Job Description
A job description is a written statement that describes the employee’s role and responsibilities. The role and responsibilities shall be executed within the NRC framework. The job description facilitates the recruitment process by stating the necessary competencies. It is mandatory for all positions.
Position: Grants Coordinator
Grade: 7
Reports to: Grants Manager (GM)
Supervision of: Grants Officers (if in place)
Duty station: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Travel: 30%
Project number: ETFP0000
Duration and type of contract: 12 months
All NRC employees are expected to work in accordance with the organization’s core values: dedication, innovation, inclusivity and accountability. These attitudes and believes shall guide our actions and relationships.
Background:
1. Roles and Responsibilities:
The purpose of the Grants Coordinator position is to provide essential grant management support to the GM and HoP in delivering quality programmes in line with the NRC Country Office (CO) strategy, Project Cycle Management and Plan of Action. The Grants Coordinator will contribute to achieving high quality programming by contributing to effective grants management including, compliance requirements, reporting, timely and quality proposal development, and internal and external communication. The person will work closely with the Country Director, Finance Manager, Area Managers, programmes teams in Ethiopia, Regional Programme Advisers for various NRC core competencies, and Programme Adviser as advised by the Head of Programme.
General responsibilities
- Adherence to NRC policies, guidance and procedures and consideration of NRC global and regional strategies when executing functions related to this role
- Develop and maintain overview of all grants, donor requirements, rules and regulations, and internal and external deadlines, including filing of grant documents (including through the grants database – forthcoming)
- Coordinate the development of donor applications and reports, as well as ensuring donor compliance and quality control
- Contribute to the development and revision of funding proposals, budgets and donor reports
- Be updated on donor priorities, trends (such as interest in cash-based interventions) and track and share relevant calls for proposals
- Document, analyze, and share learning from proposal and reporting process, and compliance with donor rules and regulations
- Contribute to continuously improving internal grant management systems
- Provide an internal help-desk on donor related issues, including organize and deliver trainings in donor rules and regulations, as well as proposal and report writing
- Coordinate the development and distribution of internal reports
- Contribute to Project Cycle Management (PCM) trainings and usage of the NRC PCM frame work in the CO as delegated by the Head of Programme
- Support external donor audits
- Represent with relevant partners and donors as delegated
- Promote the rights of IDPs/returnees in line with the advocacy strategy
Specific responsibilities
Proposal Development
- Support in developing/and or reviewing concept notes and grants proposals in collaboration with Core Competency (CC) Specialists Advisers.
- Contribute to the creation of an evaluation tool to benchmark the quality of proposals and reports, guide future processes, and identify areas for improvement, including current Grants Tracker.
- Support GM and HoP with drafting fundraising strategy and gap analysis.
- Ensure quality of proposals and reports submitted to regional office and donors, and ensure the parts of the budget related to programme outputs correspond with narrative before submission.
- Be updated on donor priorities and track and share relevant calls for proposals.
Due Diligence Assessments, Grant Agreements, and Partnerships
- Support in the oversight and review the signature of grants agreements including those for implementing partners.
- Support on NRC Ethiopia’s due diligence assessment when and as required by an existing or new donor;
- Support on organisational assessments of Partners as per NRC’s Grants Management procedures;
- In coordination with the Head of Programme, draft Partner Agreements/MoUs with relevant Annexes and take through signing processes;
- Contribute to partner capacity building as required and identified in partner assessment.
- Support on the building of a partnerships support unit: mapping opportunities for localization, contributing to partners due diligence, partnership capacity building (internally and externally), and liaison with partners.
Oversight of internal Grants Management Processes
- Grants Management Cycle. Support in overseeing and ensuring efficiency, quality and smooth running of the entire grants cycle management, harmonising approaches and ensuring adequate feedback is provided for the continued development of grants function
- Support on the coordination with the Regional Office on all Country Office Grants
- Establish and improve systems and tools in line with PCM. Create tools to simplify the processes of proposals and reporting.
- Support GM with compliance in relation to grant management and project cycle management processes.
