Company Profile

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) is a not-for-profit institution that generates agricultural innovations to meet Africa’s most pressing challenges of hunger, malnutrition, poverty, and natural resource degradation. Working with various partners across sub-Saharan Africa, we improve livelihoods, enhance food and nutrition security, increase employment, and preserve natural resource integrity. IITA is a member of CGIAR, a global agriculture research partnership for a food secure future. Please visit www.iita.org for more information on IITA.

Job Description

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) seeks to recruit a PROJECT OFFICER under the Black Soldier Fly (BSF) Project.

The Position
The successful candidate will support the Project Lead to carry out Project Management duties throughout project life.

Primary Responsibilities

• Work with the PM to generate and submit all required outputs in collaboration with Finance Office and PDAU
• Work with PDAU (Grants Finance Manager) and project account officer for timely and proper disbursement of funds to National Agricultural Research partners
• Communicate regularly with BSF budget holders on the status of their financial position and reporting, including MEL inputs
• Engage BSF Scientists in annual planning and reporting and populating the collaborative platform MEL
• Collaborate with IITA cluster leaders on the preparation and timely submission of cluster reports
• Collaborate with BSF – PMU and other PMOs from other BSF Centres to represent IITA in cross-center activities and reporting BSF activities in the 3 project countries
• Develop capacity and assist project managers in developing work breakdown structure for projects to assist with planning, execution and reporting project outputs
•  Engage with the project team on financial planning, management and reporting.
• Communicate regularly with BSF budget holders (including NARES budget holders) on budgeting and the status of their financial position, their deliverables and corresponding strategies for effective execution of activities
• Monitor project deliverables overall and per different components of the project and report monthly to the project coordinator
• Working with the Project account officer (FD), review, and prepare the submission of financial reports to project donor in accordance to agreed reporting timeline
• Prepare monthly financial reports for project's coordinator's review and knowledge
• Facilitate developing cost estimations for the different operational units and conducting annual reviews of those costs for efficiency
• Lead, design and implement Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning activities for the projects
• Lead the team to successfully organize annual and mid-year meetings of BSF project
• Perform any other job-related duties as may be assigned by the BSF project coordinator and IITA management.

Duty Station: IITA Accra, Ghana.

Required Skills or Experience

Educational Qualifications

• The candidate should have a Master's Degree in Project Management, Agric-Economics, Economics, Statistics, or a related field with
• at least eight (8) years’ experience in project management and finance in a well-structured environment or donor-funded organization.

Core Competencies

• Technical expertise in managing and developing Monitoring & Evaluation systems, including the theory of change and results-based management
• Experience in managing scientists/teams for deliverables and milestones on time and within budget
• Good organizational skills and a high level of efficiency in work processes.
• Experience working with Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning platform.
• Solid knowledge of financial planning, management and reporting
• Experience in project proposal development.
• Excellent quantitative skills, including advanced proficiency in the use of Microsoft Excel and other project management software
• Ability to work with a range of national partners.
• Highly motivated, innovative, adaptable, and able to work independently.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Demonstrated leadership skills and ability to mentor colleagues.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English and French