Grants Manager at Danish Refugee Council

Danish Refugee Council, one of the world’s leading humanitarian NGO’s is recruiting for a highly qualified Grants Manager to support DRC’s grants management activities across the large and diverse humanitarian operation in South Sudan.

Background

Danish Refugee Council (DRC) is operational in South Sudan since 2005, working with the overall aim of achieving durable solutions for displaced populations. The Humanitarian and Disarmament activities started in 2006.

Danish Refugee Council main programme objectives (2020-2025) in South Sudan are:

1. To save lives and alleviate suffering among displaced people and their hosts
2. To reduce displacement related risks and support and facilitate solutions
3. To promote peaceful, inclusive and resilient societies and address root causes to displacement

DRC primarily operates across Upper Nile and Unity states and other parts of the country, both of which are heavily affected by conflict and experience high numbers of internally displaced populations as well as refugees in need of humanitarian assistance. DRC has operational bases in Maban, Malakal, Kodok and Aburoc in Upper Nile, in Bentiu, Mayom, Kodok, Central Equatoria (Magwi and Ngulere), Ajuong Thok in Unity state, and the Mobile Response Team and all are supported by a country-office in Juba.

DRC recently developed important multi-sectorial mobile response teams based in Juba able to rapidly respond to new and urgent humanitarian situations countrywide at short notice to conduct assessments and responses

Overall Purpose of the role

The Grants Management Coordinator is responsible for leading the grants unit of DRC South Sudan Country Office, and ensuring effective management of grants portfolio in accordance with donor and organizational regulations.

Roles and responsibilities include leading proposal development processes, ensuring overall donor compliance, managing timely reporting processes and overall accountability of the grants unit. This position is line managed by the Head of Programmes, and works in close collaboration with SMT on all matters related to grants, compliance and partnerships

Responsibilities

Fundraising and program development;

• Lead in development of fundraising documents – i.e. expressions of interest, concept notes, proposals – in line with DRC country strategy and donor requirements and in close collaboration with programmes/field staff, support services, DRC Regional Office (RO) and HQ Grant Management Unit (GMU) and finance;
• Liaise with Area Managers, Project Managers and Technical Coordinators to ensure that proposals are relevant and technically sound, and integrate learning from previous interventions into new proposals;
• Identify potential relevant international and local partners to be included in proposals;
• Support analysis of donor trends, humanitarian needs and existing gaps;
• Maintain active and regular communication with donors, ensuring timely response to communications and coordinating with relevant country team members on high quality feedback
• Regularly update a directory of donors, international and local NGOs, other partners and stakeholders;
• Regularly update a country-tailored donor-engagement tracker identifying donor funding priorities and engagement with DRC;
• Work closely with Country Director and Head of Programmes on business development and fundraising strategy for country office.

People Management;

• Ensure conducive working environment that allows room for sustained mentorship and growth of team members and clear division of roles and responsibilities;
• Build capacity of staff on proposal development, report writing, case studies and other aspects of grants management process;
• Ensure timely performance management processes for all direct line reports;
• Facilitate knowledge sharing within grants unit that ensures respect for all team members and takes diversity and inclusion considerations as core to the way of working.

Contracting:

• Maintain thorough knowledge of DRC grant contracts to ensure understanding of contractual obligations and regulations at both the Juba and field levels, and function as donor-compliance focal point for the assigned funding portfolio;
• . Lead addressing in a timely manner all comments by donors on proposals in liaison with relevant staff in country and DRC RO and HQ GMU and finance;
• Quality control on all contracts before signature, seeking DRC RO and HQ GMU and finance advice when required and facilitating signing of grant agreements;
• Ensure that contractual obligations (including visibility requirements) and reporting deadlines are known and met by Programme, M&E and Operations team;
• Troubleshooting identified gaps for meeting deliverables in the given timeframe and budget, inform relevant staff in country and seek DRC HQ Program Department advice on potential solutions that would meet donor rules.
• Lead on contract amendments including cost extensions/no-cost extensions and project revisions in coordination with relevant internal stakeholders.

