Partnership & Business Development Specialist at Action Africa Help

Salary Scale: AH 5
Reports to: Partnership and Business Development Adviser
Liaises with: Partnership and Business Development team; Country offices; Finance and Grants Manager; Monitoring & Evaluation

Job Summary:

• The Partnerships Specialist will play a key role in securing the resources AAH-I needs to deliver its vision, mission and Strategic Plan and will have a particular focus on strengthening the financial aspects of grant and tender applications. S/he will support the development of key partnerships and exploration into innovative forms of raising unrestricted funds.
• The Partnership and Business development Specialist will support Country Offices in developing proposals and other program designs for a variety of donors to address development and emergency proposals which meet local community needs that are aligned to AAH-I’s strategies.
• The position will also establish good relationships with donors and actively seek out strategic alliances with donors, INGOs, LNGOs, UN, Governments, bilateral and multilateral agencies.

Partnership & Business Development Job Duties & Responsibilities

• Provide support to Country Offices (CO) in proposal development and build cross functional team support to COs for proposals development.
• Identify capacity gaps at COs in grants acquisition and management and other factors leading to poor proposal designs, poor win rates and grants implementation and work with CO, and Partnership and Business Development Advisor to address them.
• Circulate funding forecasts to and support them to identify and capture new grant funded opportunities and maintain an up-to-date record of the requirements of current potential regional donors and be proactive in the lookout for opportunities for regional donors etc.
• Research, analyze, develop, and track relationships with new and current donors at regional level and share information with COs.
• Represent the organisation in various donor and coordination forums at regional and national level and by providing programmatic information as required.
• Will support resource development based assessments, and draft documents which aim to inform internal and external stakeholders concerning CO on-going and future programming.
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge and awareness of regional evidence-based funding approaches for development and humanitarian contexts and ensure these models are embedded in proposals and program designs.
• Ensures such existing and emerging funding approaches and models are incorporated into proposals and program designs through appropriate pilots and roll-out strategies.
• Develop well organized digital database of secured projects funding for the region that can be easily extracted whenever required.
• Maintain a catalogue of grants concept notes and proposals that can be presented to potential donors at short notice.
• Support management of key organisational partnerships.

Professional Qualifications for Partnership & Business Development Job

• First degree in Development studies or related field with experience in resource mobilization.
• Technical Training qualifications desired: Professional technical skills desired: Humanitarian standards (SPHERE, HAP), specific trainings on donor requirements e.g. UN, USAID, DFID, Europe Aid.

Skills and Experience

• At least 5 years’ experience in the development field working in development and humanitarian emergency interventions, preferably with experience in developing countries.
• Demonstrated writing skills: the ability to develop quality concept notes, proposals, logical frameworks and reports under tight deadlines.
• Experience working with both bilateral and multilateral donors.
• Networking/external engagement skills: proven experience in networking with donors and partners to bring about funding opportunities.
• A strategic thinker; the ability to develop proposals which meet strategic objectives of donors, the organization, and government.
• Ability to manage donor expectations.
• Strong budgetary and financial management skills.
• Proven ability to manage competing priorities.
• Team player; the ability to work as part of a diverse team to achieve the overall goal.