Partnership, Grants & Communications Coordinator

Period Of Employment :- 1 year with possibility of extension

Job Purpose:

• The Partnership, Grants & Communications Coordinator will work within the wider Concern team to support to ensure that Concern’s partnership, Grants and Communication strategies are properly  implemented to attain the objectives set in country strategic plan.
• Specifically, the partnership, Grants and Communications Coordinator will lead the business development processes for emergency and development programming, identification of funding opportunities, coordination and oversight of reports and their timely submission and ensuring production and appropriate use of communication materials (case stories, case studies, visibility materials) for internal and external audiences including donors.
• Under the leadership of the Programme Quality Director, the Partnership, Grants and Communications Coordinator will work closely with CD, PDs, programme partner organisations, Programme Managers, and Senior Management Team (SMT).
• The position holder will adhere to the standards of conduct outlined in the Concern Code of Conduct and Programme Participant Protection Policy (P4).  As part of the Concern P4 responsibility the position holder will:
• Support and promote the standards outlined in the P4 and the Concern Code of Conduct to their team, partner organisations and beneficiaries, and be committed to providing a safe working environment; and
• Contribute to the establishment of preventive measures to reduce the potential for abuse in Concern programme.

Main duties & Responsibilities:

Partner Engagement

• In coordination with the senior partnership officer, provide support to partnership arrangements and management, including contracting, identification of issues and bottlenecks, and facilitating reporting and processing of payments.
• Assist the Senior Partnership Officer in documenting learning from Ethiopia’s engagement and collaboration with partners and share with Concern Worldwide globally where appropriate.
• Support on continuous projects and new proposals that involve local partners
• Participate in partnership platform meetings if and when appropriate, where Concern invites partners to come together to review/learn from each other.
• Support the Senior Partnership Officer on due diligence and safeguarding assessments of existing and potential new programme partners, and support CLIPAT assessments including support to map and gather information on local partners in Ethiopia for future proposals and programmes
• Lead on the organisational capacity development assessments, planning and processes for each of Concern’s partner organisations
• Coordinate and deliver training and other capacity development activities for local partners and deliver these in collaboration with relevant technical staff and consultants as appropriate.
• Assist the Senior Partnership Officer to monitor progress and performance of partners following capacity development support and Support partners in their compliance with donor requirements, the requirements of Concern’s Code of Conduct and associated policies and in strengthening their accountability to programme participants and other stakeholders.

Business Development & Grant Management

• In coordination with the Grants and Business Intelligence Manager:
• Keep program coordinators and respective managers informed and updated on donor policies and compliance requirements; ensure follow up on.
• Actively identify and keep abreast of funding opportunities and key donor priorities and approaches; liaise directly with donors on the same as appropriate.
• Assist proposal design/programme development meetings, ensuring participation of relevant colleagues from across the different sub-teams, and consortia partners as necessary.
• Work with programme and finance teams to develop cohesive, quality concept notes and proposals, ensuring internal and external deadlines met and technical expertise/knowledge incorporated.
• Make sure that the Grants and Business Intelligence Manager keeps updated file of key organisational information required for proposals, and of all prior proposals submitted, for staff induction, learning and future reference purposes (with DO support).
• Support the grant owners in ensuring timely grant opening and closure meetings, ensuring participation of programme, finance, logistics and HR colleagues and follow up of action points.
• Assist the Grants and Business Intelligence Manager to review the country grants matrix on a monthly basis: share regularly with programme and finance focal points and HQ Desk Officer (DO), and lead on ensuring timely, accurate, quality reporting to donors.
• Ensure Grants and Business Intelligence Manager maintains a funding tracker to monitor donor pipeline opportunities
• Review reports and proposals to ensure high quality of content and formatting; liaise with HQ DO and Technical Advisors for inputs and ensure comments taken on board.
• Represent Concern at donor, consortia and other external meetings as required and document/share information with the PD and relevant programme staff.
• Build the capacity of  the Senior Grants and Business Intelligence Manager through training, coaching and mentoring
• Programme Quality and Standards
• Assist in the organisation and delivery of programme workshops, produce minutes and follow up on action points as required
• Ensure that cross cutting themes are considered in proposals development and report
• Support the MEAL team in the development and implementation of the annual MEAL plan, project M & E plans and in scheduling and planning surveys and evaluations, and ensure inclusion of appropriate outcomes and indicators in programme logframes.
•  Information and Communication Management
• Ensure the implementation of Concern Ethiopia’s communication strategy
• Take a lead on ensuring clear and complete documentation of grants and programme documents accessible to colleagues in all Ethiopia offices, including oversight of the shared network folder and supporting the transition to the Grant Management System (GMS)
• Coordinate with PD, PMs and MEAL Unit to ensure high quality beneficiary case studies, photos, field reports and other information to that are used to demonstrate effectively to different audiences the achievements (and challenges) of programmes implemented.
• Ensure production of a Country Brochure, Programme Updates, Briefing Papers and information packs for distribution to donors, , supporters etc.
• Lead the preparation of country programme Annual Report and ACSO report
• Support programme teams in ensuring the development of  high-quality donor reporting and knowledge management;
• Organize and compile organizational information and develop communication materials like leaning brief and flyers.
• Ensure all Concern staffs are informed of key developments in the office. The senior Communications Officer will play a critical role in facilitating the development of quality donor reports, ensuring knowledge management and learning and supporting new business development opportunities. S/He is also responsible for gathering content from the field on project activities and achievements and creating compelling stories out of them in the form of case stories, short videos, project briefers and other communications materials.

