Senior Grants Manager

Location: Lviv or Kyiv, with 30% travel to Odessa & Dnipro

Reporting line manager: Deputy CD – Program Implementation

Duration: 12 months

Start date: As soon as Possible.

Conditions: Employment contract, gross monthly salary €6,000, Risks allowance of €300-400/month (low – medium risks areas), Management allowance €,400, medical insurance and repatriation insurance and accommodation provided. Visa fees covered. Contribution to the luggage transportation up to €250. R&R (5 working days) every 8-12 weeks with an allowance of €1,000. Annual leave of 28 days per fiscal year.

CARE INTERNATIONAL

CARE International (CI) is among the world’s largest international non-governmental humanitarian relief and development confederations. Drawing on more than 75 years of experience, through its 21 Members, as both a practitioner and thought leader, CI’s work reaches over 100 countries worldwide to save lives, defeat poverty and achieve social justice.

CARE’s vision is to seek a world of hope, inclusion, and social justice; where poverty has been overcome and people live in dignity and security. CARE focuses heavily on women and girls, and the areas of gender equality, diversity, and inclusion are at the center of our work because we know that we cannot overcome poverty and social injustice until all people have equal rights and opportunities. We recognize that power relations between people and within systems and structures are unequal and that these are entrenched in our broader systems, structures, and institutions.

At the core of the CI Confederation is a globally distributed Secretariat, which provides coordination and support to its members in areas including governance, strategic planning, communications, membership development and accountability, advocacy, humanitarian response, and program development. In addition, the Secretariat represents the CI Confederation at the United Nations and the European Union, and with other external stakeholders.

Context in Ukraine

On 24th February 2022, the invasion of Ukraine marked a significant escalation to the conflict that started in 2014. It continues to profoundly impact the lives of people across the country at various levels. The front line is continuously shifting and there are areas under Russian military control, as well as cities under siege. Attacks on military installations and critical civilian infrastructures are conducted in the whole territory of Ukraine, often resulting in collateral civilian casualties. The conflict has caused the largest population movement in Europe since World War II, with over 5 million currently displaced within Ukraine and 6 million refugees across Europe. OCHA had counted 17.6 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.

At least one-third of the country’s energy infrastructure is damaged, leaving millions without heating and access to water. In October 2022, the Russian Federation claimed to have annexed four Ukrainian oblasts, further increasing the challenge of access to these areas. Therefore, an ongoing priority for the international humanitarian response is to reach newly accessible areas in the East and South, and to provide aid to previously unreachable and particularly hard-hit areas of Ukraine.

CARE UKRAINE

CARE prioritizes a locally led response and is partnering primarily with Civil-Society Organizations (CSOs), National NGOs, local authorities, and when needed, INGOs with a longstanding presence in the country and access to hard-to-reach areas. CARE Ukraine deliberately and strategically prioritizes partnerships with local and national Women Led and Women Rights organizations (WLO’s/ WRO’s), further strengthening the Gender in Emergencies (GiE) principle and the Women Lead in Emergencies (WLiE) approach.

In the first few weeks after the escalation of the war, virtually all humanitarian aid inside Ukraine was organized and implemented by local actors. These groups (together with local authorities) remain the principal aid providers but are quickly being exhausted of funds, fuel, and physical energy. Thereby, a considerable proportion of CARE’s resources is dedicated to strengthening and supporting the capacities of local partners.

As of October 2023, CARE Ukraine has established partnerships with over twenty local/national organizations (incl. WLO’s/WRO’s). From the more than 45 million that have been raised for Ukraine thus far, more than half is allocated to local/national partners. Through the activities that have been implemented so far, CARE Ukraine has been able to reach more than 800,000 people, including IDPs and affected populations in hard-to-reach areas.

While CARE Ukraine’s country office is currently located in Lviv, we also have a coordination office in Kyiv as well as area offices in Dnipro and Odesa, covering both the East and South of the country.

