Grant Management Specialist Job at Danish Refugee Council (DRC)

Danish Refugee Council (DRC) is a Danish international non-governmental organisation, which promotes and supports durable solutions to the problems faced by refugees and internally displaced people all over the world. DRC is present in more than 30 conflict territories around the world assisting displaced people with shelter, food, income-generating activities, and a wide range of other assistance. It is of utmost importance for DRC to work in compliance with the DRC Accountability and Quality Management system and national legislations. Smooth, reliable and effective operational systems are preconditions for DRC to maintain its position as a trustworthy and reliable partner for our donors and an accountable organisation towards our beneficiaries.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Position: Grant Management Specialist

Job Location: Abuja
Employment Type: Contract (6 months with intention to extend)
Area of Operation: Nigeria
Type of Contract (Expat / National / Trainee): National
Supervised by: Program Development Quality Manager
Reporting to: Program Development & Quality Manager

The overall purpose of the role

• Ensure that DRC is compliant with country grant management guidelines, lead on donor obligated reporting, and liaise with Support Services team on donor requested information.

Responsibilities
Grants management and compliance:

• Lead in coordinating, scheduling, facilitating, and follow up of monthly grant meetings. Draft, finalise, and share agenda and relevant documents, ensuring action points from meetings are monitored.
• In coordination with Programmes, Finance, HR, and Area Offices, support facilitation of grant start-up and close-out meetings, providing presentations on important contractual stipulations, donor compliance, and deadlines.
• Ensure timely and accurate maintenance of grant files on DRC’s SharePoint, Insite, along with accurate and timely maintenance of the Grants Management System (GMS) on Dynamics in line with country office compliance.
• Coordinate and facilitate technical and financial revisions to donors for ongoing projects, including budget realignments. If needed, provide review for grammar and consistency across submission documents.
• With the support of PDQM, develop tools and facilitate trainings to build the country office’s capacity to comply with DRC’s grant management guidelines and donor regulations.  

Reporting

• Send monthly grant reminders to teams detailing upcoming deadlines, reporting requirements including templates, and internal review timelines.
• Review and edit reports for quality and consistency, ensuring compliance with donor reporting requirements. Ensure all donor submissions are documented.
• Assist Programme Quality Assurance unit in conceptualising and facilitating the implementation of programme quality tools, including reporting processes and responsibilities.
• In close collaboration with Programme and MEAL teams, support documentation of lessons learnt, best practices and proven innovations in programme design, implementation, monitoring and reporting to improve programme design and implementation strategy.

Partnership management:

• Support the management and facilitation of partner sub-awards including communication, report coordination, and monitoring of partner spending to ensure compliance within the financial stipulations of the sub-award.
• Facilitating partner assessment process and drafting, finalising and sharing minimum set of documents for successful partnership management.
• Assisting the Programme Development and Quality Manager in drafting and finalising partnership agreements.
• Assisting the programme and support team in partner capacity strengthening with particular focus on grant management as well as donor regulations and relationships.

Other

• Liaise with Finance colleagues on budget follow-up and expenditure levels of active grants. Support Finance in the closing out of grants in a timely manner.
• Maintain up-to-date information on donor policies, regulations, and procedures. Ensure relevant stakeholders are informed of changes.
• Inductions of new colleagues
• Work with colleagues to identify and find solutions on compliance-related issues or findings.
• Identify areas and provide solutions to improve operational efficiencies in related area.
• In addition to the above, the Grants Management Specialist may be asked to carry out other duties requested by the Programme Development and Quality Manager but always in the scope of this job description.

Qualifications and Work Experience
Education: (include certificates, licenses, etc.)

• A Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science, International Development, Economics or other relevant fields; Master’s Degree is an asset.
• Minimum 2 years of international grant management within development/humanitarian sector
• Proven experience in successfully submitting reporting packages.
• Proven experience in capacity strengthening and training of staff and partners.
• Knowledge of donor rules, regulations, and procedures of donors including but not limited to US and European donors, EU funding mechanisms, and UN agencies.
• Full professional proficiency in English with the capacity to produce well-written products for formal reporting and communication.

Languages: (indicate fluency level)

• English (fluent)
• Hausa (fluent) desirable.

Knowledge and Skills:

• Strong organization and planning skills, with excellent attention to detail.
• Broad understanding of donor rules and regulations
• Familiarity with non-profit budgeting is preferable.
• Able to quickly research, learn and disseminate new knowledge and information.
• Able to communicate clearly and a timely manner.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
• Skilled in obtaining information necessary to accomplish duties.
• Able to meet deadlines while managing and prioritizing competing demands.
• Problem analysis and solutions-oriented way of working.
• Able to adapt quickly, with an openess to learn and ask questions.

Salary and Conditions
Non-Management G.

Note

• All applicants must send a cover letter and an updated CV (no longer than four pages). Both must be in English.
• DRC provides equal opportunity in employment and prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of race, sex, color, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability.
• DRC encourages all applicants to apply and does not practice any discrimination in any recruitment process.
• Applications submitted after the closing date will not be considered.
• However, all applicants shall take into consideration that DRC cannot offer an international work contract to a citizen of the country of assignment (in this specific case, Nigeria)
• Applications will be reviewed on rolling bases due to the urgency, therefore a candidate who closely meets the requirements may be selected before the above deadline.
• Only short-listed applicants will be invited for written tests and oral interviews.

General Regulations:

• The employee shall follow DRC instructions on safety, confidentiality and ethical guidelines, including the Code of Conduct and the Humanitarian Accountability Framework
• Employee should not engage in any other paid activity during the DRC contract period without prior authorization
• Employee should not engage in any activity that could harm DRC or the implementation of any project during the DRC contract period
• Employee should not give interviews to the media or publish project-related photos or other material without prior authorization
• Employee shall return all borrowed equipment for the project to DRC after the end of the contract period or upon request.