Closing date: 03 Oct 2011
Region: Bangladesh and Sri Lanka Location: This position is based in Dhaka Reports To: Both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka Country Directors plus with a dotted line to the Head of Regional Resource Mobilisation.
Closing Date: Monday 3rd October 2011 3 year contract
The salary range for this role will be US$40–50,000 per annum depending on experience. This is an accompanied position and full expat benefits will be available.
To apply, please send your CV and a covering letter detailing your salary requirements and quoting reference AR023 to recadmin@plan-international.org
Working in 50 developing countries across Africa, Asia and the Americas, Plan aims to reach as many children as possible, particularly those who are excluded or marginalised with high quality programs that deliver long lasting benefits by increasing its income, working in partnership with others and operating effectively One of Plan’s global strategic priorities is to grow and diversify its sources of income. In the Asia region Plan believes it can grow its income to USD100 million of grant expenditure pa by 2015 from its current position of approximately USD 60 million. The Grants Specialist is needed to support the achievement of regional targets and learning regarding the funding portfolio, while assisting the Country Offices of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in developing a strong professional image among donors of Plan so that additional grant funding is acquired to grow and support Plan’s programmes in those countries.
This will be achieved through: 1.Actively seeking and maximizing opportunities for additional funding from a variety of sources and 2.Strengthening the capacity of the in-country Grants Teams.
Dimensions of Role: •Bangladesh is currently USD 19.6 million and USD 15 – 20 million for Sri Lanka. •Providing capacity building to the Country Office Grants teams, currently comprising of a Grants Manager and a Grants Specialist in each of the countries. •Covering donor portfolio development in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. •Acts as an interface between the in country Programme and Grants departments •Proactively works with National Organisation ( NO) counterparts to identify and win appropriate grant opportunities •Oversees and coordinates the development, writing and packaging of successful grant proposals from concept through to award.
Typical Responsibilities - Key End Results of Position: 1.Each country has a portfolio of suitably, large long term grants and pipeline of future funding opportunities to maintain agreed future grant expenditure targets; •A Resource Mobilisation Strategy is developed for each country, in line with the Country Strategic Plan (CSP), Regional Resource Mobilisation Strategy (RRMS) and relevant NO business plans. The strategy is reviewed regularly to ensure mapping between program priorities and donor opportunities, ensuring coordination with relevant National Organisation colleagues. •Ensuring that at least 75% of grants proposals that are submitted from the two countries are successful. •Systematic development of excellent working relationship with donor representatives and NO counterparts in each country. 2.Two Country Offices have expanded their capacity so that they are able to further develop strategy and pursue funding opportunities successfully; •Using a SWOT analysis developed with the team, design and deliver capacity development work for individuals and teams. This will include coaching and mentoring to support staff ability in : oResearching where potential opportunities for grants funding can be found; oPackaging grant proposals to suit the requirements of different donors; oBuilding successful, proactive relationships which align donors priorities with programme needs; oEnsuring programs are fully compliant with donor regulations; oEnsuring successful on-going donor relationship management and ‘ownership’ of relations with donor representatives locally; oUnderstanding which sources and types of funding are / are not appropriate to CO needs; oMonitoring of grants from the perspective of donor requirements; oDeveloping strategic partnerships; oUnderstanding how to effectively represent the organisation; oFacilitating more collaborative working between the Grants Team and the Programme Teams. •Using a SWOT analysis, develop and run systems in-house for the process of exploring, analysing and accessing funding opportunities. This might include: oClarifying members of the Grants Team individual roles and responsibilities; oSetting up pipelines for project development; oDeveloping a knowledge bank of donor requirements and systems by donor; oSetting up a roster of suitable resources/consultants for proposal development should that capacity not exist internally oAgreeing a robust, transparent bid/no bid system •Ensuring alignment of CO systems and processes with the Regional Resource Mobilisation strategy and global reporting systems. •Agreeing an internal communications process for the pursuit of additional funds to achieve whole-team buy in to a changed approach. •Developing a process with finance / grants teams to ensure all categories of programme (direct and indirect) costs are taken into account at the conceptualisation and submission stage of grant preparation. •Identifying the systemic and structural issues that may impede grants growth in each Country Office and identifying and implementing mechanisms to overcome them. •Establishing indicators of measurement for improved accountability for grants growth. •Making recommendations to senior management on how to improve overall performance of the Grants Team. •A comprehensive tracking, evaluation, monitoring and reporting framework for external grants is developed.
