Community Development Project Management Officer

Overview

Reporting to:
Chief Community Development Officer

Location:

Stellenbosch

BACKGROUND

Peace Parks Foundation, founded by President Nelson Mandela, HRH Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands and Dr. Anton Rupert, is a leader in large-scale ecological restoration across southern Africa. Through co-management partnerships that unite governments, communities and donors, it restores vast transboundary landscapes that deliver measurable conservation and livelihood outcomes. Vision 2050 will secure 18 functional landscapes spanning 980,000 km², one of the world’s largest land-conservation initiatives.

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The Community Development Project Management Officer (PMO) provides portfolio-level project management systems support, coordination, and quality assurance across Peace Parks Foundation’s Community Development Programme. The role focuses on strengthening project lifecycle management, planning quality, reporting, compliance, monitoring, and internal coordination across community development projects implemented within and around Transfrontier Conservation Areas. The PMO supports Programme Managers and project teams to ensure projects are aligned with the Community Development Strategy, organisational frameworks, and donor requirements.

This role is non-operational and does not hold direct budget or line management authority unless formally delegated.

To ensure that Community Development Programme projects are well designed, consistently implemented, effectively monitored, and accurately reported, enabling strong programme oversight, accountability, learning, and strategic decision-making by the Chief Community Development Officer (CCDO).

• Chief Community Development Officer
• Community Development Coordinators and Project Managers
• Finance, Fund Development, and Risk & Compliance teams
• Project Systems & Compliance Office
• Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning team (MEL)
• Community governance and landscape-level stakeholders, where relevant

This role will require travel to projects in the field on a regular basis.

• Implement and support the organisation’s project lifecycle management framework across all Community Development Programme projects.
• Ensure alignment of projects with:
  • the Community Development Programme Strategy
  • Peace Parks Foundation’s organisational strategy
  • approved project management and account management frameworks
• Support project teams to develop, maintain, and update core project documentation, including:
  • theories of change
  • objectives, outputs, outcomes, and deliverables
  • logical frameworks and implementation plans
• Promote consistent application of project tools, templates, and minimum documentation standards across the programme.
• Support the CCDO and Programme Managers in tracking programme-level priorities, gaps, and unfunded needs.

• Support Community Development Programme Managers and project teams in the preparation of concept notes, proposals, and funding applications in collaboration with the Fund development team.
• Support project inception processes, including:
  • inception meetings
  • handover of contractual, reporting, safeguard, and compliance requirements
• Assist with the start-up of new Community Development projects by supporting systems set-up, documentation, and internal coordination.
• Develop and maintain a working understanding of Community Development project funding agreements and contractual obligations.
• Support coordination between project teams, community governance structures, park management, and Peace Parks Foundation support departments, where relevant.
• Contribute to the refinement and improvement of project management tools, methodologies, and guidance used within the Community Development Programme.
• Provide orientation, coaching, or training to project teams on project management systems, reporting requirements, and organisational standards.

• Support the preparation and consolidation of periodic technical…