Grants Manager at Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)

Job Identification Number: 5835
Location: Maiduguri, Borno
Reports To: Head of Programmes
Supervision of: Grants Coordinator/s
Duration and type of contract: 12 Months
Travel: 40%

Background / Context

• Since 2015, NRC Nigeria has been working to help displacement affected communities meet their basic needs, improve their livelihoods, access essential services, and enhance their resilience to future shocks through our six core competencies: water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), Shelter, Education, Information, Counselling and Legal Assistance (ICLA), Livelihoods and Food Security (LFS), Camp Management, and Protection. NRC provides immediate assistance during the onset of emergencies through the rapid response mechanism (RRM). In 2021, NRC reached over 269,000 people with assistance.
• The crisis in Nigeria is marked by brutal violence against civilians causing acute humanitarian needs and displacement. In the north-east, the 13-year conflict has shattered lives, infrastructure, basic services, and social fabric.
• Two million people are internally displaced across Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states. Approximately half of these are living within local communities, putting increasing pressure on scarce resources. Access to food is limited, particularly in Borno state where most families are already facing crisis levels of food insecurity. Civilians, including aid workers, continue to be the target of deadly attacks by non-state armed groups and transport corridors are persistently insecure.
• In the north-west and north-central regions, violence and displacement are rooted in disputes over land and resources, which has been worsened by climate change. Criminality is on the rise.
• Livelihood opportunities are scarce, and children face an uncertain future, unable to access quality education. Many families have either lost identity papers while fleeing or never obtained them, hindering their ability to access essential services
• All NRC employees are expected to work in accordance with the organisation’s core values: dedication, innovation, inclusivity and accountability. These attitudes and believes shall guide our actions and relationships.

Roles and Responsibilities

• The purpose of the Grants Manager position is to provide essential grant management support to the Head of Programme in delivering quality programmes in line with the NRC Country Strategy, PCM and Plan of Action. The Grants Manager will contribute to achieving high quality programming by ensuring effective grants management including, compliance requirements, reporting, timely and quality proposal development, and internal and external communication. S/he ensures NRC programme/support teams are fully informed of relevant donor compliance regulations and NRC procedures, manages donor and other external reporting, and coordinates grant revisions. S/he also supports donor communication by ensuring effective channels of internal and external communications relating to grants are established and respected. The Grants Manager supports development of proposals and opportunity identification, as required.

Generic Responsibilities:

• Adherence to NRC policies, guidance and procedures
• Line management of Grants Coordinators, including development of the staff members, if applicable
• Develop and maintain overview of all grants, donor requirements, rules and regulations, and internal and external deadlines, including filing of grant documents (including through the grants database - forthcoming)
• Coordinate the development of donor applications and reports, as well as ensuring donor compliance and quality control
• Contribute to the development and revision of funding proposals, budgets and donor reports
• Be updated on donor priorities and track and share relevant calls for proposals
• Document, analyze, and share learning from proposal and reporting process, and compliance with donor rules and regulations
• Contribute to continuously improving internal grant management systems
• Provide an internal help-desk on donor related issues, including organize and deliver trainings in donor rules and regulations, as well as proposal and report writing
• Coordinate the development and distribution of internal reports
• Contribute to PCM trainings and usage of the NRC PCM frame work in the CO as delegated by the Head of Programme
• Support external donor audits
• Represent with relevant partners and donors as delegated

Specific Responsibilities:
Proposal Development:

• Build positive working relationships with other teams in the Country Office to coordinate and support development of high-quality proposals using relevant NRC Grant Management tools and guidance (Go/ No-go checklist, proposal development calendar, procurement plan, internal budgeting tool);
• Coordinate proposal development for NRC Nigeria’s portfolio of donors;
• Work closely with budget holders, programme teams, and finance as well as other stakeholders to compile accurate proposal budget and assess whether all necessary costs have been included.

Grant Agreement:

• Review donor contracts, flag any points that might challenge NRC’s procedures, and support contract negotiations;
• Work with finance team to support/advise them in development of internal budgeting tool and communication with field offices on allocated budget;
• Together with the Grants Coordinator, summarise in writing, key reporting and compliance requirements (compliance checklist) including potential issues for Grant Opening Meetings;
• Coordinate with head of programmes, respective budget holders and finance in order to ensure budgets are correctly allocated and aligned;
• Work with the relevant Area Manager/ CCS/PMs to ensure Grant Opening Meetings are arranged and take place within 30 days of the grant being activated.

Donor Reporting and Monitoring:

• Coordinate the finalisation of donor reports ensuring consistency between narrative and financial reports and that they meet quality standards;
• Highlight critical financial issues such as under/over spends to Head of Programmes, finance and Budget Holders, and follow up;
• Provide technical support to relevant CCS/PMs and Budget Holders on monitoring issues and budget revising (if required);
• Collaborate with the finance team to ensure donor budget lines as per the contract are in line with the financial system (i.e. amounts have not changed as a result of new income instalments at different rates being received);
• Monitor grant payment schedules and income requests for respective portfolio, working closely with finance to ensure this is done in a timely manner;
• In collaboration with the Head of Programmes, Media and Communications Coordinator, contribute to the development of country factsheets and other relevant information pieces for donor visits/meetings.

Donor Compliance:

• Be familiar with all NRC organizational and donor portfolio compliance requirements and ensure high quality management of grants through meeting of KPIs and deadlines;
• Support and advise programme colleagues with queries related to donor compliance on grants within portfolio;
• Work with other departments (i.e. programmes, finance, M&E, Compliance Coordinator) to ensure all documentation required is ready and available for audits (e.g. vouchers, distribution lists)
• Coordinate Close Out of grants in respective portfolio;
• Assist in training and capacity building related to NRC Grants Management/donor compliance as required.

General Administration:

• Ensure all documentation required to be kept by donors is available within the Grants department by maintaining high standard information management/filing systems;
• Visit Regional and/or field offices to support with capacity building of staff and partners and monitoring purposes;
• Support the Grants Coordinators to ensure correct and up-to-date maintenance of Grants Tracker.
• Any other tasks deledagted by the HoP

Critical Interfaces:

• By interfaces, NRC means processes and projects that are interlinked with other departments/units or persons. Relevant interfaces for this position are:
• Project planning: CC Specialists, Finance, M&E, Head of Programme, Country Director, Regional Programme Advisor, Institutional Partnership Advisors
• Implementation: Area Manager, CC Project Managers, M&E Manager

Scale and Scope of the Position:

• Staff: 2 Grants Coordiantor
• Stakeholders: Donors, local NGOs, governmental bodies, others as delegated.
• Information: Intranet, Share Drive
• Legal or compliance: Donor compliance

Professional Competencies
Generic Professional Competencies:

• Minimum of 4 years experience from a grants management position in a humanitarian/recovery context
• Experience from working with humanitarian and development donors
• Good knowledge of humanitarian donor guidelines and procedures
• Documented skills in formulation of project proposals and reports
• Detail oriented and strong organizational skills
• Communication skills
• Fluency in English, both written and verbal.

Context / Specific Skills, Knowledge and Experience:

• Post Graduate Degree in Social Sciences, Business Administration, Finance or Accounting
• Knowledge of the context in Nigeria preferred
• Minimum of 4 years relevant experience in programme development, management, fundraising and design in the humanitarian sector, preferably with refugee/IDP-related emergencies
• Previous experience in the compilation of donor proposals and reports;
• Strong analytical skills (data and financial)
• Knowledge of donor rules and regulations
• Knowledge of the political situation in Nigeria
• Proficiency in the use of Word and Excel
• Fluency in English, both written and verbal
• Strong communication, coordination and interpersonal skills
• Ability to mediate in high-stress scenarios with competing interest.

Behavioral Competencies:

• These are personal qualities that influence how successful people are in their job. NRC’s Competency Framework states 12 behavioural competencies and the following are essential for this position:
  • Planning and delivering results
  • Managing resources to optimize results
  • Influencing
  • Ability to work under pressure and with limited supervision
  • Culturally sensitive and coping with a changing environment
  • Handling insecure environments.

Performance Management:

• The employee will be accountable for the responsibilities and the competencies, in accordance with the NRC Performance Management Manual. The following documents will be used for performance reviews:
  • The Job Description
  • The Work and Development Plan
  • The Mid-term/End-of-trial Period Performance Review Template
  • The End-term Performance Review Template
  • The NRC Competency Framework.