Partnerships & New Initiatives Manager

Description

About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is powered by the belief that a better world is possible. To do this, we know our teams do their best work when they are diverse and every team member feels that they belong. We welcome diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be stronger and have long term impact.

Mercy Corps in Uganda

Present in Uganda since 2006, Mercy Corps Uganda’s aim is to catalyze change through the Ugandan private sector, civil society, and government to create resilient, economically inclusive, healthy, and secure communities by delivering integrated programming focusing on the three pillars of Mercy Corps’ pathway to possibility strategy: food security, economic opportunities and peace & governance. Climate change, localisation, innovation and evidence-led programming are cross-cutting themes for the mission.

We have 7 programs across Uganda with a total portfolio value of $17 million, including support from USAID, DANIDA, French Development Agency, Conrad Hilton Foundation and other private sector foundations. With a strong presence across the country, we have offices in Kampala, Rhino Camp, Yumbe, Moroto, Kotido and Gulu.

The Position

The position will oversee the Business Development unit, leading the development of concept notes and proposals, and ensuring high quality donor and stakeholder engagement. The Partnerships & New Initiatives Manager works closely with cross-departmental teams to ensure that they provide input into business development and new initiatives and improve funding situation for Mercy Corps Uganda.

Essential Responsibilities

STRATEGY & VISION

• Review donors’ strategic priorities and identify potential donors for Mercy Corps Uganda’s strategic and geographic priorities.
• Advise and coordinate in-country donor engagement.
• Identify innovative program concepts and ideas to translate country strategy into programs and projects in consultation with program staff.
• Lead on strategic and timely positioning of Mercy Corps for various consortiums and partnerships for joint bidding for funding opportunities.
• Undertake desk reviews and lead on potential new funding models, such as innovative investment and private sector partnerships.
• Maintain a database for assessments and reports necessary for business development.

PARTNERSHIPS, INITIATIVES & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

• Act as proposal development lead, writer and/or coordinator, as identified by country programs and the regional team.
• Lead the development of concept notes and proposals, coordinating across departments, with the region and HQ, engaging particularly with the MEL and Program Performance and Quality (PAQ) team, technical advisors, program leads and finance to ensure the production of high-quality proposals that are reflective of Mercy Corps and donor strategic objectives, are operationally viable and accurately reflect the cost of doing business.
• Work closely with country programs to support specific proposal development coordination and tasks, such as developing proposal work plans, writing non-technical sections, consolidating and editing written inputs, developing annexes, writing budget narratives, and other tasks as needed, providing additional bandwidth, or backfilling for country grants staff when needed to support these processes.
• Ensure proposals and concept notes are developed in a timely manner and with realistic deadlines, and that these are communicated and understood by stakeholders both internal to the office as well as the region and HQ.
• Coordinate both internally and externally, to ensure that prior to submission all proposals are reviewed and approved by management and HQ, as appropriate.
• Facilitate design sessions in coordination with country grants teams with key country program, partners, regional and HQ teams, and ensure proposal design is in line with Mercy Corps standards and practices.
• Liaise with HQ Business Development and Regional Program and Award Support Teams to ensure proposals are of high quality, meet internal and donor standards and are submitted on time to the donor.
• Support the country team in the cultivation of donor relationships at the country level and support country offices in the capture and pre-positioning for upcoming Business Development opportunities.
• Support the Director of Programs to track funding opportunities, including calls for funding progress of proposals, submission deadlines, financing available.
• Support the identification and maintain a database of existing and potential implementing partners.

REPRESENTATION & COORDINATION

• Identify, build and manage collaborative partnerships with donors, peer agencies and other stakeholders, working with HQ to ensure consistent communications to donors at all levels.
• As delegated, act as focal point for all queries and information requests from Mercy Corps and donors.
• Represent Mercy Corps to donors, peer agencies and other key stakeholders, as requested.

GRANTS MANAGEMENT

• Ensure accountable reporting to donors through establishing, implementing and monitoring of strong reporting mechanisms, ensuring timely inputs from program, MEL, finance and operations teams, and ensure review and signoff processes are thorough and adhered to.
• Support with the development of strategic information and communication materials including impact reports, program learning briefs, talking points and other relevant pieces that can be shared with internal and external audiences.
• Maintain an up-to-date grant filing system that meets minimum PM@MC and donor standards.
• Develop tools and systems for business analytics, visualizing funding trends (thematic, geographically, donors, etc.) and identifying risks, gaps and challenges, to inform management decision making.
• Update project management tools, including funding trackers, grant trackers and dashboards.

