Senior Program Associate at Search For Common Ground’s International

Job Summary

• We are looking for a Senior Program Associate will work from SFCG offices to develop and submit high quality donor proposals and tender bids that are aligned with SFCG’s priorities and demonstrate impact.
• S/he will be responsible for supporting the Country Director in overseeing reporting, reviewing project content and approaches, and leading new business development for the country program.
• S/he must be proactive in identifying new and nontraditional sources of funding from a range of institutional donors and working with SFCG’s country staff and other fundraising teams to leverage SFCG’s funding prospects.
• S/he builds the capacity of SFCG country offices to develop and manage strategic consortium partnerships with other NGOs. This position will involve field visits.
• The position will report to the Country Director, supervise the report officers and work closely with the Head of Offices and Project Managers.

Key Area 1: Project Reporting:

• Develop and update Nigeria programme donor reporting calendar and report tracking system;
• Coordinate project reporting for all active projects by developing and setting internal report development, review processes and internal deadlines;
• Work with project teams to review, edit, and finalise results-oriented project reports;
• Support Country Director, Head of Offices and project teams to develop “success stories” from project activities and documenting project impact;
• Build the capacity of the project teams to write high quality results-oriented reports.

Key Area 2: Business Development:

• Support the Country Director and Heads of Offices in leading proposal development process including consultations, programme design, and proposal writing;
• Liaise with finance teams to develop proposal budgets;
• Liaise with design, monitoring and evaluation (DM&E) plus communication and learning teams to include DM&E and communications plans and strategies in proposals;
• Coordinate with regional team to ensure proposal budget compliance with SFCG requirements;
• Support the Country Director and Head of Offices, in business development meetings with partners, donors, and other potential stakeholders.
• Work with staff from SFCG offices (including programme, finance, fundraising, and M&E) to develop and submit large scale proposals and tender bids (£500k and more) ensuring that applications are high quality, aligned with SFCG’s priorities and demonstrating impact
• Review and provide feedback on proposals and tender bids ensuring compliance with proposal development guidelines
• Provide ongoing guidance on donor policy and focus and identify institutional funding prospects beyond SFCG’s traditional donors

Key Area 3: Donor relationship building and influencing:

• Support SFCG country staff as well as SFCG International fundraising and programme staff to develop and manage strategic consortium partnerships with appropriate CSOs, academic organisations and private sector firms to leverage SFCG’s chances of success in competitive calls for proposals and tender bids
• Support SFCG’s Country Programmes to conduct donor scoping exercises and develop programme-led fundraising strategies
• Support SFCG’s programme experts and senior leaders by identifying and facilitating opportunities for relationship building with key donors

Key Area 4: Project Support:

• Advise Country Director and Heads of Offices on project content and implementation strategies;
• Support project managers and state coordinators on project and activity strategies and assist in identifying relevant SFCG resources and best practices;
• Review project activity work plans and approaches to ensure project elements are in line with the overarching project goal while also ensuring ‘Do No Harm’ and conflict sensitivity;
• Work with project and DM&E teams to review and analyzing project results;
• Registration of participant’s attendance in the field.
• Support project managers in planning, coordinating, and implementing activities where needed;
• As job descriptions cannot be exhaustive, the position holder may be required to undertake other duties that are broadly in line with the above key duties.

Minimum Education

• First degree in Peace Building, Conflict, Security Studies, Political or Social Science, International Studies, Public Administration, Development Studies and experience in a related area.

Preferred Education:

• Master’s degree in Peace Building, Conflict, Security Studies, Political or Social Science, International Studies, Public Administration, Development Studies and experience in a related area.

Experience:

• Minimum three years of progressively responsible professional experience in reporting, project design, proposal and concept note design and development;
• Experience in reviewing call for proposals and reports;
• Experience in programme design and implementation tools such as Log frames, Gantt chats, critical path theory, problem and objective trees, stakeholder mapping and analysis tools, results chains among other.
• Experience of developing successful proposals and tender bids to the EU, DFID and the UN as well as other institutional donors including but not limited to Government of Great Britain - Department for International Development - UK Aid; USAID; Danish International Development Agency; Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency;
• In-depth understanding of logical frameworks as a tool to develop theory of change and intervention logic

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:

• Excellent writing, reasoning and analytical skills
• Capacity building experience including training and skills development
• Excellent interpersonal, communication and negotiation skills to work effectively in a multi-cultural environment, often at a distance
• Ability to prioritise own workload and work with minimal supervision
• Ability to lead complex proposal development teams
• Knowledge of and exposure to a wide range peace; conflict transformation; human rights, governance and development-related issues;
• Ability to work under extreme pressure in a highly stressful environment;
• Willingness to keep abreast of new developments in the field;
• Excellent communication (spoken and written) skills, including the ability to draft/edit a variety of written reports and communications and to articulate ideas in a clear, concise style;
• Ability to plan own work, manage conflicting priorities and work under pressure of tight and conflicting deadlines;
• Ability to review and interpret calls for proposals and translate proposal call guidelines into cogent and logical activities, outputs, outcomes and impact statements;
• Understanding of, and experience in developing cogent Theories of Change;
• Fully proficient computer skills and use of relevant software and other applications;
• Very good interpersonal skills and ability to establish and maintain effective partnerships and working relations.