Partnership Coordinator Ethiopia Addis Ababa

The Partnerships Coordinator is responsible for partnership management and capacity strengthening/sharing with partners at the Country Office level (and Area Offices as needed) in close coordination with the Specialists, Area Programme Managers, Project Managers and Finance. Partnership Coordinator will keep partners informed of relevant donor compliance regulations, reporting deadlines, NRC procedures and will support partners with compliance and facilitate capacity sharing. This role is critical in achieving quality programming through effective partnerships management, capacity sharing and support.

Generic Responsibilities

The following is a brief description of the role.

1. Ensure adherence to NRC policies, handbooks, guidelines and donor requirements.
2. Support overview and maintenance of projects implemented with Partners at the country office level, including providing helpdesk support to partners on compliance with NRC and donor requirements.
3. Maintain relations with a range of partners and work with the area team to identify local civil society groups for potential partnerships and collaboration with NRC.
4. Represent NRC as the main focal point with partners at the country level on partnerships related and general issues and ensure timely and consistent communication flow between partners and NRC.
5. Work with programme team to support mainstreaming safe and inclusive programming (SIP) and do-no-harm into projects and activities.
6. Strengthen NRC’s voice in localization and strategic partnerships discourse within the country and internationally.
7. Provide timely and context specific information to internal and external stakeholders.
8. Other duties as assigned by the Line Manager.

Specific responsibilities:

Partnership management:

• Support and coordinate the development of new partnership and support with management of existing partnerships.
• Provide input to the development and implementation of NRC Ethiopia’s overall strategy and operational methodology for engagement with public, private, and civil society stakeholders.
• Act as focal point for contracting and sub-granting issues to NRC’s partners at Country Office level (and Area Offices as needed).
• Coordinate organizational assessment and due diligence on potential partners as per NRC Partnership handbook.
• Coordinate the development of project implementation agreements between new partners and NRC and support Area Offices with technical guidance in this task.
• Support and facilitate communication and coordination between NRC and partners.
• Ensure that NRC’s partners adhere to NRC requirements and ensure smooth project implementation by providing the necessary support from NRC to the partners.
• Ensuring a structured and consistent approach to partnerships in line with the Country Strategy and Partnership Strategy.
• Coordinate with the grants and communications teams for visibility of partnership in Ethiopia, and working with partners to package stories and project achievements of the partners.
• Support the grants team in the PCM meetings for projects implemented with partners (Project Opening Meetings, Review Meetings, Project Closure Meetings) and ensure that all mandatory internal documents (internal log frame, internal budget, procurement plan, work-plan and M&E matrix) are in place for all partners; and actively follow up on outstanding related partnership issues.
• Responsible for ensuring a structured approach to partnerships, including the development of tools for identifying, assessing, capacity building, monitoring and evaluating partnerships.

General Administration:

• Ensure all key project and partnership documents are filed, updated, and maintained as per the NRC’s filing and information management systems.
• Maintain a correct and up-to-date Partnerships Tracker.
• Maintain tracking of planned, active and closed partner projects in electronic and hard copy, ensuring all documentation in place as per the NRC’s filing and information management systems.
• Lead and coordinate mapping of local potential partners and maintaining relations with existing partners.

Partnerships Compliance and Capacity sharing:

• Be familiar with and support partner compliance with NRC internal and donor requirements.
• Monitoring of partner’s compliance to NRC’s and where applicable to specific donor’s requirements.
• Work actively with the protection, Safe and Inclusive Programming (SIP), finance and logistics units to facilitate strong mainstreaming of core NRC principles and procedures across operational partners.
• Lead on needs assessment for trainings and partner organizational development to enhance the effectiveness of partners performance in achieving their goals and objectives.
• Lead on the development of a tailored capacity development plan and SIP action plan with each partner taking their particular needs and capacity into consideration.
• Coordinate and support NRC technical leads in the capacity strengthening to partners in cross–cutting issues (M&E, Finance, Procurement) and operational good practices.
• Lead on the identification of capacity development needs and coordinate systematic capacity sharing process between NRC and partners and vis-versa by coordinating with technical NRC programme staff and external consultants and ensure that partners are receiving the necessary technical, organizational and institutional support needed. This could include organizing of training, seminars and workshops by NRC or external consultants, coaching and mentoring.
• Any other tasks as delegated by the line manager.