Position Title: Funding and Reporting Manager

Reports to: Park Manager

Location: Liuwa Plain National Park

Background

African Parks is a non-profit conservation organization that takes on the complete responsibility for the rehabilitation and long-term management of national parks in partnership with governments and local communities. We currently manage 22 national parks and protected areas in 12 countries covering over 17 million hectares in: Angola, Benin, Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, the Republic of Congo, Rwanda, South Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The funding and Reporting Manager (FRM) is accountable for effective and compliant delivery of the park’s grant portfolio, high-quality reporting for internal and external purposes, and both identifying as well as effectively relaying the park’s funding needs. It is a critical position which links the park’s strategy and operational reality with funders, partners and the teams at APN Headquarters, most notably fundraising. This requires coordination and close collaboration with the park manager, financial controller as well as the other Heads of Department responsible for implementation of park projects.

Additionally, this role will require a “tech savvy”, adaptable person as this is a complex and diverse role which incorporates secondary responsibilities by providing both operational and strategic support to the PMU, to achieve park specific goals, with a high focus on technology management and administration.

Primary Functions and Responsibilities

• Oversees the park’s grant portfolio, monitoring effective and compliant delivery of respective projects. This includes working closely with the financial controller to ensure correct allocations of donor funding and tracking burn rates, coordinating grant work plans and briefing the heads of department on key deliverables, providing required partner visibility and monitoring risks to grant project components’ delivery. The incumbent represents the park in the bi-monthly calls debriefing APN funding and finance teams on grant delivery, key updates and risks.
• Coordinates and collates park reporting, both for internal and external purposes. This includes ensuring AP Reporter data is accurate and up-to-date, park information is accurate on SIMBA as well as the calendar and the monthly and annual reports, operational analytical reports can be compiled and providing timely and high-quality donor reports that reinforce our reputation, in addition to developing general factsheets about the park for external purposes. 
• Understands, monitors and maps the park’s funding needs, and can effectively develop well-written documents that relay why the park needs funding for specified activities to enable effective fundraising. Co-writes, with the funding team, the park’s grant proposals and ensures these are closely aligned with the park’s business plan and monitoring programme.
• Coordinates or collates park-level surveys, case studies, data collection and analyses that inform impact assessments for donors and partners.

Secondary Functions and Responsibilities

• Provide administrative support to the Park Manager
• Liaison for the African Parks assurance department to support internal performance improvement cycles;
• Support the writing of operational documents such as business plans and special project descriptions;
• In liaison with the park manager, regional team and APN’s funding, communications and tourism teams, supports management of the park’s external relationships at park-level, for example by supporting the coordination of donor visits;
• Implement, manage and support the park’s technology and communications infrastructure, including the IT systems, Earth Ranger, SMART Data Management and Cybertracker;
• Analyse data from the park’s systems to support law enforcement and conservation objectives through database management and GIS mapping exercises;

Qualification & experience

• An appropriate tertiary education, supporting the role and responsibilities;
• Minimum eight (8) years of experience working in project management or coordination roles, with a preference of five years (5) years with a conservation or non-profit organization;
• Excellent organizational, analytical, oral and written communications skills in English;
• Experience in grant management, report and proposal writing;
• Demonstrated personal interest in the protection of the environment and particularly wildlife;
• Experience with GIS software;
• IT – Word, Excel, Power Point and Outlook. Any other data presentation programs that can demonstrate progress against objectives;
• A demonstrated team approach to staff management;
• Strong capacity to manage time and competing priorities;
• Strong initiative, perseverance, and resilience.