Grant Acquisition Specialist, World Vision Solomon Islands (Remote)

World Vision Solomon Islands

Role: Grant Acquisition Specialist

Dates of Performance: As soon as possible; 1 December 2022 – 30 November 2023

Location: Remote, Asia Pacific region (Pacific region preferred)

Supervisor: Grant Acquisition Management (GAM) & External Engagement Manager

Purpose of Consultancy:

World Vision Solomon Islands’ (WVSI) work is funded only through grants, with our community-focused projects generally having a duration of one to five years. Our portfolio of programs is characterized by diversity, covering multiple sectors. Our partnerships with communities are multi-dimensional and long-term. Over the last 39 years, WVSI has had a wealth of experience implementing projects from multiple donors across a wide range of sectors, including health and WASH; livelihoods and economic development, education, gender-based violence reduction, disaster risk reduction emergency responses and more

The role will support grant acquisition in the Solomon Islands in alignment with WV global, regional, and national business development plans and strategic objectives. The purpose of the position is to lead resource acquisition for World Vision Solomon Islands, securing sustainable grant funding for all project activities and ensuring consistent compliance with World Vision International (WVI) accountability mechanisms. The role works in close partnership with GAM & External Engagement Manager and the GAM Program Officer to ensure strategy realization for accelerating growth in grants revenue, with specific focus given to:

• Working proactively for effective prepositioning and funding acquisition with donors, partners, and Support Offices;
• Tracking and analyzing trends in the institutional funding landscape, effectively communicating key information to the WVSI team and other key stakeholders to inform strategic decision-making;
• Managing a coordinated strategy process for grant acquisition across priority donors. Support the development, writing, and submission of quality grant proposals.
• Developing and embedding efficient business processes for grants acquisitions
• Contributing to best practice learning and sharing to accelerate growth in grants.

The Grants Acquisition Specialist proactively targets prioritized funding opportunities that will advance the World Vision Solomon Islands Strategy.

Major Responsibilities:

Strategic Resource Development:

• Act as the primary liaison for WVSI’s relationships with Support Offices about all new grant opportunities and designs. Ensure effective collaboration and regular communication with Support Offices, local and international partners, and other stakeholders.

• Support the delivery of national initiatives for technical branding and evidence, such as developing key messaging guides, capacity statements, and donor briefs.

• Utilize donor insights, and knowledge of broader development trends, or leverage partnership best practices and learn to recommend win strategies to increase competitiveness for new opportunities.

• Provide analysis and insights into donor strategies, priorities, and relationship history to inform donor engagement plans at FO and RO levels.

• Support the GAM team in managing and developing the pipeline analysis and annual business plan by; keeping the established and UN funding stable and thoroughly working on getting the emerging funding growing and capacity building

• Provide strong analysis of donor Calls for Proposals and recommend whether WVSI should pursue funding opportunities using the Go/No Go Process.

• Work in coordination with GAM, DME, and Operations team to collect detailed knowledge of the context in which programming occurs, impacts being achieved, and challenges being addressed by WVSI programs.

• Provides the GAM team with the necessary Acquisition data and analysis that can influence effective decision-making for the overall good of Solomon Islands programming initiatives.

Grants Acquisition:

• Tracking funding opportunities and working with WV offices globally to develop, write, and revise proposal documents per donor requirements and WV policy.

• Manage and lead all stages of resource mobilization, including concept development, proposal development, and submissions. This includes leading consultations with key national and regional stakeholders, including staff, local government, donors, etc., to formulate programmatic ideas and directions that fit with WVSI strategic areas of focus [both sector and geographic] and donor requirements in coordination with the Grant Acquisition and Management team.

• Lead and ensure proposals are developed based on evidence in a timely manner while ensuring the proposals are in alignment with donor and WV standards and policies.

• Ensure budgets are competitively costed within donor requirements with the Finance Manager.

• Apply best standards for advancing local partnerships and consortia building; including facilitation of the partner assessment processes

• Document intelligence related to the donor competitive landscape and potential funding opportunities at the regional and national level, updating appropriate FO staff to support the resource acquisition efforts.

• Ensure that donor requirements and standards are well understood by PQ/Operations and project staff and that a clear hand-over process is conducted for the implementation team, including participation in grant inception workshops and producing donor requirement “cheat sheets”

• File all Acquisition-related documentation appropriately, ensuring relevant content on the shared Sharepoint/MS Teams site is up to date.

Donor Engagement:

• Advise on donor relationships, and elevate WV’s profile. Support to foster donor relationships

• Map and manage donor landscape analysis, plans, and meetings; especially with DFAT, MFAT, EU, USAID, 4UN, and Bilateral Donors

• Support networking and participation in relevant meetings at the regional and national level

• Draw upon intelligence and analysis of the funding landscape to recommend opportunities for prepositioning concepts

Other Competencies/Attributes:

• Experience working in the Pacific

• Very strong interpersonal/intercultural skills;

• Track record of successful grant design and win rate, specifically with DFAT, MFAT, UN, and other multilateral and bilateral donors

• High performance and quality standards;

• Ability to motivate teams and inspire teamwork;

• Creativity and logic;

• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail;

Qualifications:

Essential: Relevant undergraduate degree (e.g. international or development studies; economics; social science disciplines; etc); Desirable: Postgraduate qualifications or relevant technical/vocational studies;

Language: Fluent in the English Language required

Experience:

• Minimum five years experience with government and multilateral organization procedures and regulations;

• Minimum five years experience in successful proposal writing and management of proposal development teams, preferred Australian and New Zealand government donors;

• Experienced networker with an ability to maintain a good date knowledge of the grant opportunities and trends in the development sector; demonstrable prior successes in grant submissions/tendering

• Excellent English written and spoken communication skills are essential

Knowledge/Technical Skills

• Excellent knowledge and experience of project management with government and multilateral agencies grant-funded projects and experience of grant compliance procedures for major bilateral (DFAT, MFAT, EU, USAID, etc.) and multilateral donors.

• Experienced in leading the development of complex Health (WASH, Maternal Child Health), Child Protection, Gender & Protection, Education, and/or Livelihoods grant project proposals

• Experience working in the Pacific (Solomon Islands preferred)

• High performance and quality standards; negotiation skills; ability to motivate teams and inspire teamwork;

• Relationship building and networking, with experience in working with donors or other business development expertise

• Strong financial awareness, with the ability to build and interpret complex budgets and financial reporting

This is a consultancy position. Consultancy is open to in-country and remotely based consultants in Asia Pacific (Pacific preferred).