Senior programme funding officer, Africa (Great Lakes)

Conflict, corruption, food insecurity, HIV. The Great Lakes region in Central Africa has huge hurdles to overcome on the way to lifting their people out of poverty. You’ll help us and our partners secure the funding that is vital to providing the support this region desperately depends upon.

We’re working with partners across the Great Lakes region in Central Africa on programmes that are addressing a range of issues, from conflict and governance to food insecurity and HIV. You’ll lead the funding work in French and English for all of these. It will involve getting a real grass roots understanding of our work, identifying potential donors, preparing funding applications and managing a range of complex financial reporting. You’ll spend time with programme teams across the region to develop your knowledge of priority areas, which will mean travelling regularly across the Great Lakes region for up to 30 days a year. It will then be down to you to translate that into successful proposals in French and English that improve the funding capacity of our NGO partners and country offices. Whilst dedicating a large part of your time (80%) to the DRC, this position may also require you to cover Rwanda and Burundi. We’ll expect you to identify funding opportunities for the Great Lakes region with institutional donors and governments and build the kind of positive relationships that will enable you to leverage those opportunities.

It’s essential that you are fluent in written and spoken French and English and have experience of preparing reports and proposals for donors such as the EC, ECHO, DFID and UN. We’ll expect you to demonstrate a proven success at securing funds as well as experience of narrative and financial reporting. Your background will have given you a real understanding of development issues and chances are you’ll also have a relevant degree and some field experience in high-risk, high-security contexts. On top of your excellent communication and presentation skills, you’ll be highly numerate and have a real analytical ability. You’ll be the kind of person who has the knowledge, qualities and skills to be a real influence on this area and someone who’s a great addition to any team.

More than half the world lives in poverty. We aim to put a stop to that. So we campaign against the inequalities that keep people poor and we work with local organisations to give people strength to find their own solutions to the problems they face, irrespective of their religion. If you’re as determined as we are to end poverty and injustice across the world, work with us to make change happen.

Please show your suitability for this post by giving answers to the following questions: Using the guidance notes on our website may help you formulate your answers.

Writing skills

Please describe a time when you had to adapt your writing style to communicate ideas and ensure that information and messages were understood by a particular audience.

Initiative

Please describe a time when you had to deal with a situation or issue proactively and persistently, and how you dealt with that situation.

Decision making

Please describe the last time you had to make an important decision when delivering a project or assignment, and how you made that decision.

Planning and organizing

Describe a specific project or activity in which you had to identify tasks and set priorities for others. Tell us how you went about planning and organizing so that the group would reach the goal.

We value the contribution each person makes to the success of our organisation. So you can expect a wide range of rewards and benefits that will ensure you enjoy a good work/life balance.

Download the role profile (30 KB pdf)

To apply for this post, please download an application and email your completed UK & Ireland application form to: recruitment@christian-aid.org(quoting the reference number). Alternatively, your completed application form can be printed out and posted to us at:

Christian Aid
35 Lower Marsh
Waterloo
London SE1 7RT

Please note that CVs will not be accepted.

Job reference: 192/LJ

Closing date: 12 noon, Tuesday 13 September 2011

Interview date: Thursday 22 September 2011

Christian Aid values diversity and aspires to reflect this in our workforce. We welcome applications from people from all sections of the community, irrespective of race, colour, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief.