Africa project team and delivered according to AGRA project approaches.
• Ensure that project activities are implemented and outputs achieved as planned and within budget and timelines that have been contractually agreed with AGRA.
• Ensure that accurate and detailed records are kept of activities delivered by Farm Africa
• Participate in quarterly programme progress review sessions with collaborating partners and other key staff including in-depth review of financial spend/burn rate; achievement against activity and output plan, and a forward look on whether the project is achieving against its objectives, indicators and beneficiaries.
• Proactively identify and monitor any risks to non-delivery and, where required, develop and implement action plans to address issues identified.
• Provide high-quality and accurate narrative and financial reports in line with contractual agreements
• Work closely with Farm Africa regional support teams, ensuring compliance in programme delivery in line with contractual agreements

Financial management and governance

• Closely monitor project expenditure, ensuring that requests for variances are requested from, and approved by, the donor ahead of time.
• Work with the Finance & Administration Manager (FAM) for Uganda to regularly forecast budgets in line with any changes in implementation plans, and where required, to reflect the changing financial context (e.g., inflation, exchange rates)
• Implement project financial controls, ensuring that financial management in the project field office follows and exceeds the basic standards contained in the Farm Africa finance procedures manual and is in line with AGRA’s requirements
• Review budget monitoring reports, and provide timely explanations and corrective actions for any significant variances
• Ensure that all procurement of goods and services is carried out in line with Farm Africa procedures and follows the terms and conditions stipulated in AGRA’s contract.
• Work with FAM to monitor financial risks, developing and implementing mitigation actions as needed

Monitoring and evaluation of the project’s outputs, outcomes and impact

• With support from the wider Monitoring & Evaluation team, develop and implement a Monitoring & Learning Plan (MLP) for the project in line with Farm Africa’s guidelines and AGRA’s requirements
• Ensure the project’s log-frame and data collection plans are regularly reviewed and refreshed
• Ensure that output data is regularly and accurately recorded using agreed tools and submitted to AGRA on a quarterly basis in line with contractual requirements
• Closely monitor progress against all indicators – reporting on progress and highlighting any concerns to the CR on a quarterly basis
• Lead the project’s annual self-assessment process ensuring that necessary evidence is collected, and all staff are actively inputting into the process
• Ensure that the project is regularly conducting beneficiary surveys, collecting other data through relevant sources, developing case studies and collating photos
• With support from the wider Monitoring & Evaluation team, oversee baseline, endline, annual project performance review, impact stories, case studies, ensuring that learning and recommendations from those evaluations/assessments are explicitly incorporated into the project’s future implementation activities.

Support the contract management for the project, ensuring that donor reports are of a high standard:

• Support annual PPR reflection processes to assess any adjustments needed to budget allocations for the project
• Produce accurately and timely narrative and financial reporting information for review and submission by CR and Programme Support Team
• With support from FAM, ensure that full transactional reports for all expenditures are received promptly in Kampala within one week of the month end to ensure timely onward reporting to the donor
• Proactively identify any required changes to donor-agreed work plans, objectives and/or budgets, working with the CR and Programme Support team to agree and implement any necessary contract revisions or renegotiations
• Ensure compliance with donor procurement and other contractual requirements
• Support management and oversee the quality of donor visits to the region

Leadership and management of project team:

• Spend a high proportion of the time in the field guiding the delivery of project activities and ensuring timely and high-quality delivery in line with donor expectations and requirements
• Working with the Country Office team, lead on the recruitment of new staff to the project team
• Hold weekly staff meetings and share minutes and key action points to CR and any relevant stakeholders
• Provide leadership and motivation to all project staff building values-based team working and individual staff skills relevant to the project.
• Regularly provide both informal and formal coaching and feedback to all project staff
• Effectively and promptly deal with any poor performance and actively recognise and encourage strong performance
• Actively seek feedback on own performance and effectiveness from both country leadership as well as own project staff.
• Hold in-person supervision sessions with all line-managed staff at least once per month (to discuss progress against their personal development objectives and work targets) and carry out in-person annual appraisals with all line-managed staff

