Programme Officer - Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development

This is a fantastic opportunity for a motivated development professional with 1-3 years’ experience to contribute to impactful agricultural and livelihoods work in one of Madagascar’s most biodiverse regions. SEED’s agriculture project works with communities to strengthen food security, promote climate-smart farming, and support sustainable land management practices. We use community-led, participatory approaches, working with local communities to identify and implement projects that meet their needs and priorities.

This is an exciting position for someone who has 1-3 years in-field experience and a particular interest in and exposure to agricultural development and climate-resilient farming systems. You will work alongside national and international staff, supporting the development, funding, reporting and evaluation of our programme. You will be responsible for generating funds across the programmes to maximise impact. This post will partner our national implementation teams, managing donor compliance, ensuring proposals and reports are to a high standard and budgets are appropriately managed.

It is essential that the post holder has grant writing experience and is able to work in English to a high standard. Candidates who do not meet these criteria will not be considered.

Title: Programme Officer

Location: Fort Dauphin, Anosy Region, Madagascar

Timeframe: 2 years, extendable

Contract Type: Local salary, £1,200 contribution to flights and £650 towards insurance

Core Duties

• Compile funding proposals based on past evaluation, team discussion and international best practice in an engaging and professional manner
• Write project reports that clearly demonstrate the successes and challenges of the projects, learning from the project and providing clear budgetary information
• Provide first-stage editing of all proposals and reports across the Department to a high standard and providing detailed, constructive feedback to interns and Officers
• Support in the management of donor compliance across several projects, working with the Programme Manager and the implementation team to ensure that project milestones are being met
• Work alongside the Programme Manager and Head of Department in problem-solving and providing additional support in line with emerging issues from project implementation
• Manage pieces of long-term project work that require a higher level of expertise and experience across the Department
• Support in the recruitment of new staff and provide support, management, review and professional development to Programme Interns, Junior Officers and specialists
• Foster essential cross-cultural collaboration, providing support to both the national and international teams to bridge gaps in understanding and priorities for project development and implementation
• Provide pastoral care, guidance and act as a role model, both professionally and personally, for a team of early career professionals living in country
• Work alongside the Head of Department, Programme Manager and Head of Finance in developing and managing the budgets relating to projects
• Develop and update resources to support project development processes, including proposal and budget templates and style guidelines
• Assist MEL specialists in developing MEL tools and analysing data, including the writing of MEL reports when needed
• Support the development of project development procedures, guidelines and training and provide project-specific information to inform policy development across the organisation
• Ensure that statistics, research, funding trackers, photo database and handovers relating to the projects are accurate
• Oversee the project-specific website and social media content
• Work with the national team and external partners in increasing their skills and capacity, providing mentoring or training where appropriate
• Take an active role in project management meetings, leading discussions and standing in for the Programme Manager where appropriate
• Form part of the team representing projects or SEED when required
• Liaise closely with the UK team in London ensuring clear communication at all times
• Ensure all of SEED’s policies and procedures are evident throughout the work of the department, including those for safeguarding, whistleblowing and anticorruption, and undertake continual training to ensure these are promoted at all times
• Complete any other tasks required by the Programme Manager, or Director of Operations and Heads of Departments commensurate with this role.

Person specification

• Degree-level qualification or equivalent experience in agriculture, rural development, food security, or a related field
• At least two years’ experience with similar programmes
• Minimum of 2 years’ professional experience of securing funding, project management, donor compliance and donor reporting
• Familiarity with the use of project management tools including Logical Frameworks, Theory of Change models, Budgets, Activity Plans and Monitoring & Evaluation frameworks
• Fluency in written and spoken English with excellent written communication skills, to the level of editing English documents for publication to a very high standard
• Excellent proposal and report writing and editing skills, with previous experience compiling project proposals and reports and the ability to tailor written information to various audiences
• Demonstrate an understanding of and commitment to SEED’s ethos and approach and be a good ambassador for the organisation at all times
• Have passion, curiosity and motivation for the job and the ability to enthuse others
• Experience of living and working in a developing country with the ability and desire to work with teams from different economic and cultural backgrounds and across multiple language barriers
• Demonstrate proven ability to recognise and appropriately deal with challenging situations and problem solve
• Demonstrate an awareness of and comfort with increased social and professional responsibility, working at all times with cultural sensitivity and respect
• Demonstrate the ability, social skills and confidence to give clear guidance and support to other members of the team in respect of the philosophy and procedures of SEED in order to protect both their safety and the reputation of the NGO
• Be able to work to and advocate for all of SEED’s policies and procedures, safeguarding those that SEED works with and reporting any concerns appropriately
• Be punctual and be able to work to tight deadlines in an organised manner and to a high standard
• Be able to work both independently and as part of a team
• Excellent listening and verbal communication skills and a flexible and patient attitude
• Ability and desire to develop and support a team of volunteers and staff and to support the Project Development internship programme
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Word, Excel and PowerPoint