Project Coordinator at Sign of Hope (SoH)

Summary of the job title

• The Project Coordinator is being recruited initially to coordinate the implementation of the WAHAFA-supported Building Early Action Capacity through local Ownership and cross-border Networks (BEACON) Omo-Turkana project. The project focuses on the Omo River-Lake Turkana cross-border corridor, with work in Turkana County in Kenya and the adjoining South Omo area of Ethiopia. Its central objective is to coordinate the participatory development, testing and validation of one locally owned, operational and protection-sensitive cross-border Early Action Protocol (EAP) for drought and flooding.
• Reporting to the Country Representative - Kenya, the Project Coordinator will initially be fully dedicated to the BEACON Omo-Turkana project and will provide strong day-to-day coordination, leadership, grant and project management, monitoring and evaluation, documentation, learning and reporting. The Coordinator will work closely with SoH Kenya and Ethiopia teams, SoH Germany, the relevant cross-border programme team and structures, local implementing partners, government and technical stakeholders, and other actors involved in anticipatory action. While the initial primary focus is the BEACON project, the Coordinator may, subject to organizational needs, workload and applicable donor requirements, be assigned to support other SoH humanitarian and development projects in Kenya and the wider region.

Core duties

Project Coordination and EAP Development

• Coordinate day-to-day implementation of the BEACON Omo-Turkana project in accordance with the approved proposal, workplan, budget, donor requirements and SoH policies and procedures.
• Coordinate the participatory development, testing and validation of the cross-border Early Action Protocol for drought and flooding, ensuring that the Kenya and Ethiopia workstreams progress as one coherent process.
• Maintain and regularly update the Project Implementation Plan, milestone and deliverables tracker, and follow up agreed actions, responsibilities and deadlines with the project teams and partners.
• Coordinate key technical and implementation processes, including risk and vulnerability analysis, stakeholder mapping, forecast and indicator review, trigger development and validation, early action prioritization, readiness planning, scenario exercises, simulation and final EAP validation.
• Coordinate project meetings, field missions, community consultations, technical workshops and validation processes, ensuring that required inputs and follow-up actions are completed on time.
• Identify implementation challenges and emerging risks, facilitate timely corrective action and escalate issues requiring management or technical decisions.
• Ensure project activities and outputs are delivered to the required quality standard and remain aligned with the project’s cross-border design and intended results.
• Support preparation and consolidation of the final cross-border EAP and its country-specific operational annexes, ensuring that technical and community inputs are reflected clearly.

Cross-Border Coordination and Stakeholder Engagement

• Serve as the principal day-to-day coordination link between SoH Kenya, SoH Ethiopia, SoH Germany, the Diocese of Lodwar, Catholic Caritas Ethiopia-Soddo and relevant cross-border programme structures.
• Coordinate and, where required, serve as secretariat to the Cross-border EAP Steering Committee/Coordination Group, including preparation of meetings, documentation of decisions and follow-up of agreed actions.
• Facilitate effective engagement with county, regional, zonal, woreda and local authorities, disaster risk management structures, meteorological and hydrological institutions, sector departments, technical working groups and other relevant anticipatory action actors.
• Maintain clear and timely communication and information flow across the Kenya and Ethiopia workstreams, ensuring technical, community and partner inputs are consolidated consistently into project outputs.
• Work closely with SoH cross-border programmes and other relevant humanitarian and development initiatives to strengthen complementarity, institutional relationships, coordinated learning and efficient use of existing structures.

Grants, Financial and Operational Management

• Coordinate implementation of the institutional donor grant and ensure compliance with agreed objectives, contractual conditions, timelines, donor regulations and SoH internal procedures.
• Work closely with Finance to monitor budget utilization and project expenditure, review budget-versus-actual performance, identify variances and support timely corrective measures or budget revisions where required.
• Coordinate partner workplans, budgets, reporting schedules and grant deliverables, and follow up with partners to ensure timely and compliant implementation.
• Work with procurement, logistics, finance and administration colleagues to ensure timely operational support for project activities, field missions, workshops and other implementation requirements.
• Maintain complete and well-organized project and grant documentation and contribute to donor reporting, grant reviews, audits, compliance checks and any approved project modifications.

Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, Learning and Documentation

• Coordinate project monitoring systems and tools, including indicator tracking, activity monitoring, milestone tracking and consolidation of monitoring information from the Kenya and Ethiopia workstreams.
• Undertake and coordinate regular field monitoring, project review and reflection processes, and ensure that findings are used to improve implementation quality and decision-making.
• Ensure high-quality documentation of consultations, technical decisions, implementation progress, challenges, adaptations, lessons learned and good practices throughout the project cycle.
• Prepare and coordinate timely, accurate and high-quality narrative, technical and management reports, learning products, case studies, presentations and other project documentation as required by SoH and the donor. Promote systematic learning and information sharing between SoH, partners, government and technical stakeholders, and ensure lessons from the Build phase inform future anticipatory action and wider humanitarian and development programming.

Capacity Strengthening and Wider Programme Support

• Identify capacity-strengthening needs among project teams and partners and coordinate appropriate technical, project management, grant management, monitoring, documentation and learning support.
• Promote adherence to humanitarian principles, relevant humanitarian standards, safeguarding, accountability to affected populations, protection mainstreaming and conflict-sensitive programming.
• Contribute, as assigned, to assessments, project design, proposal and concept-note development, reporting, reviews and other programme quality processes relevant to SoH humanitarian and development work. Subject to organizational priorities, workload and donor requirements, provide coordination, grant management, monitoring and evaluation, reporting, documentation and learning support to other SoH humanitarian and development projects in Kenya and the wider region.

The duties and responsibilities set out above are not exhaustive. The Project Coordinator may be required to undertake other reasonable assignments consistent with their skills and experience. Although the initial assignment is centred on the BEACON Omo-Turkana project, the post holder should be prepared to support other SoH humanitarian and development projects when requested and where this is compatible with donor requirements and agreed priorities.

Candidates’ profile

• A minimum of a Bachelor’s degree in Disaster Risk Management, International Development, Project Management, Humanitarian Action, Development Studies, Climate Change, Natural Resources Management, Social Sciences, Public Health or another relevant field.
• A minimum of five years of progressively responsible experience in project or programme coordination/management, preferably in humanitarian, resilience, disaster risk reduction or development programming.
• Demonstrated practical experience in humanitarian programming, including work in emergency, disaster risk management, resilience or fragile and crisis-affected contexts.
• Demonstrated experience managing institutional donor grants. Experience with German institutional donors, particularly BMZ and GFFO, is strongly preferred; relevant experience with other institutional donors will also be considered.
• Strong practical knowledge of grant and project cycle management, including work planning, budgeting, donor compliance, partner follow-up, implementation monitoring and narrative reporting.
• Proven skills in financial and grant management, including budget monitoring, budget-versus-actual analysis and identification of corrective actions.
• Experience coordinating multi-stakeholder and/or multi-partner projects; experience with cross-border or multi-country programming is an advantage.
• Knowledge or experience in anticipatory action, early warning/early action, disaster risk reduction, climate risk management or resilience programming is highly desirable.
• Demonstrated experience in monitoring and evaluation, including indicator tracking, data quality review, results monitoring and use of evidence for adaptive management.
• Strong documentation, learning and knowledge-management skills, including the ability to produce high-quality reports, lessons learned, case studies and other learning products.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively and respectfully with government institutions, local partners, communities, technical agencies, NGOs/INGOs, donors and other stakeholders.
• Experience in partner management, accompaniment, mentoring and/or capacity strengthening.
• Good understanding of community participatory approaches, localization and accountability to affected populations.
• Knowledge of humanitarian principles and relevant humanitarian quality standards, including safeguarding, protection mainstreaming and conflict-sensitive programming.
• Strong leadership, coordination and facilitation skills, including the ability to influence, build consensus and coordinate teams and partners where direct line-management authority may be limited.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving and organizational skills, with demonstrated attention to detail and ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines.
• Excellent spoken and written English, with strong report-writing, presentation and professional communication skills.
• Advanced working knowledge of MS Word, Teams, Excel and PowerPoint; ability to use project monitoring and collaboration tools is an added advantage.
• Willingness and ability to travel regularly to remote project areas in Northern Kenya and, where required, Ethiopia, and to work effectively in multicultural and complex operating environments.

Conditions:

• Duration of contract: Short-term, project-based contract
• Salary according to qualification and experience