Programme Manager: Preventing Violent Extremism at Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO)

To support the management of the £12m Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) programme to deliver against agreed outputs whilst monitoring and evaluating progress, reporting on finances and ensuring compliance with UK government regulations. Particular emphasis will be placed on thorough risk management and delivering the programme’s outcome through developing and maintaining effective working relationships with partners.

Roles and responsibilities

• Programme delivery: support the effective implementation of the PVE programme, along with the Senior Programme Manager; working closely with external partners and working collaboratively with a complex network of colleagues based across the Mission, region and wider CSSF network to effectively implement the PVE programme – this includes London-based colleagues working in the CSSF Africa and cross-government Joint Funds Unit.
• Stakeholder Management: develop an excellent working relationship with implementing partners in Kenya and across the East Africa region to ensure the successful implementation of the programme. Develop an extensive network of contacts across the BHC Nairobi, other UK missions and central UK Government to raise the profile of the programme and ensure full coordination with key partners.
• Risk Management: draft and own risk register to systematically manage risks to programme and portfolio delivery; work with implementers to identify and measure the impact of specific risks, and agree and implement mitigating actions; work with implementers to measure the impact of those mitigating actions, and, where necessary, escalate concerns to the appropriate level.
• Financial management: develop and maintain systems to manage expenditure; make sure that spend v forecast is accurately captured and reported in line with team and CSSF requirements; where necessary, challenge programme expenditure, making sure implementers are maximising the value of CSSF’s investment; process payments using the FCO administration programme PRISM.
• Compliance: ensure that programme development and delivery is compliant with rules and regulations on Overseas Development Assistance as well as the internal guidelines for the Conflict, Security and Stability Fund (CSSF); support in the generation and collation of information and documentation for annual reviews and audits in line with contracts.
• Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E): monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of projects, through liaison with our external M&E partners and regular engagement with implementers and visits to project activity; make sure all project activity has a results framework which clearly articulates outputs, against which progress can be measured and reported; support evaluation work across the programme in line with the CSSF annual review schedule.
• Corporate: contribute to the effective management of the East Africa Team; share and store programme document/information in line with team guidelines; represent the team and wider CSSF in internal and external partner meetings, where appropriate.

The East Africa CSSF Team is focused on delivering a programme tp support a more stable, secure, prosperous and better governed East Africa region, whose countries are better able to address their demographic, security and economic development challenges, thereby improving prosperity and reducing threats to the UK. We do this by investing £9.6m per year to tackle conflict, instability and insecurity in four policy areas: Criminality, Security, Migration and PVE, alongside our HMG partners. In this role you will have the opportunity to shape the future direction of CSSF engagement across East Africa, working with colleagues across the region. You will join a friendly and supportive team and benefit from regular engagement with senior colleagues who oversee our work. This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced project manager looking to develop their programme management skills and make a difference to citizens in the UK and East Africa.

Resources managed (staff and expenditure):

The PVE programme is currently envisioned to be approximately £4m per financial year until March 2022.

• Experience of project and management including risk management skills, with a proven ability to track spend and report against milestones;
• An excellent command of written and spoken English and be able to present complex ideas clearly in briefings and meetings;
• Willingness to travel is a must.