Concern Worldwide is a non-governmental, international, humanitarian organisation dedicated to the reduction of suffering and working towards the ultimate elimination of extreme poverty in the world’s poorest countries

Founded in 1968, Concern works in 25 countries in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean with its headquarters in Ireland. Concern started working in Malawi in 2002. Our Country Strategic Plan 2023 – 2027 focuses on climate and environment, social protection, gender and social inclusion, sustainable food systems for food security and partnerships. For sustainability and lasting change, our advocacy and influence, people centred and evidence based approaches focus on system strengthening and resilience building as we seek to address the root causes of poverty.

Concern invites applications from interested candidates qualified for the following position;

Business Development Coordinator (1 Vacancy)

Contract Duration: One  (1) Year

Duty Station: Lilongwe Head Office

To ensure efficient and high-quality grants management processes within Concern Malawi, you will lead the coordination and oversight of the country program’s grants and contracts portfolio. This entails managing the donor portfolio, identifying funding opportunities, developing quality proposals and reports, and facilitating internal learning. You will represent Concern at key donor meetings, while also conducting internal program reviews and workshops. Additionally, you will take charge of grant management processes, including leading opening and closing meetings, to ensure compliance with internal and donor requirements and to support team capacity building. The Business Development Coordinator will be a member of Senior Management and will report directly to the Country Director.

Responsibilities and Tasks

Grant Management

• Oversee Concern Malawi’s grants portfolio, ensuring that respective managers and colleagues are informed and updated on donor policies and compliance requirements.
• Assist the Operations Director and Finance team in ensuring strict compliance with donor and internal finance, logistics, and compliance guidelines. Provide active support to Programme Managers by developing grant-specific reference guides outlining requirements and providing training annually.
• Ensure that everyone within the organization is informed about contractual visibility and communication requirements from various donors finance and logistics guidelines. Actively support managers on this, incl. via training as necessary.
• Maintain the country grants matrix, updating and sharing it regularly with programme and finance focal points and HQ Desk Officer (DO).
• Maintain and update Concern’s Grant Management System, ensuring the inclusion of all new grant opportunities and relevant documentation, as well as updating details for current and previous grants.
• Coordinate and contribute to the review and development of donor, partner, and consortia draft contracts.
• Lead the implementation and effective grant opening and closing meetings by developing agendas and facilitation guides, ensuring comprehensive knowledge among programming, MEAL, operations, and finance teams, and ensuring the ability to execute and conclude activities effectively.
• In collaboration with the program and MEAL departments, develop and deliver presentations that track progress against outcomes and the completion of deliverables during grant-specific quarterly review meetings, senior management meetings, and other events as designated by the Country Director.
• Lead in donor report development to ensure the delivery of high-quality reports in a timely manner. This involves coordinating with Programme Managers to populate their respective sections, ensuring coherence and consistency in writing style, strongly demonstrating achievements, and integrating key learning points.
• Represent Concern at donor, consortia, and other meetings as required/requested. Document and share information arising with Programme Director, Country Director, and relevant colleagues.

Business Development and Funding

• Lead the development of a donor engagement strategy for the Malawi country programme.
• Conduct comprehensive research to identify funding opportunities from various donors and sources, including government agencies, foundations, and multilateral organizations.
• Maintain a funding tracker to monitor donor pipeline opportunities and proactively identify funding gaps to be filled
• Lead the coordination and preparation of high-quality proposals for submission to donors, ensuring alignment with organizational strategies and donor requirements.
• Collaborate with programmatic and technical teams to develop innovative and evidence-based project designs that address the needs of target populations and contribute to organizational objectives.
• Manage the proposal development process from concept to submission, including drafting proposal narratives, developing budgets, and compiling necessary annexes and attachments.
• Coordinate and facilitate proposal development meetings and workshops, ensuring effective communication and collaboration among team members and stakeholders.
• Ensure adherence to proposal timelines and deadlines, providing regular updates to senior management and stakeholders on the status of proposal development activities.
• Where a proposal/concept requires external resources such as a lead writer consultant, coordinate the sourcing and the management of the consultant.
• Liaise with donor agencies and partners during the proposal development process, responding to inquiries and requests for additional information as needed.

