Partnership Manager

Background;-

The International Rescue Committee is one of the world’s largest humanitarian international NGOs, provides relief, rehabilitation and development support to vulnerable people and communities in over 40 countries. We began work in Ethiopia in 2000 in response to severe drought in Ethiopia’s Somali region and are currently aiding with Ethiopians and refugees in six regions in Ethiopia, implementing emergency and development programs in health, water and sanitation, economic recovery, and development (ERD), women’s protection and empowerment, education, child protection, and multi-sectoral emergency response.

Position Overview:

The Partnerships Manager is responsible for helping to identify and assess new partners, facilitating and tracking sub-projects and agreements, and highly involved in sub-grant monitoring and evaluation. A large portion of IRC Ethiopia’s partnerships/sub-grants portfolio falls within the emergency response program but includes other sectors and projects as well. The position is based in Addis Ababa but will require travel to the field in Ethiopia and occasional travel overseas for conferences and trainings. The position will report to the Partnership Coordinator. The Partnerships Team sits in the Grants and Partnerships Unit of IRC Ethiopia

Major key Responsibilities:

 Partnership Coordination and Capacity Building:

•  Build Partnership Team’s capacity to institutes the global PEERS policy. Includes establishing efficient and responsive processes, delineating roles and responsibilities, developing sound recordkeeping systems and sub-award management tools, conducting trainings, and creatively developing a context-appropriate PEERS-SOP.
• Coordinate and assist in the operational, financial, and programmatic monitoring and support of all partners. Includes leading the coordination of monitoring visits and partner meetings to ensure deliverables are well.
• Run and lead Partnerships meetings, including weekly team meetings.
• Ensure that the partnership trackers are up to date with data collected from program, partnership, and finance teams and disseminating information (including the tracker) on Partners to relevant departments, as needed.
• Leads communication with relevant HQ departments including finance, compliance, and regional program units.

Partnerships/Sub grant Processes:

• Lead the mapping of potential partners for emergency response, with a emphasis on local organizations.
• Update IRC’s database that catalogues all past and potential partners on a continual basis.
• Support the Partnerships Coordinator, Sr. Partnership Coordinator, and operational and technical staff as needed in the organization and facilitation of capacity and risk assessments for potential partners.
• Facilitate internal sub-award proposal review and approval process as needed.
• Assures high-quality implementation by supporting sub-grant opening, review, and closing meetings.
• Support the development of partnership templates and contracts/agreements.
• Work with Partnerships Team, IRC finance, and other program staff to process partnerships effectively and ensure donor compliance.
• Lead and facilitate capacity building of partner NGOs and local community organizations. Contribute to development of training materials.

Partner Monitoring:

• Support emergency response and technical teams in monitoring sub-grantees/partners for donor compliance and progress against objectives, contributing to the development of monitoring tools as needed.
• Coordinate closely with sub-grantees for timely submission of accurate financial and activity reports.
• Coordinate with relevant departments to ensure that all reporting templates are updated and share with sub-grantees on a timely basis.

Documentation and Reporting:

• Maintain comprehensive electronic partner files, ensuring they are streamlined and well organized.
• Coordinate with the relevant technical teams, review monthly internal reports, compile and submit partner reports into overall donor report, and support government reports/agreements as needed/requested.
• Support data analysis of existing sub-grant portfolio and potential future partner commitments.

Representation and Special Tasks:

• Ensure that all deadlines are met on time and that all products are of high quality.
• Represent IRC Ethiopia at relevant coordination meetings and feedback important information from those meetings to relevant IRC staff.
• At the request of the Partnerships Coordinator and/or senior management, take ownership for miscellaneous projects not falling under responsibilities underlined in this job description.

• Bachelor’s degree in social studies or relevant field from a recognized university with at least 4 years of confirmed experience; or master’s degree with at least 3 years of relevant experience.
• Strong preference will be given to candidates with previous experience in partnership management, consortium/network management or sub-grant/partner identification and management.
• Confirmed experience in coordination of multiple partners (internal and external).
• Experience facilitating sub-grants, including proposal review, agreement development, and monitoring strongly desired.
• Familiarity with humanitarian donors’ rules and regulations, such as USAID/BHA, BPRM, ECHO, Irish Aid.
• Program development experience, including development of key project documents such as logical frameworks, monitoring tools, etc.
• Experience crafting and implementing capacity building programs is a plus.
• Computer literate (MS Word, Excel, PPT).
• Budgeting experience required.
• NGO experience in similar position is preferred.
• Good communication and interpersonal skills.
• Willingness to travel in Ethiopia for monitoring purposes.

Language Skills: –

• Excellent Amharic and English writing & speaking skills are required.