Grants Manager/Regional Business Developer At SWEDO

Background:

SWEDO is a Swedish non-profit, non-political, non-religious development aid organization that was founded in 1991 in Stockholm, Sweden. Having continuously operated in the Kurdistan Region ever since, SWEDO’s main priorities of work are construction and infrastructure activities, refugee and IDP initiatives, health, water, sanitation and hygiene, and capacity building. SWEDO also works on the development and capacity building activities aligned with human rights-based approach to achieve long term sustainable resilience.

SWEDO currently operates in Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Palestine with a wide range of partnership and grants including – among others – UNHCR, WFP, UNFPA, ILO, ECHO, Forum Civ, Swedish Institute and others.

In the past three years SWEDO experienced a rapid growth in new humanitarian and development sectors, such as supporting job creation and restoring Small and Business Enterprises (SMEs) that were affected by the financial impact of COVID19, value chain in agri-food sectors impacted by climate change and promotion of women-led hub for the coordination of humanitarian information, community conflict resolution. Such growth was the result of an in-depth understanding of the needs of target groups, knowledge of local context and the cultivation of a high-level professional relationship with donors. The Global Business Developer is the primary focal point for the establishment of a high-level professional relationship with current and new Donors, as well as Partners Agencies

SWEDO Business Development strategy learned from the lessons acquired in the past years and is based on the following pillars that are embedded in the position of Regional Business Developer:

• The most effective Business Development is the result of the direct involvement in programs design, launch and advisory: to ensure that the Regional Business Developer achieve a high rate of successful projects developed and approved by Donor agencies
• The main criteria for evaluating the work of the Regional Business Developer is not the number of proposals developed, but the rate of success in establishing programs.
• Develop a spirit of Advisory Service, to SWEDO and to the partners and Donors, by developing analysis, information products and participating in coordination forums.
• Support SWEDO in identifying gaps preventing the scale up of existing programs and the launch of new projects: provide advisory service, recommendations on filling gaps affecting HR, Finance, Reporting and Programs.

About This Role:

Duration: 10 months

Type of Employment: Full time/ Consultancy based

Duty Station: Flexible, including Middle East or Europe

Reports To: Secretary General

Roles and Responsibilities:

1) Design and lead the two-tiers Business Development Strategy of SWEDO:

A Global Business Strategy with recommendations and comments from Partners and Donors, as well as a cost/benefit scenario for SWEDO Management to take informed decisions on criteria and requirements.

A Country Business Strategy to consolidate existing Business opportunities, scale up existing programs, develop synergies, mobilize expertise within the organization, to fill gaps affecting the Country Business Strategy and support the Country Directors/Lead in actualize and implement the strategy.

2) Support the SWEDO Partnership with new and existing donors by providing advice to the Project Management team to strengthen Business Development in different areas.

3) Coordinate regular meetings with the Business Development group, to ensure proposals are being submitted with a high professionalism and on time.

4) Conduct and participate in meetings for designing new projects. The Regional Business Developer shall be the focal point for the development of new project proposals: take the lead in the preparation, coordination and submission of project proposals, ensuring that all proposals have a common, clear style, use the same technical terminology and reflect SWEDO approach to bridging humanitarian and development programs. The Regional Business Developer is also expected to write concept notes and full proposals including budgeting process, and contributing to the needs assessment.

5) Support the SWEDO Country Programs to consolidate existing projects, advise the Country Team on steering actions to ensure that Business Opportunities are met, provide technical expertise where needed to strengthen the Country Program.

6) Liaise with SWEDO Partners and Donors to create a collaborative environment, a shared understanding that supports donors needs to rely on SWEDO capacity to provide informed decisions for drivers of needs, most effective project activities, involvement of women and youth in development process.

7) Create a shared understanding and vision over a SWEDO Business Development Strategy, across the Country programs, project Departments and HQ.\

8) Travels and missions (upon Secretary General approval) in the target Business Development locations: primary, Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Palestine.

9) Regular travels (upon Secretary General approval) to conferences, and Business Development meetings internationally.

10) Maintain the SWEDO Business Development Matrix to keep track of the project proposals developed, submitted, and ensure that required documents are timely available to SWEDO and Donors.

11) Attend donor meetings, upon request by the Secretary General and /or Country Director.

12) Support external donor audits and assessments with new donors.

Specific responsibilities:

Proposal Development: Responsible for developing/and or reviewing grants proposals in collaboration with Technical Program Team. Including:

• Analyzing requests for proposals be updated on donor priorities and track and share relevant calls for proposals.
• Initiate meetings with prospect donors to attract new partnerships.
• Organizing and managing the use of timelines, templates and guidelines for proposals.
• Writing, or compiling and managing review of proposals.
• Packaging proposals for submission.
• Create an evaluation tool to benchmark the quality of proposals and reports, guide future processes, and identify areas for improvement, including current Grants Tracker and donor logbook.
• Support to implement country office fundraising strategy.

Required Qualifications and Skills:

Mandatory professional qualifications:

• Education level: Minimum Bachelor’s Degree or Equivalent. Higher education with MSc or above from an international recognized University is a merit. Specialization in a field relevant to SWEDO Business Development.
• Minimum ten (10) years of professional experience with international organizations.
• Minimum five (5) years of professional experience in The Middle East, with at least the last three (3) years of consecutive, recent professional experience.

Mandatory business-development experience:

• Agencies experience: the Business Developer is required to have a direct experience and an active professional network with a pool of UN Agencies that must include three or more of the following agencies: UNOCHA, WFP, UNHCR, IOM, ILO, FAO, UNDP. The Business Developer is required to have an active network of Donor agencies – either Government or private sector – that is aligned to SWEDO Business Development Strategy, and that can include e.g., the EU, DG ECHO, Forum Civ, USIAD and other agencies (GIZ, AICS, DANIDA, JICA, SIDA etc).
• NGO Coordination: minimum 5 years of professional experience of direct work in NGO Coordination forums, with at least 2 years of recent experience in Iraq/Syria/Jordan and Palestine.
• Project Proposals development: the Business Developer is required to have an outstanding knowledge of tools to develop effective project proposals, by combining highly technical writing style with information products such as maps, infographics and methodologies for analysis that are recognized as the state of art from Donor organizations. The Business Developer is required to have an extensive experience in identifying, design and propose project proposal, with a portfolio of successful/unsuccessful projects that highlights the Business Developer capacity to propose a coherent, effective, and innovative and business strategy.

Desired professional qualifications:

• Track records of publications: scientific publications on environmental management and high level environmental and/or humanitarian policies, published with internationally recognized scientific journals and institutions.
• Experience in establishing women-led start-ups, technical working groups and SMEs in Iraq, Syria, Palestine and/or Jordan.

Others qualifications :

• Professional knowledge of English language and of at least of another language in use among Donor agencies.
• Expert knowledge of writing styles for project proposals, technical reports, information products for technical support units, as well as for Donor agencies.