Senior Program Management Specialist

The Senior Program Management Specialist provides senior-level strategic, technical, and managerial support for effective coordination, implementation, portfolio management, quality assurance, and resource mobilization for ongoing and pipeline FAO Côte d'Ivoire projects. The role supports the FAO Representative in strengthening program coherence, management decision-making, partner engagement, donor positioning, risk management, performance monitoring, and identifying scale-up and financing opportunities.

Responsibilities

• Provide senior strategic advice to the FAO Representative on portfolio coherence, programme positioning, delivery oversight and alignment with CPF, FAO Strategic Framework, government priorities and donor commitments.
• Lead coordination and management follow-up across all FAOCI projects through harmonized tools, dashboards, portfolio reviews, risk tracking, budget monitoring and corrective action follow-up.
• Act as a senior technical and managerial backstopping to the GCF-funded flagship project, including work planning, delivery review, safeguards, reporting, visibility, continuity, sustainability and scale-up.
• Promote operational synergies across GCF, GEF and other FAOCI projects in climate resilience, agroforestry, biodiversity, aquaculture, food systems, nutrition, circular bioeconomy and related areas.
• Lead climate-finance and donor intelligence analysis and support development of a prioritized resource mobilization plan and pipeline of concept notes and investment opportunities.
• Conduct strategic engagement with government, donors, GCF/GEF stakeholders, UN agencies, IFIs, technical partners and private-sector actors to advance FAOCI’s programme and financing priorities.
• Represent FAO in technical and strategic discussions, as delegated by the FAO Representative, and facilitate coordination with FAO regional, subregional, headquarters and Investment Centre teams.
• Ensure quality assurance of project documents, donor reports, budgets, logical frameworks, procurement plans, agreements, terms of reference and partner deliverables in line with FAO standards.
• Strengthen results-based management, monitoring, reporting, evidence generation, data quality, lessons learning and management use of portfolio performance information.
• Coach project managers and technical teams and develop practical templates, management tools, capitalization products and knowledge materials for institutional learning, partner dialogue and resource mobilization.

Requirements

• Advanced university degree in agricultural economics, natural resources management, climate finance, public policy, program management, international development, veterinary/public health, agrifood systems, environmental sciences or related field. Consultants with a bachelor's degree need two additional years of relevant professional experience.
• At least 10 years of progressively senior international experience in program/portfolio management, strategic advisory services, resource mobilization, donor relations, climate finance, agrifood systems or emergency/development coordination.
• Working knowledge of French and English is required.
• Work experience in more than one location or area of work.
• Extent and relevance of experience in development and humanitarian programmes management.
• Extent and relevance of experience in resource mobilization and donor relations.
• Very good organizational skills and ability to meet tight deadlines.
• Ability to prioritize tasks.
• Ability to work in a harmonious and efficient manner in a multidisciplinary team.
• Excellent writing and analytical skills.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to maintain effective working relationships with the project team.
• Relevance of experience in writing high-quality written materials for a wide variety of audiences.
• Experience working with GCF and or UN agencies is an advantage.
• Demonstrated experience with FAO, the UN system, international financial institutions or major development partners, including coordination of multi-stakeholder programs and preparation of donor-facing analytical products.
• Strong knowledge of climate finance mechanisms, GCF/GEF programming, results-based management, risk management, project cycle management and partnership engagement.
• Excellent analytical, drafting, facilitation and representation skills; ability to operate autonomously and deliver high-quality outputs under tight timelines.
• Demonstrated knowledge of and experience in vertical funds, Technical Cooperation Program and other donor funded project design, monitoring or implementation and reporting processes.
• Good understanding of results-based projects management, reporting, and evaluation.
• Experience in developing and implementing capacity building activities for multiple stakeholders.
• Experience working in developing countries and advising government and non-government stakeholders.

Skills

• Programme Management
• Portfolio Management
• Strategic Advisory
• Resource Mobilization
• Donor Relations
• Climate Finance
• Agrifood Systems
• Emergency Coordination
• Development Coordination
• French
• English
• Development Programme Management
• Humanitarian Programme Management
• Writing High-Quality Materials
• GCF Programming
• UN System Coordination
• International Financial Institutions
• Stakeholder Coordination
• Result-Based Management
• Risk Management
• Project Cycle Management
• Partnership Engagement
• Drafting Skills
• Facilitation Skills
• Representation Skills
• Vertical Fund Management
• Technical Cooperation Program
• Project Design
• Project Monitoring
• Project Implementation
• Project Reporting
• Evaluation
• Capacity Building
• Stakeholder Engagement

Languages

French, English