Programme Manager – Sustainable Food Systems

Job Description

About Company

At Gap Recruitment, we are a leading recruitment firm in Kenya, serving both international and local companies. Our goal is to help employers find quality candidates who fit their company culture and to assist job seekers in finding their dream job and a fulfilling career. We have the expertise and resources to find the right fit for any vacancy, but we also understand that it takes more than just technical skills to succeed in a role. That’s why we focus on understanding your specific needs and culture, and why we maintain close relationships with the professionals in our database. This enables us to quickly find the perfect match for both employers and job seekers. Whether you’re an employer looking for talented employees to drive productivity or a job seeker looking for your next opportunity, we are your staffing team and we are dedicated to your success.

Position: Programme Manager – Sustainable Food Systems

Company: Embassy of Ireland

Contract: Fixed 2 years (Renewable Based on Performance; 6-months probation)

Number of positions: 1 position

Job Location: Nairobi, Kenya

Placement: February 2024

Job Purpose: 

The Embassy of Ireland, Kenya wishes to contract the services of a full-time Programme Manager to lead and manage the effective implementation of the Embassy’s Sustainable Food Systems portfolio including work on climate and agriculture, trade and private sector development, gender and youth and resilience. The position is based at the Embassy office in Nairobi, Kenya, and supports all four countries of accreditation: Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Eritrea. The Programme Manager will lead the design and delivery of the Embassy’s sustainable food systems efforts, contribute to the development of the new mission strategy, and provide high quality technical and accountability leadership. The Programme Manager will report to the Head of Cooperation.

About Employer: 

The Embassy of Ireland’s role is to deepen bilateral political relations between Ireland and Kenya; serve the needs of Irish citizens; strengthen trade, tourism and investment between our countries; and, support sustainable socio-economic development through a targeted development cooperation programme.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the effective management of the Embassy’s sustainable food systems efforts, grants and partnerships, in-line with the DFA Grant Management Standards, ensuring delivery effectiveness and efficiency, robust oversight, value for money and risk management.
• Provide leadership and technical expertise to the development of the Ireland Kenya sustainable food systems strategy and the new mission strategy (2025-2029) ensuring a whole of mission approach including links to private sector engagement and trade initiatives, climate and gender/youth.
• Ensure effective monitoring of funded interventions through developing and tracking indicators and generating evidence for reporting and lesson learning. This includes undertaking regular monitoring visits to ensure partner compliance, learning and effective implementation and engagement with a wide range of stakeholders including Government.
• Support overall Embassy planning, the implementation of the Embassy’s development cooperation portfolio, and the development and implementation of a new mission strategy.
• Lead on reporting and communicating results in areas of responsibility including the analysis of key research reports and evaluations to identify and document lessons and produce high quality materials.
• Identify opportunities to integrate our sustainable food systems efforts into other areas of the mission strategy in a manner that strengthens coherence and builds synergies including with HQ investments (e.g. two-way trade, reducing humanitarian need, gender equality and climate action).
• Ensure that the approach to grant management and partner engagement, monitoring and learning is informed by up-to-date global and local trends, evidence and best practice.
• Use senior management skills to monitor national, regional and international development and humanitarian frameworks relevant to sustainable food systems/agriculture/resilience/climate in order to identify relevant best practice that effectively informs programme development, quality and impact.
• Support the implementation of Ireland’s Foreign Policy and development cooperation objectives (Global Island, A Better World, Irelands Africa Strategy) and the linkages between these policies and the Embassy Business Plan (and evolving strategy).
• Provide high quality briefing material for senior management as required, including regular analysis of the policy, legal and socio-political environment relating to business plan priority areas nationally, regionally and globally.
• Develop and maintain a strong network of key stakeholders in Kenya (including Government of Kenya, Development Partners, research institutes, Civil Society, media and the private sector) and countries of accreditation as appropriate.
• Represent the Embassy in meetings of relevant sector working groups and coordination structures and provide timely and trusted reporting ensuring that Ireland’s policy priorities are effectively promoted.
• Other duties as required.

Required Skills & Qualifications:

Essential:

• Candidate must hold a completed post-graduate qualification in development management, agriculture or related field.
• Candidate must have a minimum of eight (8) years relevant experience working in the agriculture sector at a management level, ideally with experience on gender and climate.
• A sound understanding and practical experience of designing and managing sustainable food systems programmes including market systems development and deep knowledge of the agriculture sector in Kenya.
• Candidate must be able to demonstrate excellent written and spoken English. Applicant may be required to demonstrate language proficiency and a short written language test may be required.
• Excellent project management experience, including budget holder responsibility, with proven experience of managing complex projects with multiple stakeholders.
• Strong interpersonal skills to build effective collaborative relationships, networks and multi-stakeholder partnerships and effectively represent the organisations at senior levels.
• A proven capacity for delivering timely results and taking responsibility for quality outcomes demonstrating sound judgement.
• A high degree of flexibility and adaptability including managing competing priorities and delivering results at pace.
• High degree of integrity and trust.
• Willingness and ability to travel regularly in Kenya and the region up to 30 days/year.
• Proficient with MS Office Suite including Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint; additional IT applications would be beneficial (e.g. working with datasets).

Additional Knowledge Preferred but not Essential:

• Experience working for an institutional donor in Kenya on food systems/agriculture.
• Experience conducting policy analysis and providing policy advice to management on a range of relevant policy priorities.

What The Embassy Offers:

• Collaborative work environment fostering professional growth through learning opportunities and training.
• Successful candidates will be offered an initial 2-year fixed-term contract, subject to renewal based on performance.
• Attractive remuneration package.
• Annual leave entitlement of 21 days per year, excluding public holidays, prorated as applicable.
• Comprehensive pension and medical coverage.