Partnership Officer at GOAL

General Description of the Programme:

GOAL has been working in Syria since 2013, responding to the acute needs of conflict-affected communities. GOAL is working in Idleb Governate, both through direct implementation and through partners, delivering food, non-food programming to highly vulnerable populations, and provision of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) through support to Water units, as well as emergency support to recently displaced households.

Job purpose:

Reporting to the Partnership Coordinator, the Partnership Officer is a key role supporting GOAL Syria’s partner portfolio. With the overall aim of achieving high quality and compliant partnerships, the Partnership Officer will ensure effective sub-grants management and due diligence with partners, contributing to strong respectful and long-term working relations with partners. As part of the Partnership Department the incumbent will oversee the contractual relationship between GOAL and its partners, ensuring timely reporting to GOAL and that reports are incorporated into GOAL’s reporting to donors. S/he will also play the role as primary contact point on contractual and grants issues with partners.

Main responsibilities:

Job Responsibility #1: Support Pre-award Phase

30% of Time:

• Support the Partnership Coordinator with the mapping process for selecting partners. Make sure selection process is transparent, well documented and aligned with GOAL Partnership process and procedures.
• Manage and handle the administration of pre-award due diligence processes with all new sub-awardees.
• Draft sub-award agreements and follow GOAL’s internal review process of all sub-award documentation and coordinate to get all necessary approvals.
• Develop agenda and materials for partner grant opening meetings, in coordination with support functions and program staff, to ensure projects start with clear expectations of both parties. Brief sub-award partners on agreements, as well as GOAL’s and donors’ rules and regulations, in coordination with the Compliance colleagues.

Job Responsibility #2: Sub-grants management

30% of Time:

• Support in drafting sub-grant agreements and all sub-grant agreement modifications. Act as the focal point between partners and GOAL departments for the review and approval of all such documents. Facilitate signature of agreements by GOAL and partners.
• Ensure timely liaison with the Grants Management team, finance and compliance departments to ensure that all necessary contractual documentation is in order.
• Contribute to the due diligence process for partners and other screening assessments of current and potential partners, conducted in person or remotely. Ensure that focal points are identified for Safeguarding and Data Protection.
• Keep track of all partners’ grant agreements and maintain the partners’ portion of the Grant’s Tracker.
• Participate in and support the Partnership coordinator with leading grant opening and closing review meetings with the other departments and actively follow up on outstanding partnership issues from these meetings.
• Assist partners with understanding GOAL required policies and procedures as per the sub-grant agreement and best practices (procurement, financial reporting, child safeguarding, etc.)
• Actively participate in Goal Syria Partner Task Force and Partner monthly meetings, support in taking and circulating minutes
• Be an active participant in the Partnership Department, supporting the overall outputs of the department as per requests from his/her supervisor.

Job Responsibility #3: Partner Reporting

10% of Time:

• Ensure that partners’ contractual reports are reviewed and internal feedback from program and MEAL teams is compiled and sent to partners in a timely manner.
• Work with the Grants Management team to identify needs and facilitate capacity building support for partners in report writing – both financial and narrative.

Job Responsibility #1: Proposal development

30% of Time:

• Support the communication of any new funds opportunities with partners and facilitate the information sharing between them and GOAL departments for the review and approval of any new proposals and budgets, as well as any modifications.
• Coordinate with Grants Management and Program teams to collect inputs on partners’ project proposals and work collaboratively with partners to finalize project descriptions, budgets, work plans and monitoring and evaluation plans.

Requirements (essential)

• Bachelor’s degree in subject relevant to position (social science, business economics, information management, project management etc), or commensurate experience.
• 2-3 years working in the NGO or similar sector, experience of working in Syria preferred.
• Experience of donor compliance and managing institutional donor funding (e.g. BHA, and ECHO would be an advantage.
• Excellent writing skills, including report writing. Experience in drafting reports for donor audiences.
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to interact well with people of all backgrounds.
• Turkish Nationality
• Fluency in English, both written and oral communication skills. Arabic and Turkish is a distinct advantage.
• Proactive and solutions-focused
• Proficient in MS Office application including Excel and Word.
• Enthusiastic and keen to work hard to achieve the objectives of the programme.