Regional Business Development Coordinator

Are you ready to pursue an exciting opportunity with a progressive humanitarian organisation in a senior management role? Would you thrive working in one of the world’s most challenging humanitarian regions, the Middle East?

Who are we?

The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) is a humanitarian, non-governmental and nonprofit organization, founded in 1956, that works in more than 40 countries around the world. DRC promotes and supports durable solutions to the problems faced by refugees and internally displaced people all over the world. DRC provides assistance and protection to conflict-affected with the vision that no displaced person must be in want of help to find protection and durable solutions. In the Middle East, DRC operates across Iraq, Jordan, the occupied Palestinian territory, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey and Yemen.

Under the overall supervision of the Executive Director for the Middle East region, the Regional Business Development Coordinator will be responsible for leading/supporting/coordinating business development for DRC in the region, including strengthening existing partnerships, supporting engagement with new donors, identifying new opportunities, and coordinating the development of concept notes and proposals at the regional and country level. The position will also provide grant management support for regionally managed projects.

Duties and Responsibilities

Responsibilities:

A. Partnership Engagement

• Contextualize global fundraising and engagement strategies for the region and develop regional donor engagement plans to reflect country and regional priorities with a view to fostering and maintaining constructive long-term relationships with strategic regional donors and partners.
• Lead the finalization of periodic updates to regional donor mapping and engagement plans (including institutional, private sector, foundations and non-traditional donors)
• Support donor and partner engagement efforts of country operations and the Regional Senior Management Team.
• Identify and develop new donor and partner contacts relevant to achieve DRC ambitions in the region
• Maintain a comprehensive regional donor database to track donor engagement and coordinate donor outreach and communications with country counterparts in the region.
• Develop appeals, cases for support, concept notes and communication material highlighting DRC’s offering in close coordination with country programmes, regional management and HQ colleagues.
• Proactively monitor donor portals and track donor engagement to identify and disseminate new funding opportunities throughout the region
• Advise country programmes on engagement and fundraising strategies and support in the development of donor engagement strategies, donor mapping exercises and the identification of funding opportunities
• Liaise between relevant HQ teams and country/regional operations on matters pertinent to business development and fundraising
• Support the delivery of trainings on specific donors as well as best practice BD approaches and processes
• Act as a source of knowledge, information on internal BD processes, and donor intelligence, requirements, and compliance considerations

B. Strategic Programmatic Development

• In coordination with the Regional Head of Programme, lead the development of new, strategic concept notes and proposals at the regional level, including supporting external communication with donors, other partners, internal coordination and managing all related process with relevant internal and external stakeholders
• Carry out periodic analysis of funding trends and donor priorities across the region
• Carry out and periodically share analysis of success rates, reasons, learning etc. for submissions made by DRC
• Collaborate with regional programme and support teams to align and adapt strategic programmatic priorities and regional capacity with regional donor strategies and funding opportunities
• Inform the definition of programme priorities and the design of programme models by contributing donors’ perspectives (strategies, thematic priorities, anticipated funding opportunities, funding constraints and compliance, etc.)
• Strengthen country and regional capability on long-term capture planning for upcoming funding opportunities and support the development of donor-specific communications/products.
• Upon request and in coordination with the Regional Head of Programme, provide proposal development support to country programmes including substitution support, expert advice, and quality assurance around concept notes, programme design and narrative proposal development

C. Grant Management and Quality Assurance

• Maintain an overview of regionally hosted grants in relation to donor requirements, rules and regulations, internal and external reporting deadlines, proposal and budget revisions, no cost extensions and partnerships
• Update the DRC Grants Management System on Dynamics for regional grants
• Coordinate the submission of high-quality donor reports – narrative and financial, on a timely basis according to DRC and donor regulations for regional and multi-country grants in the region

D. Donor Representation

• Support SMT to prepare for donor meetings in the region
• Represent DRC at donor meetings in the region, HQ or other locations as necessary

Experience and technical competencies:

• Minimum 5 years of experience in programme development and/or business development in international humanitarian context
• Direct working experience in ensuring donors’ regulations through training and monitoring
• Familiarity and prior experience of working with major institutional humanitarian and development donors in the Middle East region
• Willingness to travel on a frequent basis to countries in the Middle East region
• Strong capacity to analyse and synthetise humanitarian contexts and programme response concepts
• Ability to design, develop and implement processes
• Ability to organise and run proposal design workshops, and to mentor and support country office colleagues
• Strong interpersonal skills and demonstrated ability to coordinate inputs from various departments
• Excellent organizational skills and strategic thinking
• Proven interpersonal and problem-solving skills, creativity and flexibility
• Ability to lead by influencing
• Comfortable in a multi-cultural environment, flexible and able to handle pressure well.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with fluency in written and spoken English

Preferred experience:

• Previous experience in engaging new donors with NGOs, in particular private foundations and Gulf-based donors
• Previous field experience in the Middle East region will be an asset

Education: (include certificates, licenses etc.)

Advanced university degree or equivalent in Communication, International Relations, humanitarian/ development

Languages:

• English - fluent
• Arabic fluency would be an asset

In this position, you are expected to demonstrate DRC’s five core competencies: 

Striving for excellence: You focus on reaching results while ensuring an efficient process. 

Collaborating: You involve relevant parties and encourage feedback. 

Taking the lead: You take ownership and initiative while aiming for innovation. 

Communicating: You listen and speak effectively and honestly. 

Demonstrating integrity: Upholding and promoting the highest standards of ethical and professional conduct in relation to DRC’s values and Code of Conduct, including safeguarding against sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment.

We offer

Contract length: (12) Months Contract - (with a possibility for extension based on performance and funding)

Start date: January 1st, 2025

Duty station: Amman, Jordan (un-accompanied)

Salary and conditions will be in accordance with Danish Refugee Council’s Terms of Employment for Nationals/International. This position will be placed at F band non-management.

Application process

All applicants must upload a cover letter and an updated CV (no longer than four pages) in English. Applications sent by email will not be considered.

Closing date for applications: November 30th, 2024

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. DRC reserves the right of conducting tests and interviews before the closing date, and can close the advertisement earlier in case of finding a suitable candidate.

For further information about the Danish Refugee Council, please consult our website drc.ngo.