Grants Manager

You'll contribute to ending world hunger by ...

The Grants Manager, in close collaboration with the Deputy Country Director - Operations and the Coordination Team, will ensure regular oversight, monitoring, and support to the management of the Mission’s grant portfolio throughout the lifecycle of all grants, from early discussions with the donor and/or organisational partners, proposal preparation, to grant compliance checks, and reporting.

The Grants Manager will take the lead and coordinate the process of development of high quality concept notes, proposals and reports in compliance with donor regulations, and will follow mission-level and HQ related established processes, and ensure all documentation is in line with Action Against Hunger’s Internal Guidelines and according to mission standards.

In order to ensure efficient processes and contract monitoring, the Grant Manager is expected to create and maintain tools and grant files and records, including the GESPRA system and stay updated on donor requirements.

This is an extremely dynamic and rigorous role, requiring strong coordination and organisation skills, to ensure that all deliverables are produced in a timely manner, which can be a challenge at times. The Grants Manager will keep in regular contact with all staff involved in the formulation and implementation of grants.

The Grants Manager will develop capacity-building initiatives, such as workshops or short training sessions, of the Mission’s staff members on the various processes related to proposal and report writing, which may be helpful to enable ownership and accountability of deliverables**.**

In summary, the general objective(s) are:

• To ensure timely and quality formulation and submission of Donors’ proposals, in accordance to the annual Volume Objective Signature (VOS);
• To ensure timely and high-quality Donors reporting to all Action Against Hunger -Syria projects;
• To ensure coordination (Mission - HQ) and monitoring of proposals and reports through established tools;

Develop grant guidelines, processes and procedures, and training of staff members on these procedures and proposal/report writing.

Key activities in your role will include

Objective 1: Identification, coordination, preparation, writing and submission of quality and timely concept notes and full proposals, following Action Against Hunger’s validation processes and taking into account the donor guidelines

• In collaboration with the Deputy Country Director - Operations and Deputy Country Director - Support, he/she will contribute to define the annual Mission-Budget/Volume Objective Signature (V)s.
• In accordance with the annual VOS, under the supervision of the Deputy Country Director - Operations, he/she will develop a roadmap for the annual proposals’ formulation and submission.
• Under the supervision of the Deputy Country Director - Operations, and in close collaboration with the Coordination Team (Program/WASH/FSL/Nutrition and Health/MEAL/Log/Finance coordinators as well as AAH’ international technical advisors) he/she will formulate concept note(s) as first stage of proposal submission to international and local donors.
• Under the supervision of the Deputy Country Director - Operations, and in close collaboration with the Coordination Team (Program/WASH/FSL/Nutrition and Health/MEAL/Log/Finance coordinators as well as AAH’ international technical advisors), he/she will formulate full proposals (proposal narrative, budget, and related annexes) to be presented to international and local donors.
• He/she will coordinate any donor feedback/issue letter and ensure timely submission of requested feedback and resubmission.
• When necessary, under the supervision of the Deputy Country Director - Operations, and in close collaboration with the Coordination Team (Program/WASH/FSL/Nutrition and Health coordinators), he/she will analyze and capitalize assessments (Rapid Needs Assessment), baselines, and field observations for needs identification.
• When necessary, under the supervision of the Deputy Country Director - Operations, and in close collaboration with the Coordination Team (Program/WASH/FSL/Nutrition and Health coordinators), he/she will identify interventions to be presented to international/local donors.

Objective 2: Coordinate and supervise the production and submission of quality and timely donor reports

• In accordance with the established Reporting Process, he/she will supervise the coordination of donors’ reports led by the Reporting Officer, validating the final product by ensuring alignment among departments, compliance to guidelines and donors’ requirements, use of proper templates, etc.
• He/she will supervise the Donors’ reporting formulation (monthly, progress, quarterly, intermediate, and final reports) led by the Reporting Officer in close collaboration with the Coordination Team (Program, WASH, FSL, Nutrition and Health, Log, Finance, MEAL coordinators). He/she will be responsible of quality and compliance of the reports prior to their submission to CD/DCD for final validation.
• Liaise with either HQ or donor in following-up/tracking of submitted reports.
• In collaboration with the Coordination Team (Program, WASH, FSL, Nutrition and Health, Log, Finance, MEAL coordinators), address any further follow up question/s, comment, etc., to ensure compliant and quick submission of additional and/or revised information required.
• Upload on GESPRA all communications between the Mission/HQ and the Donor/s.

