Location: Nairobi, Kenya
PROGRAM/DEPARTMENT SUMMARY:
Mercy Corps’ East and Southern Africa (ESA) Region has grown significantly over the past decade. With Mercy Corps’ continued focus on the 3 I’s – Impact, Influence and Innovation – the team has identified the need to effectively respond to New Business opportunities. Currently, Mercy Corps’ New Initiatives team focuses on:
1. Highly strategic submissions, particularly (though not exclusively) to institutional donors and
2. Initiatives that enhance overall agency proposal processes and competitiveness. Team members are tasked to provide additional “person power” on specific, high priority efforts by assisting with all or some of the following: assembling a proposal team; executing team planning; undertaking on-site participatory assessment and design work; extensive writing; providing high-quality reviews and edits; and more
Examples of the types of strategic, agency-wide initiatives that the team has supported include: preparation and promotion of a proposal tool kit for improved planning; maintenance of a roster of proposal consultants; and organization of action reviews of proposals. With all of its activities, New Initiatives works in a highly collaborative manner with the agency as a whole, particularly the program operations team and country teams.
Position Summary
The Regional Business Development Senior Advisor will be a member of the regional team, reporting to the Deputy Regional Director, Programs and working alongside the regional team to support business development needs for the country offices within the region as well as the region itself. The Regional Business Development Senior Advisor will work closely with the ESA Regional team to provide strategic direction and determine priorities, as well as the global Business Development and Institutional Donor Engagement teams on regional and agency-wide initiatives.
Their primary focus will be on program development, including: 1) tracking the pipeline of potential new business opportunities for the region and supporting the Regional Director (RD), Deputy Regional Director-Programs (DRDP) and Country Directors (CDs) in prioritizing and preparing to pursue them;
2) leading and/or supporting program development efforts throughout the region;
3) helping to enhance the overall state of practice vis-à-vis proposal processes within the region;
4) supporting the region and country teams with donor relations, as needed, with a particular emphasis on helping to diversify the agency’s funding base in the region; and
5) contributing to strategic regional discussions and initiatives, and other strategic aspects as relevant. In addition, s/he will be responsible for helping implement various other activities within region that are part of the Business Development work plan.
Supervisory Responsibility
None
Budget Management Responsibility
None
Essential Responsibilities
PROGRAM/PROPOSAL DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT
- Responsible for leading and/or supporting all aspects of the development of high-quality strategic proposals throughout the region.
- Apply the agency’s best practices in proposal development efforts supported by the Deputy Regional Director-Programs and Business Development team.
- Lead proposal development for: 1) small, medium, and mid-level proposal opportunities; 2) emergency and humanitarian proposal opportunities (generally smaller value but frequent); and 3) support work on larger strategic proposals including for complex programs, multi-country opportunities and/or contracts in partnership with the Business Development team.
- Ensure that proposal teams are well structured and staffed, particularly for larger strategic proposals but not only, including identification of both Technical Leads and Lead Writers in a timely manner and in coordination with Global BD and Technical teams.
- Coordinate closely with the Technical Resources & Quality and Evidence & Learning teams at all levels to ensure that all proposals are evidence-based.
STRATEGIC PRE-POSITIONING
- Lead and support efforts that help Mercy Corps’ country and regional program teams to more proactively influence donor planning and access funding.
- Support targeted assessments that will help create funding opportunities or increase competitiveness of the agency in solicitations, in close collaboration with the Technical and Evidence and Learning Teams
- Facilitate strategic planning and capacity building sessions with country teams.
- Regularly track donor trends for potential opportunities that country teams might not be able to monitor or respond to.
- Produce and regularly update snapshots on the state of the funding landscape in the region, with insight and analysis that will drive the positioning of Mercy Corps as a partner of choice with donors.
- Evaluate the performance of Mercy Corps’ portfolio in the region, including trends, risks, and opportunities for expansion of engagement with donors
- Identify and nurture strategic partnerships with other relevant organizations that result in stronger and more impactful program development efforts.
REGIONAL CAPACITY
- Strengthen capacity of Mercy Corps’ staff within the region to work on proposals and run strong proposal and program development processes through teamwork during proposal efforts, mentoring or tailored training activities.
- Promote the use of BD planning tools, and support pre-positioning and proposal development capacity at the country and regional level by organizing capacity building support from the global Institutional Donor Engagement unit
- Support/lead learning and communications activities for specific programs in the region alongside country teams.
- Contribute to activities that raise overall agency state of practice and enable Mercy Corps to produce competitive submissions more efficiently, such as: developing improved reference materials for proposal writers, contributing to efforts that capture learnings and results from our programs, and/or assisting with networking activities.
- Serve as a conduit for flow of important information and idea-exchange between the countries, region and the agency overall.
REPRESENTATION
- Responsible for developing and maintaining relationships with partners in region, alongside Country Team leadership.
- Coordinate alongside Country Directors (CD) with global and regional teams including the Awards Management Team (AMT),
- Support prepositioning and proposal development efforts in partnership with Corporations and Foundations Teams and the Mercy Corps Europe (MCE) Institutional Partnership Managers.
- Keep up to date on relevant donor strategies being developed or applied by significant governmental, academic, and non-profit groups, in coordination with RPT and country teams.
- Contribute with Mercy Corps regional leadership in the region to strengthen the influence strategy
Required Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
- Demonstrated ability to think strategically, and to solve complex problems at an organizational level.
- Detailed understanding of the programmatic, financial, operational and administration mechanisms that support a grant/project implementation life cycle.
- Excellent written and interpersonal communication skills. Confident communication skills applicable to donor relations and inter-agency coordination.
- Ability to handle multiple issues at one time, especially in emergency situations, and to organize and prioritize accordingly.
- Strong representation and relationship-building skills including professional representation (e.g. donors, partner agencies, host governments, etc.)
- Ability to lead teams, handle negotiations and facilitate planning processes.
- Ability to work effectively under tight deadlines and in sparse working environments.
Required Education and Experience
- BA/BS or equivalent in international development, political or social science, public administration, business management, required; and MA preferred.
- At least 7 to 10 years’ field experience in program design, proposal development, business development and/or direct program development and implementation.
- Demonstrated technical experience in one of Mercy Corps outcome or sub-outcome/distinctive areas of Pathway to Possibility (P2P).
- Demonstrated proficiency and experience with US Government (USAID, USDS, USDA), European (UK, EU, ECHO), multilateral and other institutional and private donors, government grant and financial management requirements.
- Demonstrated understanding of the critical humanitarian and development issues in the region, and significant experience with the challenges of operating in the region.
- An internationally recognized qualification in project or program management or a commitment to obtain the qualification in the early months of work.
- Knowledge of Sphere standards and other training in humanitarian response preferred.
- Experience developing and strong understanding of budget and cost proposal submissions, and personnel and staffing requirements for USAID, OFDA, EU (ECHO and DEVCO) and other institutional donor proposals.
- Strong negotiation skills and experience conducting proposal development in consortia, prime- and sub-grantee roles, and other partnership arrangements.
- Fluency in written and spoken English, French or Portuguese skills a plus
Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions
The position is based in Nairobi, Kenya and it requires up to 30% travel to support country programs, which may include travel to insecure locations where freedom of movement is limited and areas where amenities are limited. Housing for this role is in individual housing and staff will have access to good medical services and the living situation is of a high standard.
Mercy Corps Team members represent the agency both during and outside of work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit/short term assignment to a field posting. Staff are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and MC’s policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.
Safeguarding & Ethics
Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC and have signed on to the Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. By applying for this role an applicant confirms that they have not previously violated an employer’s sexual misconduct, sexual exploitation and abuse, child safeguarding or trafficking policy. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct e-learning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.
As an applicant, if you witness or experience any form of sexual misconduct during the recruitment process, please report this to Mercy Corps Integrity Hotline (integrityhotline@mercycorps.org)