Business Development Advisor at Action Africa Help

Salary Scale: AH3
Reports to: Programme Director
Responsible for: Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist; Partnerships & Business Development Officer, Communications Officer
Liaises with: AAH-I Directorate, Country Directors, Development Partners

Job Summary:

• Provides strategic direction and oversight to Business Development; Fundraising to ensure that AAH-I positions itself to increase its relevance and viability as a business and that it has the financial resources it needs to deliver its Vision and Mission.

Business Development Job General Responsibilities

• Strategy / Business Development and Partnerships
• Leads on corporate business development strategy, planning and implementation in liaison with the Directors
• Advises Country Directors regarding business/funding strategy and works closely with them to ensure country resource mobilisation strategies are in place
• Ensures coordinated business development system and guidelines are in place
• Manages the department budget as appropriate.
• Build cross functional team support to COs for proposals development, including
• Provide technical support to COs during prepositioning meetings with bilateral, multilaterals, foundations, Public Private Partners, etc.
• Monitor the donor competitive landscape, and circulate funding forecasts to COs to enable them to organize prepositioning meetings with donors.
• Provide support and guidance to COs in development of capacity statements to be utilized during prepositioning meetings with donors.
• Circulate funding forecasts to COs and support them to identify and capture new grant funded opportunities.
• 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.
• Advises Directorate and Country Directors on strategic, planned approach to Business Development
• Pre-positioning: Create mechanisms and tools to identify funding opportunities matched against Headquarters and Country Office strategies to effectively pre-position donors
• Build close cooperation with other Country Offices and key stakeholders within and external to AAH-I to work together to develop and implement Business development strategy. Share learning, innovations and better practices across the region.
• Supports Business Development Officer to develop strategy and partnerships related to private sector/business partner
• Provide strategic direction for COs to pursue non-traditional funding sources, identifying emerging or untapped high potential donors
• Lead the development of key grants database for performance monitoring portfolio management in the region
• Ensure existence of a System/Database for past performance (All grants, US, EU, DFID, UNHCR, Bread for the world etc.

Capacity Building

• Oversees the development and implementation of Country BD capacity building plan
• Oversees development and management of the BD tools, guidelines and procedures
• Supports the Communications Team to ensure that the website and social media communicate effectively for key BD partners.
• Liaises with the M&E Manager and Communications Manager to support effective knowledge management designed to identify, capture, document and communicate results and learning.
• Leads on production of larger proposals and submissions
• Oversee production of concept notes, proposals and equivalent.

Monitoring and Evaluation

• Working with the M&E Specialist, ensure that the MIS is fully rolled out in all countries and that program teams are using the same to produce high quality reports.
• Timely review and submit high quality donor and institutional program reports.
• Timely M&E and donor reports with corrective measures taken where necessary;

Communications

• Oversee communications to ensure execution of AAH-I’s Communications Strategy
• Work in close liaison with others to identify, develop and communicate the impact of AAH-I’s work and aggressively market the organisation to potential funders and partners.
• Ensures and maintains the quality of Communications programmes and activities delivered.

Expected Results

• Corporate BD targets delivered.
• Progress in implementation of the corporate BD strategy and sustainability strategy (and therefore contribution to the corporate strategic plan).
• Annual and quarterly operational plans for BD developed, updated and followed.
• Any other relevant duties that may be assigned by the Programme Director.

Qualifications for Business Development Job

• A Master’s degree or equivalent in a relevant subject (International Development Project Management etc.)
• Proven track record of leadership, with at least 10 years’ progressive senior management experience including managing cross-cultural teams across countries.
• Experience in developing new areas or programmes desirable.
• Proven track record in resource mobilisation, in particular of large projects and grants, including production of proposals and tenders (technical and commercial)
• Proven track record of management of winning bids in the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors
• Proven track record of successfully identifying, developing and managing strategic partnerships
• Understanding of the global development architecture and key players (donors, INGOs, consulting companies and investment funds)
• Commitment to promote AAH-I’s Vision, Mission and its strategic goals
• Excellent interpersonal skills with demonstrated ability to manage proposal processes and team relationships to ensure effective collaboration by various contributors to the process
• Entrepreneurial orientation, self-starter able to work independently and cope with demanding work situations in complex setting.

Skills and Competence:

• Strong management and supervisory skills and experience.
• Demonstrated leadership ability in strategising and coalition building.
• Demonstrated effectiveness and lead experience in Country and fund development.
• Strong analytical (both political and organisational) skills with good attention to detail.
• Ability to provide coaching, mentoring and leadership to team members.
• Commitment to and understanding of AAH-I’s values.