Description

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT SPECIALIST

(Female candidates are strongly encouraged)

TEAM/PROGRAMME: Programme Development & Quality

LOCATION:  Bamako, Mali

GRADE:  Tier 4

POST TYPE: International

No R&R for Bamako

POST STATUT: Family Status

Child Safeguarding:

Level 3:  The post holder will have contact with children and/or young people either frequently (e.g. once a week or more) or intensively (e.g. four days in one month or more or overnight) because they work country programs; or are visiting country programs; or because they are responsible for implementing the police checking/vetting process staff.

ROLE PURPOSE:

The Business Development Specialist is a senior leadership position within the Programme Development & Quality team. The Business Development Specialist will identify and track donor opportunities, facilitate donor engagement, assist in the development of fundraising strategies, and coordinate proposal development for large and strategic funding opportunities.

The position requires innovative thinking and creativity to package our programme strategies in ways that attract the right donor support and grow out portfolio effectively. She will write sections of proposals that speak to our overall capabilities, while coordinating the input of technical advisors, Operations, Finance, HR and Security into proposals and budgets. Recognising that many conversations with donors involve a review or update around current grants as well as discussions about new opportunities, the Business Development Specialist will also be expected to keep closely informed about the progress of all major institutional grants and able to speak to results in key reporting documents.

A large portion of this job is dedicated to managing the new business development (i.e. growth of the country office portfolio), and proposal writing/ coordination function with CO team, Members and RO teams.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: Director of Programme Development & Quality

Dimensions: Save the Children has supported children in Mali for over 35 years. We provide support to children through developmental and humanitarian relief programmes delivered both directly and through local partners. Current programming focuses on child protection, child rights governance, education, health, livelihoods, nutrition and WASH. Save the Children has an operational presence in Sikasso, Kayes, Mopti, Gao, Timbuktu and Segou. Currently, we have a staff complement of approximately 315 people and an annual average budget of US$35 million.

Staff directly reporting to this post: N/A    

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

New Business Development (35% of role)

·         Ensure that the country office has a comprehensive, CLT-endorsed Funding Strategy in place, which is in line with the approved Country Strategy, and is implemented and monitored effectively.

·         Lead the portfolio and funding assessment (portfolio analysis, donor landscape assessment, funding assessment) in order to confirm donors that are well aligned with Save the Children as well as other findings.

·         Lead the development/review of a fundraising strategy (year base) liaising with members to determine opportunities, support global donor relationship management, and align member and country funding strategies.

·         Lead the development of donor engagement plans liaising with members in order to optimise engagement through consistent messaging and ensure that expectations are clear.

·         Develop and maintain systems to track positioning and donor engagement strategies (donor engagement tracking…).

·         Identify, research, and disseminate information on new funding opportunities from bilateral, multi-lateral and other institutional donors.

·         Track upcoming funding opportunities, donor engagement and proposal development process. Provide regular updates to the Director of Programme Development & Quality and to the Senior Management Team on the status of the funding portfolio and key trends to monitor.

·         Lead in developing new funding strategies for thematic programme plans and cross-sectoral integration.  These strategies should reflect our ambitions and new creative thinking to achieve more for children.

·         Maintain an on-going and regularly updated information bank on context analysis and research findings for future proposal development (child rights situational analysis, assessments, HEAs, CODs, DHS, census data, field research on community needs, etc.).

·         Manage information necessary for effective capture planning and proposal development.

·         Participate in key donor meetings, initiate donor contacts, when necessary, to foster long-term collaboration and engagement. Pro-actively seek donor intelligence on prospective new opportunities or partnership.

·         Cultivate business relationships with external stakeholders and potential partners for large scale or strategic funding opportunities, either as a prime or as sub-recipient in joint ventures.

·         Research, identify and disseminate information on different actors in the Malian context (UN Agencies, local NGOs, INGOs, State Actors, Research, etc.) for strategic and innovative new partnerships.

·         Ensure key contacts, required formats and donor strategies are kept up-to-date at the country office level.

Proposal Development (50% of role)

·         Be the principal coordinator of all proposal development including the development of high-value or complex proposals or bids, building on global, regional and national expertise, and ensuring the highest quality product.

·         With in-country TAs, seek out and facilitate inputs of technical advice from backstops or members to ensure that programmes benefit from Save the Children's global expertise, while remaining relevant to the local context. Facilitate engagement of consultants on proposals, or when technical specialists are needed.

