Programmes Coordinator

About Forested

Forested is a regenerative ingredients company working across East Africa to build supply chains between smallholder farmers and global consumer brands, with a focus on beauty/personal care and nutraceutical brands. Our innovation—Ingredient Insets—combines raw material trade with verified environmental and social impact, allowing brands to make credible net-zero and nature-positive claims by sourcing regenerative ingredients.

We are launching multi-year programmes focused on expanding farmer participation in regenerative value chains (honey, beeswax, shea butter, and oils), strengthening inclusive business models, and building our digital Insetting Management System (IMS) to trace and verify that our supply chains are delivering real benefits for farmers and communities.

Location:
Nairobi, Kenya or Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Position Description

The Programmes Coordinator will be responsible for day-to-day coordination, tracking, and communication across workstreams, ensuring that activities are delivered on time, within scope and budget, and in line with donor requirements and Forested's mission.

This is a hands-on coordination role: part project management, part grants management, part operations. You'll sit at the centre of internal and external stakeholders—field teams, technical partners, finance, MEL, and donors—helping to translate plans into reality and keeping everyone aligned.

Key Responsibilities

Programme & Workstream Coordination

• Coordinate day-to-day implementation of programmes, maintaining multi-workstream alignment with workplans and budgets
• Convene and document regular internal check-ins (e.g., weekly or bi-weekly) with workstream leads to track progress, flag risks, and troubleshoot
• Lead procurement and contracting processes related to programme delivery (consultants, service providers, community partners)
• Coordinate
  field activities
  (trainings, workshops, farmer meetings, data collection exercises, pilot launches)

Reporting, Budgeting & Compliance

• Lead quarterly reporting (narrative progress reports, presentations, and budgets)
• Work closely with the Finance team to reconcile activities with budgets, ensuring spend is aligned with approved cost categories with supporting documentation
• Maintain simple budget vs actuals trackers per programme in collaboration with Finance, flagging underspend/overspend early and suggesting course corrections
• Ensure contract compliance, including following procurement rules and safeguarding or ESG requirements linked to the grants

MEL, Data & Impact Tracking

• Work with Forested's MEL / impact and IMS teams to ensure programme indicators and targets (e.g., number of farmers, women's participation, income changes, hectares under regenerative management, carbon/nature metrics) are clearly understood and tracked
• Coordinate timely data collection from field teams and partners, including farmer records, training attendance, survey results, and impact metrics
• Help maintain organised data repositories (e.g., shared drives, dashboards, trackers) so that information is easily accessible for reporting, learning, and decision-making
• Support preparation of case studies, learning briefs, and success stories, especially highlighting farmer outcomes and women's economic empowerment

Stakeholder & Partner Engagement

• Serve as a first point of coordination for programme-related communication with key partners (e.g., community cooperatives, implementation partners, consultants) to schedule meetings, share materials, and follow up on actions
• Support donor engagements with presentation materials, as needed

Internal Systems & Continuous Improvement

• Help refine and harmonise Forested's internal programme management systems, templates, and SOPs so we can run multi-partner programmes more efficiently
• Identify risks and bottlenecks early (e.g., delays in field implementation, data gaps, budget constraints) and proactively propose mitigation options to leadership.
• Contribute to internal reflection and learning sessions, making sure programme insights feed into broader company strategy, fundraising, and product (IMS / Ingredient Insets) development

Qualifications & Experience Required

• Bachelor's degree in business/management, development studies, environmental sciences, agriculture, economics, or a related field, or equivalent experience
• 2–4 years of professional experience in programme / project coordination, preferably within: international development or agriculture
• Experience supporting donor-funded programmes, including familiarity with reporting and compliance
• Strong project management skills: workplans, deadlines, multi-tasking across several workstreams and stakeholders
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English

Bonus

• Experience designing business models and building financial models
• Experience in sales roles and negotiating purchase orders or off-take agreements
• Experience working with smallholder farmers, cooperatives, or other agriculture SMEs, especially in East Africa
• Familiarity with concepts such as regenerative agriculture, carbon insetting/offsetting, nature-based solutions, and women's economic empowerment
• Working proficiency in Swahili or Amharic

Competencies & Mindset

• Highly organised, detail-oriented, and comfortable managing many moving pieces at once
• Proactive, solutions-oriented, and able to anticipate needs and risks rather than only reacting
• Strong relationship builder: able to communicate respectfully and clearly with farmers, community leaders, colleagues, and donors
• Mission-driven, with a genuine interest in regenerative agriculture, equitable value chains, and climate & nature impact
• Comfortable in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment where systems are still being built

If this role sounds like it was made for you, we would love to meet you E-mail us a cover letter and CV to by Friday, December 12, 2025.