Role Objectives

Under the supervision of the Deputy Country Director for Program Implementation (DCD-PI), the Senior Grants Manager leads on the provision of essential grants management support to the CO in order to ensure the quality of relationship with donors and the respect of reporting deadlines and donor compliance.

The Senior Grants Manager contributes to achieving high quality programming by ensuring effective grants management, including compliance requirements, reporting, timely and quality proposal development, and internal and external communication.

She/he ensures CARE programme/support teams are fully informed of relevant donor compliance regulations and CARE procedures, manages donor and other external reporting, and coordinates grant revisions. She/he also supports donor communication by ensuring effective channels of internal and external communications relating to grants are established and respected. The Senior Grants Manager supports development of proposals and opportunity identification, as required.

The Senior Grants Manager will be managing four Grants Managers.

The main responsibilities include:

Grants Management

• Ensure that grant management systems and processes are successfully implemented across the life of projects and key controls are in place to support effective management of the funding portfolio and compliance with the donor requirements.
• If required, support the coordination of proposal development to the PDQ Team when needed , ensuring all staff inputs happen in timely and effective manner and advice on donor compliance requirements to ensure high quality and on time proposals.
• Facilitate Award Kick-Off meetings to ensure that all project information is shared effectively with relevant staff across the country office (including field offices) and partners.
• Establish systems for regular grants monitoring across the country office and facilitate regular meetings with key stakeholders to support the Program Implementation Team to ensure that performance on individual awards is tracked effectively, risks and issues are flagged and action taken as appropriate.
• Support the finance team on monitoring of award budgets, phasing, and forecasting.
• Work in accordance with the reporting schedule in close collaboration with the mission team and the Desk Officer at HQ.
• Ensure the availability and consistency, from the program and MEAL team, of the necessary data and information allowing the elaboration of reports, in accordance with the original project proposal or previous reports as well as the Grant Agreement.
• Compile and finalise the writing of narrative reports and their appendices in coordination with Program teams and DCD for Program Implementation
• Coordinate the processes for donor reporting to ensure that reports are high quality, delivered on time and supported by auditable records. This includes assistance in preparation of donor financial reports.
• Lead management meetings, including monthly review of Budget vs Actual (BVA) reports to address any projected underspend or overspend.
• Oversee the spending plan monthly updating process in coordination with finance and programs counterparts.
• Keep DCD PI informed of any projected inabilities to meet contractual obligations, report submission and spend rates/significant budget variances.
• Be able to actively mitigate risks through proposing remedial solutions in consensus with department heads.
• Maintain effective communications with HQ relevant staff, providing them with timely updates on projects and flagging potential issues promptly.
• Provide regular management information to the DCD PI on the performance of the country office portfolio.
• Maintain a reporting and grants tracker and share regularly with stakeholders within CARE Ukraine.
• Manage award closeout planning and processes.

Donor Compliance

• Support all functions to ensure donor requirements are understood and complied with.
• Ensure that all appropriate donor formats are available in-country, and that key contributing staff have a clear understanding of donor requirements and expectations at the proposal, kick off, amendment, reporting, close out and audit stage of awards.
• Ensure potential issues and amendment requests are flagged promptly to donors via the HQ. This may include developing business cases where donor waiver/derogation requests need to be more thoroughly articulated or negotiated with donors.
• Work with internal and external auditors as necessary.
• Raise compliance issues with DCD PI

Partnership

• Work with Area Program Manager and Partnership management staff to ensure all implementing partners undergo legal vetting, due diligence and capacity assessment prior to commencing work with CARE, are engaged with appropriate agreements and effective monitoring systems are in place so that partner delivery meets donor expectations and requirements.
• Work with program staff to ensure relevant donor requirements are effectively communicated and understood by implementing partners.

People Management and Capacity Building

• Directly supervise Grants Managers, building their capacity and supporting their professional development
• Carry out orientations and staff training for grant management procedures, donor requirements etc.
• Liaise with relevant consortium members’ focal points when relevant.

