Policy LINK/Ghana Procurement and Grants Assistant/Officer/Coordinator

Position: Policy LINK/Ghana Procurement & Grants Assistant/Officer/Coordinator

Location: Accra, Ghana

Project: USAID/Feed the Future Policy LINK

Status: LTTA

Supervisor: Ghana Procurement & Grants Manager

Project Background

The Feed the Future Policy LINK project will strengthen the capacity of local actors and institutions to lead and manage the agricultural transformation process and contribute effectively and collectively to improved, broad-based food security policy outcomes.

Specifically, the program aims to strengthen food security policy systems by investing in and reinforcing productive human and social capital and developing strategic partnerships that help bring these innovations and capacity investments to scale in order to achieve a critical mass of local actors with the ability and opportunity to effect positive policy change through collective action.

Policy LINK’s general approach is grounded in facilitative leadership and collaborative governance, which emphasize engaging stakeholders from civil society and public and private sectors in consensus-oriented decision making, collaborative problem solving, and adaptive learning.

Policy LINK in Ghana

USAID/Policy LINK Ghana is a five-year activity with the overall objective of fostering behavior change that strengthens the capacity and ability of Ghanaian stakeholders to participate in a more transparent, inclusive, and evidence-based agriculture and food security policy process that leads to improved food and nutrition outcomes and broad-based economic growth. Specifically, the activity will facilitate the transition towards a policy development paradigm driven by multiple stakeholders.

This approach to policymaking will strengthen the capacities of Ghana’s main agricultural policy system actors and institutions, and support them to engage stakeholders traditionally excluded from decision-making, including academia, financial institutions, the judiciary, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and private sector representatives from the national, regional, and local levels.

This approach is underpinned by Policy LINK’s overarching theory of change focused on increasing human and social capital, engaging policy system actors in collaborative processes, and developing mechanisms for collaborative governance and dynamic learning systems and platforms to sustain collective action.

Position Objectives

The Procurement & Grants Officer will be responsible for providing general procurement and subaward management support to the Policy LINK Program’s Ghana team including design, implementation and closeout. S/he will also support the contracting of independent consultants. S/he will ensure successfully planned and executed subawards compliant with project policies, values, principles, budgets and timelines, reporting to the Procurement & Grants Manager.

The Procurement & Grants Officer will coordinate various aspects of design, execution and monitoring of Policy LINK grants, subcontracts, and independent consultant agreements. This will include managing implementation trackers, working with technical colleagues to track procurement needs under different activities; ensuring compliance and quality assurance of program processes and procedures; and support to MEL colleagues with documentation and reporting.

S/he will continually reinforce Policy LINK’s agreed-upon core purpose and principles, and ensure all decision-making is rooted in those purpose and principles. S/he will contribute to foster a learning environment in which personal and team growth is supported, with a shared understanding that the “team” always comes before the “individual.”

Responsibilities

Procurement Management

• Work with Policy LINK activity teams to prioritize procurement needs and ensure they are consistent with program goals

• Carry out procurements and manage related shipping logistics with the support of the Administrative & Logistics Coordinator in accordance with applicable USAID regulations and DAI policies

• Under the supervision of the Grants & Procurement Manager, prepare solicitation documents, evaluate proposals, select suppliers, and create purchase orders and other related documents

• Maintain a tracker of active subawards, ensuring timely modifications take place in compliance with DAI policies and procedures

• Support and maintain good communication and relationships with program partners and vendors on matters regarding procurement activity, expectations, logistics, deliverables, timelines and compliance requirements

• In coordination with relevant technical leads, monitor vendor performance for compliance with terms and conditions of award and contribute data to a local vendor database

• Contribute responses to procurement findings from internal or external file audits

Grants Management

Design, Competition and Award:

• In coordination with technical staff and under the supervision of the Procurement & Grants Manager, draft content for grant solicitations and award documents using the appropriate templates, ensuring that Scopes of Work and general grant design are of high technical quality and align to project priorities

• Post grant solicitations (Annual Program Statement, Request for Applications, etc.) and support vetting and selection of grantees in compliance with project policies

• Serve as the non voting chair of grant technical and financial evaluation committee meetings and ensure that all records for such meetings and grant processes are well kept

• Carry out due diligence, grant award negotiations, milestone finalization, and pre-award and on-boarding activities for new awards including proper contractual orientation of grantees.

Implementation:

• Track grantee submission of milestones and other technical reports

• Schedule site visits and follow up meetings as appropriate to ensure grantees meet award expectations

• Coordinate review and approval of milestones, reports, and payment requests, ensuring completeness, accuracy and quality of information submitted. Ensure all relevant documents are stored appropriately in project files

• With support from MEL staff, collect and store any designated MEL documentation (i.e. participant lists, technical reports) in appropriate project databases and contribute to project reporting

• Communicate clearly with grantees, proactively initiating formal award modifications as appropriate

Closeout:

• Under supervision of the Procurement & Grants Manager, ensure that grants are closed out in compliance with project policies and procedures, collecting signed closeout letters, final reports, and any other specified final deliverables

• Support MEL colleagues to organize an end-of-grant debrief or “lessons learned” event as appropriate, in coordination with technical staff assigned to the grant

• At grant conclusion, complete designed grant closeout process according to the latest checklist / guidance available in the Field Operations Manual, saving evidence of the audit in the project files.

Independent Consultant Management:

• Document the recruitment (if applicable) and hire of new consultants, as well as modifications to existing consultant agreements, ensuring that updated CVs, biodata forms, SOWs, and other required documentation such as reference checks and restricted party screenings are saved

• Maintain updated independent consultant agreement tracker, flagging approaching award ceilings or period of performance end dates for supervisors

• Ensure that consultant agreements are fully executed by the appropriate DAI signatory per the latest Project Schedule of Authorities based on ceiling value

• In coordination with relevant technical leads, monitor consultant performance for compliance with agreement terms and conditions and enter performance data in consultant database.

Reporting

The Procurement & Grants Officer will report to the Ghana Procurement & Grants Manager.

Supervisory Responsibilities

The Procurement & Grants Officer will not have any direct supervisory responsibilities.

Qualifications

Education and Work Experience:

• At minimum, Bachelor’s Degree or Diploma in Public Administration & Management, Procurement & Logistics Management, Project Planning & Management, or any relevant qualification.

• At minimum, 3 years of work experience in procurement, grants, and independent consultant management for an Assistant, 5+ years for an Officer, and 7 years for a Coordinator. Strong preference for financial management and accounting experience. ”

• Experience supporting fast-paced donor-funded programs focused on resilience, livelihoods, food security, capacity development, or similar technical areas.

Skills:

• Attention to detail;

• Effective communication with colleagues and stakeholders located within Ghana as well as in Kenya and other LINK offices – a strong capacity for remote collaboration is required;

• Ability to balance competing priorities and information shared by colleagues, policy and procedure manuals, stakeholders, etc. and carry out well-informed procurement actions;

• Good English and Akan writing and speaking.