Grants & Program Manager

USAID Building Capacity for African Agricultural Transformation

(Africa Lead II) Project

Title:    Grants & Program Manager

Location: Nairobi, Kenya (with in-country and periodic international travel)

Period of Performance: Oct 2018 – Jun 2019 (funding dependent)

Background:

The USAID Building Capacity for African Agricultural Transformation (Africa Lead II) Project is a five-year effort to support and advance the agricultural transformation in Africa as proposed by the African Union Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Program (CAADP), while simultaneously contributing to the Feed the Future goals of reduced hunger and poverty, by building the capacity of men and women African leaders, institutions and stakeholders to develop, lead, and manage the structures needed for the transformation process. This project has three components:

• The establishment of institutional/organizational architecture to lead African agriculture transformation at the national and regional levels, operating at the highest level of effectiveness;
• The operationalization of capacity to manage policy change and alignment process; and
• The effective participation and leading when necessary, of Non-State Actors (NSAs) in the CAADP process.

 The Opportunity:

Africa Lead is currently executing two grants programs, each in different stages of implementation and with a different technical focus.  The first program, launched in June 2018, includes a total of six small grants (less than $25,000 USD each) to non-state actors (NSA) at the national and subnational level in Kenya and Senegal.  The grant activities are designed to strengthen citizen engagement and participation in data generation for ongoing monitoring of food security programs, policies and commitments under the CAADP agenda.  While the role of citizen engagement in policy processes takes many forms, this program focuses on making use of agricultural performance data relevant to specific CAADP themes for advocacy and strategic communication purposes; and generating relevant data to support the ongoing monitoring of CAADP progress.  This program, called the NSA Small Grants Program (SGP), is scheduled to conclude in November 2018, culminating in a final learning event in Nairobi, Kenya.

The second program is designed to support an inclusive agribusiness policy agenda in three focus countries (Kenya, Tanzania and Senegal), as envisioned under the CAADP Agribusiness Partnership Framework (CAP-F).  The desired impact of the CAP-F is to unlock the private sector investment necessary to achieve national and continental goals for the agriculture sector.  The outcome of a successful CAP-F is a set of flagship “agribusiness partnerships” that enable companies, governments and farmers to strengthen priority value chains in a country.  The CAP-F emphasizes the following principles for successful public-private agribusiness partnerships 1) coordination; 2) policy change; 3) investment mobilization; and 4) mutual accountability.  Under the CAP-F Grant Activity, Africa Lead is expecting to award approximately $150,000-$200,000 in grants.  The program will launch in September 2018 and is expected to conclude in Jun 2018.

Lastly, as AL is in its final year of implementation, this position will also play an important role in providing general program management support, including documentation management, reporting and activity tracking, and quality assurance for record-keeping.

Tasks:

The Grant & Program Manager will be responsible for all tasks related to the management and quality assurance of the grantee activities, during all phases of the grant program, including but not limited to the following:

• Entering data into the TAMIS, which is Africa Lead’s internal project management database
• Organizing electronic files on the Africa Lead Server as well as hard copy files
• Drafting and finalizing all applicable solicitation and award documents in English using the appropriate templates
• Facilitating technical and financial evaluation committee meetings
• Conducting or participating in pre-award responsibility and due diligence activities for new awards
• Conducting grant award negotiations
• Monitoring grant awards for compliance during implementation
• Conducting site visits during grant implementation
• Preparing grant modifications as required
• Preparation of grant closeout and subcontract completion
• Coordination and outreach with external partners, USAID Missions and other projects, as needed
• Coordination with other AL team members, such as monitoring and evaluation (M&E), finance, procurement, logistics, technical, etc.
• Lead and participate in weekly AL staff meetings and grants meetings, as needed
• Continue the day-to-day management of the two grant programs, including reviewing and approving deliverables, signing payment vouchers, responding to emails from grantees, and entering grant inputs into TAMIS.
• Lead the planning and event management of a final learning event for the SGP in Kenya (currently scheduled in November 2018) and for the CAP-F (tentatively scheduled for Jun 2019)
• Write updates on the grants programs and grantee activities for AL’s Quarterly and Final Report and other communication products
• Assist with editing the grantee’s quarterly report submissions for inclusion in the AL Quarterly Reports and Final Report and for upload to AL’s website.
• As AL closedown approaches, assist with grant file audits and other closedown tasks as requested.

Tasks related to program management include:

• Work with AL’s MEL team to ensure the TAMIS database, which is AL’s internal database, and other information tracking tools are properly utilized and updated across activities
• Work with AL’s MEL team to coordinate among activity teams to manage indicator tracking tools
• Ensure that technical reports and deliverables by activity teams are all uploaded and archived properly on TAMIS database
• Supervise data entry into TAMIS and make sure that all activity entries are thoroughly and systematically maintained
• Ensure accuracy of information on reporting requirements and upload to TAMIS

In addition to the general tasks listed above, there are specific tasks associated with each phase of the grants programs that are critical to the smooth operation, technical quality management and integration of learning from the grantee activities which the Grants Manager will be responsible for coordinating and/or managing directly.  Specifically, the Grants Manager will take the lead in the following tasks in each phase of the grants programs:

Launch phase

• Organize and facilitate the grantee kick-off meeting
• Work with grantees to develop/finalize milestones

Implementation phase

• Review deliverables for completeness
• Manage back and forth with grantees around required revisions, missing components of milestones/deliverables
• Coordinate with Technical Leads on AL for review and approval of milestones
• Coordinate with external partners, as required, for review and approval of milestones
• Update TAMIS with deliverables & milestones back up
• Review payment requests and interface with Finance office for payment
• Update TAMIS with payment/disbursement information/back up
• Track and review monthly progress reports
• Field questions from grantees around payments
• Represent Africa Lead in grantee events
• Conduct monitoring visits
• Draft and send weekly updates to AL Activity Team
• Regular communication (weekly or more) with grantees by phone
• Coordinate with AL M&E team around grant monitoring (data/indicator-related inputs, review of progress reports)
• Coordinate with Communications team around Branding and Marking and other communications issues
• Support completion of grantee handbook
• Liaise and coordinate with relevant external partners and USAID Missions, as appropriate, to ensure they are aware of and engaged with grantee activities
• Lead the consideration and evaluation of grantee performance for follow on and/or extension of grantee activities

Close out phase

• Lead the planning of closing workshop/grantee lessons learned events (one learning event for each grant program)
• Draft/support development of report on grant activity
• Audit deliverables in TAMIS assuring all milestones, deliverables and payment documentation is in place
• Issue grant close out letters

Qualifications:

• Five years of progressive professional experience in grants administration.
• Work with agriculture and food security projects highly desired
• Excellent working knowledge and experience administering USAID funded grants, with FAR and AIDAR regulations.
• Extensive experience in writing high quality grants documentation in English, including RFPs, RFA, SOWs, evaluation reports, financial offer formats and other grant documents.
• Highly organized, detail-oriented individual experienced in managing competing priorities under tight deadlines.
• Sound business judgment and strong skills in critical thinking, analysis and evaluation, and problem-solving
• Excellent writing and editing skills are required.
• University degree in a relevant field.

PERFORMANCE CRITERIA:

Africa Lead II is a performance-based project, highly dependent on individuals and team core competencies. Each staff member will participate in a semi-annual evaluation and receive feedback. Based on this evaluation, decisions related to promotion or salary increase will be made.

If you believe you qualify for this job, kindly submit your CV to [email protected] by September 7th, 2018.

 

Only qualified candidates will be contacted.