International Rescue Committee

The IRC began working in Myanmar in May 2008 with emergency response and early recovery interventions for communities affected by Cyclone Nargis. Today, IRC delivers a comprehensive package of humanitarian services to communities in the hardest to reach areas across the country that consists of Health, WASH, Protection, Women’s Protection and Empowerment and Basic Needs interventions. The country program receives funding from institutional and private donors and has a growing partnership portfolio with an ambitious target to transfer 35% of its operating budget to local partners.

Scope of work

IRC Myanmar’s Head of Grants & Partnerships (HGP) is responsible for the oversight and management of the Program Department’s Grants and Partnerships Units. The HGP reports to the Deputy Director for Programs (DDP) and supervises a Grants Manger and Partnership Coordinator. The HGP is a member of the extended SMT and works closely with the sector leads, MEAL team and supply chain and finance departments in-country, IRC’s headquarter offices in New York and Europe and donors and partner organizations. The HGP oversees the country’s business development plan, builds relationships with donors, and positions for develops proposals that are aligned with the country’s strategy action plan. The HGP supports a variety of aspects of project cycle management, including negotiating new awards and modifications with donors, reporting, compliance, grants monitoring, and grant closing. S/he also oversees the strategic management and oversight of partnerships in Myanmar. The HGP oversees a partnership team that is responsible for facilitating the delivery of high-quality, equal partnerships with local actors and will ensure compliance with donor requirements and consistency with the IRC’s Partnership Excellence for Equality and Results System (PEERS- IRC’s partnership management system). In coordination with country program functional departments, the HGP will develop and oversee a strategy and action plan to deliver organizational capacity sharing with partner organizations.

Duties and responsibilities

Program Development 

• In coordination with the DDP and Country Director, cultivate donor relationships and identify new public and private funding opportunities. Monitor major donor trends and funding opportunities through regular research and monitoring of information on relevant websites and/or other sources.
• Support program growth aligned with strategic priorities in IRC Myanmar’s Business Development Plan and through collaborating with respective technical sectors in program design, researching context, gaps, needs assessments, and viable new funding opportunities.
• Lead proposal development processes in close collaboration with the DDP, sector leads, the finance team as well as IRC’s regional and HQ focal points to ensure smooth, timely, responsive and competitive proposal development and submission in line with IRC and donor requirements. 
• Write non-technical sections of proposals, working with and/or overseeing other team leaders (e.g. regional support team, consultants) when needed and as resources are available to support them.
• Ensure the identification, appraisal, and mapping of partners is carried out in a consistent manner, and that partners are appropriately engaged in pre-positioning and proposal development processes.

Grants Management

• Provide technical guidance on IRC and donor regulations to ensure compliance within operations, program implementation and reporting. 
• Review and negotiate donor contracts and agreements; manage and/or support all agreement reviews, revisions, amendments and budget realignments, including relevant approvals.
• Ensure the submission of timely and high-quality reports (including narrative, financial and MEAL) to donors, including the situation reports, and maintain update of regular funding and reporting trackers and schedules for dissemination to relevant staff.
• Responsible for updating and timely dissemination of funding and donor reporting grid/schedule to relevant staff. Ensure the submission of timely and high-quality reports to donors.
• Raise compliance issues proactively with program staff and the SMT for timely action and keep senior management and regional focal points informed of any projected inabilities to meet contractual obligations, reports submission and of spend rates/signification budget variances.
• Coordinate with Project Leads to organize regular project cycle meetings and follow up with different departments (Programs, Finance, Supply Chain, etc.) on action points and pending issues to ensure proper grant management. 
• Maintain a strong working relationship with donors. Participate in donor meetings together with the CD and/or DDP as required. 

Partnerships

• Oversee the partnership team and serve as a leader in building a culture of effective, respectful and equal partnerships. Foster and promote attitudes and values conducive to collaborative partnerships across the country program’s functional departments based on a clear and shared understanding of IRC’s strategy, approach, and core partnership principles.
• Contribute to building a strong understanding of PEERS across country program functional departments.
• Oversee the partnership team to facilitate partnership management processes to ensure well planned, timely, coordinated, and coherent partnerships across technical sectors. 
• Ensure partners have collaboratively developed project support plans in place where relevant and oversee the delivery of timely and effective support, ensuring that it appropriately addresses issues identified in the due diligence process, and coordinate with relevant departments for the effective implementation of the plan. Collaborate with technical coordinators and functional department heads to integrate technical capacity sharing approaches, including how IRC can learn from local partners. 
• In coordination with country program functional departments, develop and oversee a strategy and action plan for organizational capacity sharing with local partner organizations. Collaborate across departments and with external parties to support the resourcing and implementation of organizational development support.
• Facilitate and lead the development of the approach to individual partner relationships; including the selection of the appropriate funding mechanism and the development of appropriate reporting, monitoring and advance terms - based on the findings of due diligence, donor regulations and IRC policy.

Staff Management and Development

• Supervise Grants team and Partnerships Coordinator in line with IRC’s people manager standards. This includes coaching, training, and mentoring direct-report staff, communicating clear expectations, setting annual performance objectives, providing regular and timely positive and constructive performance feedback, and providing documented annual performance reviews.
• Promote and monitor staff care and well-being. Model healthy work-life balance practices and support appropriate interventions in response to identified staff care needs.
• Lead on the recruitment and management of new grants & partnership staff, consultants or other external support, in coordination with HR.

Requirements

• At least six years of experience managing humanitarian programs in emergency contexts and substantial experience managing partnerships with local and international organizations.
• Demonstrated experience in proposal development, including preparation of logical frameworks and budgets.
• Fluency in English, and exceptional English writing skills are mandatory.
• Working knowledge of grants management and the project cycle; direct experience in grants/sub-grants managements is a plus.
• Experience with key donors, e.g. US government, UN donors, ECHO, SIDA, other European donors, as well as private funding sources, and familiarity with institutional donor rules and regulations and their compliance.
• Proficient in MS Office, MS Word, MS Excel, and MS PowerPoint.
• Excellent diplomacy skills, patience and clear communication skills.
• Ability to independently organize work and prioritize tasks.
• Staff management and team leadership experience.
• University degree in a relevant discipline or commensurate years of experience. 

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