About Cordaid
Cordaid is a value-based international development and emergency relief organisation, based in the Netherlands with operations in over 14 countries including Uganda. We work in and on fragility and support communities in their efforts to improve health care, education, food security, and justice. Cordaid believes in a world without poverty and exclusion. We strive for just and sustainable societies where every person counts. We stand for knowledge and talent sharing between North and South, between farmers and businesses, between activists and policymakers. Where poverty, conflict and exclusion divide societies, we connect people and communities. We stand for professionalism, expertise and solidarity across borders. We aim at maximizing our social impact and contributing to systemic change. We operate where natural disasters strike, where conflicts tear up communities and where lack of opportunities and service delivery keep families in extreme poverty.

For the - Agricultural Governance Results Improvement Project A-GRIP, with its main office in Fort portal  Cordaid is looking for a Deputy Chief of Party (DCOP).

About Result Based Financing (RBF)

Cordaid has been active in Uganda for over 25 years. In Uganda and in 15 other sub-Saharan African countries Cordaid has experience in system strengthening through the Result Based Financing (RBF) approach. In Uganda we are implementing an RBF project, Agricultural Governance Results Improvement Project (A-GRIP) since November 2023.The project has a lifespan of 5 years and a multimillion Euro budget.

Programme Overview

The Agricultural Governance Results Improvement Project (A-GRIP) operates across 16 district local governments in five regions of Uganda. The programme aims to strengthen land tenure security and enable the inclusive development of smallholder farming systems through improved public service delivery by local governments and sub-county structures, particularly in agricultural production and environmental and natural resource management.

A-GRIP is part of a broader ecosystem of programmes funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (EKN). Within this ecosystem, A-GRIP has a distinct systems-strengthening role: it creates and strengthens the enabling environment for smallholder farmers by improving governance, institutional performance, land tenure security, and the quality and responsiveness of public services. This role complements other EKN-funded partner programmes that are more directly farmer-facing, including initiatives focused on production, markets, services, value chains, farmer organisations and access to finance.

.A-GRIP is structured around three inter-related outcome areas:

1. Increased formal and equitable land ownership under customary law, especially for vulnerable populations.
2. Increased sustainable agricultural production among smallholder farmers through enhanced uptake of effective, quality and equitable agricultural and natural resource management services.
3. Strengthened governance, regulation, enabling policies and institutional performance at district level, supporting improved service delivery by the Department of Production and Marketing (DPM), Environment and Natural Resources (ENR), and the Chief Administrative Office (CAO).

Purpose of Position:

The Deputy Chief of Party is responsible for leading the day-to-day management, coordination and operational delivery of A-GRIP. The DCOP ensures that approved strategies, workplans, budgets, technical priorities and performance targets are translated into coherent implementation across districts, technical components, partners and operational functions.

The DCOP works under the strategic direction of the Chief of Party (CoP). The CoP retains overall accountability for strategic leadership, donor and government representation, external positioning and programme results, while the DCOP serves as the principal internal delivery lead responsible for execution, coordination, follow-up and performance management across the programme.

The DCOP plays a central role in ensuring that A-GRIP’s systems-strengthening mandate is delivered in practice and that programme implementation remains aligned with the wider EKN-funded ecosystem, including coordination with partner projects that are more directly farmer-facing.

Key Duties & Responsibilities

Day-to-Day Programme Management and Operational Delivery

• Lead the day-to-day management and coordination of A-GRIP implementation across all programme components with a strong focus on the land tenure component, districts and operational functions.
• Translate strategic direction from the CoP into practical implementation plans, clear team priorities, realistic timelines and accountable delivery processes.
• Coordinate the execution of approved annual and periodic workplans, ensuring activities are delivered on time, within scope and in line with agreed budgets and donor commitments.
• Ensure that technical, operational, financial and MEL/data functions work together effectively to support integrated programme delivery.
• Monitor implementation progress across districts and components, identify bottlenecks early, and ensure timely follow-up with responsible team members.
• Ensure that programme delivery strengthens public systems and services in ways that support A-GRIP’s enabling-environment role for smallholder farmers within the wider EKN portfolio.

 

 

 

 Internal Coordination and Senior Team Support

• Serve as the principal internal coordination lead for the programme, ensuring that senior technical, MEL/data, finance, operations and regional/field coordination teams work from shared priorities and decision points.
• Convene and follow up on regular internal programme management meetings, ensuring clear actions, ownership, deadlines and escalation of issues requiring CoP decision-making.
• Support the CoP in ensuring that the senior management team operates as an integrated leadership structure with strong communication, coordinated decision-making and shared accountability for results.
• Provide hands-on management support to team leads to improve planning discipline, implementation quality and delivery against agreed milestones.
• Promote a culture of collaboration, accountability and problem-solving across the programme team.

Technical Integration and Implementation Coherence

• Ensure practical integration across A-GRIP’s technical components, including land tenure security, agricultural governance, natural resource management, institutional strengthening and district-level service delivery.
• Work with technical leads to ensure that activities are sequenced logically and contribute to the three programme outcomes.
• Ensure that field implementation reflects A-GRIP’s role in strengthening governance systems and public service delivery
• Support coordination with EKN-funded partner projects at the implementation level, ensuring operational alignment, complementarity and timely exchange of relevant information.
• Identify practical opportunities for joint planning, learning and coordination with partner programmes where this strengthens system-wide impact for smallholder farmers.

