New Business Development Specialist – (Development funding) - Ethiopia Country Office

ROLE PURPOSE:

The New Business Development Specialist will work with the New Business Development Advisor and Head of New Business Development to proactively seek out and disseminate information on new funding opportunities; cultivate excellent relationships with donor agencies, partners and Save the Children Member offices globally. He/She will facilitate program development for the Ethiopia Country Office through identification of opportunities for funding, donor research and relations, drafting proposals and supporting project design, and ensuring proposals are compliant with internal and donor standards. The position will also support research and documentation of lessons learnt and ensures utilisation of evidence in the design process; and builds other teams’ capacity to develop high quality proposals.

Child Safeguarding:

Level 3 - the responsibilities of the post may require the post holder to have regular contact with or access to children or young people.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: New Business Development Advisor

Dimensions: Save the Children works in 8 regions in Ethiopia with a current staff of approximately 1,600 and annual expenditure of approximately $80 million.

Staff directly reporting to this post: None

Key working relationships: Ensures appropriate coordination between technical experts (PDQ team) including MEAL, Operations, Budgeting, Security, HR and Awards teams to ensure the execution of strong proposal development processes.

A.KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY: 

Programme Quality in Design & Implementation:

Donor research and relationship building

•  Conduct donor landscape analysis and support the drafting and management of donor engagement plans for priority donors
• Assist in seeking and tracking donor intelligence on prospective new opportunities or partnerships; particularly for long-term funding opportunities 
• Closely coordinate with the Senior Program Development Manager to cultivate relationships with potential partners and donors for strategic funding opportunities

 Proposal/ Concept Note coordination

•   Facilitate go/no-go decisions for the CO senior leadership to determine if to pursue funding opportunities
• Support and coordinate among technical and field teams to design cost effective, innovative and high quality programs to serve children in Ethiopia in development and emergency contexts
•   Lead the development and coordination of high quality concept notes and proposals aligned with Save the Children’s country strategy for Ethiopia and in line with donor priorities by identifying and clarifying opportunities and needs; studying calls for proposals, and sharing information with relevant sector teams as well as drafting/developing proposal sections
• Work closely with Budget Development team to ensure the alignment of the budget, implementation plan, budget narrative and technical narrative sections of all proposals.
• Conduct detailed quality review of proposals for technical and operational soundness and compliance with donor and agency requirements.
• Communicate with relevant Save the Children Member contacts throughout the proposal design process and to ensure timely reviews and approval of concept notes and proposals prior to donor submission.
• Participate in needs assessments as necessary for proposal/concept note development and ensure findings are documented with a specific analysis on children.
• Work closely with Budget Development team to ensure the alignment of the budget, implementation plan, budget narrative and technical narrative sections of all proposals.
• Assist in regular communication and training on program design processes and requirements 

Documentation and learning

• Maintain a detailed funding tracker for the country office and feed into monthly portfolio performance analysis.
• Support the development of capacity statements on SC’s experience in specific sectors and sub-sectors to support positioning for future funding.
• Capture and document learning from ongoing projects to be applied to project design.
• Ensure that all documents are properly filed within the award management system and country office shared drives. Secure all needed approvals prior to submission. This include ensuring documents are posted on AMS as applicable, maintaining proposal libraries, documenting lessons learned, etc.
•  Maintain up-to-date knowledge of relevant government, Save the Children member and donor guidelines and ensure their compliance in proposal development.

• SKILLS AND BEHAVIOURS (our Values in Practice)

  Accountability:

•  Holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values

• Holds suppliers accountable to deliver on their responsibilities

  Ambition:

  • Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and takes responsibility for their own personal development
  •   Widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others
  • Future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale

• Collaboration:

  •  Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to; builds and maintains effective relationships with colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters
  •   Values diversity and different people’s perspectives, able to work cross-culturally.

