ntroduction

WaterAid’s vision is of a world where everyone has access to safe water and sanitation. Our mission is to transform lives by improving access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in the world’s poorest communities.

WaterAid works through supporting local organisations and government authorities to design and demonstrate appropriate and sustainable WASH programs. WaterAid also seeks to influence policy change through government and other key sector actors to secure and protect the right of poor people to safe, affordable water and sanitation services.

Everything we do is shaped by our six values:

• Integrity
• Respect
• Collaboration
• Courage
• Accountability
• Innovation

Overview

WaterAid Australia works within a federated international NGO structure, and is the WaterAid international member responsible for managing country programs in South East Asia and the Pacific. WaterAid Australia has country programs in Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea, and Cambodia.

The organisation is seeking a highly motivated and experienced Program Coordinator within the Policy and Programs team to provide quality grant and project management, and operational support to WaterAid’s programs in Timor-Leste.

WaterAid is a child safe organisation and committed to protection from sexual exploitation and abuse in everything we do. All positions within WaterAid are required to comply with our Child Safeguarding Policy and Code of Conduct.

Job purpose

The purpose of the role is to support programming across WaterAid Australia’s country program in Timor-Leste, with a specific focus on strengthening the capacity of country program staff to effectively manage grants. To achieve this the Program Coordinator will need to have strong professional relationships with the Country Director, Operations Team and Program Managers, and provide operational and financial management support to country program staff.

The Program Coordinator will have strong professional relationships with colleagues within WaterAid’s Policy and Programs team to ensure that global norms and best practice related to program quality, planning, monitoring, evaluation and accountability, and gender and social inclusion are applied. The role is responsible for managing all Australia-based contracts for programming in Timor-Leste.

The role also works closely with finance and corporate and community engagement teams in the Melbourne office to ensure effective financial management of grants, and leads on coordination with operations teams in country to ensure WaterAid’s financial processes are relevant, understood and implemented.

Keeping in mind the overall purpose described above, the following key accountabilities are highlighted.

Key accountabilities

Grant Management

• Support the management of allocated WaterAid Australia’s institutional grants including:
  • ensuring compliance with grant requirements;
  • maintaining grant management systems and processes and supporting country programs to manage compliance, in line with DFAT accreditation and quality standards;
  • reviewing, drafting and negotiating contracts with Australia-based donors and partners and overseeing management of contracts;
  • engaging in program planning in consultation with team members, partners and stakeholders;
  • supporting country program counterparts to coordinate and write donor reports, reviewing and taking a leading role as necessary;
  • working with country program counterparts to manage grant finances, including preparing budgets, tracking expenditure and reviewing and preparing financial reports and invoices to donors;
  • contributing to the development of risk management plans and actively manage risks;
  • managing project files to WaterAid and DFAT accreditation standards and ensuring that accurate grant information is accessible to both Melbourne and Timor-Leste based staff.
• Support and improve WaterAid’s grant management systems, including:
  • Working with staff in Timor-Leste to identify gaps and recommending process and system improvements as necessary;
  • Supporting the development of new grant management systems as required;
  • Leading on a particular area of system improvement or compliance as identified by the Program Operations team, including liaising with other teams; and
  • Working with the Head of Program Operations to develop and implement grant management capacity strengthening initiatives for country program staff.

Program Operations

• In close consultation with the Regional Program Operations Coordinator and the Head of Program Operations, support management of country program finances, including:
  • Supporting staff in Timor-Leste to prepare annual budgets and quarterly reforecasts, including allocation of expenses to grants and projects;
  • Ensuring systems are in place to support country programs staff to implement WaterAid’s cost recovery and reforecasting mechanisms;
  • Reviewing funds requests and approval of funds transfers;
  • Reviewing expenditure against budgets; and
  • Supporting country programs in preparations for audits.
• Manage the contractual relationships with consultants and partner organisations, where those relationships are managed from Melbourne including:
  • Preparing and negotiating agreements;
  • Providing relevant information, documentation, and briefings for consultants and partner personnel travelling to a country program;
  • Monitoring the quality of outputs and deliverables against agreements; and
  • Ensuring payments are processed in accordance with agreements.

Quality Programming

• Working closely with the Learning and Effectiveness team in Melbourne and country program counterparts to ensure lessons from program implementation are well documented and linked to strategic, advocacy and policy work;
• Supporting country program staff to meet agreed standards of accountability as required by WaterAid’s planning, monitoring and evaluation processes;
• Working closely with staff in Timor-Leste to identify support needs and the Strategy, Quality and Technical team to coordinate technical inputs;
• Ensuring the coordination of Melbourne based staff visits to Timor-Leste;
• Supporting integration of gender and social inclusion within programming;
• Supporting monitoring, evaluation and reporting of specific grants, including:
  • Contributing to the design monitoring and evaluation frameworks;
  • Compiling M&E data and reporting on achievements to donors and partners;
  • Supporting the development of Terms of Reference and managing contracts for monitoring and evaluation consultant visits.

Program and Business Development

• Support country program staff to plan programs effectively in line with Country Strategies, ensuring that the quality of work meets WaterAid’s standards;
• Review and contribute to high quality business plans of country programs, with a particular focus on aspects related to grant management and program operations;
• Support country programs and engage with the Corporate and Community Engagement team to identify opportunities for funding and develop proposals for institutional donors, corporations and philanthropic foundations;
• Contribute to the preparation of proposals for institutional donors and manage overall proposal compilation and editing for agreed opportunities; and
• Provide other support as needed to support the effective operation of the Timor-Leste country program and Program Operations Team.

Qualifications, Skills and Selection Criteria

Essential

Experience

1. Demonstrated relevant work experience in grant / project management roles for an international organisation.

Education

1. Degree in International Development or relevant field

Knowledge and skills

1. Experience managing donor funded grants, including preparing proposals, negotiating and drafting contracts, ensuring compliance, conducting monitoring and evaluation, and writing reports
2. Demonstrated commitment to locally led approaches and experience in capacity strengthening
3. Strong financial management skills, including budget development, expenditure review and financial reporting
4. Excellent communication, relationship building and problem-solving skills

Personal qualities

1. Team player with ability to plan own work, manage competing priorities and work under pressure when required.
2. Commitment to WaterAid’ values and standards of safety of children and protection from sexual exploitation and abuse in all our activities
3. Demonstrate an understanding of gender equality and women’s empowerment including ethnic diversity and cultural sensitivity
4. Commitment to innovation, continuous improvement and open to new ideas.

Desirable

Experience

1. Experience from managing DFAT-grants

Knowledge and Skills

1. Working knowledge of Tetum language

Physical Environment and Demands

Ergonomic work stations within an open plan office, standing desks, recreational area and flexible work environment. Overseas travel may be expected in this role, pending travel restrictions to and from Australia and countries where we work.

WaterAid is a child-safe organisation committed to the protection of the people we serve. Our recruitment and selection procedures are designed to ensure we only recruit people who are suitable and aligned with our standards on the safety of children and protection from sexual exploitation and abuse. All appointments are subject to appropriate background checks and screening.

We promote diversity and equality in all our practices. Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people are strongly encouraged to apply.

For any queries not answered in this document please contact Alexandra Kidner, Head of Program Operations email [email protected], using the subject line: Program Coordinator enquiry via EthicalJobs.

A position description is attached.