Partnership Manager - Beirut

Job Description

Based in Beirut with occasional travel to the Field Offices in Zahle, Qobayat, and Tripoli the Partnership Manager will work in the IRC partnership Unit. The purpose of the Partnership Unit is to oversee the management and coordination of IRC's partnership related work in accordance with the IRC Partnership Excellence for Equality and Results (PEERS). He/she will be reporting to the Partnerships Coordinator.

The Partnerships Manager will play a key role in supporting partners and IRC in the development of joint projects. The role will lead the facilitation and coordination of partnership management processes (with the coordination and support of the Partnerships Coordinator) to ensure well planned, timely, coordinated and coherent partnership management, in close coordination with senior officers and other IRC units. Their role will also focus on supporting partners and programs’ staff to build solid capacity sharing plans across all IRC Lebanon partnerships’ portfolio.

Responsibilities

Partnership Agreement Management

- Develop, co-facilitate, and guide competitive partner selection processes to identify partners for this project, by drafting and launching the Request for Applications (RFA) and scoring criteria. - Review Partners’ submitted proposals and budgets and support senior officers in this task. - Conduct & coordinate Partner Identity and Background Review (Vetting) processes, including completion of the report and/or review of submitted reports by Senior officers. - Coordinate and co-lead Partner's Project Capacity Review (PPCR) processes, including contributing to and facilitating the collaborative risk analysis and management. - Coordinate with project lead and senior officer to agree/review appropriate partnership agreement type and draft agreement, considering the due diligence outcomes and specific project and donor requirements. - Liaising with HQ for approvals and/or review of documents and agreements. - Support senior officers and co-lead Partnership Project Opening, Review and Closing Meetings, together with the relevant team members. - Coordinate and participate in timely and effective partner program, finance, and compliance review and reflection (monitoring), and work with the Partnerships Senior Officers, Technical Coordinators, M&E and finance staff to address any project performance issues. - Coordinate narrative reporting processes and liaise with Partnership Finance Manager on finance reporting processes, including review and feedback. - Coordinate with Partnership Finance team to ensure timely transfer of payments to partners. - Maintain complete and organized partnership files for each partner. - Support senior officers and co-lead the review of the performance of the partners, of the IRC (including based on partner feedback), and of the partnership, including successes, challenges and lessons learned, fostering ongoing partnerships beyond the sub-award project cycle.

Strategy and Program Approach

- Lead with the senior officers and partnerships coordinator the stakeholder analysis process, including to identify local actors that offer capacity strengthening services. - Support the partnerships coordinator in finalizing the partnerships’ strategies of all programs with concrete operational plans. - Support the partnerships coordinator in operationalizing the government engagement strategy for each program. - Support the partnerships coordinator in finalizing mapping of local actor for all relevant fields.

Capacity Sharing Activities

- Facilitate the collaborative development and delivery of the partner project support plan, ensuring that it appropriately addresses issues identified in the due diligence process, and coordinate with relevant departments for the timely, quality implementation of the plan. - Ensure IRC understands partner capacity strengthening priorities and identifies opportunities and plans for IRC to support partner capacity strengthening efforts. - Support the resourcing of organizational development support where appropriate for partners with the coordination and support of the Partnerships Coordinator. - Develop materials and processes consistent with best practice to address partner technical and organizational priorities, including designing and facilitating learning events, providing mentoring and coaching, facilitating peer learning, developing e-learning modules and videos, and utilizing other learning methodologies as appropriate. - Identify opportunities for IRC to facilitate and promote learning among and between local actors. - Where appropriate, facilitate an Organizational Development process with partners through a participatory process and in close collaboration with the organization’s leadership (process includes preliminary discussions, participatory self-assessment, action planning, implementation, tracking and documenting progress). - Collaborate with technical coordinators to integrate technical capacity sharing approaches, including how IRC can learn from local partners. - Lead in capacity sharing monitoring, evaluating, learning and periodic reporting, including documenting successful capacity sharing methods that can be scaled. - Identify areas for mutual learning between IRC staff and partners, so that IRC can learn from unique partner practices and innovations.

Key Working Relationships:

- Position Reports to: Partnership Coordinator - Position directly supervises: 2 Senior Partnership Officer - Indirect Reporting: N/A

Other Internal and/or external contacts:

- Internal: IRC Lebanon Finance, HR and Supply chain departments, HQ and Regional grants/compliance teams, Partnerships teams, local and regional, programs, grants, M&E. - External: Partner Organizations

Working Environment:

The working environment is generally favorable. Lighting and temperature are adequate, and there are no hazardous or unpleasant conditions caused by noise, dust, etc. Work is generally performed within an office environment, with standard office equipment available (personal computer, personal desk, printer, etc.).

Qualifications

- Bachelor’s degree in relevant discipline, Master’s degree a plus. - Demonstrated successful experience working with local partners and/or grants management. - Demonstrable understanding of project planning and management cycles, and strong program design skills. - Demonstrated experience in working in capacity building roles. - Highly organized, close attention to detail, and ability to effectively prioritize tasks in a fluid environment. - Professional fluency in spoken and written English; able to communicate concisely and with impact. - Very strong English & Arabic writing and editing skills; strong computer skills.

The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.