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Innovative Finance Project and Communications Officer
Job Description
The IRC’s Airbel Impact Lab designs, tests, and scales life-changing, cost-effective solutions for people affected by conflict and disaster. By applying deep technical expertise and field experience with a range of skills from the behavioral sciences, human-centered design, research, and multi-disciplinary problem-solving in humanitarian contexts, we work to develop breakthrough solutions that combine creativity and precision, flexibility and expertise, and a desire to think afresh with the experience and reputation of a large-scale implementing organization.
The innovative finance practice is designing and piloting new ways of working between humanitarians and the development and private sectors. The work of the practice is centered on building out pipeline projects of the ‘advisory model,’ an innovative approach to impact investing that brings together investors from the development and private sector, with experts from the humanitarian sector at the investment transaction level. This is a cutting-edge approach to blended finance, with the goal outcome of driving more investment and funding to the communities on the frontline of conflict and climate change. This role will be integral to the practice’s success.
Key Responsibilities
- The Innovative Finance Project and Communications Officer supports overall grants management, business development, and development of internal and external materials. The role involves working closely with the innovative finance team, as well as experts in humanitarian systems change, senior leadership, and external and investment partners. This role will collect project learnings and deliver high-quality reporting to communicate key data from investment pilots with partners, and enable the replication and scaling of successful humanitarian-investor partnerships.
Support to Innovative Finance Lead
- Draft business development materials and liaise with IRC business development colleagues to raise necessary grant funding for blended finance transactions.
- Support with organizing internal and external meetings and events; maintain robust notetaking and database of conversations.
- Identify action items from meetings for follow-up and track progress and completion.
Project and Knowledge Management, Internal Communications
- Build systems to collect information and track deliverables across donor-related projects.
- Manage and update donor-specific workplans; meet regularly with internal/external project stakeholders from IRC to collect data on lessons learned and develop analyses for donor reporting and pipeline development.
- Create decks, briefs, and other materials to ensure internal and external partners are regularly briefed on progress, strengthen buy-in and accountability, and to support external engagement.
- Work closely with IRC business development teams to socialize achievements of innovative finance and solicit new donor and philanthropist support for the practice.
Donor partner subcontract management, coordination, and compliance
- Develop workplans and monitoring plans for all donor-related investment pilots.
- Lead communication with investor partners to ensure deliverable implementation against workplans, subcontracts, reporting, and regular meetings.
- Support with due diligence, compliance checks, subcontract amendments, and other subcontract management processes according to guidance from IRC’s Awards Management Unit.
Reporting
- Lead coordination for drafting final reports, including but not limited to drafting all report inputs, communicating deadlines, and providing timely feedback for IRC and partner teams.
- Prepare annual reports and documents according to contract requirements for government donors; coordinate response to other donor and private philanthropist inquiries.
Job Requirements
Education and Work Experience
- Bachelor’s degree in a related field or equivalent professional experience.
- 3-5 years of professional experience with demonstrated project management skills, including developing project management documents and tools such as workplans.
Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:
- Demonstrated experience in partner and stakeholder management.
- Work experience in, and ability to write clearly about, financial concepts.
- Excellent critical thinking skills to problem-solve independently.
- Excellent organizational skills: the ability to multi-task, learn quickly, and work independently and productively in a fast-paced environment.
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills: the ability to effectively collaborate with and motivate a variety of people in a multi-cultural environment.
- Dedication to diversity, equity and inclusion and a passion for IRC’s mission.
- Excellent written English, including the ability to synthesize information and draft high-quality reports. The ability to translate financial concepts into crisp, clear prose will be crucial to all work.
Grants and Partnerships Manager: Re:Build
Position summary
The Grants and Partnerships Manager is a member of the regional Re:BUiLD Project Management Team that supports the implementation of the program across Kenya and Uganda. This position reports to the Re:BUiLD Program Director with technical support from the IRC Regional Grants Director.
The Grants and Partnerships Manager will be responsible for grant management, including ensuring compliance, and will act as the focal point for relationship management with Re:BUiLD partners based in Nairobi, Kampala and internationally. This position will work closely with the IRC HQ partnership team to ensure adherence to the grant agreement, policies and procedures. The Grants and Partnerships Manager leads all donor reporting, fundraising, information and grants management for the Re:BUiLD program. Facilitates/oversees partnership arrangements and agreements with city governments, technical, private, and CBO/RLO organizations. The Grants and Partnerships Manager provides program and operations teams with advice on compliance with donor and IRC regulations and undertakes programmatic and budgetary monitoring for compliance with donor and internal policies and procedures.
