Partnerships Officer

Save the Children has been operational in Kenya since the 1950s, providing support to children through developmental and humanitarian relief programmes delivered both directly and through local partners. Current programming focuses on child protection, child rights governance, education, health, HIV/AIDS, livelihoods, nutrition and WASH. In 2012, as part of a global reorganization process, Save the Children combined the programmes of SC UK, SC Canada and SC Finland to create a single operation in Kenya. In Feb 2014, we completed a second transition, which saw us join forces with the British INGO, Merlin, and merge their health and nutrition programmes with our own. Save the Children now has an operational presence in Bungoma, Dadaab Refugee Camp, Garissa, Mandera, Turkana and Wajir and a footprint in Kakamega, Kisumu, Migori and Kitui. In 2016, Save the Children established a new project office in Madagascar whose operations are managed by the Kenya CO. In total, we employ around 250 staff in both countries and had an operating annual budget in 2017 of approximately US$22million.

ROLE PURPOSE: ROLE PURPOSE:

The purpose of this post is to support the Award Management team in the planning, securing, engagement and managing of partnerships in both development and humanitarian awards. The position involves supporting of partner information management and compliance with systems and processes.

Under the direction of the Partnerships Manager, Partnerships Coordinator and the Head of Finance, the Partnerships Officer will be responsible for supporting the Partnerships and Finance team to adhere to all partnership management obligations internally within Save the Children and externally with donors.

This role will work closely with PDQ and Program Operations on proposals, financial and narrative reporting, monitoring and analysis and compliance processes as pertains to partners. In the event of a major humanitarian emergency, the role holder will be expected to work outside the normal role profile and be able to vary working hours accordingly.

Contract Duration: 11 Months

Location: Nairobi

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

Developing self and others

• Work with other team members to support team activities
• Build relationships with members of other teams i.e. PDQ, finance and operations
• Involvement in capacity strengthening of partners

Communicating with impact, negotiation and coordination

• Input into high quality ‘donor ready’ reports by review of partner reports and timely follow up to ensure timely submission

Communication with partners to obtain inputs into key processes and up to date budget figures.

Proposal development

• Work with the relevant teams such as project managers, supply chain, business development and PDQ to conduct specific award risk assessment and complete the Proposal and Awards Risk Tool (PART) for projects with partners.
• Ensure all partner documentation is managed and processed in a timely manner and uploaded onto AMS and that the related workflows are run in a timely manner.

Compliance (systems, processes, donor)

• Learn and follow SCI processes and relevant donor requirements
• Understanding of the AMS system, maintaining and driving data quality for all active partners on AMS
• Ability to use AMS reporting to monitor awards with partners and plan for key processes i.e. partner reporting reminders to ensure timely and quality donor reporting
• Assist the partner teams to understand donor compliance requirements relating to award management including budgeting and reporting, and ensure deadlines are met
• Basic understanding of donor compliance and development of compliance checklists if needed for partners

Portfolio management and strategy

• Proactively support a wide range of aspects of a partnerships portfolio, including partner profiling and scoping, trend analysis, involvement in development of partner engagement plan
• Gather and share partner intelligence
• Ensure partner assessments are conducted on time, have the right representation and mutual capacity sharing plans are agreed on
• Facilitate dialogue with partners by working closely with PDQ to prepare quality briefing materials for review and reference by the management team
• Run reports from AMS to support the AM team with monitoring of the Partners Portfolio
• Perform monitoring and analysis activities when required and work with the Coordinator and Manager to resolve any issues identified
• Problem solving skills to address and work through issues with partners when they arise.

Monitoring and analysis

• Key in development of partner budgets including liaising with PDQ, program teams and finance to ensure this has been fully costed and ICR included for partners at the agreed thresholds
• Financial analysis skills to perform monitoring processes for awards with partners and identify any issues for further analysis
• Ensure partner budget lines are as needed for donor reporting requirements
• Support in ensuring partners are invited to award kick off meetings.
• Participate in partner meetings conducted by Ops and ensure partner budget vs actual (BVA) is reviewed every month
• Provide management information to the Awards Manager via a portfolio analysis report on a monthly showing information on partner performance and highlighting any unresolved issues that may affect performance
• Coordinate with program operations to ensure partner close out meetings are conducted in a timely manner. Ensure that all meetings are minuted and these minutes filed on AMS and follow up actions done.
• Ensure that partner information on Awards Management System (AMS) is effectively maintained, up to date and accurately records the audit trail for all partners.
• Ensure that all proposals, contracts and amendments with partners are processed and approved through AMS and the system is an accurate reflection of current status at all times
• Create partner records in AMS and submit for legal vetting; maintain partner records so that inactive partner records are archived.

Partner Reporting

• Share with all partners whose reports are due the partner monthly reporting on the first working day of each month
• Follow up with partners to ensure timely and quality submission of reports
• Share received narrative reports with the relevant team member in Operations
• Review partner financial reports to the supporting documents and liquidate the fully supported reports; otherwise follow up with partners to ensure relevant supporting documents have been submitted and on time.
• Post the partner liquidations in to the financial management system and reconcile the partner advance account 5200

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• University degree in International development, business administration, commerce, International relations and/or experience working in a related role.
• Minimum 3 years of relevant professional work experience in managing grants, contracts & sub agreements with knowledge of major funders’ guidelines (e.g. USAID, ECHO, FCDO, CIDA, SIDA etc.)
• Relevant experience managing donor funded projects with International NGO’s particularly those addressing human/children’s rights and those applying partnership approaches
• Strong analytical skills, computer literacy and excellent documentation skills are a must.
• Ability to work well with a team and establish relationships with other teams/offices
• Cultural awareness and ability to work well in an international environment with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures.
• Highly developed interpersonal and English communication skills including influencing and negotiation.
• Experience working with implementing partners and managing sub awards/grants.
• Excellent time management and planning capacityFluency and excellent communication skills in English language
• Experience of effective teamwork and outstanding inter-personal communication skills.
• Experience of coalition building and working with civil society actors to deliver change.
• Fluency and excellent communication skills in English language
• Experience of effective teamwork and outstanding inter-personal communication skills.
• Experience of coalition building and working with civil society actors to deliver change.

THE ORGANIZATION

We employ approximately 25,000 people across the globe and work on the ground in over 100 countries to help children affected by crises, or those that need better healthcare, education and child protection. We also campaign and advocate at the highest levels to realise the right of children and to ensure their voices are heard.

We are working towards three breakthroughs in how the world treats children by 2030:

• No child dies from preventable causes before their 5th birthday.
• All children learn from a quality basic education and that,
• Violence against children is no longer tolerated.

Please apply in English saving your CV and covering letter as a single document, including your salary expectations for this role. To see a full a job description, please visit our website at

We need to keep children safe so our selection process reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse. Employment is subject to our Child protection standards including background checks and adherence to our Child Safeguarding Policy.

Save the Children is an equal opportunity employer and seeks to employ and assign the best-qualified talent.

Female Candidates are encouraged to apply.

Disclaimer: Save the Children International does not charge any kind of fee at whichever stage of the recruitment process and does not act through recruitment agents.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.