Requisition ID: req3265
Job Title: Grants Manager
Sector: Grants
Employment Category: Regular
Employment Type: Full-Time
Location: Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Job Description
With a representation office in Kinshasa and field offices in the provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu, and Tanganyika, the IRC has been responding to humanitarian and developmental needs in the DRC since 1996. Today, the IRC in the DRC concentrates its efforts on providing essential and lifesaving assistance to conflict affected populations in the eastern provinces of the country, notably North and South Kivu, Tanganyika and Haut Katanga. Through carefully designed programs, the IRC aims to save lives, to strengthen Congolese institutions and to reinforce social cohesion. Guided by core principles of capacity-building, partnership, protection and the promotion of human rights, as the IRC focuses today on the following areas of need: health (including reproductive health and nutrition), governance and conflict management, women’s empowerment and the prevention and mitigation of gender-based violence, child protection, education and emergency preparedness and response.
The current IRC DRC portfolio is composed of more than 20 grants and contracts from a variety of private, bilateral and multilateral donors. The Grants Unit is composed of three Grants Managers, one Grants Officer and one Grants Coordinator and is responsible for ensuring business development, grants and contracts management, sub-awards and partnerships management, and donor communications. Each Grants Manager is responsible for a portfolio of grants determined by the Grants Coordinator. The Grants Manager facilitates the production of timely, high quality proposals, amendment requests and reports to donors, and provides colleagues with proactive advice on donor and IRC regulations compliance for that portfolio. More specifically, the Grants Manager is responsible for the overall grant lifecycle, sub-award lifecycle and grant acquisition, in collaboration with the Grants Coordinator.
Grant management responsibilities include: project start-up, grant monitoring and management (tracking expenditure and program progress against project documents, organizing grants review meetings, donor reporting, processing grant modifications, and filing grants documents), and grant closing. Sub-award and partnerships management responsibilities include: sub-award partner identification, selection and vetting, sub-award partner agreement development, sub-awards management, monitoring and accountability and sub-award close-out, in accordance with IRC’s Sub-Awards and Partnerships Management System. In terms of grants acquisition, responsibilities include: opportunities’ identification, strategic evaluation and proposal development, in collaboration with the Grants Coordinator. The Grants Managers work closely with the Technical Program Coordinators, Kinshasa and province-based support staff and the Field Coordinators. This position will be based in Goma, North Kivu Province with travel within the East of the DRC. Limited travel to Kinshasa will be required. The portfolio of grants currently covered by the Grants Manager focuses on health, governance, child protection, and women's protection and empowerment (WPE) programming, but this is subject to change.
RESPONSIBILITIES
1)Proposal Development
- Ensure that the IRC DRC system for handling proposal development with management, programs, finance and operations departments is understood and respected, and results in timely and quality submissions;
- Lead the development of proposals for submission to donors in coordination with sector leads and the finance and operations teams; contribute to budget development/management in coordination with Finance through budget review to ensure that budget aligns to the proposed intervention and the correct costs are included.
- Conduct monitoring, research and analysis into donor strategies and share relevant information with senior management and program staff.
2)Grants/Contracts Compliance Monitoring and Management
- Hold a broad and deep understanding of the IRC’s policies and of the donor agreements’ terms and conditions across the grant/contract portfolio. Train relevant program and support staff in these areas with the support of the Grants Coordinator;
- Serve as the IRC DRC focal point for the production of donor reports in his/her portfolio; this includes liaison with IRC DRC teams and IRC HQ for production, review and submission of reports via the relevant donor interlocutor;
- Communicate donor reporting requirement to relevant program and support staff, and track report progress to yield timely submissions;
- Review donor reports for accuracy and quality; this may involve substantial editing, translation and contributing to writing;
- Track project indicators, expenditure and other essential information and hold grant review meetings on a regular basis. Project opening and closing meetings are also organized according to the appropriate timeline.
- Monitor and support the use of grants management tools, such as FM01, Budget vs Actuals (BvAs), procurement planning and activity plans to ensure accurate tracking of implementation and timely alerts to potential challenges/obstacles.
