Programme Support Officer – Andes

Starting salary: £31,878 – £33,472 per annum

Contract: Permanent

Hours of work: 35 hours per week/Full time

Location: Hybrid working with a minimum of 40% of your time in CAFOD’s London Office

Job Profile

To support the smooth and effective management, administration and co-ordination of CAFOD’s work in the Andes region. The Andes team works to promote long-term development, humanitarian responses and advocacy, working alongside the poorest communities to strengthen their effectiveness and amplify their voice in the struggle for social justice, human rights and development across the region. The scope of the post falls into the following broad functions and responsibilities:

1. Support and co-ordination: supporting the Country Representative in the co-ordination of Andes work and organisational processes, including information management, planning, reporting and budgeting.
2. Administration: providing administrative support to the Andes team and partners, in line with project cycle management (PCM) processes and principles and information systems.
3. Programme and financial support: supporting the Andes Country Representative and Programme Officers in the management of Andes projects/programmes, including correspondence with partners, approval and payment of grants, appraisal, monitoring and reporting, the maintenance of electronic project files, and providing support with funding applications and donor reporting.
4. Communications: supporting the effective communication and flow of information across the Andes team and with the rest of the organisation, including acting as a key point of contact for information.
5. Representation: of the region across CAFOD (and occasionally externally), as requested by the Andes Country Representative.
6. Safeguarding: promoting and maintaining a strong safeguarding culture.

Job Scope

CAFOD is currently looking for a Programme Support Officer to contribute to our goals of combating poverty, exclusion and injustice in the Andes through the provision of full administrative and effective programme support to the Andes team. The Andes team comprises a Country Representative (CR), two Programme Officers (POs), an Andes Programme Support Officer, and a local finance accompanier. The Andes team manages a diverse development programme in the region, working in close partnership with the local Church and NGOs in response to issues of natural resource management and sustainable livelihoods in the context of climate change, conflict and peace building, governance and human rights, and gender as well as humanitarian emergencies. Communications and advocacy are integral elements.

The post holder will ensure that adequate administrative procedures are maintained to support the Andes Country Representative and Programme Officers in the implementation of CAFOD’s programme in Bolivia, Colombia and Peru in line with CAFOD’s Programme Cycle Management System (PCM). An essential part of this entails working efficiently and sensitively with partner organisations and the team to ensure grants are processed in a timely manner within the programme cycle and registered correctly in CAFOD’s systems. The work of the Programme Support Officer will include annual budgeting and monitoring of the team’s cost and grant budgets and provide essential support to the team with funding applications, financial and narrative monitoring of partner programmes, the preparation of internal approval documentation and reports to external donors. Other important aspects of the role include supporting with travel and events logistics and dealing with information and communication requests from across and outside the organisation.

We need a proactive and flexible person who is fluent in both English and Spanish. You will have previous programme and administration experience and excellent numerical skills, be competent in ICT, particularly Word, Excel, data entry and ideally Microsoft SharePoint. You will be able to hold a central role in ensuring the effective flow of internal knowledge and information. It is imperative you are able to manage your own time and you will ideally have experience supporting a team and be used to juggling various tasks. Knowledge of development and justice issues in the Latin America region is a great advantage; more important is the ability to maintain solid grant administration and programme cycle management procedures while building a relation of trust and respect with partners.

The post holder will work primarily with staff across the International Development Group and Finance teams. The role has also a number of cross-divisional and cross-organisational functions linked to the work of Advocacy & Education, Communications, Supporter Fundraising and Parish Participation and Volunteering Group.

Accountability

The post holder reports to the Andes Country Representative (Bolivia, Colombia and Peru).

Job-specific competencies

1. Excellent organisational, coordination and administrative skills, including MS Word/ Excel/Outlook, and ideally MS SharePoint.
2. Efficient in data usage and management, including tracking partner and financial records and the use of databases and programme cycle management system and tools.
3. Experience of managing systems and processes for information sharing, communication and co-ordination.
4. Ability to organise visits to the UK and overseas by partners/staff and international conference calls/meetings
5. Familiarity with/ knowledge of Latin America
6. Fluency in written and spoken English and Spanish
7. Commitment to CAFOD’s Vision, Mission and values

Desirable

• Understanding and experience of international development work.
• Understanding and experience of programme management and quality standards in an international development context, including supporting approaches to improve accountability, child protection, safeguarding, gender mainstreaming and inclusion.