Senior Grants and Partnership Coordinator

Location: Bogota, Caracas or Quito.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to the displaced and refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.

The humanitarian crisis in Venezuela continues to intensify. Venezuelans face hyperinflation, which puts them out of reach of basic goods and services, including health care and food. A shortage of medical supplies means that it is difficult to diagnose and treat communicable diseases and sexual and reproductive health needs, among other services. The lack of food has resulted in hunger and malnutrition. From 2015-2018, over three million Venezuelans left to seek goods and services in primarily neighboring countries.

The IRC has responded to the crisis by supporting Venezuelans who cross the arc of the migration pattern, including Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador. In Venezuela, the IRC has been developing programs since 2018 through the support of local partners, having a presence in Caracas, Zulia, Barquisimeto and Valencia. The IRC works to strengthen the capacity of local partners to provide access to quality sexual and reproductive health services, nutrition, and Child Protection. In Colombia, the IRC works in the areas of health, protection, education, and multipurpose cash assistance in Cucuta, Medellin, Cundinamarca, and Norte de Santander, with funding through various donor, including OFDA/USAID, ECHO, SIDA, GFFO, among others. Ecuador is IRC’s most recent program intervention which will be done through local partners in the areas of sexual and reproductive health and protection for women and children.

JOB OVERVIEW:

The Senior Grants and Partnership Coordinator (SGPC) provides strategic guidance and support to the Response to the Venezuelan Crisis (in Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador) on issues of program development, grants/sub-grants management and compliance, and donor relations. S/he facilitates proposal development processes and supports a variety of aspects of project cycle management, including reporting, grant and sub-grant monitoring and modifications, and grant closing. The SGPC will ensures an effective coordination with all key staff members including those based in HQ and Region is ensured.

Responsibilities:

Business Development (60%):

• Lead and manage IRC Colombia / Venezuela Business Development strategy, support CD, DDPs and Technical Coordinators in proactive engagement with potential and existing donors for fundraising to implement its Strategic Action Plan (SAP) and maintaining good relationship.
• Lead the proposal writing and coordinate with all relevant staff to gather their inputs in a timely fashion with support from the Grants Coordinator and Grants Managers and coordinate efforts with Regional and HQ-based (NYC, London, Germany) colleagues.
• Support the Grants and Partnership team members and other relevant colleagues in coordinating and maintaining an efficient system for proposal/concept note development and revisions as relevant. Maintain clear responsibilities outlined for management, programs, finance, and operations departments - that yields timely, high quality submissions.
• Ensure proposals are timely tracked with standard IRC tracking tools (e.g. FM01, OTIS).
• Be the primary interlocutor for the HQ-based (NYC, London, Germany) Colombia / Venezuela focal points with regards to Business Development initiatives and coordinate with all relevant technical and implementation colleagues and devise the timelines with clear responsibilities for the proposal development and submission.
• Analyze all funding opportunities in collaboration with the technical units’ in-country, Region and HQ levels for further actions.
• Ensure that all current major projects/and those to be developed are aligned with respective Theory of Change with strong Measurement Frameworks.
• Contribute to the identification of potential donors, maintenance of donor relations and mobilization of resources to support planned work as per the SAP, ensuring the Value for Money
• Promote the involvement of stakeholder groups, including implementing partners and beneficiaries (where possible), in designing new projects/ programs.
• Strengthen the capacity of the Grant’s team members on donor policies, regulations and procedures and train other country team members in these areas

Grants Management (25%):

• Collaborate with Finance, Compliance, Operations, Grants and Program team in reviewing donor contracts and outline major concerns to relevant country and HQ based colleagues.
• Support the Grants team and other relevant colleagues in organizing Grant Opening; Regular/Monthly review and Closure Meetings in timely and effective manner
• Accountable for the finalization of timely donor reports ensuring consistency between narrative and financial reports and that they meet quality standards.
• Ensure the compliance to donor’s policy and procedures at the time of financial and progress reporting.
• Ensure preparation of high quality, comprehensive donor reports, combining information from all the areas, including Finance, Operations, and Programs.
• Undertake proactive assessment of potential risks in managing donor contracts throughout the project cycle management, anticipate risks, inform, and support all concerned including SMT to take timely risk mitigation measures
• Maintain an effective coordination with Award Management Unit in IRC HQs and Region for any day-to-day requirements including periodical realignments of the budgets, managing cost/no-cost extensions etc.

Partnerships (15%):

• In collaboration with the CD and DDPs, advance the partnership agenda, in line with IRC’s global and Response to the Venezuelan Crisis strategy.
• Oversee, facilitate, and coordinate all aspects of partnership life cycle management, from stakeholder analysis, partner identification, due diligence, project development, agreement, start-up, implementation, monitoring through to close-out, coordinating effectively with all program, operations, and finance components
• Oversee the management, coordination, and key risk control elements of IRC Colombia / Venezuela’s partnership portfolio to ensure a high level of risk management and compliance in strong, high quality partnerships that deliver timely and effective assistance in line with IRC’s partnership management system (PEERS).
• Champion robust partner relationship management characterized by the core partnership principles of responsibility, results-oriented approach, equality, transparency, and complementarity.
• Identify, maintain and engage with key potential partner organizations across the country
• Ensure a high-level of efficiency in seeking approvals from HQ and region to sign the partnership agreement by being proactive and preemptive through consistent learning from past and improving to increase the efficiency of the process.
• Ensure a strong coordination with all key in-country, in the region and HQ to ensure that no unreasonable delays come across in finalizing partnerships.

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to:

• Deputy Director Programs – Colombia
• Deputy Director Programs – Venezuela & Ecuador

Position directly supervises: Grants Manager (x2) and Partnership Manager

Works closely with CD for portfolio management and advancing partnerships.

Major Challenges/ Difficulties of This Role

• Work under tight deadlines while dealing with competing priorities
• Coordinate and gather the necessary inputs from other functions/roles while meeting the necessary quality within tight deadlines;
• Work with diverse country, region and headquarter based teams and ensure adherence to organizational and donor compliance requirements while ensure quality and meeting deadlines
• Inadequate capacity of local partner NGOs who may need significant hand holding support and monitoring