Officer, Strategic Engagement and Partnerships

Job Purpose

• The Strategic Engagement and Partnerships officer position is critical in ensuring the unit can fulfil its obligation in supporting to build trust with partners and generate resources, coordinating, managing grants compliance and accountability supporting Red Cross Red Crescent National Societies in the region.

Job Duties and Responsibilities
Research and Analysis

• To comprehensively and systematically horizon scan for donor interest, opportunities and giving trends.
• Undertake proactive research, donor intelligence & knowledge sharing and information on prospect funding.
• Perform due diligence of new partners according to policy and procedures.
• Register and analyse regional Strategic Engagement and Partnerships KPI data, such as income, funding coverage, and win-loss record of proposals to inform management decisions on funding strategies, donor reporting and submissions.
• Develop dash-board reports and other reports as needed for the purposes of analysis.

Pledge management

• Lead on timely and accurate registration of funding contributions (pledges) in line with IFRC policies and procedures
• Ensure that relevant updates in the registration system are included, and that agreed conditions are shared with donors and understood by budget holders
• Disseminate key information related to compliance of agreed contributions to ensure timely administration of pledges, consistent with donor requirements and procedures.
• Follow up on overdue unpaid pledges aiming to minimise overdue pledge balances.
• Coordinate with Project Managers / Budget Holders to ensure that renegotiation of pledge requirements (earmarking, timeframes etc) takes place on time as and when required.
• Ensure that Budget Holders and Finance team are aware and receive information on MoUs and donor requirements.

Donor engagement

• Negotiate with donors to extend and amend their existing contributions
• Organise online and offline meetings and events including partners’ updates, National Society briefings and emergency appeal fundraising calls.
• Support the development of funding proposals for specific programmes.
• Promote IFRC Africa’s key priorities including the Pan African African Initiatives and Emergency Appeals with donors and partners.

Reporting, planning and budgeting

• Work closely with PMER, finance and project managers to ensure that quality donor reports are prepared and shared in a timely manner.
• Coordinate the region’s input to global annual donor reports.
• Coordinate the department’s inputs to weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual internal reports.
• Actively engage in the department’s role in the planning and budgeting process.

Information management

• Maintain and regularly update the partners and donors contact list.
• Process contractual partnership agreements through e-Contract system.
• Manage Strategic Engagement and Partnerships information on the Shared drive.
• Lead on the ERP (CRM) development process to ensure the system meets the needs of the Strategic Engagement and Partnerships Africa team.
• Once established ensure accurate ERP data input accurate data and provide analysis from the system.

Other

• Provide training and guidance to colleagues including Strategic Engagement and Partnerships, finance, PMER and others.
• Support the resource mobilisation capacity development of National Societies in coordination with the team
• Travel occasionally if required to support country delegations with partnerships and resource development.

Education

• Advanced university degree (Master's degree or equivalent) in International Relations and Development Studies or related area is required. A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree. Required

Experience

• Experience of working for the Red Cross/Red Crescent. Preferred
• 5 years’ working experience in a humanitarian aid organization in resource and partnership development roles. Required
• Experience in managing relations with partners/donors. Required

Knowledge, Skills and Languages

• Excellent ability to build effective relationships with a wide range of people in different organisations at a range of different levels regionally and internationally, and to represent the organisation externally.  
• Able to work independently and prioritise workload according to agreed schedules. Required
• Ability to work to tight deadlines and handle multiple tasks. Required
• Ability to work in a cross-cultural and cross-functional environment in a global organisation. Required
• Strong interpersonal and problem-solving skills. Required
• Excellent communication, customer service, and negotiation skills. Required
• Team player, self-motivated and proactive. Required
• Strong project management skills. Required
• Excellent computer skills (MS Office including advanced Excel). Required
• Experience in using a Customer Relationship Management (CRM)system. Required
• Excellent data analysis skills. Required
• Ability to present complex information in an easily understandable way. Required
• Experience of writing winning funding proposals. Preferred
• Fluently spoken and written English. Required
• Fluently spoken and written French. Preferred
• Good command of another IFRC official language (Spanish or Arabic). Preferred