Programme Associate

• Role: Programme Associate, The Connector
• Location: London
• Reports to: Manager, The Connector
• Contract: 2 year fixed term, full time (40 hours - wk)
• Salary Range:  £38,000 - £45,000 per annum (depending on experience)
• Updated: December 2023

About our organization

With deep expertise in climate finance and policy, Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) is an analysis and advisory organization with deep expertise in finance and policy. Our mission is to help governments, businesses, and financial institutions drive economic growth while addressing climate change. Our vision is to build a sustainable, resilient, and inclusive global economy. CPI has six offices around the world in Brazil, India, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, and the United States and acts as the Secretariat for The ClimateShot Investor Coalition (CLIC), alongside similar roles for The Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance (The Lab) and The Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance (CCFLA).

The ClimateShot Investor Coalition (CLIC) is an action-oriented group of investors working in agriculture and food systems. CLIC aims to rapidly scale-up the finance necessary to shift towards low-carbon and climate-resilient agriculture and food systems globally, thus delivering on the ambitions of the Glasgow Breakthrough Agenda on Agriculture agreed at COP26. CPI runs the Secretariat for CLIC.

Position Summary

CPI is recruiting for a Program Associate position offering an exciting opportunity to support CPI’s work in climate finance for agrifood systems within the team running the secretariat of the ClimateShot Investor Coalition (CLIC), with particular focus on the CLIC’s Agrifood Investment Connector.

Reporting to the Connector Manager and CLIC Senior Program Associate, the Program Associate will support the management of the Connector workstream and engage with both the wider CLIC management team, the Connector’s internal and external stakeholders, and wider CPI teams. You will gain exposure to a wide array of stakeholders in both the agriculture and food systems space as well as climate finance space, whilst drawing on the CPI world class technical team focused on scaling-up and accelerating climate and nature finance for agriculture and food systems globally.

You will be responsible for project management and coordination of the Connector’s activities, and support with the management of CLIC ’s Secretariat, drawing on input and expertise from CPI research and technical teams, as well as communications and operations staff. You will need to quickly develop a solid understanding of the CLIC and Connector mission as well as the members that drive it. You will hold a number of responsibilities in supporting the day-to-day running of the Connector, including budgeting and workplan management, and in your role, help ensure CLIC delivers high quality outputs on time and within budget. You will possess a calm, diplomatic approach, demonstrating resilience under pressure and a positive outlook to work effectively in a challenging context managing a diverse and dispersed set of stakeholders. You should also be ready for varying set of tasks as the programme evolves and new requirements may arise.

CPI offers an inspiring environment that rewards independent thinking, collaboration, and pragmatic problem solving.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities

Includes the following and other duties as assigned:

• Coordinate and monitor the overall delivery of the Connector in close consultation with the Connector and CLIC management teams.
• Support with the development of the Connector approach and associated workplan with activities and milestones.
• Support with the design and implementation of the Connector outreach strategy and coordinate events related to CLIC and the Connector.
• Work with CPI and CLIC Analysts to monitor the Connector’s technical work, providing support and inputs and making sure that outputs are on track and on budget, and aligned with the strategy.
• Coordinate Connector activities and meetings, providing support to the lead organisations and making sure they are aligned with the Secretariat main technical work plan.
• Participate in and contribute to other meetings acting on behalf of the Connector and CLIC Secretariat, including the Action Groups meetings and external events.
• Coordinate with CPI’s Communications team on external communication activities such as newsletters, social media, and the CLIC website.
• You have solid experience in project and process management, having worked with relevant systems (e.g. Airtable, Notion).
• In coordination with the CLIC Senior Program Associate, lead the systemization of processes of the CLIC Connector component, instilling structure and order to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of our work. It includes maintaining a complex mapping of the ecosystem stakeholders, and record keeping of interactions across the teams. As well as ensuring all workstreams are tracked and relevant stakeholders can access the status information and/or informed in timely and streamlined fashion.
• Coordinate with the Senior Program Associate, CLIC Manager and technical leads on budgetary and resource needs for the Connector.
• Support with monitoring and reporting, including financial and narrative reporting through both internal project management tools as well as reporting to clients.
• Support with consultant selection, contracting and invoice processing.

Qualifications, Experience & Competencies

Qualifications

• Ideally, a BA or BS is required in the fields of international and/or domestic policy, development studies, economics, business, finance, or another relevant field. Candidates without such a qualification will only be considered if significant relevant work experience can be demonstrated.
• Substantial and progressive professional experience managing high-profile projects for government, business, and/or NGOs; with evidence of increasing budget and resource management. Project management training or certification would be an advantage.

Experience

• Experience managing projects in agriculture, or food systems sectors, sustainability, international development, issues related to climate change mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity/nature, climate finance or impact investment is highly desirable.
• A passion for and interest in developing expertise in climate and nature finance for agriculture and agrifood systems is desirable.
• Advance knowledge and skill in project and process management tools.
• Exposure to emerging market and developing economies context, with direct experience in markets in Asia, Africa or Latin America valued.

Title & Compensation

This position is a 2 year fixed term, full-time position based in our London Office.

CPI has adopted a flexible working policy whereby staff are able to mix working remotely with regular days in the London office (particularly helpful for interacting with the wider CPI team, specific team meetings and collaboration).

CPI offers an excellent and competitive compensation and benefits package, including a salary range between £38,000-£45,000 per annum, depending upon experience.

To apply

Please submit your CV and a compelling cover letter outlining why you want to work with CPI and the CLIC, and how your skills and experience match the above criteria. Applications must be submitted by 9am on Friday 12th January 2024. Applications will be assessed on a rolling basis, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible.

Please understand that as a streamlined team, only short-listed applicants will be contacted. Please be sure to add notifications@app.bamboohr.com to your contact list to ensure delivery of all correspondence from us.

Climate Policy Initiative is an equal opportunity employer.

Climate Policy Initiative is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion and we are working to embed DEI across every facet of our organisation. We seek to establish a working environment where all board members, staff, volunteers, and contractors feel respected and valued regardless of gender, age, race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation or identity, disability, education, or any other bias. We work hard to create an inclusive culture where all forms of diversity are openly valued as critical to the success of our organization and the achievement of our mission and vision.  We actively encourage applications from a broad range of back grounds and experiences and are committed to making reasonable adjustments to support candidates throughout our recruitment process. If you have any support or access requirements, we encourage you to advise us at the time of application. We will then work with you to identify the best way to assist you through the recruitment process.