Grants and Partnership Manager

Location:

Position Location:

Description

ABOUT Relief International.

Relief International (RI) is a leading nonprofit organization working in 16 countries to relieve poverty, ensure the well-being and advance dignity. We specialize in fragile settings, responding to natural disasters, humanitarian crises and chronic poverty.

Relief International combines humanitarian and development approaches to provide immediate services while laying the groundwork for long-term impact. Our signature approach — which we call the RI Way—emphasizes local participation, an integration of services, strategic partnerships and a focus on civic skills. In this way, we empower communities to find, design and implement the solutions that work best for them.

RI includes the four corporate members of the RI Alliance: RI-US, RI-UK, MRCA/RI-France and RI-Europe.  Under our alliance agreement, we operate as a single, shared management structure.

RI is active in 16 countries around the world, including some of the most fragile: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, and Yemen.  Often, RI is the only organization providing assistance to highly vulnerable communities.

RI employs 7,000+ staff and auxiliary workers

97% of staff are local nationals

We only have some 90 ex-pat staff out of 7,000+

RI spent $150 million in 2019 on our programs

Often, RI is the only organization providing assistance to highly vulnerable communities.

RI invests in four broad program sectors:  Economic Opportunity, Education, Health, and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene.  We design our programs to incorporate The RI Way:  local participation, integrated programming, the development of civic skills, and complementary partnerships, including with local NGOs, governments, and the private sector.  RI supports solutions that reinforce and improve upon existing in-country systems. Where such systems do not exist or are chronically underperforming, RI’s crisis response lays the foundation for long-term, sustainable change.

About our Country Program/ Regional Programs:

Middle East Region

RI in the Middle East has programs in six countries – Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey and Yemen, with a focus on the 4 main RI sectors: Health, WASH, Education and Economic Opportunity.

Relief International currently employs 3900 staff (direct and indirect) in the region and has a range of emergency response and development programs valued at 70 million USD on an annual basis

Position Summary.

Under the supervision of the Deputy Country Director (DCD) the Grants and Partnership Manager helps ensure compliance with donor requirements at all stages of the project lifecycle and facilitates effective management of RI Turkey’s grants and partners in coordination with other departments (e.g. Programs, Technical Units, Finance, Operations). This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring timely and quality reporting to donors, facilitating grant opening and closeout processes, advising on donor rules and regulations, support coordinating proposal development processes, and capacity building of staff and implementing partners.

Key Responsibilities and Duties.

Awards Management & Compliance

·       Advise program teams, support departments, and implementing partners on donor rules and regulations (e.g. ECHO, BHA, BPRM) as well as RI’s internal requirements and actively promotes increased awareness of key compliance issues across the organization;

·       Ensure the submission of high quality narrative reports to donors by driving in country reporting coordination process,  and ensure reviews and editing reports are in accordance with donor requirements and RI processes.

·       Maintain up to date reporting schedule and ensure information sharing to all relevant staff within the mission so that reports are adequately anticipated;

·       Organize and lead grant opening meetings with the participation of program and support departments to develop a common understanding of the programmatic, operational, and financial aspects of a new Award as well as knowledge of our contractual requirements;

·       Organize and lead grant closing meetings to facilitate a timely closeout of a grant, support full expenditure of the budget, and ensure that all contractual obligations will be met (e.g. final report, asset disposal);

·       Lead monthly grant review meetings with representation from all relevant departments to review progress towards programmatic and financial targets (including BvA review), facilitate collective problem-solving to avoid delays in program implementation, and allow for early identification of modification requests;

·       Drive the in-country grants modification process by supporting  the DCD to coordinate the preparation of modification requests for donors, including proposal revision, budget realignment, and other changes, in compliance with donor guidelines;

·       Strengthen RI staff capacities (i.e. Awards, Partnership and program team) on report writing, donor compliance, etc.

·       Act as Country Awards Focal Point (CAFP)  and liaise with the global awards management unit as well Middle East regional team on all grants management matters such as awards set-up,    grant agreements sign-off, drive awards different kick-off tools,  and develop donors  waivers and derogations different requests, etc.;

·       Participate in Award Compliance Call and notate on the Compliance items for further follow up.

·       Maintain a comprehensive and up-to-date filing system on all aspects of Awards management. And update the Awards Matrix on a monthly basis.

·

Partnership Management

·       Collaborate with relevant staff to identify partnerships opportunities with local and national civil society organizations, through regular stakeholder analysis process and networking with actors in Türkiye;

·       Oversee, facilitate and coordinate all aspects of partnership life cycle management, from stakeholder analysis, partner identification, due diligence, project development, agreement, start-up, implementation, monitoring through to close-out, coordinating effectively with all program, operations and finance components;

·       Supervise the pre-award due diligence processes for all new partnerships, including through vetting, Monitoring the pre-award assessment with other departments, analysis of risks associated with the award and the identification and implementation of appropriate measures to manage the risks, working with other departments as appropriate;

·       Supervise  the organizational capacity assessments process of all new partners using RI standard tools as per the partnership management framework;

·       Support the development of sub-grant agreements and any subsequent modifications;

·       Coordinate and ensure the effective startup of partnership, including sub-grants opening meetings and close out meetings with partners, programs, MEAL, technical and other departments, as relevant.

·       Support the development of a tailored capacity building plan for each partner (as needed) to address the gaps identified through due diligence and organizational capacity assessments and monitor the successful implementation of those plans;

·       Conduct capacity building assessments and activities for partners, including training workshops and one-on-one mentoring of key staff on donor rules and regulations, report writing, and other areas as needed;

·       Ensure and coordinate feedback process to partners with regards to the quality and performance of the partnership against the sub-award i.e. partnership scorecards;

·       Maintain a comprehensive and up-to-date Partnership tracker as well a filing system on all aspects of sub-grants management;

·       Improve partnership practices by periodically assessing RI Turkey’s partnership management approach taking into account diverse perspectives (both RI’s and partners’), developing case studies to capture lessons learned and best practices, and making recommendations for improvement.

Program Development

·       Support DCD with the proposal development processes in country, including reviewing and improving draft proposals, concept notes and addressing feedback from the country management and regional team;

·       Ensure that the entire proposal package adheres to donor guidelines and meets the selection criteria;

·       Contribute to the development and implementation of the country fundraising strategy, including conducting donor mapping, researching donor priorities and interests.

Communication and Visibility

·       Lead on ensuring collecting, collating and compiling communication material on RI Turkey to input into RI Middle East Intranet, RI external communication and Donors’ Reports or Communications requirements etc;

·       Provide briefing papers and support the development of external communication tools relevant for donor visits/meetings;

·       Contribute to the development of a comprehensive country communication strategy to promote RI Turkey work;

·       Ensure RI-Türkiye visibility materials are aligned with internal and donor guidelines.

·       Ensure coordination with donors’ communication focal points to coordinate visibility activities and obtain necessary approvals as needed.

Coordination

·       Supporting the CD and DCD in donor relations and other relevant stakeholders.

·       Contribute to strategic planning exercises and other mission program exercises.

Staff management

·       Supervise the grants staff, including day-to-day management, developing of work plans, training plans, regular staff appraisal and performance reviews.

·       Facilitate regular meetings with staff to ensure regular information sharing.

·       In collaboration with the team members, identify individual training needs and ensure access to training and professional development resources appropriate to their skill gaps/needs.

Other related tasks that may from time to time

Safeguarding

• Uphold and promote RI’s commitment to ensuring the safeguarding and safety of the vulnerable communities we serve.
• Consistent with RI’s safeguarding and protection policies, ensure your job related activity and practice is compliant with safeguarding standards.
• You will ensure a positive and productive work environment which is free from harassment and bullying.
• Ability to demonstrate sensitivity and understanding of diversity and cultural differences, gender issues and the commitment to equal opportunities.

Experience and skills required for the role.

·       Master’s degree in a relevant field or equivalent experience;

·       At least 5 years of progressive experience in grants management, partnership  and proposal development in international relief or development programs, including field experience;

·       Excellent writing skills in English at a native-speaker level and demonstrated ability to write and edit reports and proposals under tight deadlines;

·       Strong knowledge of the rules and regulations of major institutional donors such as ECHO, European Commission, US Government donors (e.g. BPRM, USAID);

·       Experience conducting capacity building activities and enthusiasm to share knowledge and information with others;

·       Working knowledge of budget development and management;

·       Excellent communication skills and ability to work effectively with colleagues in a multi-cultural setting;

·       Ability to work independently, set priorities, and manage time efficiently;

·       Demonstrated leadership and management skills, including ability to give effective feedback and to guide and mentor direct reports;

·       Proficient in Microsoft Office.

RI Values.

Guided by the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, as well as “Do No Harm,” Relief International Values:

We value:

Integrity

Adaptability

Collaboration

Inclusivity

Sustainability

How to apply.

To apply for this post, click on the “Apply” button in the job advert page

You will be asked to upload a CV and Cover Letter.  The cover letter should be no more than 2 pages long and explain why you are interested in this post with Relief International and how your skills and experience make you a good fit.

Closing date. Please apply immediately we will be reviewing applicants on a rolling basis, therefore, may withdraw the position for the job board closing date.

Please apply by uploading your cover letter and up-to-date CV on our website .

Due to limited resources, only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Relief International is committed to protecting our staff and the communities we work with from abuse and harm, including sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and sexual harassment.

All staff are expected to abide by our Code of Conduct.

Recruitment to all roles in Relief International includes a criminal records self-declaration, references and other pre-employment checks, which may include police and qualifications checks.