Grants Management System:

• ​As DRC lead focal point for Grants Management System (GMS), keep GMS and internal tracking systems fully updated for projects in the respective portfolio. This will include creating new project cards, milestones, instalments, documents, status, outputs, and beneficiary numbers and correcting discrepancies, in close coordination with counterparts in headquarters.
• Regularly update DRC South Sudan SharePoint and hard copy files for all ongoing DRC projects and assist in the coordination and preparation of project documents and files for internal and external audits;
• Provide ad hoc support to programme staff on grants management module in DRC Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.

Reporting:

• Lead the coordination with DRC program, finance and other teams to ensure quality reports reflecting the progress and status of projects in a transparent, timely and professional manner, in liaison with DRC RO and HQ GMU;
• Liaise with M&E to incorporate project data (incl. data on outcome and impact indicators, lessons learnt and best practices) and ensure accuracy in reports;
• Liaise with operations teams when preparing reports, especially with finance to ensure full coherence between financial and narrative reports through management of the quality control processes;
• Ensure organization of kick-off and close out meetings for each project, present on project-specific donor compliance and reporting, and support in taking meeting minutes and action points for circulation;
• Manage monthly update of the grants tracker and ensure smooth and regular communication with DRC RO, HQ and field teams;
• Ensure ad hoc requests from donors are addressed in liaison with the CD, programme and support teams;
• Develop and maintain program summary documents which outline DRC ongoing projects.

Coordination and Communication:

• Facilitate interdepartmental communication and information sharing related to grants;
• Keep DRC RO and HQ GMU and finance updated on latest developments, opportunities and challenges so that they can support on way forward;
• Contribute to DRC external communication strategy by feeding regularly DRC RO and HQ Communication Department with informal updates on projects, a flash news, pictures, articles on projects progress and/or specific events for DRC communication tools, including, but not limited to, DRC Newsletter, websites and DRC Annual Report;
• Conduct field visits, for learning and capacity building;
• Participate in new staff inductions by providing overview of grants unit functions, active grants and relevant project documents.

In this position, you are expected to demonstrate each of DRC’ five core competencies:

• Striving for excellence: You focus on reaching results through the Regional team both to position DRC and ensure excellence in all deliverable.
• Collaborating: You lead regional initiatives and processes by involving relevant parties and encouraging feedback.
• Taking the lead: You take ownership and initiative while aiming for innovation.
• Communicating: You listen to other stakeholders and staff; and you communicate concisely and persuasively.
• Demonstrating integrity: You act in line with DRC’s vision and values.

Moreover, we also expect the following:

Experience and technical competencies:

• 7 years or more experience working in the development or humanitarian sectors or comparable experience
• 3 years experience working internationally in the development or humanitarian sector in grants and fundraising positions.
• Previous grant management and overall people management experience
• Experience working in South Sudan and other similar contexts
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills including the ability to engage and coordinate seamlessly with various teams to achieve tasks required
• Highly detail oriented with excellent English language writing and editing skills.
• Experience in leading development of high value proposals and excellent donor reports writing skills.
• Experience working with European, US and UN donors, ideally including DANIDA, ECHO, OFDA, UNHCR, SDC, DFID/FCDO or other relevant donors
• Flexibility and adaptability for working under high level of pressure with multiple deadlines and competing priorities.
• Familiarity with relevant programme areas including protection, camp coordination and camp management, economic recovery, humanitarian disarmament & peacebuilding and shelter is beneficial but not mandatory
• Female Candidates strongly encouraged to apply

Desirable qualifications

• An understanding of the South Sudan context.
• Self-motivated and able to work with a minimum of guidance and supervision;
• Experience working in security-sensitive environments and enforcement of team security protocols is an asset.

Key stakeholders: (internal and external)

Internal

• Head of Programmes
• Senior Management Team
• Area Managers and Project Managers
• MEAL and Technical team
• Finance team
• HQ and regional office

External

• Donor focal points
• Local partners
• INGO grants teams
• Cluster coordination systems

Conditions

Salary and conditions will be in accordance with Danish Refugee Council’s Terms of Employment for Expatriates; please refer to www.drc.dk under Vacancies. This position will be placed at Employment Band – F1 ( Management).

Duration: 1 year

Start Date: 1st July, 2022