The Green Belt Movement is a non-governmental organization founded in Kenya in 1977 by Professor Wangari Maathai. The Movement’s work focuses on conserving the environment by empowering rural women and communities through environmental education, supporting conservation and climate change mitigation activities in Kenya, and creating livelihood safety-nets at household level.

What are we looking for?

• The Greenbelt Movement is in an exciting growth phase, expanding its work in Kenya and increasing its influence across Africa. The Greenbelt Movement seeks to hire a Program Manager to provide overall leadership to our programs. The ideal candidate will resonate with the values of the organization, is committed and passionate about environmental protection and sustainability, is a highly motivated person able to work under minimal supervision and provide effective leadership to a large, diverse team, has the ability to act on initiative and to meet deadlines, can think critically and creatively, is both a team player and team builder, and has experience working with local communities.
• Reporting to the Executive Director, the Program Manager works closely with and provides guidance to the program team. The key components of the role include supporting effective implementation of current programs, providing technical guidance to the programs team, contributing to strategy implementation and its further development; leading program development in new areas of work, and supporting fundraising. The successful candidate will be based in Nairobi, with frequent local and occasional international travel.

Key roles and responsibilities:

Program Strategy

• Contribute to the development of GBM’s strategy and operationalized through a relevant and coherent body of work with due emphasis on feasibility, sustainability, and financial viability.
• Provide input, guidance and thought leadership on program implementation, develop new areas of programming, and ensure the programs continue to be responsive to the broader current and evolving contexts while remaining true to GBM’s overall mission and vision.
• Work with the programs teams, other colleagues at GBM as appropriate to ensure the ongoing delivery of robust programs strategy which is rooted in the needs and priorities of communities and the best practice and in line with GBM vision and mission.

Technical Oversight to Programme Delivery

• Work with ED to provide thought leadership and oversight of all programmatic work in accordance with GBM’s vision/mission with an eye towards long term effective implementation and sustainability.
• Ensure GBM is providing thought leadership in the land restoration, reforestation and sustainable development sectors nationally, regionally and globally.
• Lead and deliver quality project cycle management, including situation analyses; project and partner identification; project design, budgeting and resource mobilization, negotiation and contracting; baseline and planning; monitoring; timely and accurate financial and narrative donor reporting; evaluation and audit; and dissemination of lessons learned.
• Provide sound technical advice is offered to local tree nursery groups and relevant stakeholders in alignment with program-specific documents.
• Keep track of the financial status of the Programme and overall tracking of the performance of grants in your program
• Regular monitoring and evaluation of the programs performance to identify any gap and take the appropriate measures timely
• Provide timely submission of program reports to the ED.
• Support the development of the partnership network of civil society organizations, governments, research institutions, technical experts, and donors; support maintenance and Develop and nurture beneficial partnerships, alliances and policy /technical resources
• Remain informed on current policy debates and engage in relevant fora to ensure GBM’s strategy remains innovative and GBM’s work is distributed in relevant policy circles.
• Work with the GIS and M&E teams to ensure effective monitoring, evaluation and learning.
• Communications and Advocacy
• Work closely with the communications and advocacy team to ensure effective communications about the programs.
• Work with communications team to ensure GBM is effectively represented in national, regional and global forums and remains relevant to policy debates and processes
• Work closely with the communications and advocacy team to ensure the development and dissemination of strong content in all GBM platforms.
• Create and participate in networks with relevant stakeholders in Kenya and the region.
• Resource Mobilization & Donor relations
• Support the ED in identifying fundraising needs and developing the annual budget. Develop quality funding proposals and bids and their negotiation.
• Work to heighten GBM profile and its credibility in the environmental conservation sector and forums
• Support in attracting support to the program’s portfolio through liaison with existing and potential implementation partners and peers, technical support and research agencies and institutions, donors and policymakers. Provide regular updates to relevant stakeholders and donors on work progress and involve them in ongoing work.
• Maintain awareness of key donors and other important stakeholders policy priorities, procedures and preferred technical approaches as well as funding or other business opportunities which they may afford
• Support the ED to donors, partners, governments, peers, and experts at all levels and support beneficial institutional linkages.

People Leadership

• Contribute to the overall management and direction of the organization in support of the executive director and as a part of the senior management team
• Provide technical leadership to program team resource ensuring high quality performance of the staff nurturing engaged workforce and ensuring effective coordination and collaboration between the various project components.
• Manage, motivate, facilitate and support the personal development and performance of programs team members, including through appraisal, coaching, individual and team training, exchange of experience, and facilitating participation in appropriate meetings and seminars
• Ensure that the work environment is healthy, motivating, empowering and synergistic

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in environmental science, forestry, law, public policy or other relevant science or social science field. Advanced degree an advantage.
• At least 10 years of demonstrated work experience, at least 5 of which should be in program leadership level experience in similar nongovernmental organization
• Excellent track record in program management, including project planning, budgeting, implementation and monitoring and evaluation.
• Excellent experience in working with local communities.
• Solid experience in fundraising including developing concepts and proposals, donor relations and effective implementation based on funding contracts.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills with ability to communicate complex issues and ideas in accessible ways.
• Ability to undertake required local and international travel.