Job description and person specification

Job title: UK Programme Officer

Location: Hybrid, with at least one day a week in the office in Bristol

Duration: Full time, Permanent

Working hours: full time, 35 hours a week, flexible hours possible

Salary: £32,165 + competitive holiday + pension

Start date: as soon as possible

Responsible to: Programme Manager

Overall aim:

As Programme Officer you will support the Programme Manager, Head of Programme
Management and colleagues across Tree Aid’s Anglophone portfolio in Africa in
monitoring donor contracts and compliance with donor requirements; timely project
delivery and budget utilisation; adherence to the charity’s policies and standards.

Key objectives:

•  Backstopping Tree Aid programmes – work closely with in-country team to

ensure projects are adequately resourced and delivering agreed targets within
budget.

•  Monitoring and Reporting - Reports are prepared to a high quality within the
deadlines set by the donor, and have gone through the necessary internal
reviews

•  Knowledge Management - Ensuring Tree Aid systematically learns from successes
and challenges and that best practice for project and resource management is
upheld.

•  Financial Support and Resource Mobilisation – Preparing and submitting invoices

on-time to ensure that Tree Aid projects have healthy cash flow.

Key roles/ tasks:

PROJECT BACKSTOPPING

-  Carry out regular calls with in-country programme staff to update on progress,

escalating any concerns with your manager in weekly check-ins

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Support the team to ensure the budgets are used effectively and efficiently,
reforecasting where necessary

-  Produce/support development of partner contracts.
-  Build capacity of colleagues in Ethiopia and Ghana on digital tools for project

-

management.
Support review of ToRs, contracts, deliverables, reports relating to Agroforestry,
natural resource management, entrepreneurship and forest-governance.

-  Participate in field trips to Ethiopia and Ghana as required

MONITORING AND REPORTING

-  Work alongside MEL team to establish clear MEL plans for each project and

-

support the in-country teams to deliver to these.
Take a lead in the management of the reporting cycle for Tree Aid’s
anglophone portfolio. Ensuring that the reports are prepared to a high quality
within the deadlines set by the donor and have gone through the necessary
internal reviews.

-  Participate in internal quarterly review meetings.
-

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND COMMUNICATION

-  Ensure all the important project documents are on SharePoint and support

colleagues to do likewise.

-  Make use of MS tools to ensure that there is good understanding across the team

of the critical actions and deadlines.

-  Play a critical role in the systematic and automatic capturing of lessons learned
-  Participate in building capacity of in-country colleagues for use of internal tools.

FINANCIAL SUPPORT & RESOURCE MOBILISATION

-  Ensure that each project has an up-to-date claims and invoice tracker
-

Submit invoices to donors according to the schedule and or milestones being
met.
Submit Budget Change requests to donors, with support from Programme
Manager and Finance colleagues.

-

-  Work with Finance colleagues to ensure that financial reports are accurate and

submitted on time.

LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT

-  Participate in an annual appraisal to reflect on personal progress and set new

development goals

-  Benefit from Tree Aid’s support in exploring growth opportunities and pursuing

your professional development interests

-  Option to participate in weekly French classes.

Person specification:

E = Essential criteria

D = Desirable criteria

Personal qualities

•  A commitment to Tree Aid's values (E)
•  Able to work as part of a cross-cultural team particularly with staff for whom

English is not their first language (E)

•  Able to work flexibly and be adaptable (E)
•  Shows Initiative, and can work with minimum supervision (E)

Experience

•  Minimum 3 years’ experience of project management ideally in an international

development / environmental organisation (E)
•  Experience of budgeting and donor reporting (D)
•  Experience of database management (D)

Skills/Knowledge

•  Excellent organisational skills, ability to work quickly and efficiently with high levels

of precision and prioritise a busy workload (E)

•  Ability to thrive in cross-cultural teams, working effectively with colleagues and
partners for whom English may not be a first language, with enthusiasm for
building capacity where relevant (E)

•  Strong IT proficiency, particularly in Excel (E)
•  Excellent writing skills, with high attention to detail and a track record of

producing high-quality donor reports (E)

•  Understanding of Monitoring and Evaluation frameworks in the International

Development context (D)

•  Comfortable with preparing and managing financial reports (D)
•  Enthusiastic and comfortable to travel to West Africa (1-3 times per year) (D)

Qualifications

•  Educated to Degree level in a field related to International Development,

Environmental studies, social sciences (E)

•  Masters in a field related to International Development, Environmental studies,

social sciences (D)