Overview
Provides strategic leadership and oversight of award management, partnership quality, and the Country Office’s localization agenda. Ensures award and partnership portfolios meet global standards for quality, accountability, and donor compliance.
Key Responsibilities
- Provide strategic leadership on Award and Partnership Management.
- Ensure accurate award portfolio information is available.
- Support the development and implementation of the Country Office funding strategy.
- Ensure proactive risk identification and mitigation.
- Ensure the Award Management System (AMS) is effectively maintained.
- Strengthen internal reporting assurance mechanisms.
- Ensure a robust framework for master budget development, cost allocation, budget monitoring, phasing, forecasting, and alignment with the funding tracker.
- Ensure financial risks and variances are addressed.
- Recruit, train, develop, and manage award and partnership management staff.
- Foster strong internal and external relationships.
- Ensure all program, award, finance, MEAL, and support staff understand donor requirements.
- Ensure proposal development, donor reports, M&E products, and quality assurance systems meet donor and SCI compliance standards.
- Provide guidance to Finance on cost allocation strategies.
- Flag issues and amendment requests promptly.
- Ensure new staff receive onboarding to SCI award management systems.
- Ensure Global KPIs and Right First Time (RFT) Indicators are consistently met.
- Coordinate with internal and external auditors.
- Lead the Country Office’s localisation agenda.
- Drive organisational change processes that shift power, resources, and decision making to national partners.
- Lead the development, implementation, and periodic review of the Localisation Roadmap.
- Ensure all departments contribute meaningfully to localisation goals.
- Champion a locally led response model.
- Promote equitable partnership principles.
- Provide leadership in the scoping, identification, assessment, and selection of partners.
- Ensure all partners undergo legal vetting, safeguarding checks, due diligence, and organisational capacity assessments.
- Oversee partnership agreements, monitoring systems, joint reviews, and adaptive management processes.
- Ensure all relevant donor requirements and SCI standards are clearly communicated to partners.
- Provide strategic oversight to partner capacity strengthening.
- Embed safeguarding, PSEA, child protection, and ethical accountability within all partnership arrangements.
- Represent SCI in national partnership forums, networks, coalitions, and coordination groups.
- Participate in partnership review meetings, consortia, networks, and coalitions.
- Provide guidance on partnership issues to internal stakeholders.
- Ensure civil society partners meaningfully participate in Country Strategy development, annual planning, and proposal development processes.
- Monitor developments from SCI’s Global Partnership Working Group.
- Monitor sector trends and innovations related to INGO local partner collaborations.
- Ensure the managerial environment and operational systems fully support the implementation of the Child Safeguarding Policy and safeguarding framework.
- Promote practical approaches to strengthen staff and partner awareness, compliance, and commitment to child safeguarding.
- Take all necessary and appropriate steps to prevent fraud, bribery, and corruption.
- Collaborate with safeguarding and counter fraud teams.
- Understand and implement safeguarding and counter fraud related donor requirements.
Required Experience
- A minimum of 10 years’ experience in senior management role out of which 5 years INGO experience with excellent grasp of operational issues.
- Sound knowledge of the requirements of major institutional donors including budgeting, eligibility issues, compliance management, and reporting.
- Proven track record of active contribution to a senior management team, and providing strategic support across multiple sectors and/or regions.
- Proven experience of establishing and running the award management and partnerhsip funcations at large potfilios.
- Ability to present complex information in a succinct and compelling manner.
- Action-oriented analytical skills; demonstrated experience in setting up and maintaining quality assurance /compliance systems
- Excellent planning, management and coordination skills, with the ability to organise a demanding workload comprised of diverse and challenging tasks and responsibilities.
- Experience of engaging with donors at country strategy levels.
- Experience of and well-developed skills in staff management and supervision with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures.
- Proven strong coaching and capacity-building skills.
- Experience of Project Management, M&E Management or Funding Coordination
- Strong communication (written and spoken), and interpersonal skills in English, with experience in managing multicultural teams
- Computer literate (i.e. WORD, advanced Excel, Outlook, Internet Explorer, financial systems).
- Patient, adaptable, flexible, culturally aware and able to improvise and remain responsive and communicate clearly and effectively under pressure
- Commitment to Save the Children values
Qualifications
• Master degree in relevant field
