SNV is a not-for-profit international development organisation that applies practical know-how to make a lasting difference in the lives of people living in poverty. We use our extensive and long-term in-country presence to apply and adapt our top-notch expertise in agriculture, energy and WASH to local contexts. SNV has an annual turnover of €130 million, over 1,250 staff in more than 25 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. We are proud to be a not-for-profit organisation that uses project financing to implement our mission. This requires us to work efficiently and to invest in operational excellence. SNV aims more explicitly for systems change during project preparation and implementation – by strengthening institutions and kick-starting markets that help many more to escape poverty beyond our projects. We continue to position ourselves as a premium organisation, with decentralised management.

Our Global Support Unit (70 staff) backstops our teams around the world. For more information on SNV, visit our website: www.snv.org

Overview of the Project

The Transformative Land Investment (TLI) project is an initiative commissioned by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and involves a consortium consisting of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) as the lead, SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, The Center for People and Forests (RECOFTC), Land Equity International (LEI) and World Agroforestry (ICRAF).

The consortium has been commissioned to co-develop and implement the scaling of more socially and environmentally transformative land investment (TLI) that embrace TLI principles. During the first phase of this initiative (2021-2024), the consortium will target five countries (Myanmar, Laos, Ethiopia, Ghana and Mozambique) that in recent years attracted considerable LBI.

This initiative responds to SDC’s commitment to a sustainable food system transition, as a holistic approach that requires action across sustainable food system components, namely (1) enhanced global governance; (2) agroecological production; (3) inclusive agricultural and food market systems; and (4) healthy diets and nutrition. The initiative is expected to contribute to all four sustainable food systems components by: “Enhancing land and ecosystem health, with equitable and gender transformative improvements in food and tenure security, livelihoods, and resilience at scale”. This will be achieved by:

• Out- and up-scaling TLIs that avoid negative societal impacts and contribute towards more inclusive and resilient food systems.
• Establishing country-level policies and supportive regulatory frameworks, laws and incentive schemes that enable investor adoption of TLI principles.
• Establishing global and regional agreements, commitments and guidelines that more effectively promote TLI.

SNV Netherlands Development Organisation is leading the implementation of the TLI activities in three countries namely, Ghana, Ethiopia and Mozambique.

SNV is currently seeking an experienced Multi-Country Project Manager to oversee and coordinate implementation of all component activities across the the three (3) SNV led project countries in close collaboration with the respective Country Leads. 

The Multi-Country Project Manager will be responsible for the overall coordination of the TLI project in SNV led project countries namely Ghana, Ethiopia and Mozambique.

The position will report to the SNV Ghana Country Director.

She/he will provide senior-level technical leadership, strategic planning; as Partner Lead,   manage, monitor and report on the activities for which SNV is responsible for; offer country and region-specific strategic direction, and support SNV’s Global Lead to represent the project regionally and globally; working closely with the consortium lead (CIFOR) and component teams to collaboratively design, regularly review and adapt as necessary the project’s overarching implementation, visibility and engagement strategies and approaches. The Project Manager works in line with SNV standards, SNV`s approach to project management and donor regulations, to achieve high quality and achieve the agreed results and deliverables of the project. He/she shall ensure that the project objectives and results are achieved with quality and to the expectation of the donor.

He/she will provide technical leadership and managerial oversight of the project, including and among others, ensuring the timely and successful implementation of SNV’s work, oversight and reporting of activities, and project deliverables.

Specific Tasks will include:

• Oversee and coordinate the implementation of all project component activities across each country in collaboration with Country Leads;
• Support the review and validation of project ToC within project country context;
• Support the design of the various project component activities across SNV led project countries, with support from relevant thematic experts who will provide technical support in specific activity areas or country operations;
• Support the development of internal and external tools, guidelines, frameworks and/or visibility actions;
• Ensure that project outputs and targets are met as per the project logical framework; those activities are carried out as planned, within budget and time schedule and, monitoring and evaluation functions are carried out as per project requirements;
• Facilitate meetings to discuss progress, soliciting inputs from Country Leads as needed; and lead the design and evaluation work plans;
• Works in line with SNV standards, agreed consortium approach to project management and donor regulations, to achieve high quality results and deliverables of the project;
• Ensure timely reporting of finances and progress at the partner-level to CIFOR Project Management and Coordination Unit and project steering committee as appropriate;
• Monitor and respond to new opportunities for country and regional impact;
• Establish linkage with relevant stakeholder institution and facilitate discussions with key members of the stakeholder institutions at country and regional;
• Support country leads in internal and external engagements and networking with  partners and policy processes;
• Represent SNV in high-level meetings and policy dialogues at country, regional and global levels where appropriate.

The Program Manager is expected to have a minimum of a Master’s degree in any of the Social Sciences, Development Policy and Planning or Land Governance and Policy, with a minimum of  ten (10) years’ experience in the land and natural resource sector and/or in development practice.

Required Professional Skills and Expertise

• The manager should have experience in development practice in the African context and able to engage with policy actors as well as local level actors on large scale land based issues.
• Be well informed about Ghana’s land sector and issues related to land-based investments in Ghana and regional level initiatives.
• Must be well informed on past, present, and on-going initiatives in the land sector and in mitigating negative impacts of land-based investments both in country and regional level.
• Must possess the technical skills for analyzing and interpreting land policy and legislative documents and able to make a connection to these and the project activities.
• Must have skills in gender analysis and gender mainstreaming.
• Should be a good process facilitator.
• Must be familiar with the international principles and best practices with respect to land-based investments.
• Should have demonstrable experience in managing related land projects with the ability to facilitate multi-stakeholder discussions.