Performance Management, MEL and Adaptive Implementation

• Work closely with the MEL/data function to ensure that implementation progress, output delivery, outcome contribution and performance risks are tracked and regularly reviewed.
• Use programme data, field insights and partner feedback to support timely course correction and adaptive management.
• Lead regular implementation review processes with technical and operational teams, ensuring that performance evidence informs planning and management decisions.
• Ensure that lessons from implementation are documented and shared with the CoP, senior management team and relevant EKN-funded partner initiatives.
• Support the preparation of high-quality internal and donor-facing performance updates, ensuring that reports are evidence-based, accurate and aligned with programme commitments.
• Ensure that A-GRIP’s contribution to governance and systems strengthening is clearly captured in programme monitoring, reporting and learning processes.

Partner, District and Field Coordination

• Oversee operational coordination with district local governments, sub-county structures, implementing partners and field teams to ensure timely and coherent delivery.
• Ensure that district-level engagement is well planned, coordinated and aligned with programme objectives, workplans and technical standards.
• Support technical teams in strengthening working relationships with district structures, including DPM, ENR and CAO functions, while escalating strategic or politically sensitive issues to the CoP.
• Ensure that implementation arrangements with partners and local government counterparts are clear, practical and performance-oriented.
• Monitor partner and field-level delivery, ensuring that challenges are identified, documented and addressed in a timely manner.

Risk Management, Compliance and Resource Use

• Support the CoP in ensuring that programme implementation complies with donor requirements, grant agreements, Cordaid policies and applicable procedures.
• Work with finance and operations teams to ensure that activity planning, procurement, logistics and budget utilisation are aligned and support timely implementation.
• Identify operational, delivery, coordination and compliance risks, and ensure appropriate mitigation actions are agreed and followed up.
• Escalate strategic, reputational, donor-related or high-risk issues to the CoP in a timely manner.
• Promote transparent, accountable and efficient use of programme resources across teams, partners and field operations.

Team Management and Capacity Strengthening

• Provide day-to-day management, coaching and coordination support to assigned staff and functional teams.
• Strengthen planning, delivery and accountability practices across the programme team.
• Support performance management processes by clarifying expectations, reviewing progress and identifying capacity development needs.
• Foster a collaborative, respectful and results-oriented team culture, ensuring that staff understand how their work contributes to A-GRIP outcomes.
• Support knowledge transfer and capability development to strengthen programme sustainability and continuity.

Integrity

• Showcases integrity standards as outlined in Cordaid's integrity policies. Fulfils integrity responsibilities as outlined in Cordaid's Integrity Framework and Standard Operating Procedures.
• Actively contributes to a safe environment within their scope of influence by encouraging dialogue, trust, as well as understanding and adherence to Cordaid's integrity standards and procedures.

Positioning, Reporting and Role Boundaries

• The Deputy Chief of Party reports to the Chief of Party and is responsible for day-to-day programme management, internal coordination and operational execution. The DCOP ensures that the programme moves from strategy to implementation through disciplined planning, follow-up, coordination and performance management.
• The Chief of Party retains overall accountability for A-GRIP’s strategic leadership, external representation, donor relationship, government engagement, strategic risk management and final programme results. The DCOP does not replace the CoP as the primary representative to EKN or national-level strategic stakeholders, but may represent the programme in agreed technical, operational or coordination forums when delegated by the CoP.
• The DCOP works closely with senior technical leads, MEL/data leadership, finance and operations leadership, and regional/field coordination teams. The role ensures that these functions operate as a coherent delivery system, with clear roles, shared priorities and timely escalation of decisions requiring CoP guidance.
• This division of responsibilities is intended to ensure clear leadership: the CoP leads strategy and external positioning; the DCOP leads internal execution and operational delivery.

Requirements

The Deputy Chief of Party is a senior programme manager with strong operational leadership, coordination and delivery capabilities. The role requires experience managing complex, multi-component development programmes and translating strategic priorities into practical implementation across teams, partners and geographies. The successful candidate should possess strong skills in planning, coordination, performance management, risk management and adaptive implementation, and is able to work effectively with technical teams, MEL/data, finance, operations, district stakeholders and partner organisations. The DCOP must be comfortable operating in a complex donor-funded ecosystem and able to ensure that A-GRIP’s systems-strengthening role complements, rather than duplicates, more directly farmer-facing partner programmes.

• Master’s degree in land governance, public administration, international development, governance, rural development, public policy, programme management or a related field.
• Demonstrated experience with, and knowledge of the land tenure sector, preferably in Uganda.
• At least 8–10 years of progressively responsible experience in programme management, preferably in agriculture, land tenure, governance, public service delivery, decentralisation, natural resource management or rural development.
• Demonstrated experience coordinating complex, multi-stakeholder programmes across multiple locations.
• Strong experience in work planning, implementation management, performance tracking, risk management and donor compliance.
• Experience working with government institutions, district local governments, implementing partners and donor-funded programme structures.
• Familiarity with results-based financing, performance-based approaches, log frame management, MEL systems and adaptive management is an advantage.
• Strong team leadership, communication, facilitation and problem-solving skills.
• Fluency in written and spoken English; ability and willingness to travel regularly within Uganda.
• The right to live and work in Uganda

Competencies

• Operational leadership and delivery discipline: translates strategy into practical plans, follows through on commitments and ensures timely delivery.
• Coordination and integration: brings technical, operational, MEL/data, finance and field teams together around shared priorities and clear accountability.
• Results and performance orientation: uses targets, milestones and evidence to manage progress and improve delivery.
• Adaptive management and learning: uses data, field insights and feedback to support timely course correction and continuous improvement.
• Partner and district coordination: works effectively with local government, implementing partners and other EKN-funded initiatives while respecting role boundaries.
• Team leadership and accountability: supports staff performance, strengthens team culture and promotes responsible decision-making.
• Risk and compliance awareness: identifies operational risks early and ensures donor and Cordaid requirements are followed.
• Communication and judgment: communicates clearly, escalates appropriately and exercises sound judgment in complex implementation settings.