Business Development Manager - Plan International

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls.

We believe in the power and potential of every child. But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it’s girls who are most affected.

Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children.

We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood. And we enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.

We have been building powerful partnerships for children for over 80 years, and are now active in more than 70 countries.

Job Description

Position Business Development Manager Grade E

Department & Location Business Development Department, Country Office Date 08 Dec 2020

Reports to (position): Country Director

Purpose: 

How does this post support Plan’s strategy and mission?

This position is to lead Plan International’s Ghana Resource Mobilization drive in the mobilization of grant related resources and manage the design and implementation of a robust resource mobilization unit/department to increase Plan Inter Ghana’s grant portfolio to meet the organizations funding target.

Dimensions of Role:

Financial measures or statistics relevant to post such as budget; list of direct and indirect reports

•  Leads Country Resource Mobilization Planning and implementation.
•  The Grants and Resource Mobilization Coordinator and Local Fund-raising Specialist reports directly to the position.
•  Area of Responsibility – Country Program (CSP and Country Res. Mobilization Plan)

Typical Responsibilities – Key End Results of Position:

“What” is done and “why”, but not “how”; include indicators for success

Please state why each activity is done and the indicators for success

Business Development Manager’s role in the CLT:

•  Participate in CLT decision-making.
•  Support the CLT to manage relationships and processes relating to partners (NGOs and communities), including partner assessment and engagements.
•  Take responsibility as part of the CLT for risk management processes in-country.

Strategy Development

•  Responsible for the development and roll out of a Resource Acquisition and Management strategy.
•  Support the localisation of Plan-Ghana Resource mobilisation Strategy in line with the Ghana CSP.
•  Facilitate in identifying Plan program priorities for fundraising.
•  Participate and play a key role in the development and refinement of Plan Ghana’s CSP.
•  Provide direction in the development of individual PU fundraising strategies for Plan Ghana.

Resource Acquisition and Grant Management

•  Support in identifying in-country funding and partnership opportunities both internal and external.
•  Facilitate ethical checks on partners.
•  Ensure the smooth coordination of all proposal development efforts at the national, regional/PU, and community levels.
•  Oversee the research and development of new proposals to a high standard, using participatory, empowering approaches, in line with the country strategy and annual growth plan.
•  Provide support in proposal development (Concept Notes, Narrative and Financial/Budget) in line with Donor Assistance priorities, Plan policies and donor requirements.
•  Facilitate grants portfolio management within country budget, ensuring timeliness, and budget control and accountability/donor compliance.
•  Direct the development of a grant compliance tracking system.
•  Ensure that systems are in place to support effective grant compliance and positive audit results.
•  Facilitate quality and timely financial and narrative reporting.
•  Ensure quality management of Grants systems.
•  Ensure the development, roll out and management of an information management system to track all proposals developed, awarded, and grants implemented and closed out.
•  Support the Finance Team to monitor grant compliance and ensure Plan Ghana responds professionally to all compliance and audit issues, follow-up on audit findings and evaluation recommendation
•  Participate in monitoring and evaluation of grants programs, including audits.
•  Facilitate the preparation on Grants Projects and grants department for audits and audit action responses/follow ups

External Engagement

•  Liaise with donors and other stakeholders for preparing winning proposals and securing funding.
•  Ensure that communication with donors is streamlined and effective.
•  Ensure consistent and professional engagement with PU Offices and other donors in identifying opportunities for acquiring grants and private funds.
•  Participate in networking, partnership and donor-relations activities – being an ambassador of Plan in cultivating relationships with donors and partners.
•  Direct the process for Plan Ghana to become a “preferred partner” for grants

Coordination

•  Ensure that the Resource Acquisition and Management Team works well internally and closely coordinates its various planning and implementation (proposal development and grant management) activities with departments such as Programmes, Human Resources, Finance, Procurement/Supply Chain, and Information, Communication and Technology.
•  Ensure systems, processes and procedures are in place to implement core work tasks.
•  Ensure that management systems and procedures ensure efficiency, accountability and good working relationships with donors, counterparts, Plan Ghana partnership colleagues, and beneficiaries.

Capacity Building

•  Facilitate capacity enhancement of staff and grants partners on grant policies, grants development and management through mentoring and training.
•  Ensure staff and grants project subgrantees and sub grantors have the necessary skills to manage the projects, engage with donors, and fundraise.

Management:

•  Ensure accomplishment of the team business/work-plan, objectives and targets as related to achieving Plan Ghana annual Resource Mobilization main goals and objectives.
•  Manage Department’s operational team budget.
•  Monitor individual employee performance and conduct regular, ongoing management and biannual performance evaluations.
•  Recruit, develop and motivate a high performing Grants and Resource Mobilization team.
•  Provides timely and quality support for disaster preparedness and execution of activities during disaster and manages associated risks in this regard
•  Ensure gender mainstreaming into finance activities and maintain gender sensitivity towards staff and Plan associates to ensure gender equity at all times
•  Fulfill Plan’s Child Protection Policy at all times
•  Perform any other duties to be assigned

Dealing with Problems:

Complexity of problems handled & the degree of investigation, analysis, & creative thinking required to solve them

•  Produce adequate policies and procedures to ensure smooth implementation of the country’s grants and resource mobilization functions as per the organizational policies and procedures and provide sensitization to staff to ensure the smooth flow of work to achieve set targets.
•  Coaching and training of staff in the implementation of grants related function.
•  Work with minimum supervision.
•  Make analysis and present them in a usable way for management decision making
•  Analyse issues for decision making to address the organisation’s grants and resource mobilization functions and only refer to a higher manager where applicable
•  Manages the Grants Department annual budget.

Communications and Working Relationships:

Working contacts inside and outside the organization; include the purpose and level (high, medium, low) of the contact

•  Medium contact with Plan partner organizations to ensure compliance.
•  Has high contact with all country office and program unit grants related staff to support smooth implementation and delivery of grants project.
•  Maintains medium contact with other staff from the program unit and country offices to offer support for understanding and implementation of grants and resource mobilization related activities.

Knowledge, Skills, Behaviors, and Experience Required to Achieve Role’s Objectives:

Gained through education, training, & experience

Qualification and Experience

•  Master’s degree in relevant field such as international development, Planning, Management, Marketing and Communication and in social sciences, or any related field.
•  A minimum of 7-10 years of relevant professional experience in Grants Acquisition and Management.
•  Preferably At least 5 years work experience with international development or humanitarian organizations.
•  Demonstrated track record developing successful funding proposals for major institutional donors.
•  Capacity building experience in project design, implementation, reporting, and evaluation.

Demonstrated behaviors needed by the postholder to successfully perform the role:

•  Develops, motivates coaches and manages procurement team in the country for donor procedures.
•  Promotes high performance by all staff.
•  Promotes innovation and learning.
•  Communicates clearly and effectively.
•  Gains, develops and retains credibility about his/her performance.