Country: Ethiopia
Closing date: 26 Apr 2018
TITLE: Crisis Response Partnerships Officer – READ II
SUPERVISOR: Crisis Response Partnerships Manager – READ II
DUTY STATION: Addis Ababa
LENGTH: 2 years with possibility of extension
Background
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is an international NGO that responds to humanitarian crises and helps people to survive, recover, and rebuild their lives. The IRC has been working in Ethiopia for over 17 years implementing emergency and resilience programming in the areas of WASH, education, livelihoods, reproductive health, women and girls programming, and child and youth protection and development.
IRC Ethiopia is part of the Creative Associates-led and USAID-funded READ II program, which launched in early 2018. The goal of this five-year program is to improve the reading proficiency and educational attainment of 15 million children in Ethiopia so they can lead productive lives and drive Ethiopia’s economic, social, and political development. READ II will provide students in six target regions – Addis Ababa, Amhara, Oromia, Somali, SNNPR, and Tigray – with a learning-supportive environment in schools, communities, and homes.
One of READ II’s objectives is to assist students who are chronically or unexpectedly confronted by the effects of dire poverty, conflict, or emergency events. Supporting this objective is a Crisis Modifier (CM) fund that will be accessible by humanitarian agencies to deliver emergency responses that improve education outcomes and protect educational development investments. The IRC will operate the CM for READ II.
The IRC seeks a dynamic Crisis Response Partnerships Officer to support the strategic and administrative tasks involved with sub-partner identification, sub-award proposal review, and sub-grant management. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in partner capacity building, grant management (proposal review and reporting), financial report writing and analysis, and humanitarian programming and coordination.
The Crisis Response Partnerships Offer will be based in Addis Ababa with frequent travel to the field (10-20%). She/he will be based at the READ II office in Bole, with 10% of her/his time spent at the IRC Ethiopia office in Bole for consultations with IRC colleagues from Education, Grants and Partnerships, Emergency Response, and Finance. She/he will report to the Crisis Response Partnerships Manager.
Specific Responsibilities
Emergency Partnerships and Sub-Grant Management
- Maintain a map of potential partners for EiE responses.
- Maintain a detailed database of past and current EiE responses and electronic and hardcopy files of sub-award documents.
- Support the pre-award due diligence process for new sub-grantees, including thorough appropriate vetting, analysis of risks associated with the award, and the identification and implementation of appropriate measures to manage those risks, working with other departments as appropriate.
- Organize the sub-award proposal review process with technical colleagues, conduct compliance review of sub-award proposals, and support the approval process.
- Support the effective startup of sub-awards, including sub-award opening meetings with partners;
- Support the development of partnership templates in conjunction with IRC’s and READ II’s grants and finance staff.
- Design and facilitate targeted sub-award and partnership management trainings, refresher trainings and ongoing support on sub-award management and compliance remotely for key partners and READ II staff.
- Monitor sub-grantees/partners for donor compliance and progress against objectives, develop monitoring tools as needed, and ensure key monitoring information and learning are documented;
- Support regular partner monitoring visits to ensure that partners operate in compliance with IRC and donor sub-grantee regulations;
- Enforce timely submission of financial and activity reports from sub-grantees; review monthly internal reports, compile and submit partner reports into overall donor report, and support government reports/agreements as needed/requested.
- Support internal and external evaluation of emergency responses.
- Field questions from current and prospective partners about sub-award application processes and sub-award management requirements.
- Execute any other tasks as directed by the Crisis Response Partnerships Manager.
How to apply:
Qualifications
- Undergraduate university degree in Education or related field from a recognized university with at least 3 years of relevant work experience or a Master’s Degree with a minimum of 2 years of relevant work experience.
- Demonstrated experience with grant management (ideally sub-grant management), reporting, budget management, and sub-award contracting is required.
- Experience managing USAID contracts or accountable grants is desired.
- Experience working with an NGO required; experience working within an NGO consortium is desired.
- Strong project management skills and demonstrated ability to plan, organize, and supervise implementation of programs.
- Familiarity with current disaster management issues in Ethiopia and understanding of roles of different stakeholders is desired.
- Experience with Education in Emergencies (EiE) programming in Ethiopia is desired.
- Experience in emergency preparedness and response in Ethiopia is desired.
- Ability to work under pressure, long work hours and high workload.
- Excellent representation and interpersonal skills.
- Excellent communication in Amharic and English is mandatory (verbal and written).
- Self-motivated, honest, highly responsible, and punctual.
- Ability to work as part of a team as well as to work autonomously when required.
- Proficiency with computers, email and Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Power Point, Outlook) applications. Demonstrated experience with staff supervision, mentoring, and team building