Dealing with Problems •Engaging with donors and representing the organisation in a professional manner which reflects positively on Plan as an organisation; •Facilitating donor meetings as part of a capacity building exercise. The post holder will have to judge how best to handle the conflicting priorities of maximizing funding opportunities with staff capacity development. Such priorities should be agreed with the Country Directors. •How to advise a team over whom the postholder has no management leverage. The postholder will have to exercise excellent advisory skills in ensuring a positive outcome to his/her observations. •How to match the Country Strategic Plan with donor opportunities. The postholder will need to be creative in seeing opportunities to present to CMT that they could use to ensure implementation of their CSP and in line with the principle of program led growth.
Communications and Working Relationships Internal: •Excellent working relationships will need to be built with the CO Grants Teams, National Organisation counterparts, the respective Country Director and Country Management Teams and with the Regional Resource Mobilisation Manager. The postholder will also be required to work closely with Country Program and Finance teams. •Regularly inform and advise country’s grants and management teams of strategic funding information and trends to ensure Plan has necessary information to secure funding. External: •Bangladesh Current large donors are NORAD, EU, Dutch Government, Irish Government and USAID. Bangladesh intends to increase grant funding from bilateral and multilateral donors. The CO also plans to diversify its funding base to include four additional NOs (Plan Canada, Plan Sweden, Plan Switzerland, and Plan Finland). New potential donors include ADB, AusAID, ADB and World Bank. •Sri Lanka Currently Plan Sri Lanka is working through the GNO, UKNO, CNO, KNO and ANO on grants that are from individual or corporate donors. Focus for the next two years will be initially on the JNO, ANO, UKNO and CNO for developing funding relationships with bi-lateral donors from those countries, as well as individual and corporate donations. After two years, with increased internal capacity of the grants team / Plan Sri Lanka to raise and utilize grant funds, the focus of resource mobilization efforts will be expanded to other NOs, foundations and corporate donors.
In Sri Lanka the expanded list of external contacts for the position will be with the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, the EU and UN organizations. In the course of work it is anticipated that the position will increasingly be exposed to local resource mobilization opportunities; corporate / CSR and international service clubs such as Rotary and Lions Clubs.
Knowledge, Skills, and Behaviours Required to Achieve Role’s Objectives Knowledge •Excellent knowledge of donors in the South Asia region and the range of requirements they might require •Knowledge from experience on the systems needed to ensure donor compliance at proposal and implementation stage •A knowledge of result based management and the development of impact indicators
Skills •Proven skills in the development of successful proposals for large grants across different sectors •Proven track record of skilful management of donor relations •Facilitation skills to take a team through full proposal development life cycle •Proven experience of working effectively in an advisory role •Proven experience of working with local teams to build their capacity •Excellent English drafting skills to tight deadlines •Flexibility to adapt to the needs of two different Country Offices. •Working knowledge of the countries’ local languages is desirable.
Behaviours •Passionate about Plan’s mission and able to sell the specifics of the CSPs to donors convincingly •Humble to hand over learnable skills to others who will take over •Flexible to fit in and around the completing demands on CO teams •Positive about the ability of well-funded projects being able to deliver a difference for children
Physical Environment •Periodic but extensive travel (approximately 40% of time will be spent in Sri Lanka) to the countries of assigned responsibility •Periodic travel to remote areas
Languages •Excellent written and spoken English required
References and background checks will be carried out in conformity with Plan’s Child Protection Policy. Plan operates an equal opportunity policy which recognises the value of a diverse workforce.
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