Senior Programme Officer - Business Development and Proposal Development

Facilitate programme development and resource acquisition with high standards of appropriateness, timeliness, and effectiveness. Lead the design process of multi-regional, full proposals and concept papers. Lead regional proposal development over $4 million. Provide the final review of all proposals and concept notes prior to submitting to donors and World Vision support offices. Ensure that grants are managed effectively through appropriate, timely and detailed communication with key stakeholders. Coordinate, encourage and facilitate the documentation of promising practices and lessons learned. Ensure that donor visits are strategic, well timed and smoothly executed and managed.


KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Strategy Development
• Contribute to the development and implementation of the WVSS and the Resource Acquisition and Management Team strategies
• Contribute to the development of regional External Engagement and Resource Acquisition strategies
• Lead the development of support office and donor specific strategies that articulate SO and donor strategic intent and funding targets, sectors and geographic preference
• Develop and manage the proposal development calendar for WVSS. Coordinate timely and strategic response to proposal development
  
EXTERNAL ENGAGEMENT

• Represent World Vision at national (Juba) level coordination meetings with donors, stakeholders, INGOs, local organizations, and high level government officials. Provide updates on projects at coordination meetings. Provide key stakeholders with updates of meeting outcomes stakeholder priorities· Coordinate WVSS participation in key Juba donor and coordination meetings
• Develop and maintain solid working relationships with major (government/private) donors including ECHO, USAID, OFDA, UNHCR, UNICEF, UNDP, CIDA, DFID, Irish Aid, FAO, and World Vision Support Offices, including hosting visits, responding to communication, and ensuring that support office and donor requirements are met
• Facilitate the growth of WV Sudan’s program by cultivating good working relationships with donors, Support Offices and NGOs to ensure that WV
• Southern Sudan builds its reputation for integrity, expertise and reliability
• Maintain WVSS master list of stakeholder contact information and update regularly
• Contribute to the development of communications and marketing materials
• Lead WVSS donor visit coordination
  
RESOURCE ACQUISITION

Pre-proposal/opportunity tracking
Activities include but are not limited to the following:
• Lead research and trend analysis to ensure that WVSS is proactive rather than reactive in its fundraising strategies and donor engagement
• Present funding ideas and concepts to appropriate stakeholders and donors
• Gather and share intelligence for individual sector opportunities; a) develop key understanding of sector strategies by donor, b) follow up on specific sectoral procurement opportunities.
• Assess level of risks associated with opportunity and ensure sufficient alignment with all relevant WV strategies at the Juba and regional offices, and use information to make decisions whether or not to pursue specific opportunities
• Engage and pre-position WVSS with NGOs and institutional donors to develop consortia
• Lead external partner mapping exercise and ensure that results are incorporated into Resource Acquisition and Management Team strategy
• Work with Policy and Advocacy Officer to ensure Support Office engagement/influence of SO government funding priorities for Southern Sudan
• Working with the Regional Program Manager and the Regional Program Development and Management Officer, assess the implementation capacity of regional offices and partners.
• Review assessments and baseline studies to gather and prepare background information and data for the design of programs and projects
  
  Proposal development
  Lead the acquisition process for assigned proposals, ensuring timely submission, managing all components of the process and, including but not limited to the following:
• Serve as proposal manager as assigned or support designated proposal manager, ensuring support/engagement of technical sector specialists, grant finance officer, etc as needed.
• Backstop regional proposal development.
• Lead WV’s component of joint design with partners. When necessary, lead WV’s efforts in forming consortia. Negotiate WV’s role with partners
• Work closely with Senior Grants Accountant on all proposal budgets to ensure a rational and harmonized proposal budgets
• Ensure engagement of key stakeholders (e.g. government ministries, communities, regional leadership, sector specialists and program quality officers) in the proposal design process
• Ensure integration of cross cutting themes into all proposals and concept papers
• Support recruitment process to ensure identification and inclusion of qualified project management staff
• Strategize with regional office and sector specialists on ways to integrate ARP and PNS funded projects with proposal design
• Facilitate lessons learned after proposal development process; share key lessons
  
  Post-submission
• Follow up with donor(s) and partner(s) as necessary.
• For awarded grants, ensure complete, smooth transition to project officer, which includes actively supporting grant start up process.
• If proposal is denied, ensure debrief from donor and disseminate lessons learned to all relevant parties.
  
GRANT MANAGEMENT

Grant Start-Up
Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
• Develop guidelines for grant start up workshops
• Lead or coordinate grant start-up with the Support Office, partner, and other key stakeholders.
• Facilitate start-up workshop and any required training (e.g., donor requirements).
• Ensure all involved staff have copies of approved program design (narrative, logframe, monitoring and evaluation plan, budget) and grant agreement and that they understand donor regulations, reporting and other requirements
• Assist with recruiting and staffing/consulting needs
• Support regional Program Development and Management Officers in meeting special donor requirements, such as the purchase of capital assets
• Work with Program Quality Team and specific regional Program Quality Officer to ensure that monitoring and evaluation system is set up (including reporting templates) and processes for developing detailed implementation plan is completed; and that the reporting and evaluation process for the performance management of programs is developed and implemented
• Communicate outcomes of grant start-up to the donor and internal stakeholders
  
  Grant Implementation
  On-going grant implementation support includes, but is not limited to:
• Upon grant award, complete initial procurement requisitions to ensure timely grant implementation.
• Provide grant management assistance to the field as needed
• Ensure regular, positive, and productive communication with respective donor representatives, the field, and partners regarding the implementation of program activities
• Lead and ensure on time submission to donors of high quality reports
• Monitor grant implementation and resource/fund utilization rates in conjunction with the Grant Finance Officer
• Assist the field in accessing appropriate technical assistance for successful implementation of activities
• Revise program documents as necessary and as requested and coordinate or complete approved grant amendments
• Coordinate and/or submit grant amendments
• Coordinate with region office technical staff on key updates and technical support requests
• Provide regular programme updates to key WV support offices and other donors
  
  Grant Close-Out
• Lead close-out process for assigned projects (includes final reports, asset disposal and lessons learned)
• Coordinate with the Program Quality Team to ensure that final evaluations are conducted as per donor contractual agreements

OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES

Business Processes
• Contribute to the development, roll out and use of program development and management business processes.
  Information Management
• Contribute to the development, roll out and management of an information management system to track all proposals developed, awarded, and grants implemented and closed out.
• Lead the development of a grant compliance tracking system.
• Ensure the record keeping of all essential communication and documentation from pre-proposal to grant closeout.
• Develop and manage system for tracking the grant pipeline and implementation rates (burn rates) of grants.
• Ensure the development, role out and management of a donor visit/meeting information tracking system.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & ABILITIES:

REQUIRED:
• Leadership experience in program design and development, funding acquisition, program monitoring and evaluation, information management, capacity building, and compliance
• At least 3 years field experience in a relief or development environment.
• Previous experience with successful multi-million dollar donor proposal writing and budget preparation (USAID, ECHO, BPRM, UN agencies preferred)
• Must have a clear understanding of the working of the major WV partners (UNICEF, WFP, USAID, EU, CIDA, DFID etc), their requirements and standards
• Must be able relate and represent WV to these major program partners, in a highly professional manner
• Capacity building experience in project design, implementation, reporting, and evaluation
• Computer knowledge including Word, Excel, Lotus Notes and Power Point
• Native fluency in written and spoken English

Senior Programme Officer - Business Development and Proposal Development