Regional Partnerships Coordinator at Aga Khan Foundation

The position

Opportunity to work with a dynamic team

Are you a dynamic, pragmatic, and agile personality, able to think on your feet as you analyse complex situations on the fly, and looking for an exciting opportunity? Are you cut out to be team player, able to balance engagements with diverse partner organisations, interventions, across multiple geographies, and targeting the most marginalised communities in Eastern Africa? If yes, then apply for this position at Aga Khan Foundation, East Africa (AKF EA) to be based in Nairobi and reporting to the Senior Regional Awards Manager, while collaborating with a team of technical advisors, programme specialists, and consultants.

Overall Objectives
The Partnerships Coordinator will support the development of concept notes and proposals, grants management, implementation of projects to meet organisation and donor compliance requirements and progress reporting.

Main Duties and Responsibilities
 

Resource Mobilization (50%)

• Support in identifying and following up of funding leads and analyze resource mobilization trends in AKF East Africa.
• Identify funding needs/programmatic intervention opportunities (through regular interaction with AKF EA program staff) and update resource mobilization priorities accordingly.
• Support the maintenance and updating of resource mobilisation tools and tracking systems.  
• Support in development of concept notes and proposals through close collaboration with management and technical teams. 
• Lead application of project opportunity vetting and verify theme-specific opportunities, geographic alignment, and AKF EA strategic focus.
• Conduct due diligence of implementing partners in coordination with AKF EA finance and program teams.
• Contribute to partnership documentation including positioning pieces and communication materials (e.g., presentations, narrative overviews, donor visit briefs, etc.) designed to enable regular and effective engagement with various donors and partners.
• Prepare donor briefs and talking points for donor meetings, referencing latest donor strategies, field-level discussions and possible donor/AKDN matches to consider positioning during meetings.
• Coordinate weekly, monthly, and quarterly conference calls, organising the resource mobilisation tracker and relevant documents for specific units to support pipeline and grants management processes.
• Carry out any other duties as assigned by the Senior Regional Awards Manager

Grants Management and Compliance (50%)

• Support grant inception meetings to ensure donor and AKF compliance requirements including reporting deadlines, implementation period, amendments timing/ procedures, procurement, risk management, safeguarding, audit and other policies are well understood, and a plan is in place to ensure they are met.
• Coordinate the technical review of donor reports (quarterly, semi-annually, annually) and technical papers to ensure the highest quality possible in conformity to organizational and donor requirements on time and at a high standard.
• Work closely with programme and finance teams to strengthen overall grant management systems and processes.
• Support the roll out the Awards Management Information System (AIMS), and other systems, which allow for the centralized, online management of grants and pipelines, as well as the generation of a live dashboards for reporting, and senior management oversight.
• Support the effective dissemination of grant information so that all key contributing staff have a clear understanding of requirements and expectations throughout the life cycle of a grant (opportunity identification to project close out).
• Undertake coordination and administrative tasks related to grants, including collecting and forwarding information to different staff and country offices and any necessary follow up tasks specified.
• Support the maintenance and updating of grant management tools and tracking systems.

The requirements

• Minimum Bachelor’s Degree in international development, development studies, or other relevant fields.
• 3-5 years’ experience in international development, humanitarian assistance, or within a donor context.
• Demonstration of knowledge of program design; grant acquisition and management; and cross-functional coordination.
• Experience in developing and writing proposals, budget plans, concept papers, briefs, and executive summaries, and coordinating multiple inputs from a variety of sources, simultaneously managing a variety of relationships.
• Technical competency in compiling and editing compliance reports, and presentations. Exceptionally strong communication skills in English, both written and oral.
• High analytical skills and the ability to assimilate and process information on a wide range of issues, excellent writing, communication, and financial analysis skills. Agile thinker and able to work within and through systems.
• Respectful of diversity; sensitive toward others in their context, situation, and challenges; pluralistic, open, and understanding toward other people’s cultures, values, autonomy, and faiths; demonstrates compassion and empathy; is courteous to others with respect for their background, religion, ethnic, social, cultural, gender, and age
• Team player, collaborates effectively to create a culture of knowledge sharing and team learning to strengthen business performance
• Committed to acting ethically and upholding safeguarding standards towards all staff, volunteers, and beneficiaries of the organisation.
• Strong IT skills, including Microsoft Office Suite (Excel, Word, Outlook, SharePoint, Databases, etc).