Summary
Date Posted: Monday, August 21 2023, Base Salary: Not Disclosed

JOB DETAILS:
Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

Project Description
The COVID-19 Africa Response & Rebuild (Rebuild) Facility is a 10 million Euro grant facility funded by the Federal Republic of Germany, represented by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV). The Rebuild Facility supports economically and environmentally sustainable businesses with the aim of protecting at-risk value chains and safeguarding the forest-dependent communities who rely upon them for income. The facility leverages networks of partner businesses across Africa, providing working capital in the form of returnable grants to aggregators, off-takers and other buyers of speciality cocoa and coffee. The Rebuild Facility is jointly managed by Palladium and Systemiq.

The Rebuild Facility is hiring a Senior Grants Officer into the project team. The preference is for the successful candidate to be based in Uganda but we will consider applications from candidates based in any of the priority countries including Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. The Senior Grants Officer will work closely with the Team Leader on all aspects of managing the returnable grant portfolio and other emerging grant/financing mechanisms for the Rebuild Facility.

Outline of Position
The Senior Grants Officer is a valued member of the team completing a variety of substantive and administrative tasks that are critical to high-quality project management. You will be responsible for the oversight, relationship management, and monitoring of a portfolio of Grantees in all five project priority countries. This role encompasses project management, financial management, monitoring and evaluation, and relationship building.

Key Responsibilities, Duties and Tasks
The Senior Grants Officer leads grants and risk management for the Rebuild Facility. You will be closely working with the Implementation Lead, Implementation Manager and Programme Manager, and manage a team of Grants Associates. Key responsibilities of the position include:

Grant Management
• Guide applicants/subgrant recipients to develop and implement the compliance and safeguards mechanism
• Undertake due-diligence assessment and credit-worthiness evaluations of market access players applying for the Rebuild Facility funding
• Lead budgets and project activities reviews and negotiations for the subgrant proposals and change requests to the approved projects
• Develop covenants and milestones for timely repayment of returnable grants
• Negotiate the subgrant agreement and project funding templates with the successful market access players and lead changes/updates in the agreement templates where necessary
• Ensure grantees to meet the disbursement conditions and requirements, review disbursement requests, and initiate the disbursement of approved funds
• Ensure that the Rebuild funding is used for the intended purpose, spot checks and audits of subgrants are conducted on time, gaps/issues are escalated appropriately and addressed on time
• Conduct site visits to grantees’ locations, cocoa/coffee sourcing points, and producer communities in all five project priority countries
• Track and ensure that subgrant agreement terms and conditions, BMUV safeguarding standards are fulfilled by subgrantees during the project implementation and closure
• Provide necessary training, capacity building and information to grantees to enable compliance with the financial accounting, reporting and procurement requirements of their funding agreements
• Track all financial disbursements to grantees and timely follow up with Subgrantees to repay the returnable grants
• Review the change request from portfolio projects and issue amendments to Grant Agreements, where necessary
• Ensure that goods and services are purchased by each grantee according to Palladium Procurement policy and guidelines.

Portfolio and Risk Management
• Manage a grant portfolio and ensure activities are on track to meet targets and impact metrics mandated by BMUV
• Develop strategies and plan to maintain a sound portfolio for the Rebuild Facility funding
• Train all grantees on the grant reporting and compliance requirements, cascading the BMUV/Palladium requirements and standards, and to address key gaps identified for each subgrantees
• Prepare the grant allocation, disbursements, and forecast schedules, as required
• Ensure that grantees are meeting grant reporting requirements in a timely and accurate fashion, including narrative and financial reporting; review and provide feedback to the grantees and feed into Project Management’s Reporting

Requirements.
• Ongoing identification and management of relevant operational risks. Maintain a risk dashboard highlighting potential risks and issues (operational, fiduciary, and reputational) and mitigation plans (e.g. additional reporting, audits, etc.) for each grant
• Review of grant reports to ensure accuracy and completion of activities and KPIs against proposals, timelines and project plans, and request additional information if necessary. Obtain and review evidence submitted by grantees as proof of outcomes
• Conduct, with support from the MEL Associate, ongoing monitoring and evaluation of project results and outcomes for Grantees.

Reporting
• Input to regular reporting to Client and internally within Palladium
• Work with the Project Management team in preparation of quarterly and annual reports and work-plans.
• Maintain a comprehensive information management and filing system that ensures all client contractual documents, reports, key correspondences, etc. are appropriately filed in up-to-date and consistent soft and hard libraries available as needed
• Produce Case Studies for the client documenting the success of The Grants Awarding process

Relationship Management
• Develop and manage strong working relationships with client, project partners and other stakeholders.
• Develop strong working relationships and a regular dialogue on project progress and challenges with the Palladium team working on the project

Team Management
• Manage a team of Grants Associates

Required Qualifications:
• Academic degree in business and or financial management
• An investment/grants management professional having over 3-5 years of experience in all the responsibility areas for this position including managing development and or commercial financing vehicles and products targeted to business organisations
• Experienced in setting up, creating and maintaining financial systems and working knowledge of financial practices, for e.g. budgets, forecast, invoice payments.
• Experienced in designing and implementing grants and investment operations.
• Commitment to fighting climate change and deforestation with the ability to convincingly articulate this commitment.
• Passion for environmental issues, international development, private sector-led development, forestry / nature-based solutions, sustainability or supply chain management
• Able to work with limited supervision, be flexible and comfortable in a multi-cultural work force.
• Willingness to travel (up to 30%) to project locations also including the remote parts of the project priority countries
• Good communication skills: ability to build good working relationship with project team and partners at a range of levels and in different locations
• Fluency in spoken and written English; working fluency in French is not a requirement but would be favourably considered
• Advanced computer skills in Word and Excel. Experience with Outlook
• Excellent attention to detail
• Ability to work under pressure to meet specific deadlines




Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: 36

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

Job application procedure
Interested applicants?Click here to apply

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