Institutional Partnerships Senior Officers At Handicap International – Humanity & Inclusion

Handicap International is an independent and impartial international solidarity organization, which intervenes in situations of poverty and exclusion, conflicts and disasters. Working alongside people with disabilities and vulnerable populations, it acts and speaks out to meet their essential needs, improve their living conditions and promote respect for their dignity and fundamental rights.

The network of eight national associations (Germany, Belgium, Canada, the United States, France, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom and Switzerland) works constantly to mobilize resources, to co-manage projects and to spread the principles and actions of the organization.

HI is committed to an employment policy in favour of persons with disabilities.

CONTEXT:

In order to implement its development and humanitarian activities in its countries of interventions, Humanity & Inclusion / Handicap International (HI) mobilizes funding from a large range of institutional partners. The Institutional Funding Division (DFI) is responsible to identify and share funding opportunities for the operations and to strengthen the relations with the institutional donors in order to influence the donors’ strategies and regulations and anticipate the way their policies, calls for proposals and regulations are likely to develop. It sets the framework for compliance and respect for the donors’ rules, informs the programs about donors’ conditions and requirements and controls that HI actions and management methods conform to these conditions and requirements.

The DFI is composed of staff members based at the HI Federation headquarters (Lyon and Brussels) as well as in National Associations (NAs). It includes a dedicated Institutional Funding North Europe (IFNE) team of 8 members based in Brussels and Luxemburg, specifically in charge of relations with institutional partners from Benelux, Nordic countries and European Union, under the management of the Head of Institutional Partnerships North Europe (IPNE).

We are seeking for 2 Institutional Partnerships Senior Officers (IPSO) :

One for European Union – The portfolio includes DG INTPA, DG NEAR, FPI and others (not ECHO). This scope may however evolve and include other countries and responsibilities, whether linked to FINE or extended to DFI files.

One for Nordic countries, namely The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. This scope may however evolve and include other countries and responsibilities, whether linked to FINE or extended to DFI files.

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES:

The mission of the Institutional Partnerships Senior Officer – with the support of the Institutional Partnership Officer (IPO), is to lead the mobilization of funding, donor relations, compliance frameworks and support to contract implementation.

Donor relations and external representation

The Institutional Partnerships Senior Officer – will fully lead the development of an institutional partnership strategy & multi-year action plan for his/her donors’ portfolio and monitor its implementation. He/she is responsible for the management of relations and/or to support those relations with the donors of his/her portfolio internally in order to develop business. For this, he/she:

Develops adequate understanding & anticipation of donors’ expectations & strategies, and ensures proper dissemination of knowledge on donors.
Negotiates with institutional partners & defends HI interests.
Supports business development.
Ensures successful support to teams internally on reporting, audits through advice and clarification of the rules and regulations, according to the internally agreed standards.
Manages information on EU/Nordic countries donors.

Compliance framework

The Institutional Partnerships Senior Officer defines, disseminates and controls the application of standards as per donors’ requirements. For this, he/she:

Adequately disseminates the donor’s rules and regulations to the programmes (using on-line tools and training sessions) on major existing and upcoming regulations (PRAG, INTPA Companion, Model Grant Agreements, OPSYS);
Identifies and coordinates on points of attention presenting operational, technical, ethical and others and for that purpose liaises with the HI Institute on Humanitarian Action on ethics where appropriate;
Monitors and leads internally the transition to the OPSYS/Funding & Tenders Platform;
Applies problem-solving if standards not applied (adapting standard, trainings, etc.).

Support to contract implementation

The Institutional Partnerships Senior Officer supports operations, technical and advocacy staff in their funding strategy (operational and technical strategies) & in the implementation of their contracts. For this she/he:

Supports project staff members in interpreting & applying regulations, and for this provides advice and organizes trainings;
Supports project staff liaising with the donors or acts as in-between when required;
He/she contributes to guaranteeing the respect of the terms of the contracts;
He/she contributes, with the support of the financial managers and controllers, to the financial monitoring of contracts (monitoring of fund payments by the donor, budgetary monitoring of projects and action programs).

DESIRED PROFILE:

You have 4 years of higher education in a field relevant to the job or equivalent experience
You have at least 10 years’ experience of managing funding and/or development/emergency aid projects abroad or at NGO headquarters
You have proven experience in external representation: capacity for networking and lobbying
You are fluent in French and English. Spanish and Portuguese are an asset
You have strong ethical standards
You are autonomous, adaptable, flexible and able to prioritize
You are a teamworker and have coordination and excellent interpersonal skills, both internally and externally, knowing how to adapt to different levels of intervention and multicultural environment

CONDITIONS OF THE POSITION: