COAST Country Manager Mozambique – Coastal Resilience and Governance Full Time

Palladium is recruiting for a strong programme and grants manager with a proven track record of improving the resilience of coastal communities and increasing the sustainable use of coastal communities’ marine environment. The manager will bring a combination of localised technical understanding and portfolio management. Palladium is recruiting for a country manager in Mozambique, one of the four COAST priority countries. 

 The COAST programme aims to improve the resilience of communities and their sustainable use of resources through reforming planning and policy, supporting coastal management and local governance as well as supporting local projects, activities and capacity building that support COAST’s key themes. COAST key themes include: 

• Protecting, restoring and sustainably managing coastal habitats and nature based solutions (e.g. mangroves, seagrass, corals), 
• Improving small scale fisheries’ sustainability, productivity and resilience, 
• Unlocking more sustainable, less intensive aquaculture. 

The COAST programme is composed of four components: 

1. Integrated delivery across COAST’s themes in up to six priority countries plus a demand led fund for UK Embassies and High Commissions in ODA eligible host countries to utilise to deliver responsive, strategic projects. 

2. Climate resilient and innovative small scale fisheries and aquaculture (delivered through WorldFish’s BlueTech Innovation Superhighway project). 

3. Unlocking blue carbon climate finance (delivered by the World Economic Forum’s Blue Carbon Action Partnership project) 

4. Independent monitoring, evaluation and learning programme coordination. 

Palladium is recruiting for country managers to support the delivery of component A.  

Purpose of the position 

The COAST Country Manager is responsible for the strategic direction, technical analyses, management, monitoring and coordination of country-specific COAST activities under component A. The Country Manager will be a fundamental role in the delivery of the programme and will provide technical insight into the technical areas of the COAST themes (critical marine habitats, aquaculture and fisheries). The country manager will work closely and coordinate with the British High Commission (BHC) team in post, FCDO and, Defra leads and Blue Planet Fund Regional Coordinators to support strategy development, pipeline development and grant management of COAST projects.  

The COAST Country Manager will be the on-the-ground liaison for Palladium managing and coordinating day-to-day activities in-country, in coordination with BHC and UK staff. The position will be based in Mozambique. 

Primary responsibilities  

The COAST Country Manager will be the ‘on-the-ground‘ liaison for Palladium affirming and implementing the FCDO strategy for COAST, managing day-to-day activities from stakeholder engagement and providing key contextual insights and managing the ongoing portfolio of grants.  

Specifically, the Country Manager will: 

Stakeholder Relationships 

• Maintain an excellent working relationship with the BHC team, supporting them in engagement with partner country government agencies, civil society groups, research agencies, (green/blue) financial institutions and relevant private sector firms in order to collaboratively design and generate buy–in for the programme’s strategy, plans, and resource requirements;  
• Act as an ambassador for COAST in-country, promoting funding opportunities to potential implementing partners, project and programme outputs to intended beneficiaries, and broader UK engagement on COAST themes where relevant, and as agreed with FCDO. 

Strategy Development, Engagement and Technical Expertise 

• Work collaboratively with BHC team, FCDO UK, the Palladium core team to implement an adaptive strategy for COAST-funded projects in-country drawing on the various types of technical assistance available; 
• Identifying complementary existing programmes (funded by the UK and other donors) to feed into COAST country implementation plans, theories of change and log–frames and avoid programme duplication; 
• Provide technical advice and input for continuous context analysis and assessment of local market capacity to identify the most appropriate avenues for interventions and pathways to coastal community impact within each key strategic sector, and flag policy, technological and commercial developments and risks that could influence the delivery of COAST. 

Programme Management; Identification, Selection and Implementation of Interventions 

• Coordinate grant funding windows in accordance with country implementation plans, and lead on market engagement to ensure the right local stakeholders are aware of, and well-placed to apply for, funding opportunities; 
• Organise and manage a call for proposals in collaboration with post, the Palladium team in the UK and the FCDO lead;  
• Facilitate and contribute to the project selection process, particularly with regard to assessing deliverability and impact potential on the ground; 
• Support project set-up coordinating with the Palladium core team to adhere to any local due diligence required and to support initial briefing to potential grantees; 
• Oversee timely implementation of projects and regularly ensure the feedback of results, impacts and learning through quarterly reports to FCDO covering overall progress, progress against outputs, main activities and deliverables for the next period, budget, spend and forecast, and risks; 
• Advise FCDO on potential to extend, scale up or replicate successful projects, and work with successful grantees to do this with FCDO approval; 
• Support defence against fraud, corruption and safeguarding risks, conducting spot checks and other processes to ensure FCDO grant funding is spent as intended and that grantees meet FCDO compliance requirements.  

Programme Reporting 

• Support grantees on project reporting, ensuring reporting meets FCDO requirements  
• Oversee country and project specific risk management, working with all parties, ensuring any issues identified result in quick mitigation strategies and/or are escalated as required; 
• Contribute to programme governance and decision-making, both in-country and centrally, as required. 

Team Management 

• Manage at least one COAST staff member in-country, which may grow in size depending on the pipeline of projects and activities throughout the lifetime of the programme.  

Person Specification 

• Strong technical understanding and knowledge of the COAST themes and a selection of interrelated sub-themes including but not limited to: 

• Small scale fisheries, aquaculture, marine/coastal habitats (mangroves, seagrass, corals), nature based solutions, payment for ecosystem services (PES; blue carbon, REDD+), blue economy, green/blue finance, biodiversity, coastal management, political economy analysis, coastal governance, resilience, adaptation, disaster risk reduction, relevant national policy, climate policy, land-use. 

• Strong technical understanding of coastal/marine environments, policy landscape, relevant state and non-state actors in relation to climate change and the sustainable use of resources. Including the willingness to learn more about innovative opportunities in coastal environment/marine habitats. 
• Strong programme and grant management skills, with a proven track record of managing a portfolio of grantees. 
• Strong reporting skills with proven ability to engage with and manage donor client formal reporting and ad-hoc requests 
• Demonstrated ability to build networks and communicate effectively with a wide range of stakeholders at different levels of seniority;  
• Good knowledge and understanding of the local political economy and business operating context in the country of application, including socio-economic context and development challenges and priorities 
• Excellent organisational, inter-personal administration and communication skills; 
• An ability to see both the big (strategic) picture, identifying opportunities for innovation and value addition for COAST, as well as keeping alert to project delivery risks; 
• Professional fluency in Portuguese and English, both written and spoken 
• A high degree of personal resilience, flexibility and ability to adapt to changing circumstances; 
• Highly collaborative and committed to close working and open communication with colleagues in post and in the UK, and other COAST/Blue Planet Fund partners;  

• Commitment to neutrality in all dealings with stakeholders, including political stakeholders, to build trusted relationships and ensure maximum effectiveness of the programme.