  Creativity:

  •   Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
  •   Cuts away bureaucracy and encourages an entrepreneurial approach

  Integrity:

  •   Honest, encourages openness and transparency, builds trust and confidence
  • Displays consistent excellent judgement

   

QUALIFICATION AND EXPERIENCE

 Education

• Minimum BA Degree in international development, international relations, social science, business, or a related field.
• A minimum of 8years related experience in proposal / new business development in an NGO or similar environment, preferably including experience-developing programs for children.
• Demonstrated experience working across the full project management cycle.
• Practical proposal writing management experience for donors such as EU, USAID, SIDA, NORAD, GAC, BMZ, SDC, Gates Foundation, UNOCHA, UNHCR, BPRM, etc. Experience working on large proposals in a consortium is a plus.
• Excellent writing skills
• Proven ability to track, manage and represent large and diverse funding portfolios
• Excellent analytical, organization, communication and management skills. Must have attention to detail and ability to multi-task
• Experience in Save the Children’s priority sectors: Heath, Nutrition, Education, WASH, FS/L, Child Protection, Child Rights Governance, Migration in development and/or emergencies
• Highly self-motivated and energetic, with a go getter attitude and the resourcefulness to solve problems effectively
• Ability to provide support and training to staff and partners on donor requirements
• Knowledge on project design methods and tools (including assessments, logical frameworks, and work planning) and strong appreciation for innovation and partnership as part of project development
• Good analytical skills with ability to positively influence cross departmental and cross sector working, and ability to work both independently and as well as a team player
• Strong results orientation, with ability to meet deadlines and produce high-quality products
• Positive attitude and willingness to learn and work in a context of people with various ethnic and religious backgrounds
• Ability and willingness to change work practices and hours, and work with proposal development teams to meet deadlines
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills with the ability to express ideas and concepts clearly and persuasively with internal and external stakeholders
• Commitment to and understanding of Save the Children’s aims, values and principles including rights-based approaches

KEY COMPETENCIES

Technical competencies:

• Drives Quality ASRH Programming: Trains and mentors’ others on the application of relevant health sector and ASRH sub-theme standards
• Understanding of Impact of emergencies on health and nutrition programming and health outcomes: Engages in the humanitarian aid architecture, the cluster approach and inter-cluster coordination of public health information
• Able to build sustainable and integrated ASRH programmes: Builds the capacity of others to design and implement integrated ASRH sensitive and specific programming and advocacy
• Able to link local to national and global level advocacy efforts, supporting localisation of change and influencing global policy development

Generic Competencies

• Being the Voice of Children: Promotes evidence-based policy and public engagement that includes the voices of children and their communities

• Advancing Equality & Inclusion: Displays a commitment to ensuring everything we do considers the most deprived and marginalised children and adolescent
• Building & Strengthening Partnerships: Promotes working with diverse partners as critical to delivery

Child Rights: Promotes the rights of children in own work and in work with colleagues and peers

Additional job responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.

Equal Opportunities

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with SCI’s global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Gender Equality Policies, supported by relevant procedures.

Child Safeguarding:

We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

Safeguarding our Staff:

The post holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI anti-harassment policy.

Health and Safety

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with SC Health and Safety policies and procedures.

We offer a competitive package in the context of the sector. The duty station of the position holder will be in Addis Ababa This role is offered on the basis of national terms and conditions only.

The Organization
We employ approximately 25,000 people across the globe and work on the ground in over 100 countries to help children affected by crises, or those that need better healthcare, education and child protection. We also campaign and advocate at the highest levels to realize the right of children and to ensure their voices are heard.

We are working towards three breakthroughs in how the world treats children by 2030:
• No child dies from preventable causes before their 5th birthday
• All children learn from a quality basic education and that,
• Violence against children is no longer tolerated

We know that great people make a great organization, and that our employees play a crucial role in helping us achieve our ambitions for children. We value our people and offer a meaningful and rewarding career, along with a collaborative and inclusive environment where ambition, creativity, and integrity are highly valued.