Responsibilities:
Grants Management and Compliance
- Maintain a deep understanding of donor policies, regulations, and procedures. Liaise with IRC HQ and the IKEA Foundation to ensure grant compliance requirements are clearly understood, documented and communicated to relevant colleagues in the Re:BUiLD Program Management Team and country teams
- Advise Re:BUiLD program technical leads and operations staff on reporting and compliance requirements and ensure inputs are received in a timely manner
- Establish and maintain systems to proactively identify and track grant compliance risks and compliance with internal IRC policies and procedures. Raise issues to the Re:BUiLD Program Director in a timely manner and advise on necessary actions.
- Lead grant opening meetings, quarterly grant review meetings, and grant close out meetings in collaboration with the Re:BUiLD Program Director. Monitor post-meeting implementation of action points.
- Lead grant management meetings, including monthly Grant Review Meetings and Budget vs Actual (BVA) to monitor spending, and manage opportunity tracking.
- Support annual revisions to the Re:BUiLD Program Strategy and realignment of the program budget for approval of the donor
Donor Communication and Reporting
- Coordinate all donor reporting, ensuring that reports are timely, accurate and responsive to donor needs.
- Upon delegation, provide liaison or representation to donors when need arises
- Ensure that effective channels of internal and external communications relating to grants are established and respected.
- Ensure that senior management and technical leads understand donor communication protocols and provide copies of correspondence for files.
- Ensure project activity progress and indicator tracking, and top-line expenditure forecasting and tracking (including supporting teams to develop spending plans).
Information Management
- Ensure quality information management through regular maintenance of grant and partner files, developing compliance sheets, updating of internal IRC documentation and other Grant Unit tools, including coordination and preparation of documents and files for internal and external audits.
- Track and maintain the partnership tracker and compliance issues
- Track donor correspondence.
- Track the submission of iteration of proposal and maintain file copies.
- Track the submission of reports and maintain file copies.
- Keep a database of key donor contacts.
- Maintain a comprehensive information management and filing system that ensures all donor and partner contractual documents, reports, key correspondences, etc. are appropriately filed in up-to-date and consistent soft and hard copies are available as needed.
Partnerships Management
- Develop understanding of and ensure compliance with the IRC’s PEER System (Partnership Excellence for Equality and Results System)
- Coordinate pre-award due diligence assessment of potential partners by finance, program, operations, Awards Management Unit, and East Africa Region
- Review the capacity building/development plans for the partners based on the pre-award assessment result, ensure capacity building/development plan is tailored, targeted and responsive to their organizational needs and priorities.
- Design tools and create systems to effectively monitor progress made against partner capacity building plans and to partners in their organizational development, particularly around safeguarding.
- Lead in drafting partnership/sub-grant agreements and modifications, act as focal point with HQ for review and approval and facilitate signature by IRC and partners.
- Support program and operations staff in regard to sub-contract and sub-grant management (compliance), including tracking of partner deliverables.
- Advise and guide Re:BUiLD staff on procurement planning and transactions for sub-contract and sub-grants, in keeping with donor requirements and IRC policies, procedures, and standard practices.
Business development/Fundraising
- Support the Re:BUiLD Program Director in the development and implementation of a Co-Funding strategy for the Re:BUiLD program.
- Develop donor mapping tools to support identification of opportunities that are aligned with the Co-Funding Strategy, in partnership with HQ business development teams
- Identify key proposal and donor-related information linked to new funding opportunities to support the Project Director in organizing and leading program design for new business development opportunities.
- Coordinate development of high-quality proposals/concepts, including compilation/editing of the technical narrative and working closely with the Re:BUiLD Finance Manager to develop budgets/budget narratives
- Ensure that proposals are tracked with standard IRC tracking tools and receive all needed reviews and approvals
Requirements:
- Degree in Finance, Business Administration, Social Sciences, International Development or any related field.
- At least 3 years prior experience in an NGO in a similar position; demonstrated involvement and success in the key areas of this JD will be critical.
- Lived/experience working with refugees in the urban setting.
- Good communicator, with excellent proposal and report writing and editing skills and close attention to detail
- Strong organizational and time management skills
- Experience working with sub-grantees and/or local partner organizations and demonstrated ability to form effective and productive relationships with stakeholder counterparts.
- Proven prior experience with donor compliance. Knowledge of European (DFID, EU, SIDA, etc) and private foundation donor requirements and procedures is an advantage.
- Ability to develop, manage, and analyze budgets with a high degree of accuracy
- Willingness to travel to the field in Kenya and Uganda.
- IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.
Method of Application
Use the link(s) below to apply on company website.