·         Review thematic capacity statements in coordination with technical specialists, Advocacy & Communication and MEAL teams to ensure they are donor-friendly.

·         Produce proposal development schedules and track timelines.

·         Drive interdepartmental coordination for programme and proposals development. Effectively manage collaboration amongst teams, Save the Children WCA regional office and Save the Children Members when preparing concept papers and project proposals for fundraising purposes.

·         Ensure strong coordination with Members and other CO teams, particularly PDQ (for project set-up, technical inputs and strategies), Programme Operations (for field team inputs, logistics requirements, security, costings, etc.), Awards Management (for donor requirements), Finance (for budgets), Security and HR (for staffing requirements). 

·         Write large sections of proposals that speak to our overall capabilities and to the context and draft key sections of proposal that are standard inputs (e.g. capability statements, country context, programme experience), while coordinating the inputs of technical advisors and drawing on the expertise of technical advisors, Operations, Finance, HR and Security.

·         Quality review technical aspects of the narratives and logframes and ensure complementarity with budgets and other deliverables and that projects are relevant to children in Mali and to the global programme and advocacy objectives of the Save the Children Members, in both humanitarian and development contexts.

·         Ensure full internal and member review and sign off as per the proposal development process.

·         Represent Save the Children as a generalist, alongside technical experts, in consortium meetings regarding proposal development.

Strategic Planning and Programme Development (15% of role)

·         Support the Country Annual Planning process for technical programme inputs and quality measures, including child participation, child safeguarding, partnership and evidence-based programming. It will be key to use the Funding Tracking system and mechanism to track funding against the CSP, with an aim to feed into annual funding plans and budget cycles (Master Budget and Forecast).

·         Contribute to conceptualising and designing cost effective, innovative and high quality programmes to serve children in Mali with a focus on gender, child participation, etc.

·         Ensure that all sectors apply a risk lens to programme design and implementation in line with the Save the Children policy on Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation.

·         Actively participate in key relevant internal meetings such as Programme Review Meetings, Senior Management Team or Area-based meetings as required.  Participate in donor visits to Country Offices projects as required.

QUALIFICATIONS

Essential:

·         Development professional with a relevant Masters’ Degree or equivalent professional experience.

·         Recommended a minimum of five years’ management in a both emergency and development contexts,

Desired:

·         Preferably with solid experience in more than one of the Save the Children priority sectors: education, child poverty, child protection, child governance, health and nutrition, and emergencies

EXPERIENCE

Essential:

·         Excellent writing/editing skills, budget development skills and presentation/communication skills.

·         Experience in presenting project information to donors and partners.

·         Experience in leading development of large-scale or strategic proposals, including the development of multi-million-dollar project budgets.

·         Proven representation and advocacy skills.

·         Experience in promoting and mainstreaming Child Rights Based programming in programme design, implementation and evaluation.

·         Good interpersonal skills with the ability to communicate and negotiate clearly and effectively at all levels, taking into account cultural and language difficulties.

·         Highly developed cultural awareness and ability to work well in an international environment with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures.

·         Strong results orientation, with the ability to challenge existing mindsets.

·         Experience of solving complex issues through analysis, definition of a clear way forward

·         Ability to present complex information in a succinct and compelling manner.

·         Ability and willingness to dramatically change work practices and hours, and work with incoming surge teams, in the event of emergencies.

·         Excellent English language skills, both verbal and written, required. Fluency in French is required.

·         Commitment to Save the Children values, including willingness to abide by and enforce the Child Safeguarding policy.

Desired:

·         Experience in both development and humanitarian sector preferred.

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 the SCI Equal Opportunities and Diversity policies and procedures.

Health and Safety

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

NB:

Pour postuler veuillez cliquer sur le lien ci-dessous:

https://stcuk.taleo.net/careersection/ex/jobsearch.ftl?lang=fr_FR

ENGLISH: Applicants are advised that Save the Children International does not require any payment or expense during the entire recruitment process. Any request in this direction should be immediately reported.

Only shortlisted candidates will be invited for the written test and interviews.

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FRANCAIS : Il est porté à la connaissance des candidats que Save the Children International ne demande aucun paiement, ni frais durant tout le processus de recrutement. Toute demande allant dans ce sens doit être immédiatement signalée car contraire aux valeurs et pratiques de notre organisation.

Seuls les candidat(e)s présélectionné(e)s seront convoqué(e)s pour le test écrit et les interviews.