Manage and nurture mutually beneficial partnerships with stakeholders:

• Proactively identify and raise with the CR (and others as appropriate) any project-related delivery risks, and work with associated stakeholders to implement action plans to resolve identified issues
• Act as a project ambassador, promoting the project, including hosting visitors, speaking at workshops and conferences, and meeting donors and other officials when required
• Provide formal representation of the project at regional level with respect to key signatory government parties; ensure periodic reports are submitted to them on a timely basis
• Convene quarterly project meetings, involving representatives from all stakeholder groups
• Support organisation of external events, forums and conferences to share project lessons and experiences

Playing a Play an active role as a member of the Farm Africa Country team

• Contribute to the development and implementation of Farm Africa’s strategy
• Identify and explore opportunities to grow and expand the country project pipeline, both in relation to the current project or related to new project opportunities
• Work with the MELC, CR and the UK Programme Funding Unit to prepare funding proposals where requested, ensuring that any lessons learned during implementation are documented and built into future project design
• Participate in country-level or pan-Farm Africa programme meetings with other project coordinators, as reasonably requested

These essential functions are not to be interpreted as a complete statement of all duties performed. Employees will be required to perform other job-related duties as required. All work responsibilities are subject to having performance goals and/or targets established.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

Essential

• Postgraduate degree or equivalent in Agriculture, Agribusiness, Rural Development, Rural Livelihoods or any other related field.
• Demonstrable understanding of rural development in Eastern Uganda context
• Excellent understanding of inclusive-based approaches to development and particularly approaches which encourage greater participation of women and youth
• Good understanding of impactful models on private sector engagement
• Experience of operationalising project plans with multiple external stakeholders and managing implementing partners
• Experience in financial management, including the ability to develop, read and manage budgets; and rapidly spot potential issues and solutions
• Experience of working on market systems development projects
• Direct experience of formalising smallholder producer supply chains, or supporting agribusinesses to do the same
• Experience of using a range of tools to monitor project outcomes on an ongoing and regular basis
• Experience of using a range of tools to monitor delivery of activities and collating this information for sharing with donors.
• Experience of producing high-quality narrative reports for large-scale donors
• Excellent written and oral communication and presentation skills with the ability to work with both Government, CSOs and Private Sector stakeholders.
• Ability to lead and mentor Farm Africa staff and work well with partner staff
• Excellent training/facilitation skills and experience
• Excellent network and excellent relationship with government partners
• Ability and willingness to travel widely and frequently both regionally and nationally
• Ability to build strong relationships with stakeholders based on trust, collaboration, demonstrated commitment and impact, deploying a wide range of influencing techniques as required

Desirable

• Further relevant academic qualification in Agriculture, Agribusiness, Rural Development, Rural Livelihoods or other relevant field
• Experience of working in Eastern Uganda
• At least three years field-based experience implementing agricultural projects in Eastern Uganda, integrating various approaches.
• Experience of working with district local government at various levels, fintechs, anchor firms, and other key stakeholders, leveraging expertise and resources to optimize resources and maximize impact.
• Experience of designing production planning tools for smallholder farmers.
• Demonstrated leadership, line management and team building experience – including conducting appraisals and managing under-performance.
• Excellent organisational and planning skills with demonstrable ability to plan and manage your own workload including writing concept notes for activities and reporting on progress

How to Apply:

To apply, please send a CV, salary history, and a two-page supporting statement detailing how you meet the person specification and your availability/notice period to ugandarecruitment@farmafrica.org including the job title in the subject line.

Deadline: 12th March 2025 by 5:00 pm

NB: Please DO NOT send additional documents such as certificates and references with your application. Successful candidates ONLY will be required to provide these documents during the referencing process.

Due to the urgent requirement to fill this position, applications will be assessed and suitable candidates invited for interview on a rolling basis. This may mean that the position is filled before the closing date so qualified candidates are urged to submit their applications promptly.

For more of the latest jobs, please visit https://www.theugandanjobline.com or find us on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UgandanJobline

Related Jobs