The International Water Management Institute (IWMI), a CGIAR Research Center is looking for a competent, self-motivated, and dynamic candidate to join as Senior Manager – Resource Mobilization & Partnerships. This role may be based in an IWMI Africa office (Ghana, South Africa, Ethiopia, Egypt) or at its Headquarters in Sri Lanka.
Working under the direct supervision of the Director for Business Strategy and Delivery, the Senior Manager – Resource Mobilization & Partnerships will be responsible for sourcing and screening funding opportunities, engaging with donors and funders, overseeing and managing IWMI’s pipeline of proposals under submission, and leading the proposal development process.
In order to ensure full integration of the pipeline and proposal development process in IWMI’s program management cycle, the Senior Manager – Resource Mobilization & Partnerships will work in close collaboration with the Head of the Program Management Office (PMO). The successful candidate will also work in close coordination with other departments and teams at IWMI, including the research teams, country offices, finance department and the communications team. In addition, the Senior Manager will engage with the Innovative Finance and Resource Mobilization (IFRM) Department of One CGIAR and contribute to system wide integration of Resource Mobilization approaches.
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
Donor relations and donor intelligence
- Analyse and monitor donor strategies and ensure the maintenance of complete and up-to-date donor information, supported by the business development team;
- Provide assessments and background information on prospective new donors including private sector and foundations;
- Develop briefing notes and coordinate communication material for donor visits and events in collaboration with the Communications and Knowledge Management (CKM) Group.
- Gather country level business development intelligence from IWMI country offices
- Contribute to donor intelligence activities of the CGIAR IFRM Department.
Management of the project proposal pipeline
- Oversee the monitoring, identification, screening and summarizing of prospective funding opportunities (e.g. calls for proposals, tenders, requests for tenders, consultancies) and donor opportunities (e.g. launch of new programmes) to ensure the steady flow of research proposals through the project pipeline. Responsible also for the coordination of GO/ No Go approval processes.
- Oversight of the IWMI pipeline and provide relevant information and analysis to IWMI’s senior management.
Providing support to the proposal development process
- Manage IWMI’s corporate approach to responding to research calls and commissioned research contracts; and actively guide proposal development and submission processes such that they are responsive to Clients’ needs and IWMIs mandate
- Advise and support IWMI research teams in the proposal development and submission process including through joint development of proposal strategy, proposal writing training for IWMI staff and maintain and manage a register of external support consultants (e.g. for proposal writing) to assist proposal teams where necessary;
- Ensure strict compliance with quality control checks in the proposal development process including due diligence of partners, in order to conform to priorities of the research agenda and standards;
- Organize and maintain proposal documentation together with PMO staff. Identify and transmit proposals lessons learned.
- Negotiate agreements and contracts with partners and donors, with oversight from the Director for Business Strategy and Delivery
- Manage Proposal Development Budget and track Return on Investment (ROI) on all Project developments.
- Organize proposal development training together with HR and proposal design workshops along with the Deputy Director General and the theme leads for major proposals.
Engagement with Innovative Finance and Resource Mobilization (IFRM) Department of One CGIAR
- Support engagement of IWMI with the One CGIAR IFRM Department to achieve optimized benefits for resource mobilization and support integration of water and water systems into joint CGIAR activities and strategies.