 Communication

• Collaborate with the Programme Director, Programme Managers, and the MEAL unit to facilitate the proactive collection and utilization of beneficiary case studies, photographs, field reports, and other data.
• Direct the production of quarterly (or as agreed) Programme Updates, Newsletters, Briefing Papers, and information packs for dissemination to donors, clusters, working groups, supporters, etc.
• Conduct thorough reviews of materials, with assistance from relevant program teams, to ensure adherence to quality standards and compliance with the Dochas Code of Conduct and other guidelines.
• Participate actively in pertinent national and global networks to advocate for Concern’s initiatives.

 Knowledge Management and Innovation

• Facilitate the adoption of best practices by the country program through internal and external learning opportunities, both nationally and globally.
• Collaborate with the MEAL team to establish a research agenda and liaise with the global team to generate evidence supporting Concern’s innovative approaches.
• Disseminate research findings widely, especially to government entities and other humanitarian and development stakeholders, to maximize impact and promote informed decision-making.

Human Resource Management and Capacity Development

• Assist in identifying capacity building needs within individuals and teams, sourcing relevant opportunities, and, when necessary, providing direct leadership in training sessions. These sessions aim to enhance skills in report writing, proposal development, documentation, case studies, and other agreed-upon topics, in consultation with the Programme Director and Country Director.
• Collaborate with the Programme Director, Country Director, and Partnership Advisor to deliver support and training to local partner organizations, focusing on enhancing their capabilities in quality reporting, proposal writing, and understanding key donor requirements.
• Actively advocate for compliance with Concern’s Programme Participants’ Protection Policy, the Code of Conduct, and all associated policies as a vital member of the country team.

Crosscutting Roles

-Concern Code of Conduct and Associated Policies

• To adhere to and uphold the standards of conduct as outlined in the Concern’s Code of Conduct and its Associated Policies
• To support and promote the standards outlined in the Concern Code of Conduct and its Associated Policies to all programme participants and be committed to providing a safe working environment
• To contribute to the establishment of preventive measures to reduce the potential for exploitation and abuse in Concern’s programmes.

-Equality Diversity and Inclusion

• To uphold and promote Concern’s values, including our workplace equality, diversity and inclusion values
• To demonstrate leadership on workplace equality, diversity & inclusion & role model a positive safeguarding ethos

 Minimum Qualifications:

Your skills and experience will include:

Essential:

• Educated to degree level in International Development, Project Management or a related discipline.
• At least five years INGO experience, including at least two years working in a programme development role.
• Fluent spoken/written English language skills; proven excellent report and proposal writing ability.
• Familiarity with key humanitarian and development donors, and their specific reporting and compliance requirements (e.g. FCDO, USAID/BHA, EU, Irish Aid, ECHO, UN etc.)
• Significant experience of proposal development and familiarity with proposal and reporting formats.
• Ability to thrive and act independently in a high-pressured, results-focused, dynamic environment.
• Fluent spoken/written English language skills; proven excellent report and proposal writing ability.
• High attention to detail in reviewing and inputting to reports, proposals and other documents.
• Excellent analytical skills. Effective negotiator, with the ability to positively influence cross departmental and cross sector working
• Experience identifying and documenting lessons learned, development of quality case studies and/or other communication resources for different audiences.
• Highly organised, with experience developing work-plans and tracking tools.
• Working knowledge of monitoring and evaluation processes and tools.
• Good networking abilities, interpersonal communication and presentation skills, ideally in multicultural contexts and with colleagues/partners/stakeholders at different levels.

Desirable:

• Experience of working in Malawi and/or Southern Africa.
• Programmatic experience and/or knowledge of some of the following approaches and sectors: Emergency Response, Resilience, Nutrition, Urban/Rural livelihoods, NRM, DRR, Education, WASH, Protection.
• Demonstrated commitment to learning and using learning to strengthen practice.
• Experience working in a consortia arrangement and/or with local implementing partners.
• Facilitation and/or training experience; keenness and ability to build capacity of colleagues (in e.g. in donor requirements, proposal/report writing, critical analysis, quality standards, comms materials).
• Willing to take on new responsibilities, within reason and if needed, especially in emergency scale-up.

How to Apply

Interested candidates, who meet the above qualifications, should send their CV (3 pages maximum including contacts of 3 referees) and Cover Letter to malawi.hr@concern.net with the subject of the email as “Business Development Coordinator‘’. The deadline for applications is Monday, 15^th July, 2024. Due to the urgency to fill this position, applications will be shortlisted on a rolling basis. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted for interview.

Concern Worldwide is an equal opportunities employer