Special Projects Officer

As member of the portfolio department, the Special Projects Officer (SPO) is responsible for the management of the assigned awards.

The awards portfolio of the SPO includes awards which are implemented in countries belonging to the so called “tier 3 category”, where SC ITA support is limited to specific Institutional Account opportunities and Donors (such as INTPA (DEVCO), French Cooperation (AFD), Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and AICS). It may include also corporate opportunities.

The SPO may also be assigned a supporting role to other projects within the SC ITA Portfolio/Priorities Countries but in need of special focus and attention beyond the Regional Programmes Senior Officer (RPSO) oversight (may be high risk, or with complex compliance, etc etc), and/or it may support the donor readiness revision of reports for given projects.

In the given countries and on the specific project, the Special Projects Officer has a key role in:

• The Awards Management of the specific project;
• Implementation monitoring through, also reporting revision;
• Budget management and monitoring for the specific project;
• Overall risk identification and management of the specific project

It is important to note that the overall portfolio strategy development and monitoring remains within the Head of Unit (HoU) and the relevant RSPO.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Key areas of responsibility

• Oversees the “end to end” project and awards management cycle of the specific projects assigned
• Carries out monitoring visits in the countries of implementation of the assigned projects
• Ensures the timely creation of proposals, contracts and reports in support of quality programmes delivery within the Portfolio
• Main interface with SCI Country Office (or Member) project staff
• Contributes to the oversight and monitoring of the specific projects’ budget
• Oversees and monitors the projects’ implementation budget
• Identifies risks for implementation and mitigating measures (in coordination with the Grant Management Unit)
• Ensure award compliance to all internal and external (SCI) administrative and Awards Management processes
• Ensure donor compliance in terms of reporting in coordination with the Grants Team when necessary
• Develops knowledge of in Country context and current issues in relation to delivery and operating platform in particular
• Provides programmatic information of the specific projects to feed into donor engagement strategy and donor relation
• May provide programmatic information of the specific projects to feed into production of content for engagement and donor relations/strategy, advocacy, technical and content management teams

Programme management

• Monitors the given projects, providing input/advice to implementation teams in Country offices and raising red flags to the relevant Head of Unit where appropriate
• Provides programmatic feedback to given project reports and coordinates review from Technical Support and Programme Quality department where appropriate
• Leads into risk assessment process for the specific Cos or projects
• Ensures general compliance with Donors requirements (in coordination with the Grant Unit for financial specific ones), as well as SC Italy internal and SCI standards and provides advice/support to COs
• Liaises with the Grant Unit to ensure all relevant documentation is donor-ready (Narrative Report, Amendment Request; Work plan etc)
• Liaises with technical team to facilitate delivery of technical support and identification of good practices and opportunities of learning within programmes in the Regional portfolio
• Manages the overall Award Management processes and systems
• Responsible for all the administrative process linked to the creating, monitoring and close out of the given awards, including the creation of codes, folders and database on server of project information
• Contributes to the effective coordination with other departments (Coms, Marketing, Domestic Program) if needs arise on the given projects
• Supports ad hoc work on relevant humanitarian responses, shall the need arise
• Contributes to the recruitment of project staff when needed
• Supports the identification of good practices and innovative approaches within the portfolio
• Conducts ad hoc in-country visits, according to project needs

Financial management and monitoring:

• Contributes to the design, oversight and monitoring of SC Italy budget for the assigned geographic areas area or projects
• Supports the Regional HoUs in monitoring of sources of funds for the Regional Units;
• In close coordination with the Grant Management Unit, contributes to budgets monitoring, including monitoring of budget variances and assessing amendments for the given projects
• In close coordination with Grant Management Unit, contributes to consistency check between budgets and projects planning/narrative documentation
• In strict coordination with of the Grant Management Unit, contributes to the analysis of the financial report (over/underspent) (main focus on private-funds)
• Support the Finance team in the final reconciliation, liaising with COs if necessary
• May support other projects’ reports revision (also for Corporate or Major Donors) with the aim of making them “donor ready”.

Programme development & donor engagament/fundraising

• In coordination with the HoU, supports the business development and engagement with institutional (and private donors if necessary) for the specific projects;
• Provides supports in the definition of new opportunities, and assess feasibility and relevance to context
• Supports in the proposal development in given countries and/or for strategic donor opportunities through the review and appraisal of project proposals, in coordination with technical and proposal development staff as appropriate
• Carries out analysis of funding opportunities in order to contribute to internal decision making process (Go/No-Go).

FINAL RESULTS

• End to end awards management of the given projects carried out timely;
• Assigned projects’ delivery support is coordinated at Sc Italy level between IP departments/with Finance;
• Above 80% of awards activated (through a FS or PAL) within 14 days of start date;
• Above 80% of Member Award Close out actions for the closing projects completed on time
• QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE
• Fluent in Italian, English and (desired) French
• Thorough knowledge of project cycle management and budget management
• At least 5 years of progressive working experience in development /humanitarian aid, in a programme management similar role.
• Estensive experience in managing awards funded by institutional donors (both development and humanitarian)
• Experience in managing complex and large size grants, including consortia
• Problem solving skills
• Negotiation skills
• Flexibility and adaptation skills
• OTHER
• Commitment to Save the Children value