Horn of Africa: Country Project Development Volunteer at ACTED

ACTED has been present in Kenya since 2006 with a coordination office in Nairobi. The teams in Kenya are implementing projects to meet the needs of populations regularly affected by drought. Local communities are supported with improved access to food, protection of livelihoods and increased access to basic services such as sanitation, clean water. The NGO also works with local governments and community peace committees to promote social cohesion and integration.

You will be in charge of

1. Grant Management

• Contract follow-up;
• Communicate contractual obligations in particular with regards to reporting deadlines to Programme, AMEU and FLATS team;
• When any issue is identified in meeting deliverables in the given timeframe and budget, inform relevant staff in country and seek ACTED HQ Program Department advice on potential solutions that would meet donor rules;
• Reporting;
• Participate in and take minutes of kick-off and close out meetings for each project;
• Write quality narrative reports, reflecting the progress and status of projects in a transparent, timely and professional manner, in liaison with ACTED HQ Grant Management Unit (GMU) and finance, which will contribute ultimately to steady cash inflow;
• Work in close relation with AMEU to incorporate AME data (incl. data on input, process, output, outcome and impact indicators, lessons learnt and best practices) in reports and review M&E reports from AMEU;
• Liaise with FLATS teams when preparing reports, especially with finance to ensure greater coherence between financial and narrative reports by crosschecking the matching of data in the narrative and financial reports;
• Contribute to the monthly update of the Reporting Follow Up (RFU) and ensure smooth and regular communication with ACTED HQ GMU;
• Address ad hoc requests from donors in liaison with the CD, Programme and support teams;
• Partner Follow-up;
• Ensure partners report to ACTED in a timely and qualitative manner as per the requirements of the grant agreement.

2. Internal Coordination

• Internal Coordination and Communication;
• Facilitate interdepartmental communication and information sharing from the Base, to the Area, Capital, and even up to the regional and HQ offices by taking minutes of the various ACTED coordination meetings;
• Send meeting minutes in a timely manner to HQ;
• Inform ACTED HQ GMU and finance of latest developments, opportunities and challenges so that GMU can best advice on the way forward;
• Filing;
• File properly contractual project documents both in hard and soft copies;
• Update regularly the Resource Centre at the office with appropriate and relevant external and internal resources.

3. External Communication

Contribute to ACTED external communication strategy by feeding regularly ACTED HQ Communication Department with informal updates on projects, a flash news, pictures, articles on projects progress and/or specific events for ACTED communication tools, including, but not limited to, ACTED Newsletter, websites and ACTED Annual Report.

4. Fundraising

• External relations;
• Update regularly a directory of donors, international and local NGOs, other partners and stakeholders;
• Contribute when required to the reporting to national and local authorities as required by ACTED registration/legal status in country;
• In the absence of Technical Coordinators, participate in key clusters and/or working group meetings;
• Contribution to proposal development;
• Contribute when required to the development of fundraising documents (Expression of Interests/concept notes/proposals) in line with ACTED country strategy and donor requirements and in close collaboration with ACTED HQ GMU (Grant Management Unit) and finance;
• Liaise with Area Coordinators, Project Managers and Technical Coordinators to ensurethat proposals are relevant and technically sound;
• Incorporate learning from previous interventions (e.g. lessons learnt and best practices) into new proposals;
• Contracting;
• Contribute to addressing in a timely manner all comments by donors on proposals in liaison with relevant staff in country and ACTED HQ GMU and finance.

Expected skills and qualifications

• Postgraduate diploma in international relations/political sciences
• Previous related work experience, w/knowledge of proposal writing and donor relations
• Ability to work efficiently under pressure
• Ability to work in an unstable security environment moving
• Willingness to work and live in often remote areas under basic conditions