Additional job responsibilities

• The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties assigned by the DCD PI within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.

ESSENTIAL CRITERIA:

The post holder should be able to demonstrate the following attributes:

• Bachelor’s Degree (Master’s Degree preferred) in international relations or a related field, or relevant work experience
• At least 10 years’ experience in an NGO environment, preferably with solid experience in more than one of human sectors: gender, protection, Shelter/WASH, FSL in emergency context;
• At least five years’ work experience in humanitarian/development setting with proven field-based experience with grants management
• Experience with program design and proposal writing (including logical frameworks).
• Sound budget development capacity and financial management skills
• Prior knowledge of donor regulations (BHA, ECHO, FCDO, GFFO, SIDA, GAC, UNICEF, etc.)
• Experience in working with partner organizations in humanitarian settings;
• A general appreciation of the issues concerning the NGO sector, both development and humanitarian issues
• Good analytical skills. Effective negotiator, with the ability to positively influence cross departmental and cross sector working ;
• Demonstrable experience of working and developing key project management tools including work plans, Log-frames, Budgets, HR and Monitoring and Evaluation plans;
• Demonstrable ability to manage multiple priorities, deadlines, tasks efficiently in a high-stress, fast-paced environment ;
• Demonstrable experience of working in conflict/volatile security contexts ;
• Demonstrated commitment to the aims and principles of CARE, particularly concerning gender equity in emergency programs.
• Demonstrated commitment to creating an environment within CARE’s workplaces, programming, and communities where CARE works that is free from sexual harassment, sexual abuse and sexual exploitation and child abuse (SHEA-CA).
• Ability to represent CARE effectively in external forums, including advocacy and networking with duty bearers (negotiation and influencing skills).
• Commitment to the principles of confidentiality, survivor-centered approach, and Do No Harm principle.
• Politically and culturally sensitive with qualities of patience, tact, and diplomacy.
• The capacity and willingness to be extremely flexible and accommodating in difficult and sometimes insecure working circumstances.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills including influencing, negotiation, and coaching.
• Excellent time management skills and resourcefulness with strong attention to detail ;
• Excellent interpersonal, communication, public speaking, and strategic planning skill ;
• Demonstrable experience in capacity development ;
• Strong people management skills;
• Ability to produce high quality reports ;
• Fluency in written and spoken English and computer literate ;
• Proficiency in Ukrainian language or other regional language is an asset.

Accountability:

A commitment to CARE values and CARE’s integrity framework is critical to working with CARE. Any candidate offered a job with CARE will be expected to adhere to the following key areas of accountability:

• Comply with CARE’s policies and procedures with respect to safeguarding, code of conduct, health and safety, confidentiality, do no harm principles and unacceptable behaviour protocols.
• Report any concerns about the welfare of a child or vulnerable adult or any wrongdoings within the programming area.
• Report any concerns about inappropriate behavior of a CARE staff or partner.

Safeguarding:

Children and vulnerable adults who come into contact with CARE as a result of CARE activities must be safeguarded to the maximum possible extent from deliberate or inadvertent actions and failings that place them at risk of abuse, sexual exploitation, injury and any other harm. One of the ways that CARE shows this on-going commitment to safeguarding is to include rigorous background and reference checks in the selection process for all candidates.

Gender Equality:

CARE is committed to meeting the standards of the CARE International Gender Policy (2019). Through this policy, CARE seeks to promote the equal realization of dignity and human rights for girls, women, boys and men in all diversities, and the elimination of poverty and injustice. Specifically, this policy seeks to improve the explicit incorporation of gender in programmatic and organizational practices.

How to apply

Please send your CV (in pdf format max. 4 pages) and a cover letter in English to , no later than 9 November 2023. Please name your documents Surname_CV, Surname_Cover Letter. Put Senior Grants Manager as the subject title of your email. Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.