VSO is the world's leading independent international development organisation that works through volunteers to fight poverty in developing countries. Our highimpact approach brings people together to share skills, build capabilities, promote international understanding and action to change lives and make the world a fairer place.

POSITION : Programme Development & Funding Manager (PDFM) 

Purpose of Role

To lead donor engagement and proposal development in line with VSO Nigeria strategy, including the development of partnerships and consortium, writing narrative proposals and developing project budgets.

Responsibilities
Funding strategy:

Ensuring funding strategy aligns to signature packages; work with country office and programme funding manager to ensure funding plans reflect programme strategy and appropriate national and regional donor mapping is up to date
Support Country Office to respond to funding opportunities from institutional donors, trusts & foundations, the corporate sector and major donors (directly and/or through coordinated support from global funding and programme teams);
Advise on, and support the development of, consortia with other I/NGOs to ensure VSO is well positioned for upcoming funding opportunities

Donor and partner engagement:

Support local engagement with partners and donors – advising the country team on appropriate and prioritized engagement strategies; participate in local INGO forums, thematic groups etc,
Gather donor intelligence from partner and donor meetings to feed into country and regional planning
Where necessary, provide presentation materials (e.g. signature packages, concept notes, briefings) for country office staff to use for donor / partner meetings

Programme Development:

Support the collation of evidence based Country Office programme design through the creation of programme strategy documents (including signature packages)
Ensure programme design is informed by and aligns with donor trends and national development priorities - identify additional relevant development interventions, including advocacy, and cross cutting themes as appropriate
Support the local contextualisation of VSO's global flagship frameworks

Proposal development and proposal writing, Bid:

Evaluate bids against country / programme strategy to support their go / no go decisions
Write proposals and concept notes as required
Participate as member of bid team including as: proposal lead, reviewer, content provider; facilitate proposal development workshops as needed

Contract management and grant monitoring:

For secured contracts, facilitate grant start up; support programme team to design and implement appropriate monitoring & evaluation systems
Monitor spend rates and delivery toward agreed upon targets; write reports for donors, provide ongoing local donor / partner engagement during implementation,

Other requirements:

Support capacity building and training of country office team and local partners on proposal development and help conduct trainings to continually build capacity and promote effective and efficient processes
Share learning, knowledge and tools with larger organisation to advance good practice and innovation

Key Performance Indicators
The country office meets or exceeds its income targets:

Amount of proposals submitted and the value of those applications
Success rate of applications

The country office's donor base is deepened and diversified:

Donor engagement strategies development and pursued in country
Partnerships with consortia partners agreed (teaming agreements and MOUs signed)

CO capacity is developed through the process of articulating signature packages and preparing funding proposals in a participatory manner with emphasis on learning by doing:

Evaluation feedback from CO and wider VSO team is positive
Quality of documents and tools leads to replication and adaptation within VSO and beyond

Programmes are well designed and prepared in advance:

Signature packages are completed for country office
Flagship frameworks are locally contextualised
Information about CO fundraising priorities are shared with Donor Managers across VSO in market place

Competencies
Working together: Strength:

Successfully leads proposals teams and participates as a reliable and positive team-member in all working relationships

Communicating & influencing: Strength: 

Inspires others by: advocating plans and ideas within and outside VSO;

Managing Knowledge: Strength:

Leads initiatives that improve knowledge management; develops others' knowledge management skills

Striving for excellence: Strength:

Contributes ideas to improve processes, policies and approaches; is a role model for continuous learning and improvement.

Managing Resources: Adds Value:

Organizes own and others' work to meet objectives; clarifies accountability of roles; seeks ways to generate and save money.

Managing People: Aware 

Requests and follows up on appropriate support from others; raises concerns about uncooperative colleagues in an appropriate way.

Developing People: Adds Value:

Offers constructive advice to others and provides ongoing coaching throughout the proposal development process

Leading for the Future: Adds Value:

Builds confidence and excitement in VSO's work and vision, both internally and externally; suggests innovative projects.

Thinking Strategically: Adds value:

Advances strategic project

Delivering Results: Strength:

Adopts a goal-oriented, problem-solving team mentality and ensures timely, high quality results.

Skills/Experience Required

Extensive experience in multi-sector programme design in several countries
Experience with participatory research, evaluation and consultations as used in workshop facilitation and situational analysis
Proven track record in writing winning donor proposals for donors including USAID, EC, UKAID, SIDA and UN Agencies - including proven ability to develop log frames, monitoring frameworks, and theories of change
Experience of preparing compelling, high quality documentation (concept notes, presentations, proposals, budgets, reports, etc) for different partner and donor audiences
Strong interpersonal skills, including written, verbal and presentation skills used in international settings - experience of leading and facilitating workshops and training
Ability to be self-directed and take initiative within organisational mandates - sound judgement and strong administrative and organisational skills
Experience of establishing partnerships between organisations including teaming agreement and consortia bid development

Qualifications required

Educated to degree level in an International Development-related discipline preferred
IT skills including fluency in Microsoft office suite and database usage
Experience of living and working internationally (4+ years required)

Interview/Assessment date(s)
26th April, 2016.

Start date
1st June, 2016.