Grants Manager - Tehran based (Iran Nationals Only) - Iran

Rights Respected, People Protected

About NRC

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, food security, livelihoods, legal assistance, and water, sanitation and hygiene sectors. The Norwegian Refugee Council has approximately 6,000 committed and competent employees involved in projects across four continents. NRC runs the world's largest standby rosters NORCAP, with 650 professionals, ready to be deployed on 72 hours’ notice when a crisis occurs.

NRC in the Islamic Republic of  Iran

The Islamic Republic of Iran hosts an estimated 3,6 million Afghans, one of the largest and most protracted refugee caseload worldwide. NRC supports the Government efforts towards refugees, displaced and disaster affected populations. We have grown to become the largest international NGO, currently operating in 8 provinces across the country. 

NRC is the largest international NGO operating in Iran. We currently deliver humanitarian assistance in 8 provinces in the sectors of Education, Livelihoods, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Shelter construction, as well as Information, Counselling and Legal Assistance (ICLA). We co-lead several technical inter-agency working groups and provide capacity building to humanitarian partners in country. NRC Iran also built an advocacy unit to develop joint messages and initiatives amongst INGOs to improve rights of the displaced.

About the position: Grants Manager

NRC Iran is scaling up its operations and aims to strengthen its internal proposal writing and reporting systems through the recruitment of a dedicated Grants Manager.

The Grants Manager will contribute to achieving high quality programming by ensuring effective grants management including, compliance requirements, reporting, timely and quality proposal development, and internal and external communication. S/he line manages the Grants Coordinator, ensures NRC programme/support teams are fully informed of relevant donor compliance regulations and NRC procedures, manages donor and other external reporting, and coordinates grant revisions. S/he will also ensure completion and documentation of all mandatory steps under NRC’s Project Cycle Management (PCM) framework. S/he also supports donor communication by ensuring effective channels of internal and external communications relating to grants are established and respected. The Grants Manager supports development of proposals and opportunity identification, as required, in line with NRC Iran country strategy.

Our ideal Candidate:

Are you NRC’s future Grants Manager? Are you experienced in leading a team to achieve goals and implement policies? Can you develop proposals and able to provide good reports? Are you good planner to deliver the results on time? Do you have a knowledge regarding humanitarian field? Do you want to make a change in lives of vulnerable Afghans?

NRC has a fantastic opportunity for a strategical thinker with strong organizational/management skills with a proven capacity and knowledge of Grants Management in humanitarian field .

Task Description:

Here are some of the important responsibilities of Grants Manager:

Proposal Development:

1. Build positive working relationships with other teams in Country Office and Area Offices to coordinate and support development of high quality proposals using relevant NRC Grant Management tools and guidance (Go/ No-go checklist, proposal development calendar, procurement plan, internal budgeting tool);
2. Coordinate proposal development for NRC Iran’s portfolio of donors;
3. Work closely with Budget Holders, programme teams, and finance as well as other stakeholders to compile accurate proposal budget and assess whether all necessary costs have been included. 

Due Diligence Assessments and Partnership Agreements:

1. Lead on NRC Iran’s due diligence assessment when and as required by an existing or new donor;
2. Lead on organisational assessments of Partners as per NRC’s Grants Management procedures;
3. In coordination with the Head of Programme and Head of Support, draft Partner Agreements/MoUs with relevant Annexes and take through signing processes;
4. Contribute to partner capacity building as required and identified in partner assessment.

Grant Agreement:

1. Review donor contracts, flag any points that might challenge NRC’s procedures, and support contract negotiations;
2. Work with finance team to support/advise them in development of internal budgeting tool and communication with field offices on allocated budget;
3. Together with the Grants Coordinator, summarise in writing, key reporting and compliance requirements (compliance checklist) including potential issues for Grant Opening Meetings;
4. Coordinate with respective budget holders and finance in order to ensure budgets are correctly allocated and aligned;
5. Work with the relevant Area Manager/ Core Competency Specialist to ensure Grant Opening Meetings are arranged and take place within 30 days of the grant being activated, ensure also regular Progress Review Meetings are held and documented per NRC PCM framework.

Donor Reporting and Monitoring:

1. Coordinate the finalisation of donor reports ensuring consistency between narrative and financial reports and that they meet quality standards; 
2. Highlight critical financial issues such as under/over spends to finance, Budget Holders and HoP, and follow up in writing when discussed verbally;
3. Provide technical support to relevant Core Competency Specialists and Budget Holders on monitoring issues and budget revising (if required);
4. In collaboration with the Advocacy and Communications Unit, contribute to the development of country factsheets and other relevant information pieces for donor visits/meetings.

Donor Compliance:

1. Be familiar with all NRC organizational and donor portfolio compliance requirements and ensure high quality management of grants;
2. Support and advise programme colleagues with queries related to donor compliance on grants within portfolio;
3. Coordinate Grants Closure Meetings and ensure documentation of lessons learned for each grant;
4. Assist in training and capacity building related to NRC Grants Management/donor compliance as required.

General Administration:

1. Ensure all documentation required to be kept by donors is available within the Grants department by maintaining high standard information management/filing systems;
2. Visit field offices to support with capacity building of staff and partners and monitoring purposes;
3. Support the Grants coordinator to ensure correct and up-to-date maintenance of Grants Funding Tracker.

Qualifications:

• At least 3 years of relevant experience in a related field;
• Experience of donor relations and grants management (e.g. with institutional humanitarian and development donors);
• Good understanding of donor rules and regulations;
• Proven skills and experience in report and proposal development and working with multiple donors;
• Fluency in Farsi and English, both written and verbal
• Ability to write good quality Farsi communications with authorities
• Good personal organizational skills, including time management, and ability to meet deadlines and work under pressure;
• Staff capacity-building experience;
• Good communication and interpersonal skills;
• Strong team working skills;
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English;

We Offer

Duty Station: Tehran (Country Office)

Contract duration/until: Until end of December 2019  with possible extension

Probation period: 3 months

Salary/Benefits: According to NRC’s salary scale and terms and conditions