Programme Assistant Job in Kenya

 Job Title: Programme Assistant

Hiring Organization: Act
Location – Locality: Nairobi
Location – Region: Kenya
Industry: NGO
Job Type: Full Time
Salary: KES Competitive
Date Posted: 04/01/2024

Act Change Transform (Act!) is a local Non-Governmental Organization whose mission is to facilitate the empowerment of marginalized people and communities in Kenya and neighbouring countries to become active participants in their development by enabling them to stand up for their rights, demand good governance in the management of resources; and participate in decision-making processes. Act! does this through implementing partners, offering them capacity development, management of grants so that value for money is achieved and providing strategic leadership in national advocacy for the benefit of women, youth, people with disabilities and other marginalized communities.

Job Summary


Act! is seeking to recruit a Program Assistant – Kenya Devolution Programme to assist program technical activities under the Responsive and Accountable Governance Platform. As a technical person, the Programme Assistant will have significant contact and interaction with Act!s partners / sub-award partners, other non-state actors, government agencies and line ministries as is necessary to deliver Programmatic responsibilities effectively.

Key Responsibilities

Programme Planning and Management

  • Assist in developing detailed programme work plans, including activity descriptions and timelines, and manage the implementation of these activities to ensure the program’s activities and outputs are executed on time and to adequate quality standards.
  • In collaboration with the Program Officers, conduct follow-up meetings and coordination through in-person and virtual sessions with partners in reporting, strategic planning, advocacy, communication, and building coalitions and networks.
  • Assist in tracking the program’s progress and changes to the activity plans where appropriate, providing a full rationale for these changes in each case, and making changes to the activity plans where appropriate.
  • Ensure good relations are maintained with the program’s beneficiaries, partners and donors.
  • Keep abreast of new or evolving knowledge, methodological or developmental in devolution that relates to the scope of Act! Programme activities.

Monitoring, Evaluation Reporting & Learning

  • Participate in setting programme targets in line with the overall strategic goal of the programme.
  • Participate actively in contributing to the documentation of “success stories” and other anecdotal information to enhance the overall quality of performance reports to the donors.
  • Share information and lessons learnt with other program staff, among other things, by writing brief occasional papers for uploading to the website and conducting internal seminars.
  • Prepare monthly, quarterly and final narrative reports.

Networking and Representation

  • Establish and maintain regular contact with beneficiary groups and partner organisations, and liaise and co-ordinate with the appropriate government bodies whenever appropriate to ensure successful project progress
  • Represent Act! and program at meetings, forums and processes to stay up to date with unfolding events or issues that ensure that the program team is well appraised on such events or issues.

Financial Management

  • Assist in budget preparation in line with project proposals.
  • Preparation of documents to facilitate payments of consultants and procurement of goods and services for programme implementation;
  • Prepare indicative budgets for all planned new work.
  • In consultation with the grants/finance officers track budgets to ensure compliance with Act! and donor funding guidelines and requirements.

Qualification, Experience and Skills:

  • Bachelor’s degree in development studies, governance/politics, public policy, or related field or any other related fields.
  • A Master’s degree in relevant study areas will be an added advantage.

Experience

  • At least 2 years relevant work experience in programme management and familiarity with the political, economic and social context of Kenya Essential Skills and Competencies
  • Understanding of the democracy and governance programming and experience working with civil society
  • Experience working with devolution management bodies, capacity building, training, drafting of policies, outreach and engagement of key stakeholders will be an added advantage.
  • Strong analytical and report writing skills as well as excellent presentation and facilitation skills.
  • Excellent organization and coordination skills.
  • Good interpersonal and communication skills.
  • Self-driven and able to deliver results with minimum supervision.
  • Ability to work in a multi-disciplinary and multicultural environment and with partners at all levels.
  • Willingness to travel extensively within the country, work extended periods in the field and interact effectively with partners and willingness to learn new approaches.
  • The candidates for this position must be fluent in written and spoken English and Kiswahili.
  • Highly proficient in Ms Word, Excel, Access, Power-point and the use of Internet for research.

How to Apply

If you meet the requirements as contained in the position description, please submit (1) a detailed and current CV; (2) an Application Cover Letter demonstrating why you qualify for the position and three referees including their most current contact details. All applications should be submitted electronically to hr.admin@act.or.ke quoting the reference number (ACT/PA-KDP/02/2024) and position on the e-mail subject line. Only candidates shortlisted for interviews will be contacted.