Partnership Manager

Position: Partnership Manager

Reports To: Associate Director Business Development

Level: AAH8

Location: Juba,

Start date: April 2025.

Action Against Hunger-USA is part of the Action Against Hunger International network, which provides humanitarian relief in over 40 countries worldwide in the sectors of nutrition, health, water/sanitation, and food security. Action Against Hunger-USA, an independent NGO, currently manages operations in 8 countries: Kenya, South Sudan, Cambodia, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Haiti and Somalia. Action Against Hunger-USA has approximately 2000 staff based in the various country offices, Head Quarter in New York City and Operational Centre in Nairobi. Additional growth is anticipated.

1. Summary of position

   Under the direction of the Head of Finance, the Partinership Manager is responsible for ensuring that the day-to-day grants and financial management functions are performed in accordance with ACF’s policies and procedures, donor rules & regulations and in accordance with the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). This position requires a motivated, flexible, problem-solving team-player with excellent analytical, communication skills and the ability to priorities activities and work to tight deadlines.

2. purpose

   The Partnership Manager will provide support in grant budget preparation, revisions, realignments, donor reporting, tracking grant spending, developing spending forecasts, handling Partner grant disbursements and reporting in line with the ACF procedures and donor rules & regulations.

3. ENGAGEMENT

   The Partnership Manager will hold an interactive relationship with HEARO/HQ Business Development Unit, the Country’ s Human Resources, Logistics, Coordination Teams i.e. Technical Heads of Departments, Field Coordinators, Partners, Sub IPs, Finance Technical Working Group and relevant external stakeholders.

4. DELIVERY

   The Partnership Manager will undertake functions including but not limitted to budget Development, Grant Management and Donor reporting, donor audits; facilitate mission staff training in grants/financial policies to effectively and efficiently reinforce compliance with organization and donors’ policies and procedures in order to achieve organizational objectives.

5. ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS

   1. Partnership Management

• Work with the Business Development Director to ensure Organisational Capacity Assessments, financial assessments and programme assessments are conducted for partners.
• Manage the development, delivery, and reporting of assessments.
• Conduct pre-award assessments of potential partners, assessing a partner’s internal controls, their capacity to manage a grant from ACF, and the risk associated with the partnership. The results of the pre-award assessment will inform the payment and monitoring schedule of the partner which will be laid out in the partnership agreement.
• Maintain a log of action points and recommendations for each partner. Ensure these are communicated to ACF and partner management and are followed up on/implemented in a timely manner
• Work with the Programme Director, programme and finance staff to ensure partnership funding agreements are put in place in a timely manner,
• Work with finance staff to ensure partner internal controls environments are fit for purpose compliant with donor and ACF requirements,
• Identify Partner capacity building needs in relation to compliance issues (donor rules, Ethics& Compliance Policies, etc)
• Work with programme and finance staff to ensure relevant donor requirements are effectively communicated and understood by partners
• Carry out, or support finance staff to carry out interim and final compliance reviews of partner transactions and make recommendations to country management on full or partial payments to partners,
• Function as the main liaison point for all enquiries toACF about partnership
• Assess current partnerships and make recommendations for partnership development
• Facilitate the process of partner identification, assessment, selection
• Support the preparation of partner proposals, logframes, narratives and budgets
• Draft, maintain and update partnership agreements
• Ensure proper recording and filing of all partnership documents on ACF server
• Support partners’ reporting processes, to both ACF and other donors
• Coordinate with ACF finance team to ensure timely pay roll and grant disbursal as well as capacity building of partner finance systems
• Coordinate with ACF project managers and technical officers to support partner project design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation
• Support partners to develop their internal mechanisms for institutional learning and memory
• Support partners to develop their own internal staff and systems capacity building plans
• Support the development of partners’ monitoring and evaluation and programme management tools and systems
• Support partners to mainstream key issues, such as gender, HIV, DRR and environment in their programming
• Function as focal point for all communication within ACF in relation to partnerships
• Travel frequently to all areas of ACF’s operation as required
• In coordination with the Business Development Director ), assess funding opportunities within South Sudan through attending relevant meetings and liaison with other NGOs.
• Assess any calls for proposals related to partnership from donors for their suitability for ACF South Sudan

Delivery

• Provide health/nutrition technical support to consortium partners to ensure application of project cycle management from conception to evaluation.
• Provide technical advice on implementing the action to ensure relevance, impact, sustainability and quality of the intervention.
• Ensure adherence and appropriate management of medical products and supplies in the country, including quality control, quantification guidance, and procurement.
• Provide technical support on priority health systems strengthening and health financing needs
• Hold regular meetings with consortium partners to discuss project implementation, challenges faced and document lessons learned
• Overall management of the budget under the action to ensure all activities are conducted as planned
• Ensure an emergency response plan is in place

GENDER EQUALITY COMMITMENTS

• Foster environment supporting values of both women and men equal access to information, promotion based on performance objectives and respect for beneficiaries regardless of gender, sex, disability, religion or cultures.
• Promote and uphold the PSEA Policy and Procedures.

REPORTING RESPONSIBILITIES

• This includes preparing and submitting donor financial reports Head of Finance review, analysing allocable expenses, formulating projections and ensuring compliance with donor rules and regulations.

• Training staff on grant budget development procedures, cost/expenditure allocation, best practices, regular preventive compliance visits to the field and reports with recommendations to Head of Finance to evaluate support needs

• Facilitate partner disbursement requests processing, follow up for submission of scheduled reports for review before consolidation of donor reports for review by Head of Finance to pave way for RFS validation and submission to donor.

  REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Master’s Degree in Development Studies; Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Business Administration with CPA or ACCA is an added advantage.

• At least 5 years of experience in similar position within humanitarian context

REQUIRED SKILLS & EXPERIENCE

• 3+ years of experience in Grants Management (Proposal Budget Developments, Donor Reporting and Audits)
• Attention to details, extreme motivation, willingness to learn and grow in the organization
• Exceptional organization and planning skills, ability to manage and follow work plans
• Highly developed interpersonal communication, able to negotiate, influence, give effective feedback, a team player able to manage stress effectively, juggle competing priorities and able to maintain confidentiality
• Fluency in English, strong computer skills particularly in Excel, literacy and numeracy