African Parks Network (APN) recherche un Gestionnaire itinérant du financement et des rapports – Afrique centrale, N’Djamena, Tchad
Terms of Reference: Roving Funding and Reporting Manager – Central Africa
Position Title: Roving Funding and Reporting Manager – Central Africa
Reports directly to: Regional Operations Manager
Dotted reporting line: Head of Proposals, Impact Reporting and Analyses (APHQ)
Location: Ndjamena – frequent travel to parks in Chad and Central Africa
Contract period: Open ended
African Parks Network (APN), www.africanparks.org, is an international non-profit organisation that assumes full responsibility for the direct management of protected areas in long-term partnerships with governments and local communities. APN applies business management principles and combines revenues from the development of these protected areas with those of private donors. Its aim is to achieve long-term ecological, financial and social sustainability of each protected area in order to contribute to the economic development and poverty reduction of the countries and regions concerned. Currently, APN manages 22 protected areas in 12 countries – Benin, Congo-Brazzaville, Malawi, Mozambique, CAR, DRC, Rwanda, Chad, Angola, Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Soudan.
Position Background
Within the African Parks portfolio, every park management unit has a Funding & Reporting Manager (FRM) overseeing the compliant delivery of the park’s grants, delivering high quality reports for internal and external purposes and effectively relaying the park’s funding needs. In the Central Africa region of African Parks, which encompasses five protected areas (Odzala-Kokoua, Zakouma, Siniaka Minia, Chinko and Ennedi) and supports a number of conservation projects, much of the funding is of high complexity and shared between the protected areas. As such, African Parks is looking to recruit a Roving Funding & Reporting Manager that is able to provide capacity building and technical support to the region’s FRMs, coordinates and collates for high-quality inputs on the regional grants such as those from the European Union, and supports the development of attractive funding packages for the region’s parks.
The role is split between coordinating and collating the regional grant portfolio, and supporting the funding & reporting management capacity in-park. As such, your base working location will be African Parks’ Ndjamena office which functions as a service center to the parks, but the candidate must be excited and willing to spend at least half of the time working in the remote protected areas to provide capacity building and park-level surge capacity or gap cover when needed.
This roving FRM position is a new role within the African Parks portfolio and a clear pilot to inform further roll-out in other regions. An evaluation of the added value of the role and its merit for replication in other regions will be conducted after the first year. The ideal candidate brings strong grant management experience, is a good coordinator and capacity builder, has knowledge of conservation, M&E and/or social development and understands working in remote and intercultural environments.
Focus in the first months will be placed on the three Chadian parks within the region, which are in the process of closing out and renewing a number of heavy institutional grants, and can benefit greatly from a boost in technical support.
Functions and Responsibilities
In-park technical support and capacity building
- Providing specialist support to the Central African parks and building the capacity of local FRMs to i) effectively deliver the complex grants in a compliant manner, ii) provide accurate burn rate and funding gap information to the African Parks head office and iii) effectively track key monitoring and evaluation metrics for robust internal and external reporting;
- Providing gap cover or surge capacity to the parks when required, such as during leave cycles or closely overlapping deadlines of multiple funding deliverables.
Regional Support
- Coordinating and collating high quality proposals and reports for grants shared between parks, most notably for those from the European Union, in close collaboration with the parks’ FRMs and relevant Account Managers but also the (regional) financial controllers and park managers;
- Support and facilitate the fundraising account managers, regional operations manager and park managers, who are accountable for delivering on funding, in fundraising or representation events with delegations and grant-making organizations in Central Africa.
- Developing attractive funding packages and pitches for the region’s parks that sees significant new investment flow into the protected areas;
Required Qualification, Competencies and Experience for the Role
- Strong French and English;
- Over 5 years of experience, having worked with institutional funders such as the European Union, USAID or GIZ and ideally within the conservation, social development or sustainable land use management sectors in Africa;
- Strong writer and experience in developing external communications such as grant proposals and impact reports;
- A solid handle on Monitoring & Evaluation frameworks and ideally compliance requirements for various donors;
- Exposed to program development, complex budgets and detailed financial reporting requirements;
- Supporting the implementation of safeguarding and improving African Parks’ quality standards as the leading conservation organization on the continent;
- Good with people, a capacity builder and sensitive to operating in intercultural environments;
- Resilient and flexible, able to operate effectively from remote areas;
- University degree in Conservation, Biology, Social Development, Communications, International Relations, Social Sciences or other relevant field;
- Excited to take on a new, dynamic role with significant potential to grow and make a contribution to biodiversity conservation, climate change and community development in Africa.
How to apply
Please send all cover letters, CVs and copies of diplomas to the attention of the Regional Operation Manager by 06 June 2023 to rh.tchad@africanparks.org
Applications received after this deadline will not be considered. Only shortlisted candidates will be notified by email or by telephone or skype.