Job Description

The Partnership Coordinator will support the Uganda Country Program in its strategic management and oversight of its robust partnerships across the country. The Partnership Coordinator will facilitate the Uganda team’s delivery of high quality partnerships that are strategic for IRC, compliant with IRC and donor requirements in order to provide quality services and outcomes for the communities we serve, consistent with the IRC’s PEER System. Working in close collaboration with the programs, grants and operations departments, the Partnership Coordinator will oversee all steps in the partnership management lifecycle ensuring that partnerships are appropriately integrated into the overall project cycle management.

With the support of the senior management team, the Partnership Coordinator will also be a leader in building and promoting a culture, attitudes and values conducive to collaborative partnerships among the team, based on a clear and shared understanding of IRC's role and approach, and core partnership principles. The Partnership Coordinator will report directly to the Deputy Director of Programs (DDP), with management-in-partnership with the Deputy Director of Operations. The Partnership Coordinator is based in Kampala, with travel to the field sites.

Duties and Responsibilities

Partnership Strategy

• Form and chair the Partnership Working Group to promote a coherent, strategic and coordinated approach to local partnerships in IRC Uganda.
• Oversee the partnership management operating procedures for IRC Uganda that set out efficient and responsive processes, delineate clear roles and responsibilities, and articulate IRC Uganda’s strategic approach to partnerships, consistent with PEERS
• Promote and take forward initiatives to enhance local partnerships in consultation with senior management and program staff; support further development of local partner capacity development, approaches and processes.
• Work with the IRC Uganda country leadership team and technical coordinators to ensure that the Country Strategic Action Plan appropriately leverages the opportunities that collaborative partnerships offer to deliver better outcomes.
• In collaboration with the technical coordinators and program coordinator for quality and learning, identify key stakeholders for effective programming through stakeholder analysis and social network analysis.
• Promote, and support the DDP and technical coordinators to conduct, an effective analysis of the roles, capacities and relationships between local government, civil society and private sector actors, and to identify the IRC’s program approach, based on how the IRC can best add value to local capacities and systems.
• Participate in Go/No-Go discussions to promote program approaches and design that are consistent with the SAP.
• Support the technical coordinators to ensure actor mapping is up-to-date and accessible to all programs, and to build and foster partnership relationships with appropriate actors.
• Promote full partner participation in program management, including through the IRC’s project cycle meetings processes.

Sub-Award Management

• Oversee, facilitate and coordinate all aspects of sub-award life cycle management, from partner identification, due-diligence, agreement development, start-up, implementation, monitoring through to close-out, coordinating all program, operations and finance components.
• Work with technical coordinators to maximize collaboration with partners in program design, to fully leverage the respective capacities and experiences of the IRC and partners.
• Oversee, facilitate and coordinate the pre-award due diligence process with respect to all new sub-awards, including through appropriate vetting, analysis of risks associated with the award, and the identification and implementation of appropriate measures to mitigate those risks, working with other departments as appropriate.
• Oversee the effective start-up of partnership projects, including the timely development and delivery of partnership agreements and partnership project opening meetings with partners.
• Ensure the effective tracking and timely conduct of meetings, monitoring and all other required actions, in line with PEERS, IRC’s finance policy and donor regulations.
• Ensure timely and correct submission of all partner programmatic narrative and financial reports in accordance with PEERS requirements. Financial reports should be reviewed in conjunction with programmatic reports, sighed off by IRC program staff to ensure consistency in programmatic objectives and financial spending.
• Liaise with finance to achieve timely funds transfers and proper financial follow up and support for partners; work with finance to address any challenges in payments and raise proposed disallowed costs to SMT.
• Promote a collaborative approach to partnership project management, including through partner participation, in project cycle meetings (including project opening meetings, project implementation meetings and project closing meetings), including to analyze partnership project performance and agree adaptions as appropriate, as well as to share sub-award spending and share key monitoring information and learning.
• Facilitate collaborative review and reflection (monitoring) of project with partners, including progress against objectives and donor compliance, and develop monitoring tools as needed, and that key monitoring information and learning are documented.
• Where partner performance issues are identified, facilitate timely action by the IRC to address any areas of non-performance as they arise.
• Provide effective quarterly partnership management reports to SMT, as well as any other updates on partners/sub-grants and ensure any issues are communicated in a timely and professional manner to appropriate stakeholders.

