Overview
The National Project Coordinator - MELBA will lead the operational management of the MELBA project, ensuring timely and within-budget delivery of activities, and coordinate stakeholder engagement and project M&E.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead the operational management of the MELBA project, ensuring all activities are delivered on time and within budget.
- Lead project governance, including the establishment of the Project Steering Committee (PSC) and Project Technical Committee (PTC), the organization of key events and capacity development efforts, and relations and contracts with external partners.
- Coordinate stakeholder engagement and management throughout the project cycle, managing communications with government counterparts and other stakeholders in Malawi.
- Lead project M&E to track progress and impacts, identify good practices, promote learning, and provide timely evidence to inform decision-making and adaptive management.
- Lead the formulation and implementation of annual project work plan and communications plan, following the relevant FAO policies, standards and guidelines and donor visibility requirements.
- Coordinate operational support for development of MEL system architecture, coordinating field testing of monitoring tools, and supporting government engagement for indicator definition.
- Coordinate the project capacity building programme, facilitating institutional engagement and documentation and dissemination of good practice and lessons learned.
- Coordinate technical and policy inputs with Malawian focal points for climate, biodiversity and land degradation.
- Lead the preparation and submission of regular project reports to the PSC and donor, maintain the project M&E framework, update the FAO internal monitoring platforms, in coordination with the TA.
- Generate key information that feeds into national statistics on food and agriculture, integrated watershed management, land use and land cover change, in alignment with the goals of the Project.
- Perform other duties as required.
Required Experience
- At least 5 years of relevant professional experience in project coordination, monitoring and evaluation, natural resources management, and/or climate change adaptation, preferably with experience supporting complex, multi-stakeholder projects at national and subnational levels.
- Demonstrated experience in project management, coordination and operational support for environment, climate change or natural resources management projects, including budget management, procurement, and reporting.
- Experience in preparing and implementing project-level M&E systems for climate change or environment-related projects, including indicator development, data collection, and results tracking.
- Knowledge and experience in spatial technologies including GIS, especially in areas of agriculture, watershed management, natural resources and climate change.
- Experience in facilitating multi-stakeholder processes, including government engagement, community consultations, and coordination of technical working groups.
- Knowledge of Malawi’s institutional landscape for climate change, environment, socio-economic and natural resources management, including the decentralization framework and district-level planning processes.
- Experience in donor reporting, communications, and resource mobilization for development projects.
- Extent and relevance of experience in establishing and maintaining partnerships with government institutions, UN agencies, civil society organizations (CSOs) and donors.
Qualifications
Advanced university degree from an institution recognized by the International Association of Universities (IAU)/UNESCO in climate change, environmental science, natural resources management, forestry, agriculture, political science, sociology, rural development, statistics, or any other discipline relevant to the work of the organization.
