Project support officer

Reporting to: Programme Director, Nigeria
Responsible for: With a focus on Nigeria, developing new project and programme proposals for both the Nigeria and Ghana Country Programmes; sourcing funding opportunities for both new and existing projects; supporting project staff with the submission of reports to donors; representing CU to potential donors.

Background

Concern Universal’s vision is a world where justice, dignity and respect for all prevails. The organisation works in partnership to challenge poverty and inequality. We support practical actions that enable people to improve their lives and shape their own futures. Partnership is at the heart of what CU does and is the means by which we aspire to achieve our vision of helping some of the world’s poorest and most marginalized people to improve the quality of their lives in a sustainable and practical way. At the core of CU’s partnership approach is a deep sense of value and respect for the processes involved in relationship building and the partner’s development – in this sense our approach is a process oriented and relationship based one.

CU in Nigeria has a solid comprehension of the development context of Cross River and Ebonyi States in particular. Calabar, where the post is based is a semi urban environment set in tropical rainforest ecology and is a major State Capital with a population of over 400,000. The organisation’s work in Nigeria began in 2001. There are four current sectoral areas of intervention:

1) Water & Environmental Sanitation
2) Girl Rights and Opportunities for Women,
3) Environment & Livelihoods and
4) Governance.

Two overarching themes are Partner Capacity Building and Disaster Risk Reduction. Partnerships include those with GREENCODE; Cares Initiative; Organisation for Rural Community Development (RUCODEV), Women’s Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA), Neighbourhood Initiative for Women Advancement (NIWA), and Survival Foundation Network (SUFON). Donors funding the programme have included/include: Comic Relief, European Commission NGO Cofinancing, EC ACP Water Facility, Irish Aid, Australian High Commission, Canadian High Commission, Japanese Embassy, USAID OFDA, UK/I Trusts & Foundations etc.

Job Purpose

The Project Support Officer’s role is primarily to secure, manage, and optimize institutional funding from Institutional Donors such as EC, DFID, USAID etc, Trusts and Foundations, the Private Sector and Embassies by working with the sector coordinators to write high quality proposals, providing technical advice, information and additional support on preparing proposals, managing contracts, and compiling reports according to donors rules and regulations.

The role requires dynamic team working skills, professional drive and a passion for the development sector and an ability to thrive under complex and challenging working conditions.

Key Responsibilities

As Project Support Officer you will:

Provide information on funding opportunities on a timely and regular basis and support proposal submissions to Institutional Donors, Trusts and Foundations, Private Sector and Embassies
- Work closely with the Nigeria Programme Director to increase their engagement and gather intelligence on forthcoming opportunities with local institutional donors’ country offices, financing decisions and strategic priorities.
- Ensure program staff in Nigeria are aware of funding opportunities and deadlines
- Coordinate and support the preparation and development of high quality funding proposals to donors in a participatory manner, ensuring that donor guidelines are known and met
- To play a key role in the development and monitoring of projects: checking quality of output against compliance with donor’s terms and conditions, including checking that commitments in proposals are enacted in the field
- Represent CU Nigeria as required with donors and keep abreast of changes of personnel and structure in various donor offices and keep relevant people up to date in CU Nigeria.
- Identify potential new sources of funding which reflect CU Nigeria program strategies and priorities and for which the Nigeria is eligible
- Support the development of long term CU Nigeria funding strategies
- Responsible for coordinating the full range of activities required to expand and strengthen CU’s donor fundraising program including: prepare introductory mailings to prospective donors, and coordination of follow-up activities; preparation of regular fundraising progress reports; assisting, as needed, with the development of promotional materials.

Support reporting to donors

- Liaise with donors and coordinate donor reporting
- Provide support to the Nigeria Country Programme staff on reporting requirements and forms as well as management of contracts to ensure donor requirements are met
- In close collaboration with the Nigeria Programme Directors, Project Coordinators and finance teams, review narrative and financial reports to ensure compliance to donor rules and procedures
- Ensure that country teams meet donor reporting deadlines
- Send reports to donors and follow up with relevant desk officers if clarification is needed
- Contribute to CU Nigeria, Monitoring, Evaluation and Planning

Provide regular analysis and information reports on donor contracts and grants held by CU Nigeria

- Maintain a database of all donor contracts with accurate and updated information
- Prepare and distribute monthly reports on current and pending donor contracts
- Identify and develop new sources of funding
- Produce periodic reports on potential risks to donor funding and suggest mitigation strategies within CU Nigeria consultation with the Programme Directors of Nigeria.

Skills, Qualifications and Competencies

- Advanced Education or University Degree in a relevant field
- At least 2 years experience in a similar position with sound experience of fundraising from institutional Donors such as the European Union, UN and UKAID (DfID) preferably in an NGO environment and strong understanding of donor practices
- Ability to think analytically and strategically about fundraising and have good financial and communication skills as well as knowledge and understanding of both development and humanitarian programme work.
- Proven track record in proposal design, success at raising money from institutional donors, managing donor contacts, report/proposal writing, budgeting and planning skills
- Excellent interpersonal, communications, and negotiation skills necessary to work effectively in a large, complex and multi-cultural environment;
- Ability to manage your own time effectively to deal with a demanding workload, and have a good eye for detail
- Fluent written and oral English;
- A good team player and have strong interpersonal skills with proven ability to work effectively with others. Experience of distance team working, desirable
- Ability to work to tight deadlines and willingness to travel remote rural community in Nigeria depending on operational requirements;
- Knowledge of project management cycle, including project management tools such as Logical Framework Approach