Program Development and Award Advisor at International Rescue Committee

The Purpose of the Role

• The PDAA supports country programs in West and Central Africa with donor compliance, award management, and producing high-quality donor deliverables. The role advises on IRC’s partnership system (PEER), manages donor relationships including with HQ counterparts, and contributes to business development efforts aligned with IRC’s strategy.
• As part of the Regional Program and Award Support (RPAS) team, the PDAA oversees a diverse award portfolio across humanitarian, recovery, and development sectors, liaising with country offices, HQ teams, and donors.The PDAA liaises with country programs, HQ departments and donor contacts to ensure high quality guidance and support to country offices throughout the award lifecycle.
• The successful candidate will have a strong track record of contributing to new humanitarian and development funding opportunities including, ECHO SIDA and German donors and a deep knowledge of donor rules and regulations, and experience collaborating with local partner organizations. 

Scope and Accountability

• This role has no line management responsibilities.

Key Working Relationships

• Reports to the Senior Program and Awards Advisor (SPAA), WACAR, and works closely with RPAS team members, country program grants and partnership teams, and across all teams within the Crisis Response Recovery and Development Department, Global Supply Chain, Finance, Office of General Counsel, Technical Excellence, and other key departments within IRC. Donor and partner point of contact as applicable per region.

Key Accountabilities

Awards Management and Compliance 

• Manage a portfolio of awards for the WACAR region including USG, UN, WB and may include other donors as assigned.
• Provide timely support on narrative reporting and post-award deliverables, guiding country offices on amendments, modifications, and submissions while collaborating with technical and financial staff. Provide support on budget realignments, changes in scope, NCEs and amendment help for project elements not captured at proposal development stage. Serve as first point of contact for country program-based awards staff to problem-solve, guide and advise country teams on compliance and post-award issues within the mentioned portfolio and to act as a connecting point between country program and other AMU teams to facilitate the timely flow of key information between them.
• Manage donor relationships by maintaining communication on contractual issues, updates on program implementation and following up on compliance queries and securing changes and approvals as needed. 
• With support from the PAO Partnerships, guide and coach country offices on partner management policies, PEER system compliance and process sub-grants/partnership agreements as needed. Coordinate with the Sub-awards and Partnerships (S&P) team as needed.
• With support from the PAO Partnerships, and as agreed on a case-by-case basis, review and help process sub-grants/partnership agreements in alignment with internal processes.
• Provide support to and monitoring of projects to ensure compliance with donor guidelines and IRC internal requirements. Monitoring awards can take the shape of monitoring visits, project implementation meetings and targeted calls following specific donor internal guidelines and IRC established processes.
• In collaboration with regional leadership (RVP, DRD, RFD), monitor award spending and help problem-solve for under-/over-spending. Partner with CPs and regional team as needed, to address implementations challenges.
• Provide technical advice to country offices on ad-hoc queries on donor compliance issues in coordination with AMU’s Compliance and Policy team on non-routine and high-level compliance matters and escalate to leadership for support as needed.
• Take part in meetings and calls with country teams where required to provide support and collaborate closely on specific issues related to donor compliance, submissions and/or monitoring/award management.
• Ensure lessons learned from finalized projects are fed into the Business Development team.
• Advise and support country programs appropriately to enable them to successfully follow internal IRC policies and procedures and maintain the integrity of OTIS data (e.g. OTIS, PEERS).
• Stay informed about programmatic issues and security and political developments affecting implementation.
• Advise CPs on additional surge support, gap-filling, and deployment resources. Coordinate with other members of the Program and Award Support Team and other AMU members for information sharing and establish coherent awards support.
• Ensure proper donor-related and contractual documentation to support compliance and audit readiness (including maintaining up-to-date, organized award files).
• Participate in the recruitment of and the onboarding of new CP Grants Coordinators/Heads of Grants teams  

Business Development 

• Support country offices with donor engagement, intel sharing and positioning with prioritized donors in the PDAA portfolio; prepare for and participate in donor calls as needed. 
• Represent IRC externally at e.g. country-specific meetings, with donors and stakeholder networks in donor capitals as needed.
• Provide support on cyclical proposals and cost modification requests for submission, including negotiation support for prioritized donors. In specific cases, as agreed on a case-by-case basis in consultation with the Head of Business Development (HBD), SPAA and Director, Awards Management (DAM), provide proposal development support for opportunities linked to prioritized donors within the PDAA portfolio. 
• Collaborate with regional technical leads and technical advisors, country offices, and other colleagues to support conceptualization of winning proposals and designs for new project activities and/or amendments to current projects. 
•  Provide quality assurance and quality compliance support on proposals. Ensure responsiveness to and compliance with solicitation documents and with IRC’s requirements, including the PEER system. Together with PDA, review agreements to ensure accurateness and highlight key compliance requirements, in coordination with compliance and country grants teams and support in award negotiation and hand-over as required.
• Maintain complete and accurate electronic files, including final submission packages and internal trackers. 
• Deploying to country programs to lead on proposal development, as available.

Capacity Building and Training 

• Contribute to the development of training materials, and deliver training to in-country staff, as required and in coordination with the Director, Awards Management (DAM) and PAS leaders. In coordination with the DAM and PAS leaders, develop and maintain work-processes and checklists for award implementation and report review, as well as record lessons learned.
• Onboard new country office Grants and Partnerships staff and new Program and Award Support team to assigned donors, policies and/or IRC processes, as requested. 
• Mentor and coach Grants and Partnerships staff on IRC systems and processes to ensure capacity is built at country level.

Other Responsibilities 

• Contribute to AMU and regional strategic priorities and initiatives.
• Actively participate as a member of the Regional PAS Team, engaging in strategy development and other initiatives as needed.
• Other duties as assigned by supervisor.

Person Specifications

​​​​​​​Skills, Knowledge and Qualifications:

• Degree, preferably in a subject related to IRC’s work (International Relations, Refugee or Migration Studies, Development Studies, Public Policy) or equivalent experience
• Fluency in English and French, both spoken and written
• Experience with and a strong understanding of European and German donor requirements required
• Good understanding of humanitarian aid and development programming
• Ability to work collaboratively as part of a diverse team and handle a multifaceted workload
• Good financial management and budgeting skills
• Ability to analyze and synthesize information
• Proven organizational skills, detail-oriented, ability to prioritize tasks, and to learn quickly
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills: the ability to successfully and effectively liaise with people within and across departments in a multi-cultural environment.
• Ability to work independently in a very fast paced environment
• A flexible work attitude and calm manner
• International work experience in the Global South is a plus
• Excellent IT skills (Word, Outlook, Excel)
• Ability to travel internationally, sometimes on short notice and to insecure areas (15%?)

​​​​​​​Experience:

•  Experience in working at a distance and supporting country-based staff
• Experience writing, reviewing and editing narrative and financial reports and excellent attention to detail