Capacity Development

• Support the Grants and Business Intelligence Manager in identification of needs for capacity building within individuals and teams, source opportunities and, where relevant, directly lead training to build capacities in report writing, proposal development, documentation, case studies, and other relevant topics as agreed with PD. Build the capacity of staff under your supervision through training, coaching and mentoring

 Gender Equality

•  Contribute to ensuring that:
• programmes have a thorough gender mainstreaming design and plan from the conceptualization stage and during proposal development
• gender sensitive programming is in place through the development and implementation of gender sensitive M & E systems including gender sensitive indicators
• programme results explicitly state the gender equality issue the project seeks to change
• that gender sensitive programme tools, including gender analysis, are correctly applied throughout the PCM cycle, from design to evaluation stage
• Contribute to ensuring that Concern Ethiopia is a place where men and women are treated equally and with  dignity and respect
• Demonstrate gender equality awareness and gender sensitivity and an ability to integrate a gender equality perspective into tasks and activities.

Wider Organizational Learning

• Support Concern Ethiopia’s work to deliver on the country strategic plan, particularly in the objectives that could require closer cooperation with local NGO and civil society actors (i.e. gender equity programming or advocacy for best practices on a local, district, region and national level).

Monitoring and Evaluation

• Develop monitoring and evaluation systems for partnership and partner's projects and closely follow up the implementation
• In collaboration with other units in the organization, carry out field visits to monitor progress of planned activities and provide technical support to ensure the deliverables are delivered meeting the required quality.  

Other

• Undertake other related duties as may reasonably be assigned by the line manager, Programme Quality Director

 Gender Equity         

• Demonstrate understanding of Concern Ethiopia’s Gender Equality Strategy
• Contribute to ensuring that Concern Ethiopia is a place where men and women are treated equally and with  dignity and respect
• Demonstrate gender equality awareness and gender sensitivity and an ability to integrate a gender equality perspective into tasks and activities

Accountability

• In line with Concern’s commitments under the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS):
• actively promote meaningful community participation and consultation at all stages of the project cycle (planning, implementation, M&E);
• work with relevant colleagues  to ensure that the Complaints and Response Mechanism (CRM) is functional and accessible, that feedback and complaints are welcomed and addressed; work with relevant colleagues  to ensure that information about CRM, safeguarding and expected staff behaviour is disseminated among programme participants and communities.

Emergency response       

• Concern is committed to responding to emergencies efficiently and effectively in order to help affected people meet their basic needs, alleviate suffering and maintain their dignity. To this end, when emergencies strike and the Ethiopian Programme is to respond, all staff are required to actively participate in the response, regardless of location and contribute to the efforts aimed at achieving the humanitarian objective of the organization.

Safeguarding

• Able to seek appropriate advice and report concerns, and feel confident that they have been understood.
• Understands local safeguarding structures and arrangements.
• Practises in a manner that seeks to reduce the risk of abuse, harm or neglect.
• Identifies and refers to appropriate services any other associated persons including carers, family members and children at risk.

Able to document safeguarding concerns, and maintain appropriate record keeping, recording the wishes and views of the adult or child at risk, differentiating between fact and opinion

Personal specification

Qualification

• 6/8 years of related experience with post graduate or with first
• Degree respectively. A degree in any field relevant to Project/Programme Management, Compliance, Organisational Development, Strategic Planning, Systems Development, Governance, Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability & Learning.
• At least 4 years of management experience.
• Experience working in diversified team

Desired: Experience working in an international NGO. Experience in more than one of the areas of Programme Management, Administration and Finance.

Required

• An ability to analyse and understand overall organisational/institutional capacity and development, including some experience in at least two of the following areas: Project/Programme Management, Financial Management/Compliance, Strategic Planning, Systems Development, Governance, HR, Safeguarding, Logistics, Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability & Learning.
• Ability to build strong relationships within the Concern team as well as with staff members of partner organisations, recognising power imbalances in relationships and how to offset them.
• Ability to communicate complex information in an accessible format. Strong capability to organise and prioritize your own work and set strategic goals and targets independently with little supervision, while asking for support when appropriate.
• Experience and skills in the design and delivery of trainings and workshops
• Facilitation skills, including ability to facilitate difficult conversations.
• Demonstrated mind-set of and passion for continuous learning and process improvement.
• Empathy with Concern’s vision, mission and values

Competencies:

• Specific experience in partnership, grants and communications and related activities An understanding of the organisational structure and dynamics of Concern Worldwide or equivalent experience of working in an international organization
• Good English language skills, both written and spoken

What we offer

• A competitive salary and benefit package
• Excellent medical benefits (100% cover including dependents)
• 20 days annual leave
• 26 weeks (paid) maternity leave, 18 weeks (unpaid) parental leave