- Ensure that contract management reference tools are updated at all times, including trackers and reference materials covering USAID acquisition regulations related to reporting and prior approval requirements in tandem with IRC’s specific policies, specifically guidance on travel approval, Fly America Act, allowances and differentials, contractor salary threshold (CST), and working within Mission Local Compensation Plans (LCPs)
- For contracts, coordinate the process for the development of budget realignments, yearly work plans, amendments and extensions, as needed. Ensure timely submission of deliverables and appropriate spend in line with contractual requirements.
- Manage realignments, amendments and donor prior approvals, as needed, and maintain relationships with donors. Ensure timely project end and appropriate spend in line with contractual requirements.
- Proactively identify potential compliance risks/issues and offer advice to IRC DRC staff (senior management, finance, procurement, etc.) on resolving compliance issues. Flag unresolved compliance/implementation issues to senior management and to HQ for further advice and support;
- Ensure that the IRC DRC grants information management and filing system is respected and all donor contractual documents, reports, key correspondence etc. are appropriately filed in up-to-date and consistent soft libraries.
- Build DRC staff (program and support units) understanding of Federal award regulations, as well as IRC policies and procedures through training, technical support, and accountability; provide training to new hire staff on USAID acquisition regulations and specifics to the IRC sub-contract;
3)Sub-award management
- Ensure quality sub-award management in compliance with the IRC’s Sub-award Partner Management System (SPMS), including sub-award start-up, sub-award implementation monitoring, management and accountability, and appropriate sub-award close-out.
- Track sub-award partners’ deliverables and ensure that partners’ contractual reports are reviewed and feedback is provided.
- Process sub-awards modifications in a timely manner ensuring that relevant IRC units provide their inputs and approve the modification.
- Organize sub-award opening, review and closing meetings with partners and IRC relevant units to ensure that partners’ program implementation is on track according to work plan and log frame approved by the donor.
- Organize program and finance/compliance monitoring visits to ensure that partners’ program implementation is in compliance with IRC and donor rules and regulations
- Maintain proper records of all award and sub-award documents.
4)Donor Relations and Communication
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Ensure liaison with donors as the need arises and/or in the absence of regular IRC donor focal points and ensure donor representation at the request of the Grants Coordinator or DDP;
- Work with Program sector leads to develop and produce IRC information and communication materials such as brochures, factsheets, advocacy notes, position papers, newsletters etc.
- Assist in training program staff on communication strategies and facilitate the development of success stories, lessons learned, personal experiences (blogs) from field-based program staff.
REQUIREMENTS :
- Masters’ degree in International Development, Social Studies or equivalent is required;
- Prior experience with the Federal Acquisition Lifecycle and demonstrated experience in managing United States Government contracts and cooperative/grant agreements is required;
- Good communicator with strong organizational, time management and analytical skills;
- Excellent inter-personal, cultural and diplomatic skills;
- Fluency in French and English, spoken and written, is essential;
- Superior writing and editing skills. At least two year of previous experience preparing donor reports;
- Demonstrated experience in grants management or program development is required;
- Good understanding of donor compliance and reporting mechanisms (in particular DFID, UN donors, EU, OFDA, World Bank and USAID) is an advantage;
- Technical expertise in health and protection would be advantageous;
- Prior emergency response technical writing, reporting and donor liaison experience is an advantage;
- Ability to meet juggle competing priorities, meet demanding deadlines and work under pressure;
- Strong computer skills: must be competent in the use of Windows MS office programs (Word, Excel), email programs, etc.;
- Prior professional experience, preferably in Africa in a post-conflict and/or conflict setting.
Specific Security Situation/ Housing : The designated base location for this position is Goma in North Kivu Province. Crime and theft are common so there is limited freedom of movement. Civil conflict is ongoing in parts of the Eastern DRC and the area is considered unstable. Strict adherence to security guidelines is requested of all IRC staff. The Grants Manager will be housed in shared housing with other expatriate IRC staff. This position is NOT accompanied.
