Senior Grants Officer - Palestine

Description

1/Description of the mission/projects

- The Palestine mission is part of the Mashriq regional programme, which covers Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine.

- HI in 2023 has been implementing a mix of humanitarian and development projects in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

- Funding levels have been rising gradually since early 2023 and several key grants are already secured for 2024 and 2025.

- The new conflict between Hamas and Israel in October 2023 has created a major humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip and growing needs and access constraints in the West Bank Some activities of the regular projects have been temporarily suspended and other activities are continuing in adapted modalities. HI has launched some emergency activities in both areas and is planning to scale up further its response in the coming months, both for the emergency phase during the conflict and for the recovery phase after a ceasefire.

- The total budget for 2024 is expected to exceed 5M-7M EUR and might increase. The total number of staff is currently 68 and the mission is under expansion.

- Sectors of activity: inclusive education, physical rehabilitation, MHPSS, risk education, early childhood development, emergency preparedness, economic recovery, disability mainstreaming/inclusion in humanitarian action, advocacy.

- Main challenges: total lack of security and humanitarian access in Gaza; security risks, access constraints, and potential further escalation in West Bank and East Jerusalem.

2/Details relating to security risks, isolation, travel and living conditions (maximum 5 lines)

- Jerusalem: In normal times, the security is relatively stable most of the year, with some days of mass demonstrations and isolated acts of violence, in particular during key religious holidays and anniversaries of important historical events. There are several opportunities for social and cultural life. In the current crisis, there is a heightened risk of violence and an increasing number of Israeli checkpoints. Movements are partially restricted, with some opportunities for social life and physical exercise.

- West Bank: In normal times, the security is relatively stable in Ramallah and Bethlehem, but overall unstable in Hebron and the Northern West Bank, with regular episodes of Israeli armed incursions, settler violence, and Palestinian attacks. In the current crisis, the number of incursions and violent incidents has increased considerably and most towns and villages are isolated from each other due to the closure of all Israeli checkpoints for Palestinians.

- Gaza Strip: In normal times, the security is unpredictable, with long calm periods followed by short bouts of armed confrontation. Security rules are tight with controlled movement. Systems for hibernation and evacuation are in place. In the current crisis the whole population is at constant risk due to frequent airstrikes.

- In normal times, touristic and cultural trips are possible across all Israel, in Jerusalem, and some pre-authorised sites of the West Bank.

- In normal times, living conditions in Jerusalem are excellent, with all modern comforts and a quality of services similar to European countries.

Mission:

Under the line management of the Regional Program Development Manager (RPDM), the Senior Grants Officer will be responsible for:

• Ensuring the high quality and time-effective development of project proposals - of the funding opportunities identified in collaboration with key in-country and regional contributors;

• Supporting the mission in implementing its fundraising strategy;

• Ensuring timely and high quality and time-effective reporting to donors in collaboration with responsible of drafting the report;

• Ensuring and monitoring compliance and adherence to contractual obligations with donors

• Internally: Area Managers, Project Managers, Technical officers, Regional Technical Unit, MEAL department, RPDM and Regional managers
• Externally: Donors, local and international actors

Responsibility 1: Ensure high quality and time-effective proposals development

• Coordinate with the RPDM and HQ for NOFO guidance and donor pre-requisites;
• Plan and coordinate the proposal development process: manage the retro-planning for submission including ARCI and coordination with external stakeholders (HQ and National Associations - NAs), clarify and support compliance to donors’ requirements, facilitate kick-off meetings, ensure time-effectiveness and respect of submission deadline;
• Ensure coherence between operational aspects, MEAL, technical approaches, and budgeting;
• Provide guidance/support to the writing of projects’ proposal narratives, ensuring compliance to donors’ instructions, priorities, and specificities;
• Guarantee the final quality of the projects’ proposal narratives, both in terms of content and formalization;
• Guarantee the completeness and final compliance of the proposal package submissions to the call for proposals’ guidelines and donors’ requirements;
• Coordinate and submit requests for projects’ amendments or modifications when required
• Support the Country Manager in identifying appropriate/competitive teaming arrangements (consortiums, multi-country projects) and conducting/undertaking due diligence processes;
• For consortiums, support the Country Manager in managing coordination, communication, and inputs from subs during project development;
• Update the funding, proposals and opportunities tracking database
• Ensure systematic, timely and effective archiving of the proposals

Responsibility 2: Support the mission’s fundraising strategy and activities

• Support the Country Manager in the plan and meetings for fundraising;
• Participate in the Operational Monthly Follow-up meetings and provide updates on grants, proposals and fundraising
• Maintain HI’ accounts on institutional portals (HRP, OCHA, UNICEF, etc) up to date;
• Produce external material (factsheets, leaflet, capacity statement, etc).

Responsibility 3: Ensure timely, high quality reporting to donors in collaboration with responsible of drafting the report

• Prepare and update in due time an internal reporting retro –planning for the reporting deadlines and follow up with project teams.
• Verify donor templates and requirements and share them with the team members in charge of writing the reports
• Liaise with country missions HI head office and national associations for any inquiries related to donor reports (templates, requirements…)
• Review narrative donor reports and annexes (comparison with proposal and past reports and matching with the financial report), prior to submission. Mobilize internal resources, such as technical specialists, for the review of the reports when required
• Ensure reports are submitted in due time and via the designated modality (including submitting online when required).
• Design and conduct training sessions on reporting and compliance, to the relevant team members (project managers, area managers...)
• Ensure systematic, timely and effective archiving of the reports

Responsibility 4: Ensure and monitor compliance and adherence to contractual obligations with donors

• Liaise with relevant resources at the regional office for the review of grants agreements, mobilize internal resources for the review/check and prepare the ‘’good to sign’’ documents
• Liaise with relevant resources at the regional office for the review of partnership agreements and prepare the ‘’good to sign’’ documents
• Prepare contract summary sheets for new grants and monitor the respect of donor regulations and requirements
• Attend new projects’ kick-off meeting and present donor compliance requirements and regulations
• Actively participate in Project Quarterly Review meetings (PQRs) to remain updated about the progress with the implementation of compliance requirements

Responsibility 5: Provide support to the Regional Development Department as required according to specific needs, such as but not limited to:

• Proposal writing and grant’s management
• Capacity building

Benefits

Amount of Per Diem (in euro):

775.24 EUR

Amount of hardship (in euro):

250 Euros

R & R status:

5 days every 8 weeks.

Requirements

Qualifications:

Bachelor’s degree in Social Studies or humanitarian studies or development or related domain

Experience:

• Minimum 5 years’ experience in international development and/or emergency and post-crisis environments.

• Minimum 3 years’ experience in grants development (compulsory to have solid past experience in developing project proposals and not managing grants).

• Experience with HI and knowledge of its fields of action, mandate, strategy and approaches is considered an asset
• Experience in the Middle-East

Competencies:

• Advanced writing capacities in English.

• Advanced proposal writing skills in English.

• Very good reporting skills

• Diploma in Project Cycle Management

Personal qualities:

• Excellent organizational and time management skills.

• Proactive, shows initiative/entrepreneurial.

• Working as part of a team/network, cooperating.

• Respect for the opinion and enhancement of the skills of others with a view to shared action.

• Ability to give and receive constructive feedback; discussing with multi-disciplinary teams, working as part of a network and collaborating.

• Empathy.

• Autonomy in work