Project Management Assistant

Project: Food Futures Eastern Africa Phase II (REFOOTURE II)

Duty station: Addis Ababa

Duration: One year, subject to annual renewal based on performance and availability of funding

Reports to: Project Manager

Background

Stichting Wageningen Research (SWR) Ethiopia is an international NGO registered in Ethiopia since March 2021 with the FDRE Agency for Civil Society Organizations. The organization is established with the objectives of promoting a more resilient, inclusive and sustainable food systems in Ethiopia. SWR Ethiopia currently implements different projects, and one of them is Food Futures Eastern Africa Phase II (REFOOTURE II) project.

REFOOTURE stands for rethinking and redesigning the future of food towards a regenerative and inclusive food system. RE relates to regenerative but also symbolises reviewing, rethinking, redesigning, and renewing, all of which reflect the nature of the project’s activities. FOOTURE is a merger of Food and Future. FOOTURE and FUTURE sound similar, illustrating the intrinsic dependency between Food and the Future. This intrinsic dependency is particularly important to East Africa. The REFOOTURE project hence represents co-creativity and the joint creation of a better food future. REFOOTURE supports East African communities in operationalising the principles of regeneration and inclusivity in the transformation of their food system.

Position Summary

As a Project Management Assistant, will contribute to project execution and support by using his/her skills and knowledge and by making good use of software systems. In this position, he/she will support the Project Manager and work closely with the administrative unit at SWR Ethiopia. The Project Manager with final responsibility delegate responsibility to the Project Management Assistant for tasks in the elaboration and implementation of the project coordination. As a Project Management Assistant, he/she is able to perform these tasks independently based on his/her project management expertise and process overview.

Key Responsibilities

• performing project management tasks such as financial and administrative project management, including monitoring exhaustion and identifying areas for attention, coordinating reports to the donor, planning and monitoring the progress of a project (deadlines, project deliverables, time sheets) in which he/she works closely with the responsible project manager, project team members and partners;
• coordination and cooperation with the staff department;
• drafting and executing internal and external communications;
• taking care of the organization of internal and external meetings, social events, etc.;
• take minutes at different types of project meetings and workshops.

Job requirements

• At least a master’s degree in a relevant topic, preferably with a business economics, legal or management specialization
• At least 5 years of work experience in a similar position, preferably in a project-based research environment with a focus on Agriculture for Development
• Excellent command of the English and Amharic languages, both orally and in writing.
• Excellent computer skills and solid experience with various software packages such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and with project administration.
• Excellent social and communication skills to communicate in a pleasant way with various target groups ranging from (international) colleagues to clients in the public and private sector.

The kind of person we are looking for

In addition, the Project Management Assistant should be outgoing, independent and proactive. He/she is customer-oriented and enjoys working in multidisciplinary teams. Furthermore, he/she has a service-oriented attitude, combined with the ability to guard his/her own boundaries and who work quickly and yet very accurately. He/she is good at tackling things in a structured way and working with tight deadlines and working on various projects at the same time. He/she has an eye for and works on improvements to the project process. Finally, who is willing to travel occasionally in connection with project meetings.

What we offer

Depending on candidate’s education and work experience, we offer a competitive salary as per the organization scale which is negotiable within the range of the salary scale assigned for the position. We also offer other benefit packages as per the internal HR manual.