Partnerships Officer at Save the Children

ROLE PURPOSE: ROLE PURPOSE:  

The purpose of this post is to support the Award Management team in the planning, securing, engagement and managing of partnerships in both development and humanitarian awards. The position involves supporting of partner information management and compliance with systems and processes.

Under the direction of the Partnerships Manager, Partnerships Coordinator and the Head of Finance, the Partnerships Officer will be responsible for supporting the Partnerships and Finance team to adhere to all partnership management obligations internally within Save the Children and externally with donors.

This role will work closely with PDQ and Program Operations on proposals, financial and narrative reporting, monitoring and analysis and compliance processes as pertains to partners.  In the event of a major humanitarian emergency, the role holder will be expected to work outside the normal role profile and be able to vary working hours accordingly.

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 

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• University degree in International development, business administration, commerce, International relations and/or experience working in a related role.
• Minimum 3 years of relevant professional work experience in 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

Closing Date : Aug 3, 2022