- Support in the creation of a template for internal monthly/quarterly reporting by the Project Management Unit to other units within NRC Ethiopia
Donor compliance, reporting, and capacity building
- Maintain overview of all grants, donor requirements, rules and regulations, and internal and external deadlines, including filing of grant documents (using the grants database – forthcoming)
- Be familiar with all NRC organisational and donor portfolio compliance requirements and ensure high quality management of grants through meeting of KPIs and deadlines;
- Support and advise programme colleagues with queries related to donor compliance on grants within portfolio;
- Coordinate with other departments (i.e. programmes, finance, M&E) to ensure all documentation required is ready and available for audits (e.g. vouchers, distribution lists);
- Coordinate with Area Managers in the close out of grants, including project close-out meetings;
- Visit area and/or field offices to support with capacity building of staff and partners and monitoring purposes;
- Coordinate the process of compiling reports (donors and internal reports) in close collaboration with CC Specialists, Programme and M&E teams, and Finance to ensure accurate, transparent and timely delivery of narrative and financial documents.
- In collaboration with the Advocacy and Media team, contribute to the development of country factsheets and other relevant information pieces for donor visits/meetings.
General Administration
- Document, analyse, and share learning from proposal and reporting processes, and compliance with donor rules and regulations. Contribute to continuously improve internal grant management systems and processes.
- Ensure all documentation required to be kept by donors is available within the Grants department by maintaining high standard information management/filing systems;
- Ensure correct and up-to-date maintenance of the Grants Tracker and Cycles – NRC’s grant management platform;
- Assist the GM as necessary, including representation and attendance at meetings as required, and coordination with teams to follow up on agreed action points.
Critical interfaces
By interfaces, NRC means processes and projects that are interlinked with other departments/units or persons. Relevant interfaces for this position are: Examples
- Project planning: CC Specialists, Finance, M&E, Head of Programme, Head of Support, Area Offices, Country Director , Regional programmes and Finance
- Implementation: Area Manager, CC Project Managers, M&E Manager, Head of Operations
- General Donors, local NGOs, governmental bodies, others as delegated. Donor compliance
- Grant Managers/Coordinators in other COs
- Institutional Partnership Advisers
- Competencies
Competencies are important in order for the employee and the organisation to deliver desired results. They are relevant for all staff and are divided into the following two categories:
a. Professional competencies
These are skills, knowledge and experience that are important for effective performance.
Generic professional competencies for this position:
- Between 3-5 years of relevant experience within field of expertise
- Relevant experience from the project management in the humanitarian sector
- Experience from working with humanitarian and development donors
- Good understanding of donor rules and regulations
- Skills and experience in report and proposal writing
- Strong communication, coordination and interpersonal skills
- Strong analytical skills (data and financial)
- Ability to mediate in high-stress scenarios with competing interest
- Excellent written and oral communication skills in English
- Above average computer skills
Context related skills, knowledge and experience (shall be adapted to the specific position):
- Knowledge of the context in Ethiopia
- Knowledge of Amharic considered an asset
- Ethiopian nationals and females are strongly encouraged to apply
- Between 3-5 years of relevant experience in programme development, management, fundraising and design in the humanitarian sector, preferably with refugee/IDP-related emergencies;
- Graduate Degree in Social Sciences, Business Administration, Finance and Accounting preferable
- Previous experience in the compilation of donor proposals and reports;
- Strong analytical skills (data and financial);
- Knowledge of donor rules and regulations;
- Knowledge of the political situation in Ethiopia
- Proficiency in the use of Word and Excel;
- Fluency in English, both written and verbal;
- Strong communication, coordination and interpersonal skills
- Ability to mediate in high-stress scenarios with competing interest
b. Behavioral competencies
These are personal qualities that influence how successful people are in their job. NRC’s Competency Framework states 12 behavioural competencies, and the following are essential for this position:
- Planning and delivering results
- Managing resources to optimize results
- Influencing
- Handling insecure environments
- Performance Management
The employee will be accountable for the responsibilities and the competencies, in accordance with the NRC Performance Management Manual. The following documents will be used for performance reviews:
- The Job Description
- The individual Work- and Professional Development Plan
- The Competency Framework
