Career Opportunities at Aga Khan Foundation

The position

The Aga Khan Foundation, EA is currently seeking a dynamic and motivated individual to fill the role of Partnerships Manager, to be based in Nairobi. AKF EA works in collaboration with partners to develop and promote innovative solutions that contribute to improving the quality of life in East Africa. AKF responds to local and regional priorities by developing effective programming, measuring and documenting results, and sharing its lessons with governments, donors, and development actors to influence policy and practice. The Partnership Manager roll calls for a high degree of results-orientation, service-focused, and action-orientation, and is considered a crucial member of the Senior Management Team.

The Mission of Partnerships is to strengthen & promote the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) through:

• Building strategic partnerships to address AKDN development priorities;
• Securing resources from institutional donors (national governments, bi-laterals, multi-laterals, foundations, corporates);
• Ensuring & strengthening our reputation through first-class grant management;
• Influencing the development sector & communicating practical lessons & results.

Main Duties & Responsibilities

Mobilizing Resources (40%)

• Pipeline development, management, and tracking: develop & track a diversified pipeline of funding opportunities, manage them from early opportunities, through to signing of agreements, to project initiation.
• Community-led design: through regular field visits & interactions with AKF programme staff & beneficiaries, identify funding needs/intervention opportunities & update priorities accordingly.
• Concept and proposal development: coordinate, facilitate, & lead the development, review, & quality assurance of expressions of interest, concept notes & full proposals as well as pitch materials. 
• Contracting and negotiation: coordinate & lead processes of contracting & negotiation, ensuring contracts ‘get over the line’ in a timely & efficient way. 

Strategic Relationship Management (20%)

• Donor landscaping and analysis: research & perform systematic analysis of market trends on new donors, peer organisations, & funding opportunities to identify potential funding & partnering matches for AKF & AKDN. 
• Stakeholder engagement and positioning: continuously scan & engage with new & existing donors & partners to identify solicited & unsolicited funding opportunities. 
• Build strategic partnerships: work with donor units, AKDN agencies, & GPT to identify, build, & support strategic partnerships on global & regional initiatives with likeminded donors & partners.

Grants Management & Compliance (35%)

• Donor reporting: oversee & coordinate the review of donor reports & technical papers to ensure the highest quality possible.
• Donor relationship management: interface with donors & communicate on a regular basis about the implementation of ongoing grants. Address queries or challenges diplomatically & effective way. 
• Donor deliverables coordination, quality assurance, and compliance: oversight, coordination, review & quality assurance of donor deliverables is upheld. 
• Contractual amendments and adaptations: coordinate contractual amendments, changes, & project adaptations, engaging with donors in a pro-active & diplomatic way, & flagging potential changes in advance.
• Routine grant monitoring and administration: facilitate grant monitoring efforts, including grant kick-off meetings, dissemination of key information to staff, donor steering committees, & donor monitoring missions. 

Strategic Leadership (5%)

• Actively participate as a member of the country’s Senior Management Team (SMT).
• Support the CEO of AKF in monitoring progress against AKF in the country's strategic plan.

The requirements

Required Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

• A Master’s degree in International Development, Political Science, International Relations, or other relevant field plus a minimum of five (5) years of relevant work experience with a minimum three (3) years of senior management experience in donor dialogue and communications, preferably in the field of international development. Proven experience within a thematic sector of interest would be considered an asset (i.e. climate, education, early childhood development, civil society, employability/entrepreneurship).
• Must have excellent writing skills and ability to organize large amounts of complex data. Excellent English language skills and proficiency to write and edit complex products for purposeful structure, clarity of ideas, and logical, persuasive presentation.
• Experience in management, leadership and mentoring staff with willingness to visit programmes in the field
• Working with Governments and development partners to form positive relationships to mobilise resources.
• Demonstrable experience of securing large competitive and unsolicited funding from institutional donors and emerging market donors. Extensive knowledge of the global and in-country donor landscape/mapping
• Demonstrated ability to develop and track implementation of resource mobilization strategies and to mobilize relevant internal stakeholders to deliver a donor engagement strategy.
• Track record of leading hybrid teams of direct and indirect reports, staff and consultants.
• Must possess exceptional communications and interpersonal skills and experience in hands on management, leadership and mentoring staff, with a willingness to visit programmes in the field.
• Demonstrated ability to think strategically and rapidly and analyze diverse information from varied sources.
• Demonstrated ability to take initiatives, good personal organization skills, personal ownership and accountability to meet deadlines, work under pressure, and achieve agreed-upon results, including securing financial contributions from donors. 

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Responsibilities

The Regional Grant Manager will provide oversight, leadership, and coordination support to all F4EE implementing partners to ensure the project is implemented on time, on budget, achieving all intended project outcomes, and remaining compliant to all donor requirements.

The Regional Grant Manager will:

• Be responsible for the grant management of F4EE, including providing clear direction on reporting timelines in collaboration with Programme/Project Managers, assessing partners’ needs, coordinating human resources and financial inputs.
• Build relationships and maintain coordinated communications with AKFC, AKF country units, AKF’s Global Partnerships Team and Global Program Team, AKDN implementing agencies and other local partners.
• Support the F4EE Regional Team in the implementation of the project’s Learning Agenda to inform and improve policy and practices in Education and Early Childhood Education, and gender equality both nationally and within the region.
• Be responsible and accountable for all F4EE reporting and donor compliance requirements, including the preparation and submission of the annual work plans, quarterly and annual technical reports, oversight of financial reports and other deliverables as stipulated in the F4EE Grant Agreement.
• Analyze project performance on output and outcome indicators and other results-based management (RBM) and monitoring and evaluation benchmarks, and recommend and implement procedural changes to improve operations to meet objectives.
• Ensure integration of gender equality considerations in all aspect of program implementation and management.
• Collaborate with AKFC, AKF field units’ finance teams and the F4EE Regional Finance Manager to ensure timely and quality financial reports are produced and shared with AKFC.
• Coordinate the planning and execution of regional events and workshops together with the F4EE Regional Team, AKF country units, and local administration teams.
• Analyze, synthesize, and articulate the lessons, challenges, and risks emerging from the project, working with the F4EE Regional Team, AKF country units, and AKDN partners to integrate these into project planning and implementation.
• Ensure AKDN agencies are supported and provided with information to engage Global Affairs Canada counterparts at their country level and connect these efforts with AKFC in Ottawa for coordination and consistency.

The requirements

Required Qualifications and Experience

• A post-graduate degree in international development, social science, education, business management and/or other relevant disciplines.
• Minimum seven (7) years grants and project management experience, preferably with projects funded by Global Affairs Canada.   
• Exceptional written and oral communication skills in English.
• Experience working on grant management or program management on international development projects funded by institutional donors, including experience meeting donor criteria in reporting, work planning, RBM, and monitoring and evaluation.
• Experience working on projects funded by GAC. Knowledge of, and experience with, results-based management, preferably for GAC programming.
• Knowledge of, and experience with, financial management, preferably for GAC programming.
• Knowledge of key concepts in gender equality and women’s empowerment and experience with integrating and implementing these concepts in programs.
• Experience providing remote support to teams in remote geographies.
• Demonstrated intercultural competence and ability to adapt professional skills to fit local conditions and constraints.
• Demonstrated capacity to respect and safeguard vulnerable populations.
• Ability to travel to F4EE countries.