Grants Management System and Call for Proposals Consultant, Operations

Contract

This is a International Consultant contract. More about International Consultant contracts.

Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

The United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund) was established through the UN General Assembly Resolution 50/166 in 1996 with UN Women as its Administrator on behalf of the UN system. The UN Trust Fund (UNTF) is a global multi-lateral grant making mechanism supporting national efforts to prevent and end violence against women and girls, one of the most widespread human rights violations in the world. The UN Trust Fund provides technical assistance and funding to advance the development of innovative models and strategic interventions in ending violence against women and girls. To date, the UN Trust Fund has awarded US 215 million to 646 initiatives in 140 countries and territories.

The UN Trust Fund, through its annual Call for Proposals process, identifies and selects the most note-worthy projects to fund each year. The application selection process is rigorous and extensive, requiring coordination across a wide range of stakeholders, including applicants, external experts, UN Women offices and other UN agencies. The UN Trust Fund utilizes an online Grants Management System (GMS) for both the grantee selection process as well for managing grantee reporting obligations.

The UN Trust Fund is in the final stage of enhancement of its newly designed Grants Management System in collaboration with a vendor and the UN Women Information Systems and Telecommunications (IST) Section. The current online platforms include: 1) the Call for Proposal (CFP) section that interfaces with approximately 2,000 users during each Call for Proposals; and 2) Grants financial and narrative reporting system through which in 100+ grantees submit their bi-annual reports and receive feedback on progress.

Given the volume of users and the significant role the Call for Proposals process and information systems play at UN Trust Fund, the Grants Management System and Call for Proposals Consultant will provide support to the Project Coordinator Specialist in maintaining of the entire system and for providing necessary technical support to all the users.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the direct guidance and supervision of the Project Coordination Specialist, the Consultant will carry out the following tasks:

1. Support with implementation and maintenance of GMS project

• Work closely with the vendor and UN Women IST Team, including day-to-day communication and through meetings, email, and online calls.
• Provide inputs to the GMS section of the UN Trust Fund Annual Work Plan by monitoring of the timeline, deliverables, budget and expenditure.
• Support with preparing briefing notes and presentations on GMS and present the system as needed and requested.
• Conduct the tasks of Fund Admin in the backend of the system, including the functions related to the management of roles, fund users, organization users, static artifacts, email templates, new grants set-ups, and announcements.
• Analyze the GMS user guides for grantees and fund users, to add new chapters as modules are changed and/or enhanced, and to improve the content and reader-friendliness based on the feedback and suggestions from grantee and fund users, as required.
• Serve as the contact for the Helpdesk Support for Call for Proposal and GMS with the provision of technical support and webinars.
• Co-manage the GMS folder in UN Trust Fund Share Drive and the GMS Page of UN Women Share Point, ensuring all the relevant documents and data are saved and followed-up systematically.

2. Support with enhancements of the system

• Contribute to the discussions with the vendor on the items for enhancement, gather and consolidate the UN Trust Fund requirements for the GMS enhancement items to ensure that the vendor fully understands the UNTF requirements.
• Conduct User Acceptance Tests (UAT) in English, French and Spanish, provide feedback and monitor of the implementation of changes.
• Co- implement the work plan to ensure that the work is completed in a timely and effectively manner by all the parties, including key deliverables by the vendor.
• Report bugs as well as layout/design/edit-related issue in a systematic and organized manner. Once these issues are fixed by the vendor, verify the fix in the server and update the GMS Issue Register Page in SharePoint.

3. Support the online grant-application system related to the Call for Proposals

• Support with the technical side of online application system including beta-testing the application to ensure a smooth and timely roll-out.
• Control user access, permissions and privileges and other database responsibilities for the UN Trust Fund staff, expert consultants and regional programme offices.
• Assign all received applications to the Technical Review Group, monitor assignments/re-assignments during the section processes.
• Provide assistance to users including applicants, grantees, UN Trust Fund Secretariat staff and UN Women staff in the field offices during the open application period.
• Co-manage email account of CFP/GMS Helpdesk and communication with applicants, grantees and other users as required.
• Support with timely updates of call-related documentation on the GMS site as well as regular email status updates to applicants.
• Once the data of new grantees are available from CFP system, support with the management of the new grant setup per new project in collaboration with Finance Officer and Portfolio Manager.
• Provide troubleshooting to the technical issues on CFP and GMS reported to the Helpdesk: investigate ino and report the issues in the CFP/GMS Issue Register; verify the fix and revert to the user.

4. Support other Call for Proposal processes from the operational side

• Support Cycle 26 and Cycle 27 applicants with financial and operational queries during the application periods.
• Support technical reviewers with technical, financial and operational queries.
• Identify, shortlist and review applications for Technical Review Group Experts.
• Conduct analysis on the Cycle 26 proposals from the operational and financial perspective.
• Collect documents and review data for the NGO capacity assessment process.
• Support with the NGO assessment exercise conducted from the HQ.
• Support the partner agreement finalization process.

The key results have an impact on the overall quality and effective use of the Grants Management System by all the relevant users to support more effective grants management, as well as the timely implementation of the Fund’s annual Call for Proposals processes.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

Job Knowledge/Technical Expertise

• Demonstrated proficiency to have analytical ability and thorough understanding of software development life cycle processes
• Knowledge of information technology platforms for web-based database systems
• Actively seeks to apply current expertise and new ideas on how to optimize use of technology to streamline workloads.

Client Orientation

• Able to identify and analyze clients' needs and develop appropriate technology solutions to meet business requirements; desire to organize and improve processes.

Planning and Organization

• Ability to pay attention to details in a very organized manner.
• Ability to establish priorities and to plan and monitor own work in a very systematic manner.
• Ability to review each page of the online system, report issues and verification of each fix in a very systematic and organized manner.
• Proven ability to work under pressure and produce deliverable that is accurate, timely and of high quality.
• Ability to manage conflicting priorities.
• Strong attention to detail.

Communications

• Able to speak and write clearly and effectively, including to: advise and train users on the use of complex systems/applications and related matters;
• Prepare specifications and other written reports/documentation in a clear and concise style.

Teamwork

• Good interpersonal skills; ability to establish and maintain effective partnerships and working relations with people in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic environment with sensitivity and respect for diversity.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced university degree (Master's degree or equivalent) in Computer or Information Systems, Public Administration, Development, Social Sciences, Business Administration or related field.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• Minimum two (2) years of relevant professional experience in the field of project management.
• Experience in information and communication technology, particularly in requirements gathering, analyzing, documenting and testing of online systems is required.
• Experience in conducting quality assurance-related work and/or testing of new online products/services is required.
• Experience in grant making or working with implementing partners is required.
• Experience in working in a multi-cultural settings with people from different cultural backgrounds;
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc) and knowledge of database packages, working experience in web-based ERP financial systems (i.e. SAP, PeopleSoft, Oracle, SUN etc.)

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English (oral and written) is required.
• Working knowledge in Spanish and/or French is desirable.