Grants Manager

Purpose:

This role will work collaboratively with the Country Office programme managers, the Country Director and the Director of Grant Management to ensure smooth management of grants and contracts in Iraq, focusing on donor compliance and accountability. This position will also be responsible to build the capacity of WFWI and staff and partner organizations.

Engagement:

• Closely works with the project/program managers for planning and grant delivery planning, grant management packets, activity planning and donor reporting.
• Collaborate with program teams to ensure the timely submission of progress reports, financial reports and other documentation as required by donors.
• Works closely with the Country office Finance and Logistics manager in preparing financial reports.
• Attends regular Grant and Program Management meetings and provides analysis of grant management details.
• Actively seeks support from the Director of Grant Management and Program Managers.
• Cultivate and maintain positive relationships with the Program Team and funding
• Stay informed about funding opportunities and trends in the INGO sector in Iraq.

Delivery:

• Lead on preparing Grant Management packets outlining donor compliance requirements, and project deliverables as per WFWI’s standard tools and templates, and by having an in-depth understanding of the donor Grant Agreement and full final proposal materials

• Lead on facilitating kick-off meetings, ensuring that all grant information is shared effectively with relevant staff across the country office and partners and documenting meeting minutes. Keep track of, and follow up on, all actions resulting from the grant at kick-off and ongoing throughout the grant lifecycle.
• Ensure that grant management systems and processes are successfully implemented across the life of an award and that key controls are in place to support effective management of the funding portfolio and compliance with the donor requirements.
• Establish systems for regular award monitoring and facilitate regular meetings with key stakeholders to support the program managers to ensure that performance on individual grants is tracked effectively, risks and issues are flagged and action is taken as appropriate.
• Manage grant closeout planning and processes.
• Take the lead on any amendments required to current grants; ensure this is communicated to the Global Program team and donor approvals are secured in a timely fashion and clear completion plans are in place for revised budget and activities.
• Support the finance team on master budget development, cost allocation, monitoring of award budgets, phasing and forecasting, in particular ensuring alignment between the master budget and grant tracker.
• Coordinate the processes for donor reporting to ensure that reports are high quality, delivered on time and supported by auditable records. This includes assessing and making recommendations to improve the reconciliation process (reporting assurance mechanism) between Finance, Programme and M&E that will ensure accountable reporting to donors.

• Provide regular management information to the SMT on the performance of the country office grants.
• Ensure all WfWI grant management tasks/processes follow WfWI’s established Grant Management Workflow, including agreed sign-off procedures.
• Responsible for maintaining up-to-date and detailed in-country grant filing systems, as well as regularly updating relevant Country Office trackers to ensure all grant milestone/report deadlines are successfully met.

Donor Compliance:

• Support all functions to ensure donor requirements are understood and complied with.
• Ensure that all appropriate donor formats are available in-country, and that key contributing staff have a clear understanding of donor requirements and expectations at the proposal, kick off, amendment, reporting, close out and audit stage of grants.
• Ensure potential issues and amendment requests are flagged promptly to donors via the Global Grants Management team. This may include developing business cases where donor waiver/derogation requests need to be more thoroughly articulated or negotiated with donors.
• Work with internal and external auditors as necessary.
• Responsible for ensuring PMs meet donor requirements with final narrative reports and work plans in the area of Grants management.

Partnerships:

• Work with relevant program teams on partner mapping exercises and maintain an up to date records of partnership mapping.
• Work with relevant program staff to ensure all WWI subgrantees and partners across Iraq undergo due diligence checks, partnership assessments, legal vetting, and capacity assessment prior to commencing work with WFWI, are engaged with appropriate agreements and effective monitoring systems are in place so that partner delivery meets donor expectations and requirements.
• Ensure all partner grant management tasks/processes follow WfWI’s Sub-granting Management Policy, including agreed sign-off procedures.
• Work with program and finance staff to ensure relevant donor requirements are effectively communicated and understood by local partners.
• Works with partner organizations to maximize local capacity in the area of grants management.
• Monitor grant-related expenses and work with the finance team to ensure proper allocation of funds.
• Compile monthly, quarterly, and annual grant reports on the progress of program implementation as required.
• Maintain accurate and up-to-date grant management Ensuring that all contracts and amendments with donors are processed and approved through Grants management tracker on One Drive is an accurate reflection of current grant status at all times.
• Ensure that all adequate attachments appear on a shared folder and are retained as part of the award audit trail.

Capacity Building:

• Takes the lead in designing and conducting training for WFWI staff and partner organizations.

• Carry out orientations and staff training for grant management policy and procedures, donor requirements etc.

Others:

• Adhere to WfWI’s Code of Conduct and Safeguarding Policies and the organizational values of Empowerment, Integrity, Respect, and Resilience.
• Carry out any other tasks as assigned by the direct supervisor.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE:

Essential:

• Education: Minimum master’s degree or equivalent post graduate degree in social development, Women Rights, Human Rights, public policy or other relevant field [Note: number of years of relevant work experience may be considered in lieu of master’s degree but minimum of bachelor’s degree is required.]
• Years of experience: Minimum of 7 years of work experience in relevant field, preferably within the INGO sector, of which at least 3 years of grants management.

• Experience with government and/or multi-lateral grant reporting and budget development.
• Experience in managing sub-granting management and local partner capacity building
• Proven track record of supporting a senior management team.
• Knowledge of the requirements of the major donors and experience in reporting to donors.
• Excellent attention to detail and analytical skills
• Computer literate (i.e. Word, advanced Excel, Outlook, Internet Explorer, financial systems).
• Cultural awareness and ability to build relationships quickly with a wide variety of people.
• Patient, adaptable, flexible, able to improvise and remain responsive and communicate clearly and effectively under pressure.
• Excellent planning, management, and coordination skills, with the ability to organize a workload comprised of varying and changing tasks and responsibilities.
• Strong communication (written and spoken), and interpersonal skills in English with ability to work with diverse team members.
• Fluent in Arabic language.

• Significant experience with NGOs in an international environment

Desirable:

 Fluent in Kurdish language.

Interested candidates must submit an updated CV to: [email protected] with mentioning Grants Manager in the Subject line.

Application deadline: July 20, 2024

Female applicants are highly encouraged for this position.

Only motivated applications that meet the required qualifications will be contacted.

* CV’s shared via links or sent with the wrong subject lines will not be considered.

*Please note that contract for this vacancy will be issued upon securing the donor agreement.