Country Fund Associate, South Africa at Palladium: Make It Possible

This Opportunity:

• Palladium is recruiting a Country Fund Associate for a programme and grants professional with a passion for carbon reductions to join our UK PACT team in Johannesburg, South Africa. The UK PACT programme aims to improve the effectiveness of key institutions (public, private and civil society) in partner countries so that they can deliver accelerated emission reductions and raise the ambition of their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) targets. Specifically, the programme will deliver the following results:
• An increase in the capacity and capability of partner institutions (national, sub-national and civil society) to deliver enhanced and accelerated climate actions
• An increase in in-country buy-in to urgently facilitate low-carbon development

Location:

• The position is based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

You and Your Career:

• If you are a problem-solver, collaborator, and doer, and you have expertise in operational management, procurement and grants management and have experience supporting complex programmes in the development space, we are interested in hearing from you. 
• We are a learning organisation and provide growth opportunities from the start. We pride ourselves on giving you the freedom, resources, and guidance to chart a fulfilling career!

Reporting Lines:

• This role will report to South Africa, Country Fund Manager, UK PACT.

Primary Roles and Responsibilities:

• The Country Fund Associate will be a key in-country member of the Palladium UK PACT team supporting management of day-to-day activities from project implementation and reporting to stakeholder engagement and context analysis to ensure overall programme success.

Specifically, the Country Fund Associate will:

Strategy Development and Engagement:

• Support on continuous context analysis and assessment of local market capacity to identify the most appropriate avenues for interventions and pathways to climate change impact within each key strategic sector
• Support further demand scoping for UK PACT-funded projects in-country, including stakeholder mapping and engagement, identification of complementary existing programmes (funded by the UK and other donors) to avoid programme duplication, and horizon scanning

Stakeholder Relationships:

• Support the UK PACT South Africa Country Fund Manager in promoting UK PACT funding opportunities to potential implementing partners, project and programme outputs to intended beneficiaries, and broader UK engagement on low-carbon development where relevant
• Working closely with the UK PACT South Africa Country Fund Manager, contribute to, and where appropriate lead the management of day-to-day interactions with local stakeholders, specifically supporting the relationships with project applicants and grant recipients/implementing partners
• Maintain an excellent working relationship with local FCDO team at Post to collaboratively design and generate buy-in for the programme activities

Project Management: Identification, Selection and Design of Interventions:

• Support the UK PACT South Africa Country Fund Manager and PMU in coordination of grant funding windows and support market engagement to ensure the right local stakeholders are aware of, and well-placed to apply for, UK PACT funding opportunities
• Contribute to the project screening and selection process, particularly regarding assessing deliverability and impact potential on the ground
• Support the UK PACT South Africa Country Fund Manager to oversee timely implementation of projects and regularly ensure the feedback of results, impacts and learning through quarterly reports to FCDO covering overall progress, progress against outputs, main activities and outputs for the next period, budget, spend and forecast, and risks
• Support the UK PACT South Africa Country Fund Manager and PMU to adhere to any local due diligence required from Implementing Partners and to support initial briefing to potential Implementation Partners
• Support defence against fraud, corruption and safeguarding risks, conducting spot checks and other processes to ensure FCDO grant funding is spent as intended and that Implementation Partners meet FCDO compliance requirements
• Support the UK PACT South Africa Country Fund Manager in advising on the potential to extend, scale up or replicate successful projects, and work with successful Implementation Partners to do this with FCDO approval

Programme Reporting:

• Support Implementing Partners on project reporting (technical, financial, results and risk), by reviewing and requesting additional information, where required, to ensure reporting meets FCDO requirements
• Support identification of country and project-specific risk management, working with FCDO in post and in the UK, the Team Leader and PMU

Monitoring Evaluation and Learning (MEL)

• Interpret and champion all MEL-related requests for the fund, ensuring alignment with UK-PACT programme requirements, and provide support to implementing partners.
• Oversee JET-IP quarterly MEL commitments and ensure all fund projects comply with agreed reporting standards.
• Support implementing partners by offering training and technical assistance to ensure adherence to MEL reporting requirements.
• Work closely with the Regional Africa MEL Manager to ensure MEL-related priorities are consistent across the fund.

Required Qualifications:

• Programme and grant management skills, with experience supporting the deliver and management of projects, grantees or subcontracts
• Strong reporting skills with proven ability to contribute to client formal reporting and ad-hoc requests
• Good knowledge and/or willingness to learn more about the environmental / low carbon sector in terms of policy landscape, relevant state and non-state actors in relation to climate change, and low-carbon economic development
• Some knowledge and understanding of the local political economy and business operating context in South Africa, including socio-economic context and development challenges and priorities
• Strong organisational, inter-personal administration and communication skills
• Strong financial management and administration skills, with the ability to review and quality assure the financial reports of projects
• Professional fluency in written and spoken English
• Shows flexibility and ability to adapt to changing circumstances
• Highly collaborative and committed to close working and open communication with colleagues in post and in the UK, and other UK PACT partners
• Commitment to neutrality in all dealings with stakeholders, including political stakeholders, to build trusted relationships and ensure maximum effectiveness of the programme