Project Manager (m/f/d) in Davao/Philippines

OPEN FOR BOTH INTERNATIONAL AND FILIPINO NATIONALS

We are looking for a Project Manager for our Davao Team (m/f/d) based in Davao, Mindanao, Philippines, with regular domestic travel and some international travel, starting from May 2025. 

Our profile

Forum Ziviler Friedensdienst e.V. (forumZFD, Forum Civil Peace Service) supports people involved in violent conflicts on the path to peace and strives to help overcome war and violence. 

forumZFD is currently working in 13 countries in Europe, the Middle East and South East Asia. Its Academy for Conflict Transformation offers learning space for professional, international peace work. Through dialogue events, educational work and campaigns, forumZFD also actively advocates civil peace policies. 

forumZFD is recognised by the German federal government as a member of the Civil Peace Service (CPS) consortium. It finances its work through public and private grants, donations and membership fees.

forumZFD started working in the Philippines in 2007 with the goal of promoting non-violent approaches of dealing with conflict. forumZFD Philippines holds its programme office in Davao and has project offices in the cities of Butuan, Davao and Cotabato. It engages actors dedicated to peace and nonviolent conflict transformation from different spheres of society including local civil society, indigenous peoples, media educators and practitioners, academic institutions and selected government institutions. 

Your Roles and Responsibilities

In this role, you will provide strategic leadership to a multidisciplinary project team of local and international staff, overseeing the implementation of diverse projects in Davao: 1) media and peacebuilding, 2) inclusive history education, 3) peace and conflict in the social sciences, and 4) transforming local conflicts through non-violent, gender-transformative, and inclusive approaches.

Your responsibilities will include guiding the development of project content, managing budgets and financial reporting, and ensuring effective planning, monitoring, evaluation and learning processes. You will also oversee team and personnel management, fostering a collaborative and productive work environment that aligns with forumZFD’s values and principles. Central to your role will be ensuring that all projects and processes are rooted in conflict sensitivity, human rights, and gender sensitivity, reflecting forumZFD’s commitment to ethical engagement and impactful peacebuilding.

A significant part of your work will involve collaborating with higher education institutions in Mindanao to advance peace education through an integrated curriculum. This includes introducing topics such as conflict-sensitive journalism, peace and conflict studies, and Mindanao histories and studies into social sciences education. You will also work with community partners in the Davao region to implement conflict transformation initiatives, complementing indigenous conflict resolution mechanisms. Additionally, you and your team will support local and regional partners in their efforts toward conflict transformation and peace advocacy, while conceptualizing and organizing impactful activities such as workshops, trainings, exhibitions, and forums. Your role will bridge strategic vision with practical implementation, ensuring that all projects contribute meaningfully to sustainable peace and conflict transformation in Mindanao. 

Your tasks in detail

• Provide overall (staff and financial) management and leadership to the project in Davao in a team with up to three international and national project officers and one financial administrator;
• design and organise activities (e.g. workshops, trainings and training series, consultations, conferences/open forums/round tables, preparation of teaching materials), together with local partners;
• observe and analyse current regional and local conflict dynamics;
• comply to internal planning, monitoring, and evaluation (PMEL) systems (including report writing) and support the further development of such systems;
• reflect on and document experiences and “lessons learned” out of activities and projects, for internal documentation and evaluation;
• contribute to the fundraising and public relations activities of forumZFD;
• support in the development and alignment of forumZFD regional/country programme strategies in accordance with forumZFD strategies and lead the design of the projects;
• participate in the organisational development processes of forumZFD in the Philippines and across programmes (e.g. participating in thematic working groups, the representation of employee interests, etc.).

Your profile

• Completed university degree, e.g. Social Anthropology, Social Sciences, Political Sciences, Peace and Conflict Studies, Social Work;
• qualification in methods of non-violent/civil conflict transformation (or similar knowledge);
• a robust experience in human resource management and staff supervision, financial controlling and reporting system;
• minimum of three years of international experience in development cooperation and peacebuilding abroad (desirably in the Philippines or in another country in Southeast Asia);
• extensive experience in working in – if possible more than one – of the following fields: peace education, media and peacebuilding, community-based peacebuilding, indigenous communities or natural resource-based conflicts. Additional experience in one or more of the following thematic fields is an asset: training, networking, civil-society-oriented accompaniment of peace processes, gender, mediation, designing dialogue procedures, transitional justice;
• affinity with the accompaniment of complex (dialogue) processes including creative and sensitive trial and implementation of new approaches;
• experience in impact-oriented project planning, monitoring, evaluation and learning;
• strong interpersonal skills, flexibility, ability to work in teams and intercultural sensitivity for working and living in complex communities; 
• ability to cope with ambiguity and the psychological strains of living in a conflict-affected area, isolation, and under pressure in a complex, politically volatile environment;
• physical and psychological resilience, good time management including management of healthy work-life balance;
• willingness to travel frequently and adjust to flexible working hours (weekends, workload peaks);
• fluency in English (project language) both spoken and written, willingness to learn a new language;
• sound knowledge of common computer applications and social media;
• willingness to travel frequently and partly through areas in which safety rules have to be observed due to security risks, is expected.

Our offer

We offer an attractive position with responsibilities for a minimum of two years in a growing organization. 

Working for forumZFD, you will work within the innovative field of conflict transformation and peacebuilding through contributing your ideas and skills.

Start of assignment

Ideally, you are available to start working on 1st of May 2025.

Your application

Please send your application (letter of motivation, CV and contact details of 2-3 reference persons) to www.forumzfd.de/en/node/3159/apply latest by February 23, 2025.

An selection process (online) is tentatively scheduled for the week of March 10, 2025. In case of any questions, please feel free to contact Mr. Dirgha Raj Sigdel at sigdel@forumzfd.de. 

Please find further information about our organisation and our assignments online at www.forumZFD.de. This job advertisement as well as further employment postings can be viewed at www.forumZFD.de/jobs. 

We are looking forward to your application!