ASCEND will deliver a range of key interventions for the control and elimination of NTDs in line with national strategies, while ensuring a strong health systems approach is applied. ASCEND will also work to strengthen relevant building blocks of national health systems, supporting countries to provide the prevention, detection, treatment and surveillance activities necessary to maintain the reduced disease burden in the longer term, and to prevent disease resurgence.
Crown Agents Limited has been appointed as the lead contractor for implementation of Lot 1 of ASCEND which focuses on 12 countries in Southern and East Africa and South Asia. These are Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Sudan, South Sudan, Malawi, Ethiopia, Uganda, Zambia, Bangladesh, Nepal and India.
Responsibilities:
IP procurement and Grants set up
- Support potential grant applicants in applying to ASCEND
- Support the evaluation team during the RFP evaluation process and provide compliance oversight during RFP evaluation process.
- Ensure ASCEND implementing partners and service providers undergo Crown Agents Ethical Due diligence process.
- Assess grants application budget to ensure that the estimated costs relate directly to the project and demonstrate value for money
- Clarify budget and project approach with grants applicant to ensure that they comply with ASCEND rules and procedures
- Clarify issues raised by the due diligence process on the grants applicant
- Issue grants agreements
- Set up all new grants into the ASCEND grants management system
Grant Management:
- Manage the grants following the award ensuring that the funded projects continue to comply with the terms and conditions set in the grants agreement
- Manage the ASCEND budget through processing claim forms; maintaining databases; liaising with the project’s Bank to establish bank accounts for applicants and reconcile bank statements with recorded expenditure
- Keep Regional Finance Manager updated on any issues / concerns related to particular projects
- Monitor funded projects by assessing annual progress, logframes and budget reports to ensure that funded projects are working towards achieving their agreed outcome/impact
- Review IP financial expenditure, budgets and variance analysis to ensure cost eligibility, accuracy, realism, value for money and compliance with HPF and donor reporting guidelines.
- Work with Grant Manager to prepare contractual documents for review by the legal team.
- Work with Regional Finance Manager to develop Implementing Partners audit terms of reference and approve auditors
- Support IPs to use the Grant Management System to manage their contractual reporting obligations and make claims
- Ensure that contract data on the Grant Management System is up to date.
- Work with technical managers and service providers to ensure that all targets and deadlines are achieved according to budgeted work plans.
- Carry out periodic review meetings with implementing partners to review progress against targets, work plan and budget
- Monitor fiduciary, statutory and contractual compliance for implementing partners.
- Prepare IP monthly finance risk registers and proactively mitigate and escalate potential risks to the project
- Ensure seamless transition of service providers and contracts.
- Review and evaluate technical and cost proposals for the emergency preparedness and response fund.
- Note: Full details of the responsibilities can be found on the Job description/Terms of reference
Qualifications:
- Degree in relevant discipline
Skills:
- Good financial management skills and experience of budget and forecast management
- Good organisational skills and able to work accurately within timescales
- Ability to develop good relationships with multiple stakeholders including governments, donors, private sector and civil society
- Ability to communicate effectively with colleagues and clients, in writing, face to face or on the telephone
- Ability to define and communicate (written / verbal) grants management processes tailored to specific requirements
- Ability to write methodologies and approaches to programme delivery for proposals.
- Highly proficient in financial management within grants programmes
- Proficient in IT skills particularly Word, Excel, PowerPoint and MS project
Experience:
- Experience of grants management
- Experience of implementing grants management assignments in low income countries/ international development setting
- Understanding of basic project management methodology
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