Objective 3: Provide Strategic, Technical, and Coordinated support to Grants Management

• Facilitate kick off, review and closing meetings to ensure project objectives are being met and identify and challenges, delays or deviations from the project plan; and communicate with donors, support on any internal or external realignments as appropriate.
• Follow up with Program Managers and Technical Coordinators on Program Implementation and collection of data according to means of verification, from kick-off meeting to contract closure, to allow pro-activeness in the monitoring of the grant and related tasks (such as ad-hoc donor requirements or extension/amendment requests).
• Maintain an updated calendar of project report obligations and project development, and ensure key staff are aware of it and respect the deadlines by sharing it regularly (Mission/HQ). This includes sharing reports (both narrative and financial) and proposal calendars and the maintenance of the related sections in GESPRA.
• In close collaboration with the Coordination Team (Program, WASH, FSL, Nutrition and Health, Log, Finance, MEAL coordinators), coordinate grant revisions, cost extensions, no-cost extensions, budget realignments, and other modifications as required.
• Develop grant guidelines, processes, and procedures, training staff members on these procedures, and addressing all grant related questions.
• Inform program and support teams on any changes to existing donor guidelines and regulations.
• In collaboration with HQ (MP2) lead the decentralization process for planning and formulation of proposals and reports.

Do you meet the profile required criteria?

• Degree and/or Master’s Degree in Humanitarian Action or any related field (international relations, political science, law, etc.)
• Excellent experience in proposal and report writing, donor rules and regulations, validation procedures, coordination of processes.
• Experience in Project Cycle Management.
• Ability to write donor reports and proposals in excellent English. Kit log; Kit Finance; FSL/WASH/Nutrition and Health; Theory of Change (ToC).
• At least 3 years as Grant Writer or similar (i.e. Project Officer)
• Knowledge of key institutional donors, including ECHO, USAID (FFP, OFDA), SDC, SIDA, GAC, OCHA, AECID.
• Humanitarian principles
• The Sphere Project (minimum standards)
• Gender, Protection and conflict sensitivity.
• Proven ability to work independently under minimal guidance, pressure and tight deadlines;
• Solid experience and proven ability in proposal writing, reporting, major donor rules and guidelines;
• Coordination of validation procedures with HQ/DRU/Delegations
• Strong commitment in matching Mission’s objectives (Volume Objective Signature);
• Strong commitment in tracking the results, analyze the status and identify ways forward in collaboration with CD/Coordination Team.
• Communication skills, and a diplomatic, but firm approach to obtain buy in and contributions from a range of staff involved in proposal and report production;
• Capacity building for national staff in reporting.
• English is compulsory, Spanish is desired, Arabic is useful

Our remuneration package:

We offer immediate incorporation to a dynamic international network with the following remuneration package:

• Formal work contract: 12 months
• Base: Damascus
• Excellent remuneration package
• Per diem and living expenses: Approx. 10.560 EUR/year (to be pay in local currency).
• In addition, we will offer you a benefit packaged that includes:
  • Expatriate insurance (health, live, repatriation, travel, etc.).
  • Break flights/trips to defined area (up to 500 EUR).
  • Break Per Diem (215 EUR).
  • Yearly holiday return flight ticket.
  • Accommodation and housing expenses.
  • Travel costs to and from the mission.
  • Extra per month and per child (Under 18 years old): from 100€ to 225€ monthly (according to standard list of Action against Hunger -Spain).
• 25 working days of paid leave per year.

Note:

• Candidates may be contacted for other suitable positions within Action Against Hunger.
• Due to the high-number of application received, only potential applicants will be contacted and recruitment will be closed as soon as qualified candidate is selected
• The organization is committed to the principles of non-discrimination and diversity and is particularly interested in receiving applications from a broad spectrum of qualified people

We will only consider the candidacies received by our online service. Please click in the following link to accede to the service:

https://employ.acf-e.org/

Note. Given the urgency of this position, the vacancy may close before the deadline. For more information about this position, visit our Website www.accioncontraelhambre.org in case of not find it published here means that the selection process has been closed.