ABOUT OUR CLIENT:

Our clients empowers people worldwide with the trustworthy, high-quality news and information they need to make informed decisions, participate in their communities, and hold power to account. Their vision is to unleash human potential everywhere by turning on the bright light of information.

For more than 35 years, in more than 100 countries, our client has worked to build healthy media and information environments where they are most needed. They have proudly launched hundreds of sustainable organizations, bolstered the skills of thousands of media professionals, activists, and citizens, and helped their partners reach millions of people with quality, local information.

Our client is a non-profit organisation operating internationally, with administrative centres in California, Washington DC, London and Paris as well as regional hubs in Bangkok, Kiev and Nairobi. Formed in 1982, They currently have offices in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and North America.

GENERAL FUNCTION:

The Programme Officer (PO) will be based in the Programme Support Team in London and will provide the highest standards of operational program support to the Asia Programme Management Unit (PMU) and a number of the Field Offices and partners in the Asia Region. As the HQ-based facilitator, the PO will support grant management of the portfolio of projects funded by European donors. S/he will administer donor awards, verify, quality-assure and submit donor reports, build the grant-management capacity of field teams, partners and sub-grantees, and facilitate project audits.

The PO will ensure that our client implements projects in compliance with its own and donor’s policies, rules and regulations. S/he will provide consistent support and advice to field teams and partners, and ensure control and reinforcement of all aspects of the project management cycle as related to effective grant management and contractual compliance. The PO will manage the development of budgets for Asia proposals and ensure donor and statutory compliance for all submissions under their portfolio.

The role will report to the Senior Programme Support Manager, and will work in close collaboration with the Asia Programme Management Unit, Country offices, and all HQ departments as required. S/he will contribute to knowledge management and improvement of systems. S/he will contribute to the overall programme and operations effectiveness. The role will actively participate in the building of our clients’ credibility vis-à-vis institutional donors. The role involves regular travel to the projects locations across Asia region.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Development

• Works closely with development colleagues in London and the Asia PMU to support the design of innovative, cost-effective and practical programmes;
• Advises development colleagues on key considerations relating to donor and statutory compliance;
• Develops budgets for Asia proposals in coordination with RD and Asia Business Manager if required and ensures donor and statutory compliance for all submissions under their portfolio;
• With the Senior Programme Finance Manager, plays a key role in determining co-financing liability and devising and implementing co-financing plans.

Grant Management and Donor Interface

• Provides grant management support to the Asia Programme Management Unit. Works closely with Business Manager and Regional Director to ensure coordination of programme support to field offices. Participates in regional portfolio reviews;
• Serve as Europe’s official points of contact for donors in respect of contracting, reporting, and grant income tracking, in close coordination with the Regional Director;
• Supports projects start-up phase by coordinating project stakeholders and ensuring that all relevant processes and procedures are put in place;
• Supports project director in the recruitment of key project specific financial/grant management positions in the field;
• Prepares and conducts inductions and trainings to field staff and partners on grant management and compliance. Carries out field visits and calls as necessary;
• Leads on process of due-diligence in preparation for sub-granting to local partners. Prepares partnership, sub-granting agreements and services contracts with external vendors, making sure that they comply with our client’s and donor requirements. Spot-checks financial reports from sub-grantees;
• Builds capacities of local partners when required. For example, when an award is managed directly from HQ;
• Supports project directors to set up grant management schedules for donor reporting; coordinates quality-assurance of donor reports and submits them to donors;
• Requests London HR to prepare service contracts, including those for consultants contracted from HQ. Processes invoices for consultants and service providers;
• Supports project directors in adapting standard operating procedures (SOPs) to country contexts. Monitors the compliance with SOPs from HQ to satisfy organisational and donor requirements;
• Monitors projects' implementation vis-à-vis donor contracts to ensure the implementation process is in line with agreements; highlights major implementation issues to the Regional Director and the corporate management group in London;
• Monitors the implementation of partnership agreements & service contracts signed at the HQ until their termination and close-out;
• Checks monthly expense reports from field offices for budget monitoring and donor compliance; processes wire transfer requests from field offices and partners;
• Check invoices for services from suppliers at the HQ level, codes expenses against donor budgets and works with finance team to monitor expenditures against service contracts;
• Supports project directors during the project close-out, provides guidance on required steps and minimal standards;
• Files and achieves project documentation at the HQ;
• Identifies and documents best grant management practices from individual grants, works with M&E colleagues to coordinate project debriefings with stakeholders;
• Leads on the preparation of HQ project audits.

Compliance Monitoring

• Provides training to PMU on organisational and donor compliance as required;
• Provides briefings to project stakeholders on contractual donor requirements during kick-off meetings and calls; advices project stakeholders on compliance questions throughout the project cycle as required;
• In collaboration with budget holders and Senior Programme Finance Manager, reviews budget vs. actual. Supports project directors to produce accurate financial forecasts in accordance with financial reporting cycles and flags significant variances at corporate level;
• Monitors project activities to address compliance issues early on; leads on communications to donors as appropriate, in close consultation with the Regional Director (including preparation of requests for contract amendment and requests for derogations);
• Tracks progress in relation to co-financing liabilities, highlights issues, provides clarifications on rules and regulations around co-financing;
• Regularly reviews grant management schedules to ensure timely submission of donor deliverables and reports;
• Participates in the annual work planning and budgeting process.

Knowledge management

• Provides ongoing feedback to the Senior Programme Support Manager on required improvement and updates on donor regulations and contractual obligations to ensure organisational knowledge is built and improved continuously;
• Ensures good knowledge management acro