Project Manager at Heifer International

Heifer International is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender identify, sexual orientation, age, status as a protected veteran, among other things, or status as a qualified individual with disability.

Job Description:
The Hatching Hope Kenya project aims at improving the nutrition and economic livelihoods of 11,850,000 by 2022 through production, promotion and consumption of poultry in Kisumu, Migori, Siaya, Homabay, Nairobi, Nakuru and Uasin Gishu counties. Through partnership with Cargill and other key actors, the project will utilize the growing demand for poultry in Kenya to catalyze systemic change that will empower smallholder farmer as integral players in the poultry value chain while at the same time, alleviating malnutrition through poultry promotion and consumption. The project will build on Heifer’s previous interventions, in the Western part of Kenya, to reach 46,000 farmer households (207,000 individuals) to improve livelihoods through poultry production and catalyzing farmer towards a living income from a base of 1,559 (2018) to reach 3,221 USD by 2022. The project will take a multifaceted approach, targeting farmer groups as a central point for capacity building and fostering market connection.

The Project Manager is to provide overall leadership and management for the Hatching Hope Project (HHK) including leading the planning, management, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of these projects and ensuring the quality of projects, implementation, partnership management the donor reporting, and field level management is of the highest standards. The Project Manager provides line management support to all Project Officers including the Business Development Officer, Livestock Production Officer and the Project Accountant including overall management of their performance and of all the Program staff in the field offices.

The Project Manager assumes responsibility for the successful planning, financial management, reporting and documentation of the Hatching Hope (HHK) Project and any other Poultry initiatives aligned to this project in the same geographical areas.

The Hatching Hope Project has strong partnership elements with Cargill and the respective farmer owned agri-business (FOAB). The Project Manager is responsible for coordinating Heifer Kenya’s inputs and interactions with these partnerships in the implementation sites in the counties of Kisumu, Migori, Siaya, Homabay, Nairobi, Nakuru and Uasin Gishu. The Manager is also responsible for developing and coordinating partnership with the County Government and other partners in all the project operational counties.

The Project will involve a high degree of collaboration and partnership with the potential 25 farmer owned agri-business (FOAB) and the respective county government extension services and other potential business service providers including Financial Partners, Insurance Partners and Animal Health and Input Services Providers. The Manager is the public face of the project and with support from the Communications Officer coordinates the projects interactions and communications with project level partners and stakeholders including managing the aspects of the implementation and execution of Memorandums of Understanding signed to govern these relationships.

Essential Character Traits:
Heifer International Kenya is looking for a self-motivated, value and result oriented and an individual of high integrity and accountability to fill in the position of the Project Manager.

Responsibilities:
Program Management (25%)

• Assume overall responsibility for the management of the HHK project and provide line management support to all Business Development Manager, Livestock Production Officers, Project Accountant and Administrative staff.
• Support the Livestock Production Officers in the management of the field resources and project budgets and ensure these are used in compliance with approved guidelines (vehicle management, etc.).
• Implement annual performance management process for all Project staff. i. Staff performance management system for all program staff implemented on a quarterly and annual basis for all programme staff ensuring the achievement of at least 80% of the set performance targets.
• Enhanced compliance and accountability in the management of project resources, achieving 100% compliance
• Over 80 % of the planned milestones are achieved by the project on an annual basis
• Ensure 100% compliance with donor all the project donor contractual obligations by all the project staff.
• Conduct monthly project reviews to monitor project achievement towards goals and spending versus budget
• Action plans with follow-up and clearly defined responsibilities are created monthly based on identified gaps in the monthly review.

Program and Partner Planning and Budgeting (15%)

• Support all project team, Community Facilitators, CAVES and FOAB’s extension staff develop annual budgets and workplans consistent with project documents and donor contracts.
• Support teams in undertaking the necessary review and updating of the workplans, producer organization capacity building plans and budgets to respond to emerging field implementation challenges and project review processes.
• Review and support in the execution of Letters of Agreement (LOA) between the potential 25 FOAB’s and County Governments and Heifer Kenya.
• Project workplans and budgets (annual, quarterly and monthly) developed for the project every financial year and implemented in line with project documents and workplans.
• Periodic and timely reviews of budgets and reforecasting for the annual project budget is undertaken and shared with Headquarters and respective donors, ensuring alignment with the donor contracts.
• 25 FOABs develop annual capacity development plans every year that are implemented by the business and livestock production and extension staff.
• Effective management of partnerships between the 25 FOAB who are supported by the project, the partners
• (Cargill) and the County Governments to ensure 100% adherence with the LOAs.

Project Budget Management and Monitoring (15%)

• In coordination with the Project Accountant undertake quarterly budget monitoring and variance analysis for the project and support in reviewing and tracking spending to adhere to annual budgets.
• Support Program Managers and the Country Program to plan and undertake corrective management actions arising out of budget monitoring reports.
• Approve program related requests for imprest and reconciliations in line with work plans and financial management procedures. i. Monthly and Quarterly budget for the project budgets in the inception period and during implementation highlighting status of project spending and presenting these in the monthly operational meetings
• Implementing and tracking all the proposed corrective measures to address any variances beyond +/-10%, ensuring that the spending is brought on track within the planned period on a monthly basis
• Ensure program staff requests for imprests and reconciliations approved in line with workplans and financial management procedures daily.

Program Reporting, Monitoring and Evaluation (20%)

• Prepare regular quarterly, semi- and annual reports and ensure the project complies with requirements of quality reporting and timeliness.
• Develop and review the project Cargill donor reports to ensure they comply with requirements in terms of quality and timelines and ensure these are of the highest standards.
• In liaison with the PM&E Officer coordinate the project baseline survey and ensure the development of the project monitoring and evaluation framework.
• Manage the regular data collection and analysis to effectively to track productivity, living income, and household income and employment indicators in the project implementation.
• Coordinate annual impact monitoring processes the midterm and end term evaluations for the project. i. All the HHK project progress reports (quarterly, semi- and annual reports) are compliant with expected quality standards and timelines
• All the project Cargill reports are submitted to the Director of Programmes and HQ within the donor timelines and formats and in the required timelines.
• 4 HHP quarterly reports are compiled annually within the stipulated timelines
• Baseline survey for the project competed within the 3 months inception period and a project monitoring and evaluation framework develop to track the key performance indicators.
• Project database of beneficiaries and producer organizations developed by the end of the first year and updated quarterly to provide annual data on productivity, living income and employment.
• Project conducts 3 annual impact monitoring processes and 1 end term evaluation.

Documentation and lessons learning (10%)

• Document project success cases, lessons learnt and successful implementation model including the business model, extension model and the hub model.
• Documentation of Lesson learnt and experiences dissemination and sharing to inform future project development.
• Coordinate communication between the stakeholders and the project management
• At least four successful cases per year per documented from projects and disseminated through different platforms
• Lessons learnt from projects documented and disseminate to stakeholders at midterm and the end term of the project
• Successful business models including project private sector led extension model and FOAB’s implementation model documented by the project midterm and reviewed and updated by the project end.

Any other duties as assigned by the supervisor.This will be dependent on the specific duties assigned

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Rural Development, Project Planning and Management, Agriculture, Agribusiness, Veterinary Science and Animal Science and other relevant qualification. Seven (7) years relevant experience in Program management, extension and community development work.
• Master’s Degree in relevant professional discipline.
• Four (4) years of supervisory/managerial experience.
• Thorough knowledge of programming processes, systems and principles, and the ability to provide leadership and support to staff working at community level.
• Strong Poultry value chain and livestock sector experience.
• Strong background and experience in the capacity building of producer organizations including dairy cooperatives.
• Partnership management experience and working through partnership structures, consortiums and private sector partners.
• Sound business knowledge especially in the agricultural and agribusiness sector.
• Solid knowledge and foundation in proposal development, financial and budgets management and of project management cycle.
• Sound knowledge of value chain development on various agricultural commodities including the Poultry and Livestock sectors.
• Strong business skills, leadership, strategic and innovation skills.
• Strong communication skills in both English, Swahili, and other local languages of the cluster area.
• Demonstrated knowledge of the latest developments in advancing good/best practices in the dairy value chain development.
• Demonstrated creativity, ability to think systematically, willingness and ability to incorporate innovative solutions and design catalytic activities within the value chain (e.g. the concept of quality-based pricing).
• Demonstrated ability to design and implement strategies aimed at providing institutional capacity building’ to key partner institutions with a view to build a more efficient, competitive, and sustainable dairy industry. This requirement is in line with the need to have in-built ‘exit strategies’ within the project as a measure of ensuring that there are self-sustaining businesses by project end.
• Ability to manage training programs targeted at farmers in animal husbandry, feed and health.
• Knowledge of and experience in setting up cottage industries for processing for onward supply to niche and markets as well as implementing supply promotion/stimulation strategies in the context of Poultry sub-sector.
• Experience in facilitating establishment of strategic alliances and partnerships with the private sector including in extension and processing.
• Strong computer literacy, preferably with Microsoft Office Suite.

NB: Essential Job Functions and Physical Demands:

• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to relate to individuals diplomatically and tactfully.
• Must be courteous, honest and of high integrity, especially in high-pressure situations.
• Proven interpersonal and communication skills with ability to relate to individuals and groups diplomatically and tactfully.
• Self-starter and self-motivator with the ability to work in a multicultural setting.
• Must be a team player and have the ability to execute and manage multiple tasks with minimal supervision.
• Ability to work with sensitive information and maintain confidentiality.

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