Grants & Partnership Manager - PlayMatters (readvertised)

IRC is seeking a Grants and Partnership Manager for a five-year project, “PlayMatters”, funded by the LEGO Foundation. This position will be a part of the larger PlayMatters initiative to increase play-based learning opportunities for nearly 1 million pre-primary and primary school aged refugee and host community children impacted by the humanitarian crises in East Africa and living in Tanzania, Ethiopia and Uganda. This project aims to build children’s social, emotional, cognitive, physical and creative skills through play in their homes, schools, and communities and will be implemented in partnership with War Child Holland, Plan International, Ubongo, Behavioral Insights Team and Innovations for Poverty Action. PlayMatters applies behavioral science and human-centered design as well as adult behavior change theories to transform parents, caregivers, teachers, and policy makers into change agents of playful learning, leading to improved learning and well-being for children. 

The Grants and Partnership Manager will be responsible for the overall grants and partnership management processes for the PlayMatters Project. S/he will lead in all partnership identification, serve as the primary liaison with all sub-grantee partners, ensure compliance to donor rules and regulations while maintaining active and cooperative relationships with all the IRC Uganda PlayMatters project staff and partners. This position has close working relationships with the Technical Coordinators, Operations, Finance, MEAL, and Supply Chain staff, as well as regular communications with field-based staff. This position will be based in Kampala with travel to field sites.

Duties and Responsibilities

Grants Management

• Provide overall oversight of the grants administration of the PlayMatters project in Uganda. including but not limited to: conducting project cycle meetings (POM, PRM, PCMs monthly BvA); coordinating with different departments to follow up on action points and pending issues to ensure proper grants management; responding to ad-hoc HQ, donor, and IRC Uganda staff requests and questions related to compliance; updating and disseminating project-related information; and maintaining project files.
• Work closely with Finance department to monitor expenditure rates / spending levels and provide feedback to field leads and departments heads on key issues.
• Have a deep understanding of donor policies, regulations and procedures and train other team members in these areas
• Provide support to and advise technical / field coordinators on various project management issues, such as budget management, work plan implementation, indicator tracking, and achievement of project objectives/outputs.
• Ensure timely receipt and submission of monthly, quarterly, and annual project reports to donors

Partnerships

• Lead and oversee the mapping, identification, due diligence assessment and contracting processes with suitable partner organizations for project implementation
• Oversee the PEER process for all new partners and on partners’ risks and recommend capacity building actions accordingly.
• Jointly work with technical and financial project staff to undertake regular programmatic and operational monitoring and support visits for partners
• Monitor the partners annual work and performance plans to ensure long-term and short-term priorities are on track
• Coordinate grant related information sharing, meetings, periodical check ins and reviews with project staff and partners.