GDC PROJECT & FINANCE OFFICER At Practical Action

PRACTICAL ACTION
ABOUT THE ROLE
The Project Officer will be a member of Practical Action’s Global Distributors Collective (GDC) team.
For the past five years, Practical Action has been hosting and building the GDC: a collective of over 200 last mile distribution companies that cumulatively reach millions of the poorest consumers in the world with beneficial products like solar lanterns, water filters and improved cookstoves. The GDC provides a collective voice for distributors to ensure their voice is heard; drives research and innovation across the sector; facilitates the exchange of information, insight and expertise; and provides critical services that leverage economies of scale.
The GDC’s 2022-25 strategy focusses on six key areas:
• Accelerating innovation, e.g. through our Innovation Launch Pad
• Building capacity, e.g. through information exchange, formal training for managers and agents, and mentoring programmes
• Helping members access products, suppliers and services at affordable prices
• Helping members access finance and become investment-ready
• Undertaking market intelligence and research, e.g., by creating a performance benchmark for the last mile distribution sector
• Engaging with members and advocating for their interests
The GDC is hosted by Practical Action and is delivered in consortium with strategic and operating partner Bopinc.
This role will work alongside the GDC Operations Manager in the day-to-day operations of the Global Distributors Collective You will directly provide support across all of our programmatic areas and will have scope to get more directly involved in areas of interest.

ACCOUNTABILITIES
Project management
Project Responsibilities (40%)
Work with and support the GDC Operations Manager to ensure robust programme management and project delivery. This will include:
• Leading in creating and updating project plans and timelines to monitor programme progress (using GANTT charts and/or Asana project management platform), and ensuring accurate allocation of project resources for the projects assigned by the GDC Operations Manager
• Liaising closely with key internal stakeholders (project teams, consortium members, etc). This includes coordinating regular multi-stakeholder meetings, developing agendas, capturing the inputs and actions from meetings, and following up on actions in a timely manner.
• Ensuring project documentation is up-to-date and appropriately stored/tagged in our document libraries
• Working with the GDC communications team to develop project-related communications, as needed e.g., presentations, stakeholder surveys, marketing materials, Steering Committee / Advisory Council documentation etc
• Tracking project deliverables, and leading on all day-to-day administrative support across the assigned projects
• Developing a project risk framework including identification of risks, risk mitigants and monitoring and evaluation of mitigating actions.

Budget Responsibilities (30%)
Work with and support the GDC Operations Manager to ensure robust financial management and reporting to support effective project / programme delivery. This will include:
• Updating budgets, forecasts, and partner tracking schedules to ensure an accurate oversight of the project expenditure.
• Raising invoices on the internal system, and liaising with the Practical Action Finance Team as needed to ensure timely and accurate payments
• Preparing and populating key financial reports, reviewing actuals for accuracy and making corrections as necessary to coding
• Ensuring project financial compliance in line with donor reporting requirements
• Obtaining timesheets and expenses claims from outsourced suppliers, reviewing them for their accuracy, and processing them accordingly.

Reporting Responsibilities (20%)
Work with and support the GDC Operations Manager to ensure robust progress reporting to support effective project / programme delivery. This will include:
• Leading on developing weekly, monthly and/or quarterly update reports for projects. This includes obtaining timely input from the technical assistance teams on e.g., progress against agreed deliverables and KPIs, changes to project schedule/scope, risks and opportunities, etc.
• Preparing and populating donor financial and narrative reports in line with donor requirements
• Be the secretariat for key internal meetings such as the management meetings and team meetings. Effectively taking notes and managing actions.

Gender, Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Responsibilities (10%)
• Work with and support the GDC Operations Manager and Gender Lead to support the embedding and coordination of MEL and Gender activities across the programme. Keeping an updated log of all monitoring, learning and evaluation requirements for all GDC projects, and coordinating the required MEL activities e.g. monitoring when MEL activities are due, shaping and organising evaluation activities (e.g., surveys or stakeholder interviews) and analysing and actioning results.
• Support the GDC Gender lead in embedding gender across all our activities.

PERSON PROFILE
To be successful in the role, the ideal candidate will be able to demonstrate the following experience and knowledge:

Essential

• Familiarity with project management approaches, tools, and phases of the project lifecycle
• Organised, detail oriented, and able to track and work on multiple workstreams / projects at once
• Some experience in working with donor contracts and reporting to donors
• Meticulous attention to detail
• Financial literacy and strong quantitative analysis skills
• Ability to work independently, prioritise tasks effectively, and work well under pressure
• An aptitude for problem solving and interpersonal communication
• Excellent oral and written communications skills
• Exceptional relationship management skills
• Proficient in using Microsoft Office (Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint)
• An understanding of monitoring, learning and evaluation in a development setting
• Self-starter and able to work remotely with limited supervision
• Experience working with networks, membership organisations or communities of practice
• Experience in business development and donor management
• Understanding of, or a willingness to learn about, gender dynamics within inclusive business

Desirable

• Experience in a finance role in an International NGO, a large Donor, or on large donor funded development programmes
• Experience setting up and / or using Asana
• Experience in last mile distribution / social enterprise

A detailed job description can be accessed here-https://practicalaction.org/careers/vacancies/gdc-project-finance-officer/