Sub Award and Partners Capacity Building Manager

Youth Impact Labs East Africa; KwaZulu-Natal; On-site; ZAR 600 000 - 800 000; Full time

Job summary

A leading development organization in South Africa is seeking a Sub Award & Partners Capacity Building Manager to oversee the sub-awards under the Highland Resilience Activity program. This role involves managing financial and operational aspects, facilitating capacity-building for partners, and ensuring compliance with donor regulations. The ideal candidate will have a relevant degree and experience in managing grants or sub-awards. This position is critical for fostering sustainable growth in local communities and enhancing organizational practices.

Benefits

Professional development opportunities

Health and wellness programs

Qualifications

• Proven experience in managing sub-awards or grants.
• Strong background in financial reporting and compliance.
• Experience in capacity building for partner organizations.

Responsibilities

• Manage programmatic and operational aspects of sub-awards.
• Facilitate capacity-building initiatives for subaward partners.
• Ensure compliance with donor regulations and internal policies.

Skills

Capacity building

Financial management

Compliance knowledge

Advocacy skills

Education

Relevant degree or equivalent experience

Job description

About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is powered by the belief that a better world is possible. To do this, we know our teams do their best work when they are diverse, and every team member feels that they belong. We welcome diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be stronger and have long term impact.

Program / Department Summary

Mercy Corps has been present in Ethiopia since 2004 working to drive bold and transformative ideas, working closely with government, the private sector and civil society actors to build a more resilient country, ensuring that programs are responsive to and influenced by participants and stakeholders. Our vision is to enhance the resilience of climate and conflict-affected communities through market systems development for improved livelihoods, access to food, and safe and clean water to thrive in the face of crises. Our strategy focuses on the four outcome areas of: 1) Economically marginalized populations have improved and diversified livelihoods, income, and assets; 2) Pastoralists, farmers, and households have access to sustainably produced, safe, nutritious food; 3) Social cohesion and inclusive governance processes are built in crisis-affected communities; and 4) People have equitable, sustained access to clean water and sanitation for domestic and productive use. Currently we operate in the regional states of Afar, Amhara, Gambella, Oromia, Somali, Sidama, Southern Ethiopia, Tigray and Addis Ababa city administration working with a diverse base of donors that includes United States Agency for International Development (USAID), European Union, GAC, Hilton Foundation, United Nations (UN), JOA, Sweden, EKN, and other foundations.

The USAID-funded Highland Resilience Activity (HRA) will contribute to the Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) 5’s “Big Push” initiative and has the overarching goal of strengthening resilience among vulnerable households in Ethiopia’s Highlands, resulting in 120,000 PSNP households reaching the graduation threshold. HRA will support these households in moving above the graduation threshold and to where they no longer require social safety net programming for household food security and have the capabilities and assets to withstand regular and predictable shocks. The Activity will achieve this goal by directly supporting households in increasing their on-farm, off-farm, and employment incomes while facilitating improvements in the market systems required to increase demand for goods and services in PSNP communities. HRA is a five-year program that started during October 2023. The HRA encompasses thirty-six woredas across ten zones located in six regions: Tigray, Amhara, Oromia, Sidaama, Southern, and Central Ethiopia. HRA's subaward partners include Mums for Mums, Mahibere Hiwot for Social Development, Hundee - Oromo Grassroots Development Initiative, Action for Development, and the Sidama Development Association.

General Position Summary

Sub Award & Partners Capacity Building Manager is responsible for managing the programmatic, financial, and operational aspects of sub-awards issued under the HRA programs across Mercy Corps Ethiopia. S/he will facilitate the development, execution, and evaluation of capacity-building initiatives for HRA subaward partners with craft a comprehensive capacity strengthening plan, setting clear capacity goals and strategies. This role involves assessing and addressing gaps in technical, MEL, financial, operational, compliance, advocacy, human resources, and other areas, with a focus on standardizing organizational practices and systems for sustainable growth. Compliance with the donor regulations and Mercy Corps internal policies and procedures is a critical part of the capacity building process and essential to enable sub-grantees to develop strong systems that will help in the delivery of programmatic interventions. Under the direction of Deputy chief of Party (DCOP), the Sub Award & Partners Capacity Building Manager will establish annual milestones to gauge the readiness of HRA subaward partners to assume program leadership roles, encompassing technical skills, financial systems, compliance procedures, and essential soft skills convening, advocacy, and influence. The manager will work closely with the HRA-Senior Finance Manager and HRA technical director, the Operations Team, Finance Team, Program Teams and MEL/CLA Director. In addition, the S/her will establish strong links to our Global Headquarters through regular consultation with Mercy Corps’ compliance and legal departments in Portland (PDX).

Sub Awards Management

• Participate in the development of the overall programmatic strategy and the strategy for the subawards program.
• Work closely with consortium-level subrecipient organizations to ensure they are issuing, managing, and monitoring subawards in accordance with the HRA subaward manual.
• Ensure that Partners are complying with the procedures in approved HRA subawards manual, and that the annexes are being used as applicable.
• Update the HRA subawards manual as needed with input from MC HQ, assist COP/DCOP with requesting USAID approval of any updates.
• Participate in the design of Request for Applications (RFA) or Application for Solicitation (APS), publication of RFAs/APS, issuing of RFA/APS packages to prospective applicants, manage the administrative process of receiving RFA/APS applicant and providing the applicants to the RFA/APS Review Committee.
• Administer competitive RFA/APS processes in accordance with the HRA subawards manual, for each RFA/APS, clearly defined and communicated steps for selecting, negotiating, and awarding subawards.
• Responsible for the review of RFA/APS applicants’ budgets and budget narratives for completeness, cost realism and compliance with RFA/APS budget requirements.
• Responsible for pre-award financial review and other due diligence of apparently successful applicants.
• Coordinate selection of subaward agreement type, draft subaward and negotiate subaward agreements with selected subrecipients.
• Draft modifications to subawards, as needed.
• Develop and conduct subrecipient financial and compliance training workshops.
• Review subrecipient financial reports for correctness and completeness and ensure that reports are submitted on time.
• Follow up on all subaward compliance issues and audits and document resolutions.
• Create and update/maintain subaward cards and enter subaward expenditure reports in Navigator.
• Maintain subaward files in accordance with the Field Finance Manual.
• Process subrecipient payments and reconcile subaward financial tracking to general ledger reports.
• Responsible for subaward financial close-outs, including ensuring that all requirements of the subaward agreement have been met and that subaward funds have been properly settled.