Institutional Partnership Adviser - Norwegian Refugee Council

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is a non-governmental, humanitarian organization with 60 years of experience in helping to create a safer and more dignified life for refugees and internally displaced people. NRC advocates for the rights of displaced populations and offers assistance within the shelter, education, emergency food security, legal assistance, and water,sanitation and hygiene sectors.

The Norwegian Refugee Council has approximately 5000 committed and competent employees involved in projects across four continents. In addition, NRC runs one of the world’s largest standby rosters -NORCAP, with 650 professionals, ready to be deployed on 72 hours notice when a crisis occurs

Background

NRC’s Partnership and Policy Department is looking for a new Institutional Partnership Advisor (IPA) for its office in Berlin (NRC Flüchtlingshilfe Deutschland).

The Partnerships and Policy Department is responsible for NRC’s strategic relations with institutional donors and private foundations, and is the “centre of excellence” on donor/partner relations in NRC. The new IPA is expected to take on the role as NRC’s lead expert adviser on institutional donors (and foundations) specific to Germany. The IPA is responsible for strategic relations with these donors and for building internal capacity and maintaining a help desk on donor related issues.

Role and Responsibilities

Generic responsibilities

 Responsibilities related to NRC’s main strategic donors

Be the NRC focal point for expertise on the donor and its relations with NRC:

• Be the lead for NRC’s strategic engagement with the donor at an HQ level

• Analyse and share information internally in NRC on the policies and priorities of the donor

• Establish and maintain close relations with key staff in the donor HO

• Advise NRC colleagues on communication lines with the donor, annual funding cycles, and best practice when it comes to resource mobilisation

• Maintain an overview of NRC’s past and present engagement with the donor

• Assist with setting up, preparing as well as participate in donor meetings

Assist with resource mobilisation

• Track and share information about new funding opportunities

• Undertake “donor mappings” upon request from NRC Country Offices and departments

• Be responsible for prequalification processes in order to access donor funding

• Manage the processes related to prioritisation of internally competing proposals

Provide help-desk support and capacity build staff on fund raising and donor rules

• Stay updated on donor conditionalities, rules & regulations. Ensure that key information about these is regularly updated and available to NRC staff in order to facilitate compliance

• Provide advice on donor expectations and requirements in proposal and reports

• Provide advice on clauses in grant agreements, service contracts and consortia agreements

• Document learning and good practice related to the individual donor

Network and advocate for improved financing conditions

• Network, share information and undertake joint lobbying (vis-à-vis donors) with other NGOs that receive financial support from the same donor

• Advocate for and negotiate improved conditions with the donor, whenever relevant

Liaise with other NRC units on donor related issues

• Stay updated on NRC ‘s priorities and funding needs

• Ensure that NRC’s donor relations are adequately reflected in external communication

• Establish and coordinate donor specific internal working groups or other regular meeting points to facilitate sharing of information, capacity building, learning, etc.

Specific responsibilities

 The Institutional Partnership Adviser shall have specific responsibility for the following NRC donors:

• BMZ: Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development)

• GIZ: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (German Corporation for International Cooperation)

• KFW: Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (German Development Bank)

• FFO: Auswärtiges Amt - AA (Federal Foreign Office) 

• Any other German Institutional donor; foundations; corporate partners.

Competencies

Professional competencies

Generic professional competencies for this position:

• University degree or equivalent qualification.

• Minimum 5 years of experience from a humanitarian/development organisation and/or from a donor administration, either at Head Office/capital or field/embassy level.

• Documented results in resource mobilisation, including with developing proposals and reports to government donors, UN or similar.

• A thorough understanding of Project Cycle Management, especially of the logical framework approach.

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, including negotiation skills.

• A conscientious and structured person with strong planning and administrative skills, including computer skills (MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, and preferably also Agresso)

• Fluency in English and German.

• Prior knowledge and experience of donors listed under “specific responsibilities”, including strategic priorities, organisational setup and funding mechanisms, is a clear advantage.  

 

We offer

• Contract period: Permanent (after probationary period)

• Salary/benefits: According to NRC’s general directions.

• Duty station: Berlin, Germany

• Application procedures and CV registration:

• Please note that you are required to enter the geographical location for all your previous positions while registering your CV. There is no specific field for this information in our CV form, but you can use the "Company name" field for both company and location

• All candidates will hear back from us within three weeks after the application deadline

All NRC employees are expected to work in accordance with the organisation’s core values: dedication, innovation, inclusivity and accountability. These attitudes and believes shall guide our actions and relationships.