Program Assistant Job in Nairobi Kenya

Job Title: Program Assistant, Fellowships and Institutional Partnerships (AWARD)

Location: Nairobi

Job Category:Nationally Recruited Staff     

African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) is accelerating agricultural gains across Sub-Saharan Africa by investing in the scientific and leadership skills of Africa’s leading women agricultural scientists.
 
We operate in a difficult but critically important niche, serving stakeholders at the complex confluence of gender, capacity building, and agricultural research & development (ARD). AWARD is hosted by the World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF) and is a preferred service provider to the CGIAR.

AWARD began as a donor project under the Gender and Diversity arm of the CGIAR and has since evolved to its current phase II, a multi-donor program with key investments from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID among others.
 
The Position: The main role of the Program Assistant (PA) is give programmatic and administrative support to the Fellowships and Institutional Partnerships Program.

Duties and Responsibilities
 
a) Training and workshops
  • Manage the AWARD calendar of training activities
  • Manage the contracts with training partners
  • Develop and manage checklist for training courses, mentoring orientation workshops (MOWs), monitoring meetings etc.
  • Liaise with hosting centers on all logistical arrangements
  • Liaise with respective Coordinators to get the complete list of participants for respective courses and update it with the required details accordingly
  • Respond to enquiries from AWARD clients/partners about events and follow up on course registrations
  • Liaise with the Communications Unit for updating and setting up the webpages for AWARD courses
  • Following up with participants on their pre-course work and deadlines
  • Create and send out 360 surveys and generate individual reports for course participants
  • Liaise with service providers on printing workshop materials (workbooks/hand-outs/name tags etc.)
  • Manage ordering of materials (MBTI, HBR and related articles and books), equipment required for the courses
  • Ensure workshop materials, equipment, rooms required, including audio-visual needs are available, organized accordingly and ready at all times for respective courses
  • Manage the events, including setting up, instructing external contractors and internal staff assistance
  • Work closely with the Operations Team to ensure all course logistics requirements are met
  • Liaise with M&E to ensure evaluation forms are updated and the M&E unit has the final list of participants for online distribution of the M&E forms
  • Track and maintain a database of training partners
  • Maintain a database of selected trainers and potential trainers for AWARD
  • Support coordination of training courses
  • Organize field trips when required
b) Fellowship, Mentoring, and Alumnae activities
  • Support AWARD Fellows’ Science Conference participation
  • Coordinate mentors’ participation in training courses
  • Support alumnae activities
  • Administrative support
c) Support to the Deputy Director, Fellowships and Institutional Partnerships and program staff
  • Provide day to day support to Deputy Director (DD), Fellowships and Institutional Partnerships and program staff
  • Manage internal meetings, consultants and meetings with partners and follow-up actions
  • Organize Team meetings, develop the agenda, take minutes and follow up on action points
  • Liaise with Operations Team concerning program travel, meetings and other logistics
  • General administrative support to the DD and program staff
Essential Qualifications
  • Bachelor’s degree and other relevant training
  • Advanced computer skills, experience in MS Word, Excel and Outlook
  • At least three years’ experience in managing complex projects or events
  • Communication and report writing skills
  • A high standard of written/spoken English
  • Strong interpersonal skills
  • Ability to multi-task and able to work well under pressure
  • Have excellent planning, organizational and time management skills
  • Experience of International Organization particularly in Non-Profit Organization
  • Ability to work as part of a team
  • Willingness to travel across Africa
Terms of Offer: The World Agroforestry Centre is an equal opportunity employer and offers a collegial and gender-sensitive working environment. We believe that staff diversity promotes excellence and strongly encourage applications from qualified women. 

This position is on local terms and will be for an initial period of three (3) years renewable, subject to six (6) months’ probation period, assessment of performance, continued relevance of the position and availability of resources. 

The position will be based at the AWARD Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.

How to Apply
 
Please combine into one document the following:
  • A cover letter illustrating your suitability for the position against the listed requirements and salary expectations;
  • A detailed curriculum vitae;
  • The names and addresses of three referees, including telephone, fax numbers and email addresses;
CLICK HERE to apply online

Applications will be considered until 15th January 2015. 

Please note that only short-listed applicants meeting the above requirements will be contacted.


We invite you to learn more about AWARD and World Agroforestry Centre by accessing our web sites www.awardfellowships.org and www.worldagroforestry.org