Programme Coordinator

 Concern Worldwide is a non-governmental, international, humanitarian organisation dedicated to the reduction of suffering and working towards the ultimate elimination of extreme poverty in the world’s poorest countries

Founded in 1968, Concern works in 25 countries in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean with its headquarters in Ireland.

Concern started working in Malawi in 2002. The 2023 – 2027 Malawi Country Strategic Plan focuses on climate and environment, social protection, gender and social inclusion, sustainable food systems for food security and partnerships. For sustainability and lasting change, our advocacy and influence, people centred and evidence based approaches focus on system strengthening and resilience building as we seek to address the root causes of poverty.

Concern invites applications from interested candidates qualified for the following position:

 Job Title: Programme Coordinator (1 Vacancy)

Duty Station: Lilongwe

Contract Duration: Fixed Term One (1) Year Contract

The Programme Coordinator will provide overall technical and management leadership to Concern’s livelihoods, resilience and humanitarian programmes in Concern Malawi, ensuring that the highest standards of programme implementation, monitoring, evaluation and reporting are attained. The Programme Coordinator will enhance the programming and managerial skills of the field teams across various district offices in Malawi. The Programme Coordinator will report directly to the Programmes Director and will be a member of the Senior Management Team.

Job Responsibility #1 Programme Management

• Manage the planning, coordination and quality of programmes implementation in accordance with project design, Concern procedures and donor contract obligations.
• Lead the development of annual and quarterly programme plans and budgets in line with Concern procedures and donor obligations.
• Undertake regular and detailed reviews of implementation progress against plans and budgets. Where necessary revise plans and budgets to maintain programme quality and progress.
• Regularly monitor field-level activities to resolve obstacles to timely, quality, and accountable implementation. Proactively raise issues with District Programme Managers, Programmes Director, as appropriate.
• In line with programme plans and budgets coordinate and consolidate procurement requests, ensure timely and efficient communication and coordination with the systems team, to ensure timely delivery of supplies and inputs to relevant programmes.
• Consolidate and submit high quality monthly, quarterly and annual internal and external reports on time.
• In coordination with the MEAL Manager, ensure that results based systems of M&E are in place in all programmes. Analyze outputs and outcome data with the district teams to adapt project for impact.
• Using the Gender Continuum Exercise tool and with the support of the Gender Equality Advisor, critically design and review project activities on a regular basis to ensure project are as much as possible gender transformative
• In coordination with the MEAL Manager, ensure that Complaints & Response Mechanism (CRM) is in place in all field offices/projects and support and follow up on programme participants’ sensitization and visibility of CRM channels. Analyze information coming from the CRM monthly dashboard and support District Programme Managers to take necessary actions to improve accountability towards beneficiaries.

Job Responsibility #2 Financial Management

• Ensure budget utilisation and asset management are in full compliance with Concern’s administrative and financial policies and procedures
• Ensure revision of monthly financial reports and management accounts to ensure that spending coding is adequate and budget utilisation is timely and on scope. Proactively raise issues with the Programmes Director.
• Support District Programme Managers in the efficient running of the field offices and appropriate oversight of the Systems and Finance functions, in liaison and with support of the Systems Director and Country Finance Controller for appropriate training, review and support or coaching of district staff.

Job Responsibility #3 Team Management

• Build motivated and highly functional implementation teams through regularly support, coaching and mentoring of staff and partners organisations
• Review staff structures and job description roles and responsibilities to ensure optimal human resourcing of the programmes.
• Implement Concern’s performance management systems to monitor and maintain and improve staff and team performance.
• Identify gaps and facilitate the capacity building of Concern and partner staff to maintain our ability to deliver high quality and innovative programmes.
• Contribute to creating a positive working environment which values inclusion of all people regardless their gender, religion or faith, age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, HIV status, disability, civil status etc. In this regard, participate on a regular basis and motivate supervisees to join in internal initiatives aimed at promotion of open and friendly work environment.
• Actively participate in the Senior Management Team (SMT).

Job Responsibility #4 Programme Development, Advocacy & External Relations

• Lead the development and delivery of high quality and innovative livelihood, resilience and humanitarian strategies and approaches, keeping abreast of development in the sector and international standards, to input into proposal design and adaptive management of programmes.
• In coordination with the Programme Director, ensure that lessons learned and best practices are documented and shared with the field teams to improve programme quality.
• Support the Programme Director during donor proposals, budgets and reports to ensure they are of high quality, up-to-date and delivered in a timely manner.
• Ensure effective networking and coordination with relevant stakeholders, such as donor sector technical advisor, government authorities, other NGOs and UN Agencies at district and national level to advance Concern’s advocacy agenda.
• Lead on the advocacy strategy ensuring our country advocacy goals are advanced as per the CSP
• Lead (chair/co-chair) or participate actively in relevant working groups/coalitions as required and share learning and best practices to Concern teams
• Maintain close working relations with appropriate members of Concern’s SAL unit in Dublin, including advocacy, and livelihoods.

Qualifications

• A Bachelor’s Degree in Development Studies, Social Science, Agriculture or relevant field
• Minimum of five years’ experience in managing and coordinating complex and diverse agricultural, livelihoods development and emergency programmes. Experience of developing and managing programme monitoring and evaluation systems. Advocacy experience at a national level. Experience working in consortium structures and managing local partners
• Familiarity and knowledge of finance, logistics and administration systems
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, including fluency in written and spoken English and Chichewa

How To Apply

 Interested candidates, who meet the above qualifications, should send their CV (3 pages maximum including three professional referees) and a Cover Letter to malawi.hr@concern.net with the subject of the email as “Programme Coordinator’’. The deadline for applications is Saturday, 9^th November 2025. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted for interview. Concern is an equal opportunities employer.

 Safeguarding at Concern: Code of Conduct and its Associated Policies

Concern has an organisational Code of Conduct (CCoC) with three Associated Policies; the Programme Participant Protection Policy (P4), the Child Safeguarding Policy and the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Policy. These have been developed to ensure the maximum protection of programme participants from exploitation, and to clarify the responsibilities of Concern staff, consultants, visitors to the programme and partner organisation, and the standards of behaviour expected of them. In this context, staff have a responsibility to the organisation to strive for, and maintain, the highest standards in the day-to-day conduct in their workplace in accordance with Concern’s core values and mission. Any candidate offered a job with Concern Worldwide will be expected to sign the Concern Staff Code of Conduct and Associated Policies as an appendix to their contract of employment. By signing the Concern Code of Conduct, candidates acknowledge that they have understood the content of both the Concern Code of Conduct and the Associated Policies and agree to conduct themselves in accordance with the provisions of these policies. Additionally, Concern is committed to the safeguarding and protection of vulnerable adults and children in our work. We will do everything possible to ensure that only those who are suitable to work or volunteer with vulnerable adults and children are recruited by us for such roles. Subsequently, working or volunteering with Concern is subject to a range of vetting checks, including criminal background checking. 

 Concern’ is the trading name of ‘Concern Worldwide’, a company limited by guarantee, registered number 39647; registered charity number CHY 5745, registered in Ireland, registered address is 52-55 Lower Camden Street, Dublin 2, Ireland. Follow Concern online: www.concern.net