AWARDS MANAGEMENT AND COMPLIANCE

• Work with country teams to develop donor reports and other award deliverables (e.g., workplans, M&E plans) and ensure they are high quality, coherent, accurate and submitted on time in accordance with donor and Mercy Corps internal requirements, providing additional bandwidth, or backfilling for country grants staff when needed to support these processes.
• Manage and/or support agreement and amendment/modification reviews and negotiations, and support award close-out, as needed.
• Provide technical guidance on donor rules and regulations to country team to ensure compliance.
• Proactively raise potential compliance issues to country team and keep senior management and regional team informed of any projected inabilities to meet contractual obligations and of spend rates/significant budget variances.
• Monitor and support the use of award management tools such as monthly financial reports, procurement plans, and activity plans amongst program teams to ensure accurate tracking of implementation and timely alerts to potential challenges/obstacles. Where support is required, act as focal point in facilitating the review of donor deliverables and approvals by technical advisors and other relevant persons at HQ and/or the region.
• Participate in and support the coordination of country program’s project cycle meetings, as well as donor and partner meetings, as required.

CAPACITY BUILDING

• Provide support and training to the field teams to ensure that effectively contribute to Business Development
• Provide support to program teams at key moments including program start-up, kick-off meetings, inception meeting check-ins, quality audits and spot checks, and end of program transition meetings.
• Provide coaching and mentoring to the Team to grow competencies in business development.

Supervisory Responsibility

Grant Management Specialist

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Country Director

Works Directly With: Program Leads, Finance, HR & Operations Teams, as well the Africa Regional Program Team, Regional and Global PaQ and Technical Support Unit (TSU) teams.

Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent. Masters or equivalent in a field related to Humanitarian Assistance, International Development or Social Studies is preferred.
• Minimum of five years of experience providing coordination or management support to program implementation in humanitarian and development contexts, including:

− Preparing writing and analysis on programmatic activities;

− Developing and managing MEL systems

− Managing work plans;

− Representing programs with donors and external stakeholders.

• Extensive experience leading on proposal development for large new initiatives.
• Experience working with key institutional donors (USAID, FCDO, EC, private foundations, etc.) and familiarity with their donor regulations related to reporting and program implementation. Ability and willingness to learn and follow donor reporting and compliance requirements.
• Excellent planning, management and coordination skills, with the ability to organize a workload comprised of varying and changing tasks and responsibilities.
• Proven ability to work cooperatively with internal and external stakeholders, with demonstrated skills in relationship building and coordination.
• Excellent writing and communication skills required.
• Strong organization skills with attention to detail
• Demonstrated flexibility and creativity in planning and problem solving.
• Ability to efficiently deal with competing priorities.
• Willingness and ability to travel frequently to Mercy Corps project sites and field locations, including traveling to insecure environments, is required.
• Experience working in a multi-cultural setting.
• Experience working in Africa region preferred.

Success Factors

The successful candidate will combine exceptional organizational abilities and writing skills with good humor under pressure. S/he has the capacity to spark innovative and entrepreneurial approaches to programming and inspire groups to collaborate closely to design impactful high-quality programs. S/He should be able to facilitate complex team dynamics and achieve aims, have excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, good organizational skills and ability to work independently, with a strong commitment to advancing learning in international development through monitoring and evaluation. It is critical that the Partnerships & New Initiatives Manager is an excellent communicator, who is supportive and solution-focused. S/he needs to be highly motivated, self-driven and able to support complex programs with limited daily support and direction; s/he will be able to work remotely with internal and external stakeholders to achieve common objectives. S/he will be a multi-tasker with the proven ability to organize and prioritize competing priorities. The candidate will be organized and maintain a clear electronic and paper filing system. The successful candidate will ultimately be able to provide constructive input to large programs and therefore, must be willing to learn from others. In particular, best practices in cross cutting issues including accountability, gender and protection. S/he must be focused on capacity building of national staff; have strong program support and information management skills.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

The position is based in Kampala, Uganda and it requires up to 20% travel to support programs, which may include travel to insecure locations where freedom of movement is limited and areas where amenities are limited. Housing for this role is in individual housing and staff will have access to good medical services and the living situation is of a high standard.

Ongoing Learning

In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives.

We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global impact.

We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

Safeguarding & Ethics

Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC and have signed on to the Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct elearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.