Grants Manager at Norwegian Refugee Council

The purpose of the Grants Manager position is to provide essential grant management support to the HoP in delivering quality programmes in line with the NRC Country Office (CO) strategy, Project Cycle Management and Plan of Action.

S(he) will contribute to achieving high quality programming by ensuring effective grants management including, compliance requirements, reporting, timely and quality proposal development, and internal and external communication. S(he) will oversee key mandatory activities under NRC’s Project Cycle Management (PCM). S(he) shall ensure NRC programme/support teams are fully informed of relevant donor compliance regulations and NRC procedures, manage donor and other external reporting, and coordinate grant revisions. S(he) shall also support donor communication by ensuring effective channels of internal and external communications relating to grants are established and respected, as well as leading the development of proposals and opportunity identification.

Specific Responsibilities:

Proposal Development

1. Responsible for developing/and or reviewing grants proposals in collaboration with Core Competency (CC) Specialists Advisers.
2. Create an evaluation tool to benchmark the quality of proposals and reports, guide future processes, and identify areas for improvement, including current Grants Tracker.
3. Attend donor meetings, upon request by the Head of Programme
4. Coordinate and seek input on generic concept notes, briefing notes, SITREPS and programme fact sheets to be used in donor meetings and visits.
5. Responsible for drafting fundraising strategy and gap analysis with support of Head of Programmes
6. Manages the process to develop concept notes and donor proposals, and participate in writing them in close cooperation with relevant departments in NRC Ethiopia.
7. Accountable and responsible for the quality of proposals and reports submitted to regional office and donors.
8. Be updated on donor priorities and track and share relevant calls for proposals.

Due Diligence Assessments, Grant Agreements, and Partnerships

1. Oversee and review the signature of grants agreements including those for implementing partners.
2. Lead on NRC Ethiopia’s due diligence assessment when and as required by an existing or new donor;
3. Lead on organisational assessments of Partners as per NRC’s Grants Management procedures;
4. In coordination with the Head of Programme, draft Partner Agreements/MoUs with relevant Annexes and take through signing processes;
5. Contribute to partner capacity building as required and identified in partner assessment.
6. Build 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

1. Grants Management Cycle. Responsible for overseeing and ensuring efficiency, quality and smooth running of the entire grants cycle management, harmonizing approaches and ensuring adequate feedback is provided for the continued development of grants function
2. Working with the HoP in managing grants, including (re-) allocation and delegation of grants between CCs & areas, and reports to donors and project archive
3. Coordinate with the Regional Office on all Country Office Grants
4. Establish and improve systems and tools in line with PCM. Create tools to simplify the processes of proposals and reporting.
5. Accountable for compliance in relation to grant management and project cycle management processes.
6. Create a template for internal monthly/quarterly reporting by the Project Management Unit to other units within NRC Ethiopia

Donor compliance, reporting, and capacity building

1. Develop and 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)
2. Be familiar with all NRC organisational and donor portfolio compliance requirements and ensure high quality management of grants through meeting of KPIs and deadlines;
3. Support and advise programme colleagues with queries related to donor compliance on grants within portfolio;
4. Through the Grants Coordinator and Officer, work 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);
5. Support Grants Coordinator and Area Managers in the close out of grants, including project close-out meetings;
6. Deliver Project Cycle Management (PCM) trainings and support the use of the NRC PCM framework.
7. Visit area and/or field offices to support with capacity building of staff and partners and monitoring purposes;
8. Manages 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.
9. Support Grants Coordinator and Area Managers in the close out of grants, including project close-out meetings.
10. In collaboration with the Advocacy and Media team, contribute to the development of country fact sheets and other relevant information pieces for donor visits/meetings.

General Administration

1. Document, analyse, and share learning from proposal and reporting processes, and compliance with donor rules and regulations. Responsible to continuously improve internal grant management systems and processes.
2. Ensure all documentation required to be kept by donors is available within the Grants department by maintaining high standard information management/filing systems;
3. As the ultimate custodian, support the Grants Coordinator and Officer to ensure correct and up-to-date maintenance of the Grants Tracker and Cycles – NRC’s grant management platform;
4. Assist the Head of Programme as necessary, including representation and attendance at meetings as required, and coordination with teams to follow up on agreed action points.

View this job description for more information of this role

**Shortlisting will be on a rolling basis before the deadline**

Generic professional competencies:**

• Minimum 5 years of relevant experience in programme development, management, fundraising and design in the humanitarian sector, preferably with refugee/IDP-related emergencies
• Post Graduate Degree in Social Sciences, Business Administration, Finance and Accounting is preferable
• Experience from working with humanitarian and development donors
• Good understanding of donor rules and regulations with 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

Contextual skills, knowledge and experience:

• Knowledge of the context in Ethiopia and knowledge of Amharic is an asset
• Ability to mediate in high-stress scenarios with competing interest

What We Offer

NRC is an equal opportunities employer and aims to have staffing diversity in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, nationality and physical ability.

Female candidates and Ethiopian Nationals are strongly encouraged to join our work culture that empowers every employee to share ideas and take responsibility: At NRC we think outside the box. We encourage ideas and give responsibility to all employees at all levels, to help solve the complex issues that we face. You will have many opportunities to be heard and take the initiative

• 12 months fixed term contract
• Senior grade 8 in NRC’s grade structure
• An opportunity to match your career to a compelling cause
• A chance to meet and work with people who are the best in their fields