Partnerships Coordinator at Save the Children

ROLE PURPOSE:

Save the Children in Kenya is responding to the ongoing drought that affected the lives and livelihoods of millions of Kenya through its multi-sectoral response strategy. The FSL response plan is focused on addressing the immediate food gaps and livelihoods protection needs of the affected population while also planning for the recovery of livelihoods activities in the longer term. In line with this strategy, the FSL Project Officer will be responsible for ensuring the implementation of the emergency food security and livelihoods projects as outlined below.

The post holder will ensure the effective and efficient implementation activities directly related cash and voucher-based programs, livestock health, livestock marketing, livestock feeding among others. The Project Officer would contribute to enhancing the capacity of the Food Security & Livelihoods team to gather quality information on the household economies of targeted vulnerable groups, by participating in assessments and assisting with information analysis and report writing, and subsequently to provide technical input into the development, monitoring and evaluation of food security projects.

Contract Duration: 7 Months (Possibility of extension) 

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

Developing self and others

• Work with other team members to support team activities
• Build relationships with members of other teams i.e. PDQ, finance and operations
• Involvement in capacity strengthening of partners

Communicating with impact, negotiation and coordination

• Input into high quality ‘donor ready’ reports by review of partner reports and timely follow up to ensure timely submission           
• Communication with partners to obtain inputs into key processes and up to date budget figures.

Proposal development

• Work with the relevant teams such as project managers, supply chain, business development and PDQ to conduct specific award risk assessment and complete the Proposal and Awards Risk Tool (PART) for projects with partners.
• Ensure all partner documentation is managed and processed in a timely manner and uploaded onto AMS and that the related workflows are run in a timely manner.

Compliance (systems, processes, donor)

• Learn and follow SCI processes and relevant donor requirements
• Understanding of the AMS system, maintaining and driving data quality for all active partners on AMS
• Ability to use AMS reporting to monitor awards with partners and plan for key processes i.e. partner reporting reminders to ensure timely and quality donor reporting
• Assist the partner teams to understand donor compliance requirements relating to award management including budgeting and reporting, and ensure deadlines are met
• Basic understanding of donor compliance and development of compliance checklists if needed for partners

Portfolio management and strategy

• Proactively support a wide range of aspects of a partnerships portfolio, including partner profiling and scoping, trend analysis, involvement in development of partner engagement plan
• Gather and share partner intelligence
• Ensure partner assessments are conducted on time, have the right representation and mutual capacity sharing plans are agreed on
• Facilitate dialogue with partners by working closely with PDQ to prepare quality briefing materials for review and reference by the management team
• Run reports from AMS to support the AM team with monitoring of the Partners Portfolio
• Perform monitoring and analysis activities when required and work with the Coordinator and Manager to resolve any issues identified
• Problem solving skills to address and work through issues with partners when they arise.

Monitoring and analysis

• Key in development of partner budgets including liaising with PDQ, program teams and finance to ensure this has been fully costed and ICR included for partners at the agreed thresholds
• Financial analysis skills to perform monitoring processes for awards with partners and identify any issues for further analysis
• Ensure partner budget lines are as needed for donor reporting requirements
• Support in ensuring partners are invited to award kick off meetings. 
• Participate in partner meetings conducted by Ops and ensure partner budget vs actual (BVA) is reviewed every month
• Provide management information to the Awards Manager via a portfolio analysis report on a monthly showing information on partner performance and highlighting any unresolved issues that may affect performance
• Coordinate with program operations to ensure partner close out meetings are conducted in a timely manner. Ensure that all meetings are minuted and these minutes filed on AMS and follow up actions done.
• Ensure that partner information on Awards Management System (AMS) is effectively maintained, up to date and accurately records the audit trail for all partners.
• Ensure that all proposals, contracts and amendments with partners are processed and approved through AMS and the system is an accurate reflection of current status at all times
• Create partner records in AMS and submit for legal vetting; maintain partner records so that inactive partner records are archived.

Partner Reporting

• Share with all partners whose reports are due the partner monthly reporting on the first working day of each month
• Follow up with partners to ensure timely and quality submission of reports
• Share received narrative reports with the relevant team member in Operations
• Review partner financial reports to the supporting documents and liquidate the fully supported reports; otherwise follow up with partners to ensure relevant supporting documents have been submitted and on time.
• Post the partner liquidations in to the financial management system and reconcile the partner advance account 5200 

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

Essential

• University degree in International development, business administration, commerce, International relations and/or experience working in a related role.
• Experience managing grants, contracts & sub agreements with knowledge of major funders’ guidelines (e.g. USAID, ECHO, FCDO, CIDA, SIDA etc.) 
• Relevant experience managing donor funded projects with International NGO’s particularly those addressing human/children’s rights and those  applying partnership approaches
• Strong analytical skills, computer literacy and excellent documentation skills are a must.
• Ability to work well with a team and establish relationships with other teams/offices
• Cultural awareness and ability to work well in an international environment with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures.
• Highly developed interpersonal and English communication skills including influencing and negotiation.
• Experience working with implementing partners and managing sub awards/grants.
• Excellent time management and planning capacityFluency and excellent communication skills in English language
• Experience of effective teamwork and outstanding inter-personal communication skills.
• Experience of coalition building and working with civil society actors to deliver change.
• Fluency and excellent communication skills in English language
• Experience of effective teamwork and outstanding inter-personal communication skills.
• Experience of coalition building and working with civil society actors to deliver change.