Regional Awards Management Specialist

JOB TITLE:   Regional Awards (Grants) Management Specialist

TEAM/PROGRAMME: Regional Awards Team

LOCATION: Eastern and Southern Africa Region

GRADE: 2

CONTRACT TYPE:

 

CHILD SAFEGUARDING:

Level 3.  The responsibilities of this post may require the post holder to have regular contact with children and young people. In the overseas context all posts are considered to be level 3.

As part of these responsibilities the post holder will support the establishment of child safeguarding systems, promote a culture of keeping children safe, and ensure that potential harm to children (by our own staff and/or as a result of how we do our work) is identified and addressed on an ongoing basis.  The post holder should report and respond to interventions as determined by position related responsibilities identified in the Child Safeguarding Policy.

ROLE PURPOSE:

This role will support various Country Offices in East and South Africa, to remain competitive and adhere to all award management obligations internally within Save the Children and externally with donors. The Awards (Grants) Specialist will provide support to the Country Awards Leads in the planning, securing and managing of both development and humanitarian awards. The position plays a lead role on strategic portfolio planning and risk management through analysis and management information so as to inform strategic decision making. Additionally, he/she will support the Head of Strategic Portfolio and Awards Management with dedicated support on high risk awards; and providing analysis; compliance capacity building and monitoring of all phases of awards. 

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: Head of Regional Awards Management and Strategic Portfolio– East and Southern Africa

Dimensions: Save the Children works in 12 countries in East and Southern Africa (Kenya, Somalia, Uganda, Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi) with a current staff complement of approximately 3500 staff and current expenditure of approximately $300 million each year

Staff reporting to this post: none

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

Strategic Portfolio Planning:

  • Review the pipeline and portfolio in the region to assess if it meets the cost of doing business for full strategy delivery in coordination with PDQ, Finance and Operations.
  • Prepare monthly KPI commentary analysis and on request working with NBD, use information from AMS and Power BI to provide sound trend portfolio analysis reports.
  • Participate in monthly performance review calls with Country offices by demonstrating the impact of the analysis on better quality programming and use of analysis in East and Southern African region.
  • Working with the Regional and Centre analysts, on a regular basis and on request, use information from AMS and Power BI to provide sound trend portfolio analysis reports.

Risk Management:  

  • Use key performance indicators, other Awards management information and the portfolio analysis reports to identify and address operational issues that could impact negatively on the delivery of programmes and jeopardize SCI commitments to donors and beneficiaries.
  • Lead on award monitoring with a focus on critical and high-risk awards. On a monthly basis, support the Head of Strategic Portfolio and Awards Management to maintain a log of key issues identified.
  • Support the Head of Strategic Portfolio and Awards Management in reviewing the Country offices quarterly risk management plans and highlighting any new areas of risk.

Award Management Systems, Processes and Essential Standards

  • In collaboration with the Country Office Award Leads, ensure effective dissemination of award information. Ensuring that all key contributing staff have a clear understanding of Save the Children policies, procedures, processes and donor requirements and expectations throughout the lifecycle of an award (opportunity to close-out).
  • Support the Country Offices Award Leads in embedding of Award Management processes i.e. Award Kick-off, Reviews and close-out meetings throughout the entire Awards cycle.
  • Support the Country Award Leads to improve the Award Management standards working with other functions such as Operations, Finance, Supply Chain, M&E to ensure accountable reporting to donors.
  • Support in the rollout of High Performing Organisation (HPO) projects including Coding, PMM/PRIME, AMLP, RFT.
  • Support the Country Offices in improvement of the Awards Key Performance Indicators. Where appropriate coordinate the internal processes for preparation of timely and high-quality donor reports.
  • Facilitate effective and prompt communication by relevant staff within Save the Children funding members and donors on their awards.
  • Support award closeout process, helping Country Office project managers and Award teams to ensure all tasks are completed on time as per the close out checklist and that all required close-out documentations are kept on file.
  • Promote a culture of learning and improvement on awards management throughout the region by sharing best practices.

Donor Compliance

  • Ensure effective dissemination of donor compliance requirements and guidance from Save the Children members to our country offices.
  • Support in Liaising with members to ensure that all appropriate donor requirements/ are available in-country and in the donor resource library.
  • Strengthen donor compliance across all the Country Offices in the region and be the go-to-person on rules and regulations for key donors i.e. USAID, EU, DFID, ECHO, NORAD, IGAD
  • Support the Head of Awards Management to identify potential compliance issues and amendment requests and ensure they are flagged promptly to donors via the relevant Save the Children member.
  • Support the country offices to ensure robust and comprehensive donor records are maintained for all awards to meet audit requirements.
  • Work with internal and external auditors as necessary.
  • Conduct regular donor compliance trainings and Webinars.
  • Develop donor compliance review checklists and follow on quarterly basis to ensure the regional programme and Country Offices are aware and compliant.

