Myanmar: Grants and Communications Manager

BACKGROUND: The IRC has been working in Myanmar since May 2008, initially supporting emergency response and early recovery interventions for communities affected by Cyclone Nargis. Since then, IRC has broadened its portfolio to include health, water and sanitation, livelihoods, and social development programs, while maintaining its commitment to respond to emergencies caused by floods, cyclones, and inter-communal violence. The IRC is committed to a long-term presence in-country with the aim of improving the well-being of vulnerable populations living in hard-to-reach areas. IRC works in selection locations, primarily focused in the most marginalized areas of the country, including Rakhine, Northern Shan, Chin, Kachin, Mon, Kayah and Kayin States.

SCOPE OF WORK: IRC in Myanmar operates an annual portfolio of $15 million, through the implementation of over 18 grants country-wide funded by 14 different international donor agencies. In addition, IRC prioritizes partnership with local civil society organizations, and currently manages over 14 sub-grantees. IRC Myanmar strives to produce quality reports that provide measurement of contractual goals and activities, but also includes analysis of context and dynamic needs of beneficiaries at the community-level. The Grants and Communications Manager is responsible for the development and updating of key communications materials for the country program.

The Grants and Communications Manager reports to the Program Design and Grants Snr. Coordinator, and provides day-to-day oversight of core donor reporting, information management, programmatic monitoring, compliance with donor formats and templates for report submissions. The Grants and Communications Manager also provides key support in the development of high quality funding proposals that synthesize and present information about project progress and achievements using data obtained from the country program’s M&E systems to incorporate into proposals and other communications materials, as needed.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Reporting, Documentation & Grants Compliance (70%):

• Manage all internal and external reporting through systematic tracking of reporting deadlines according to contractual agreements with donors;
• Work closely with Senior Grants Manager to support grant compliance requirements for specific grants, providing grants compliance support and guidance to Programmes, Operations and Finance colleagues;
• Ensure high-quality, well-written and timely reports meeting donor and IRC requirements, with support from the program managers/coordinators, M&E Coordinator, Project Design and Grants Senior Coordinator, and Senior Grants Manager;
• Develop timelines and reporting work-flow schedules and share with all relevant program, grants, M&E, finance and HQ staff to ensure roles/responsibilities/deadlines for each report are clear to all relevant staff contributing to each report;
• Participate in grants meetings to share reporting requirements and to set expectations for all program staff to be followed throughout the full grant cycle (i.e. at the start and end of each grant);
• Acquire and disseminate updated donor formats (proposals and reports) and other donor related information to all relevant program staff for guidance on report preparation;
• Prepare narrative program reports in accordance with donor designated formats, including USAID, ECHO, UN, DFID, EC and other donors as required. Draft sections of report narratives from scratch, as well as compile and edit information provided from field teams;
• Support Sub Grant Unit (SGU) and programme staff toto review narrative progress reports submitted to IRC by partners and sub-grantees;
• Liaise with finance teams to ensure all financial reports are submitted on time to the donor;
• Disseminate draft reports for review and feedback by program team, relevant technical unit(s), and HQ staff prior to submitting the final report to donor;
• Build capacity of IRC staff as well as staff of IRC’s local sub-grantees/partners for proper record keeping and drafting quality and accurate program reports through mentoring and training for program and field staff;
• Stay up to date with all institutional donor guidelines and reporting templates;
• Work with program team focal points to facilitate/support requests from HQ, donors, UN, etc for input to ad hoc reports.

Communications (15%):

• Bring more dynamic skills and software to IRC Myanmar’s communications materials, providing a facelift to current presentation of information, knowledge, and experience;
• Oversee the development and updating of other informational materials such as brochures, articles, case studies, posters, website and audio-visual materials to promote the work of IRC Myanmar externally and within IRC;
• Support development of program visuals – including maps of program areas, graphics, and power point presentations for a variety of audiences, including government, donors, partners;
• Draft program briefing materials, and respond to requests for program information from IRC Regional Management, IRC HQ, donors, Myanmar Government and others;
• Prepare and update IRC Myanmar information packets for donors and visitors including General IRC Information, IRC Myanmar Program Overview and sector and/or geographic ‘fact sheets’;
• Maintain up-to-date and well-stocked information materials center;
• Facilitate documentation of institutional knowledge and past program activities.

Project Design and Proposal Development (10%)

• Support proposal development in collaboration with Program Design and Grants Senior, Coordinator, Senior Grants Manager, M&E Coordinator, Deputy Director of Programmes, programmes staff, finance staff and technical advisors, including preparing sections of technical narrative and annexes, when requested;
• Contribute substantively to design of new grants and project proposals through application of information gathered for donor and internal progress reports, as well as information obtained from the M&E unit, into new proposals.

Monitoring & Evaluation (5%):

• Work closely with M&E Unit, including Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator and project-specific M&E focal points based at field sites to incorporate M&E data into final report submissions.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Bachelor’s Degree in development studies, social sciences, or other relevant field
• Two to five years work experience in international humanitarian or development field
• Strong knowledge of donor rules and regulations for reporting and compliance issues of donors including USAID, ECHO, EuropeAid and UN donors (UNFPA, UNICEF, UNHCR, OCHA). Experience with Myanmar specific multi-donor trust funds LIFT and 3MDG highly regarded.
• Excellent written and verbal English language skills; extremely strong attention to detail and experience in multi-tasking required.
• Demonstrated experience in report writing, proposal development, and/or grant cycle management, especially within an NGO or other development setting. Writing samples will be required by short listed candidates
• Demonstrated experience
• Proficient in MS Office, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint; Publisher and Photoshop a plus.
• Ability to work in a multi-cultural environment and travel as required to project field sites

WORK ENVIRONMENT:

The Grants and Reporting Manager position is based in Yangon, Myanmar with travel required to project field site locations in rural areas of the country. This is an unaccompanied post. Provision of medical, life, and repatriation insurance + retirement package. Living standards are good and the security situation is calm and stable but this could change.

IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran

http://chm.tbe.taleo.net/chm03/ats/careers/requisition.jsp?org=IRC&cws=1&rid=13645