Senior Grants Specialist at DAI

Background

• The purpose of the five-year (2020-2025) "State Accountability, Transparency and Effectiveness State 25tate") Activity is to increase the accountability, transparency and effectiveness of selected states and local governments (LGAs) in Nigeria. This will be achieved by: Increased Efficiency of Sub National Goverment Operations: strengthening governance systems (with a focus on public financial management (PPM) and procurement, as well as monitoring and evaluation) related to the delivery of services in key sectors (basic education, primary health care, and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)
• Improved Sub National Government Responsiveness to Citizen Needs/CSO Engagement increasing government responsiveness to citizen needs and priorities; and improved Sub National Capacity to Manage Conflict: improving government and civil society capacity to manage conflict (through work on prevention, mitigation and reconciliation with the same sectoral partners, not stand alone assistance to the police or judiciary).
• State2State will achieve this purpose by facilitating the strengthening of subnational governance systems in a sustainable manner, supporting the efforts of local reformen and building on locally derived solutions including, to the extent possible, reforms

Responsibilities
The Senior Grants Specialist will:

• Supervise the Grants Specialists located in each of the State2State field offices.
• Support the Grants Manage to provide capacity building and technical learning opportunities for Grants team members, grantees and subcontractors with whom State2State engages.
• Support the Grants Manager to oversee grant implementation and work with state-level Grants Specialists to ensure that grantee activities are implemented in accordance with approved activity design and support the resolution of issues that may arise. during implementation.
• Support the Grants Manager to generate grant agreements and review all aspects with state-level Grants Specialists and grantees to encourage compliance and ensure all activities are implemented in line with the approved activity design.
• Ensure that all grant activities are properly documented from the start of implementation to grant close-out.
• Support the Grants Manager to provide procedures and policy guidance for program staff and grantees to ensure adherence to grant management policies.
• Track and evaluate grant applications, proposals, and awards to ensure adherence to grant management policies.
• Review and analyze budget estimates for allowability, allocability, reasonableness, and consistency.
• Review payment requests submitted by grantees including milestones/deliverables.
• Support state Grants Specialist to prepare grant agreements and assist with supervision/ implementation of grants, including close-out and disposition plans.
• Review procurement processes under grants to ensure competitiveness and compliance.
• Support the Grants Manager to prepare regular reports on grants and subcontracts for the Chief of Party (CoP).
• Other responsibilities of a reasonable nature as assigned by the Grants Manager, Director of Finance and Administration (DFA) or CoP.

Impact of Results

• The Senior Grants Specialist will report and provide support to the Grants Manager in support of the grant implementation process throughout all State2State partner states, currently including Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Ebonyi, Gombe and Sokoto.

Skills and Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Finance, Business Administration, Public Administration, Economics, or other relevant field.
• At least 8 years of related progressively more responsible experience in grants design and administration (experience with grants award and grants management as well as prior experience in the award and administration of subcontracts), preferably in the governance sector.
• Working knowledge of USAID Contract Management and Grants Management policies and procedures required.
• Experience implementing grant policies and procedures required.
• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to engage with a wide range of organizations, beneficiaries, and related parties.
• Strong oral and written communication skills.
• Ability to work under own initiative or as a part of a team.
• Experience of working in a conflict environment is a plus.
• Fluency in oral and written English is required.
• Fluency in one or more of the local languages spoken in the state(s) of interest preferred.
• Have both a willingness and ability to train and be trained.
• Advanced practical experience with MS Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).

Language requirements:

• Essential: Fluency in English, written and spoken
• Desirable: Fluency in Hausa and / or other local language