Partnerships – Sub awards and sub grantee management

  • In collaboration with the Centre and the CO’s Partnership Focal Points, ensure that the partnership policies and procedures are understood and used in all the CO’s.
  • Support program staff to comply with Save the Children partnership policies and procedures, and ensure all implementing partners undergo legal vetting on AMS and preparation of partner agreements are undertaken as per partnership processes to ensure donor compliance.
  • Capacity building and compliance support to CO’s to ensure all new and existing partners have regular monitoring and systems in place so that partner delivery meets donor expectations and requirements, in collaboration with programme operations.
  • Ensure that the partner data integrity and completeness of information in the system for all partner documentation including reports is uploaded onto AMS through spot checks of AMS data.
  • Coordinate the monthly calls with Partnership Focal points to discuss partnership management and share best practices.

Award Management System (AMS)

  • Monitor that all awards have all documentation as required uploaded and updated on AMS.
  • Support Country offices with system support where needed.
  • Drive AMS data quality in the region by ensuring AMS system is an accurate reflection of current award status at all times; including partner sub-awards and all attachments.

Capacity Building

  • Assess capacity building needs for awards and programmes staff in the region
  • Coordinate and facilitate trainings and webinars to address the gaps identified.
  • Develop training modules, awards management guidance tools
  • Plan and Facilitate Awards Management Community of Practice Sessions

Others

  • Step in and back stop the Head of Strategic portfolio and Awards management as and when requested.
  • Work closely with members, other functions (Operations, Finance, NBD), the regional Awards team to deliver on the team objectives including any other duties not prescribed above.
  • Establish strong links with SCI Centre Awards team and networking with Awards teams in the region.
  • Country office support visits as requested by the Head of Strategic portfolio and Awards management. 

 

SKILLS AND BEHAVIOURS (SCI Values in Practice)

Achieving results effectively

  • Collects, analyses and disseminates information to and from communities and other stakeholders
  • Ensure efficient and transparent use of resources in accordance with internal controls
  • Addresses difficult situations and makes tough decisions confidently and calmly
  • Considers the wider impact of decisions to be made in the short and long-term
  • Continuously provides feedback and updates to achieve improved results
  • Coordinates with stakeholders to avoid duplication and maximise resources
  • Documents lessons learned and applies them to future projects
  • Demonstrates understanding of agency project cycle management

Maintaining and developing collaborative relationships

  • Actively participates in networks to access and contribute to good practice
  • Establishes clear objectives with teams and individuals and monitors progress and performance
     

Operating safely and securely

  • Identifies and communicates risk and threats and minimises these for oneself and the agency
  • Reduces vulnerability by complying with safety and security protocols set by the organisation
     

Managing yourself in a pressured and changing environment:

  • Helps team members to practise stress management through prioritisation of workloads and modelling of appropriate self-care
  • Remains effective and retains perspective in the face of difficult or demanding situations
  • Maintains ethical and professional behaviour in accordance with relevant codes of conduct
  • Plans, prioritises and performs tasks well under pressure
  • Takes responsibility for own work and for the impact of own actions
     

Leadership & Developing Others

  • Delivers results and always acts with the beneficiaries in mind.
  • Builds own awareness of the bigger global picture by using a broad range of sources to gather data
  • Demonstrates self-development and management by taking responsibility for own development, and actively seeking out feedback to better understand their own strengths and weaknesses
  • Tailors communication style to certain audiences
  • Gives constructive feedback to enhance capabilities and responsibilities to another for the purpose of his/her development

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

Essential

  • Undergraduate Degree in Business, Social Sciences, Finance, Accounting or any other related degree
  • Minimum 5 years’ working in International Development with a specific emphasis of Fund Management, Project Management and / or Risk Management
  • At Least 3 years’ experience managing and / or implementing USAID/USG grants or contracts
  • Knowledge of guidelines / regulations and reporting requirements of major donors such as EU, DFID, ECHO, UN agencies, DANIDA.
  • Experience in proposal development and coordination processes for complex awards.
  • Demonstrable financial skills, particularly, budget development, BvA Analysis and reporting
  • Ability to engage with and coordinate across multiple stakeholder groups.
  • Cultural awareness and ability to build relationships quickly with a wide variety of people
  • Patient, adaptable, flexible, able to improvise and remain responsive and communicate clearly and effectively under pressure
  • Excellent planning, management and coordination skills, with the ability to organise a workload comprised of varying and changing tasks and responsibilities
  • Strong communication (written and spoken) in the local language and minimum intermediate level in English.
  • Very strong capacity for attention to detail, problem solving, and analysis of trends.
  • Computer literate with very strong excel and analytical skills.

Desirable

  • Understanding of SCI Award Management Processes

Equal Opportunities

The post holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI Equal Opportunities and Diversity policies and procedures.

Health and Safety

The post holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with SCI Health and Safety policies and procedures.

Additional job responsibilities

The job duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the Post holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.

 

 

     

 

Job Description

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Job description

13 Mar 2023

27 Mar 2023 - 09:58 EAT

Worldwide

Business Support

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