National Program Advisor, Institutional Partnership Development

Who we are

SOS Children’s Villages Ethiopia is an International Non-governmental organization and a member of SOS Children’s Villages International Federation. We started our humanitarian work in Ethiopia with the opening of our first Village in Mekelle, Northern part of Ethiopia in 1974. Since then, we have expanded our programs to different regions where there are significant needs for intervention and where we believe we can work in partnership with all relevant actors to bring sustainable positive outcomes for children’s and young people.

Today, we have grown significantly to meet the persistent challenges that confront Ethiopian children who have lost parental care and those that are at risk of losing their parental care. Working in close collaboration with international donors, local government and community based organizations across seven program locations; we aspire that every child grows up with love, respect and security.

Why we need you?

We are looking for a National Program Advisor, Institutional Partnership Development (IPD) who will be responsible to support on the Institutional Partnership Development and advise the National Director. The IPD will work with the National Director and Program team to mobilize fines and develop institutional partnership strategies and contribute to the growth of the funding profolio as well as day to day donor relationship management with bilateral donors, international organization, government institution, embassies and any other concerned national or international organization

Your role….

Fundraising and Donor Liaison

• Lead strategic intelligence gathering, analysis and support activities in line with internal growth plans so as to position SOS CVE to donors and other key stakeholders, in alignment with global strategy 2030 and National Strategy 2022 to 2026.
• Coordinate with relevant team to conduct assessments and feasibility studies that inform program design. Conduct background research relevant for designing projects
• Coordinate high value proposal development processes to ensure timely submission of high-quality proposals
• Develop and maintain good relationships with donors by ensuring regular communication, knowledge exchange and effective reporting.
• Actively support the National Director and other Senior Management members to cultivate and strengthen relationships with institutional donors, partner organizations and other stakeholders.. Ensure regular communication with the SOS CV international, PSAs and regional offices
• Coordinate, monitor and assess the quality of donor reporting making sure that donor requirements are met during the project implementation and phase.
• Prepare and submit IPD monthly updates and quarterly reports to the National Director.

Donor Contract Management

• Responsible for Donor Contract Management (DCM) of institutional (restricted) grants, including contract preparation, development of consortium agreements, teaming agreements compliance with donor requirements, and submission of reports.
• Develop and maintain a mechanism for the management of institutional contracts.
• Ensure all funding files, (electronic, system, and paper) are complete and kept up to date.
• Undertake routine donor contract administration for country programs including maintenance of records on donor contracts.
• Establish a close working relationship with the Finance Department and provide advice to ensure synergy in donor budgeting, contract management and reporting

Strategy, Capacity Building

• Develop and implement an institutional fundraising and partnership strategy in line with the needs of SOS Children’s Villages Ethiopia and ensure this is infused within the national plans
• Review and implement the recommendations of the donor market survey
• Train and support relevant staff in Project Cycle Management and Logical Framework Approach among other models and approaches
• Build fundraising capacity within the program team, by training staff on funding policies donor relations, reporting, contract management, etc.

Partnership Development and Networking

• Establish and maintain regular contact with donors by organizing donor visits, face to face meetings, attending donor forums etc
• Negotiate collaboration with partner institutions and government departments in support of SOS CV Ethiopia subject to approval from the National Director
• Assess and where possible develop partnerships and consortiums with other like-minded organizations for purposes of bidding for large donor projects.
• Represent SOS CV Ethiopia in sector-level meetings (development and humanitarian/emergency) and other networking forums and use this to aggressively develop funding partnerships
• Participate in regional IPD networking and training forums and contribute to the development of new IPD strategies to improve practice

Up for the challenge…

Then check out our criteria’s:

Must have:

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in development/social sciences (Sociology, Development studies, International Relations, or related field). A Master’s degree will be an added advantage.

Experience

• 4-7 years of extensive experience in planning, securing, and managing funds from institutional donors as well as a thorough understanding of development programming
• Demonstrated experience utilizing diverse strategies to competitively position his or her organization for new funding.
• Excellent interpersonal, networking and communication skills with the ability to represent SOS CV Ethiopia in donor forums, develop partnerships with other NGOs
• Experience of capacity building in all aspects of funding and contract compliance

Skills

• A strong strategic, analytical, systems thinking, and problem-solving skills, with a capacity to both see the big picture and give attention to details
• Leadership, innovation, flexibility, be self-driven and have the ability to work very fast and under strict deadlines.