Capacity Strengthening

• Provide on the job capacity building to IRC’s programs, grants, finance and operations staff on IRC’s PEERS and donor partnership rules and regulations where relevant.
• Promote a culture and practice of capacity sharing between the IRC and partners, identifying and promoting opportunities for the IRC to learn from partners, as well as for partners to learn from the IRC.
• Ensure IRC understands partner capacity strengthening priorities, and identifies opportunities and plans for IRC to support partner capacity strengthening efforts.
• Ensure all issues identified in the due diligence phase are addressed as appropriate through project support plans and collaborate with SMT and relevant departments to ensure that these are implemented in a timely and effective manner.
• Oversee the maintenance and coordination of partner program, finance and compliance monitoring schedules and coordinate support for partners to address any concerns or issues that may arise. Ensure response and support plans are implemented.
• Provide, facilitate and/or arrange targeted sub-award and partnership management trainings, refresher trainings, coaching and mentoring, and other ongoing support on partnership management and compliance for key partners and IRC staff.
• Collaborate with technical coordinators to integrate technical capacity strengthening approaches with organizational development support responsive to partner priorities as appropriate.
• In conjunction with DDP and DDO, ensure that the budget for capacity strengthening that is not limited to project support is incorporated in donor budgets.
• Develop tools that can be used by IRC staff when supporting the partner’s capacity strengthening plans.

Culture of Effective and Respectful Partnerships

• Ensure and champion robust partner relationship management characterized by the core partnership principles.
• Promote meaningful collaboration with partners throughout the project life-cycle, from assessment and issue identification through design, monitoring, adaptation and closure, consistent with the partner responsiveness Good and Great Standards.
• Ensure appropriate proactive and reactive communications and engagement with IRC partners through regularly scheduled partnership management meetings.

Key Working Relationships

Position reports to: Deputy Director of Programs, with management-in-partnership with the Deputy Director of Operations

Other internal contacts: County Director, Finance Controller, HR Coordinator, Grants Coordinator, MEAL Coordinator, Technical Coordinators, Supply Chain Coordinator, Program Coordinator for Quality and Learning, HQ and regional grants/compliance teams.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in relevant discipline, Master’s degree a plus
• At least 5 years work experience in the NGO environment
• Demonstrated successful experience working with partners
• Demonstrable understanding of project planning and management cycles, and strong program design skills
• Significant knowledge of key donor rules and regulations (U.S. Government, ECHO, UNHCR, Lego Foundation)
• Highly organized, close attention to detail, and ability to effectively prioritize tasks in a fluid environment
• Ability to independently organize work and prioritize tasks
• Team leadership and supervision experience and skills
• Willingness to travel frequently to the field offices of sub-grantees
• Professional fluency in spoken and written English; able to communicate concisely and with impact.
• Very strong English writing and editing skills; strong computer skills.

Please note:

• Ugandan nationals are strongly encouraged to apply.

Standards of Professional Conduct: The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in the IRC Way – Code of Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Harassment-Free Workplace, Fiscal Integrity, Anti-Retaliation, Combating Trafficking in Persons and several others.

Gender Equality & Equal Opportunity: We are committed to narrowing the gender gap in leadership positions. We offer generous benefits that provide an enabling environment for women to participate in our workforce including parental leave, gender-sensitive security protocols and other supportive benefits and allowances. We welcome and strongly encourage qualified female professionals to apply.

IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer: IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, colour, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.