ABOUT US

We are an international development organisation putting ingenious ideas to work so people in poverty can change their world.

We help people find solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems. Challenges made worse by catastrophic climate change and persistent gender inequality. We work with communities to develop ingenious, lasting and locally owned solutions for agriculture, water and waste management, climate resilience and clean energy. And we share what works with others, so answers that start small can grow big.

We’re a global change-making group. The group consists of a UK registered charity with community projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America, an independent development publishing company and a technical consulting service. We combine these specialisms to multiply our impact and help shape a world that works better for everyone.

OUR AIMS

We help people find solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems, made worse by catastrophic climate change and persistent gender inequality. Our aims are to:

• Make agriculture work better for smallholder farmers, many of them women, so they can adapt to climate change and achieve a good standard of living
• Help more people harness the transformational effects of clean affordable energy and reduce avoidable deaths caused by smoke from indoor stoves and fires.
• Make cities in poorer countries cleaner, healthier places to live and work.
• Build disaster resilience into the lives of people threatened by hazards – reducing the risk of hazards and minimizing their impact on lives and livelihoods.

HOW WE WORK

We work on holistic solutions that change systems and have a framework to help us achieve our aims:

• Analyze the root causes of a poverty and vulnerability
• Define the change at scale we need to make
• Develop activities along three complementary paths: Demonstrate, Learn and Inspire.

• Demonstrate that our solutions are sustainable in the real world
• Learn by capturing evidence and adapting our approach
• Inspire wider support to multiply our impact.

OUR ORGANISATION

Practical Action is an unconventional, multi-disciplinary change making organisation

• A highly innovative community development charity operating in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Practical Action community projects use ingenious ideas to design, test, refine and prove new ways to overcome poverty and disadvantage and then ‘open-source’ knowledge of what works so that it can be implemented at a greater scale by others.
• A world-class consulting operation that helps socially responsible business, government policy makers and other development organizations. This draws on learnings from our own development work as well as the combined brainpower of a roster of over 2,000 expert consultants. Practical Action Consulting helps to extend the reach of our influence by providing the best advice to others, whose work can make a bigger difference.
• A well-respected specialist development publisher. Practical Action Publishing brings together development practitioners, researchers and thought leaders to create publications that stimulate discussion, strengthen peoples’ capabilities, and inspire sustainable change.

Our Vision:

• Practical Action’s vision is of a world that works better for everyone.

About the Role:

Job Title: Grant and Business Development Manager: under the direct supervision of the head of programs, will be responsible for planning and implementing grants programs, preparing budgets, researching funding opportunities, monitoring expenditure, tracking results, contribute to proposal development and ensure compliance with donors’ policy and requirement. 

Scope:

Business Development:

• Participation in proposals/concepts and project ideas preparation and response to any comments.
• Managing PAMs and GMS (OCHA) systems in Coordination with UK and OCHA.

Fundraising:

• Participation in follow up of funding opportunities related intelligence
• Participation in donor contacts, preparing for and meeting with donors.
• Attend OCHA sectors meetings and development of humanitarian response plans.

Grants Management and donors Compliance

• Review of donor contracts to inform decision making during contract execution.
• Undertake activities to ensure donor compliance is achieved including audit support.
• Provide guidance to programs and operations staff regarding donor requirements including development and management of cash flows, as well as the development of budgets to ensure accuracy and consistency.
• Support procurement processes and ensure donor requirements are met and reflected in sub-contracts and sub-grants including supporting vetting as required.
• Develop mechanisms to minimize risk programmatically and financially
• Identify, share, adapt and create tools and training to support excellence in grants management.
• Identify compliance gaps and related solutions – including differences between donor and internal Practical Action’s policies and procedures, including cost allocation.
• Work closely with Practical Action partners to ensure monthly financial and liquidation reports are submitted and are fully supported with financial documents.
• Ensure accurate and timely reporting of program finances and progress status, review actual financial performance against the budget, and explain variances on a regular basis.
• Review budget holder reports (BHR) to ensure adherence to restrictions online item flexibility and accepted costs.
• Support follow up actions to resolve any identified problems.
• Design effective budget monitoring tools, generate and review monthly reporting and lead regular meetings with budget holder managers to review issues and trends identified.
• Support forecasting and reporting for Practical Action and partners to ensure that expected funding is recorded accurately to support income tracking and reporting.
• Summarize funding agreements, communicate relevant guidelines and orient concerned staff.
• Monitoring funding levels considering SBP forecasts.
• Contribution to KPI reporting particularly income generation component.

Internal Control Assessment

• Ensure adherence to record keeping as per donor and Practical Action Internal requirements. Monitor application and address gaps as needed.
• Ensure timely closure of finance audit findings related to donor compliance; participate in preparation, implementation and monitoring of related action plans.
• Lead site visits to partners to assess adequacy of internal controls, compliance with applicable laws and regulations, and partner policies and procedures. Report findings to program management including proposed follow-up with sub-grantees based on issues surfaced.
• Perform ongoing monitoring and assessment of partner capacity to record and post transactions.
• Ensure adequate response and monitoring to implement recommendations of all financial audits and partner capacity assessments.
• Lead implementation of the Sub-recipient Financial Management policy. Ensure all partners are effectively assessed; categorized and all corrective actions are fully implemented.
• Organize external audits in accordance with grant requirements.
• Provide guidance and support for the timely assessment of partner financial management capacity and ability to adhere to any specific donor requirements.
• Work on initiatives to address audit findings and accountability issues related to RISING.
• Monitor implementation of action/corrective action plans relative to both internal and external audits in the grant management area.

Partnerships and capacity building

• Capacity building and support to ensure grants are managed in compliance with donor requirements; lead workshops for project staff to understand contractual obligations and donor compliance requirements, development of contract templates and training among others.
• Identify staff and partner capacity gaps and provide tailored capacity building plans with as appropriate. 
• Oversee and roll out safeguarding measures and any cross-cutting policies.

PA Strategy and business Planning:

• Participation and contribution to relevant PA Sudan and International level follow up and planning meetings as required.

Other:

• Any other duties commensurate with the level and grade of the role which may from time to time, reasonably be requested by the line manager.

We Offer:

Practical Action offers a very remunerative wages and compensation package along the yearly contract.

How to Apply: