Candidate Brief

Programme Funding Coordinator

October 2019

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Welcome,

Thank you for your interest in the Programme Funding Coordinator (PFC) role within

Programme Management Team at CARE International UK. We are recruiting for one PFC

position for our Africa team.

The PFC role is central to expanding CARE’s important development work and portfolio in

Africa. The successful PFC will be responsible for supporting the design of complex bids (grant

and commercial contracts) in countries across the globe to donors such as DFID, ECHO and

the DEC. The Africa team is currently managing a portfolio of projects funded by institutional

donors (DFID, EC, BLF, Comic Relief, etc), with a value of over £35 million.

We are looking for a passionate and experienced international development worker or funding specialist, with field and/or HQ experience in institutional funding and a good knowledge of our key donors’ requirements (DFID and EC) in relation to commercial contracts, large tenders and consortia grants. You must have the ability to lead and coordinate multi-disciplinary teams during proposal preparation, working with partners and colleagues in multiple locations.

If you feel you have the experience and skills for this role, we would welcome an application

from you. If you would like to know more about the positions, please contact us on the

email addresses below.

Regards,

Sonia Martins

Interim Head of Africa Team

martins@careinternational.org

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Background Information

CARE International – a global organisation fighting global poverty

CARE International operates in more than 90 countries around the world. We run poverty-

fighting programmes and deliver life-saving aid in 79 developing countries. This work is

supported by global policy and advocacy work, fundraising, and programme management

provided by CARE offices in countries like the USA and the UK.

CARE International UK

CARE International UK was founded in 1985 and we are one of 14 full members of the global

CARE International federation. We employ 120 staff and generate around £50 million a year

for CARE’s poverty-fighting work.

As well as supporting CARE’s humanitarian and development work around the world, CARE

International UK provides specific expertise in the areas of women’s economic

empowerment, inclusive governance, humanitarian response (particularly shelter, and

gender in emergencies), and engaging with the private sector. We also play a key role in

CARE’s work engaging with and influencing policy-makers and decision-makers to tackle the

structural causes of poverty and social injustice.

CARE’s programmes are implemented through CARE country offices which are supported

with technical assistance and programme management by CARE members (including CARE

International UK). We work in partnership with local organisations to deliver many of our

programmes.

CARE is non-religious and non-political, allowing us to deliver humanitarian and

development assistance to anyone in need regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, age,

religion, political view or sexual orientation.

You can find out more about our current strategy here

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Programme Management Team

Team Mission

The Programme Management Team is at the very centre of CIUK’s strategy as it is the

engine room for our programme impact and a centre of excellence within CARE for

programme quality. This team shapes and delivers our institutional programme portfolio in

line with the CARE International 2020 Programme Strategy and ensures that our

programmes bring lasting change through consistent and high standards of programme

quality.

The team is responsible for delivering on the full promise of the Global Programme Strategy

by building a portfolio that aligns with the Global Outcome Areas and which embeds the

agreed approach around tackling gender inequalities and strengthening women’s voice;

promoting inclusive governance and increasing resilience across our programmes. The

team’s output underpins CIUK’s ability to multiply impact by providing the necessary basis

for evidence, learning and scale up. The team leads CIUK’s relationships with Country

Offices and Regions and develops close partnerships to help us achieve long term and

effective programming across the humanitarian and development arena. It brings together

both humanitarian and development programming around programme management,

bidding and finance/compliance activities in one focused team and this ‘end to end’

approach will bring increased knowledge, efficiency and ultimately impact. Through this

consistent approach to programme quality, the team ensures that CARE provides and is

recognised by donors for offering excellent value for money and real impact for its

programme participants. The team also leads CIUK’s approach to delivering smart

development and humanitarian programmes with an increasing focus on partnership

approaches.

The Programme Management team is made up of three sub-teams who all work closely

together to deliver impact and excellence across our development and humanitarian

programme portfolio. The teams are split geographically and thematically, with one Africa

development team, one Asia/Global development team, and one Humanitarian/MENA

team. Each head of team works in close partnership with the relevant CARE Country Offices

and Regions and manages a highly skilled team of programme management, contracts &

finance, and fundraising staff who work together to achieve shared goals to build our

portfolio, effectiveness, innovation and impact.

Key Team Responsibilities

• Lead the shaping, development and delivery of CIUK’s Programme Portfolio so that

we meet our agreed strategic plan objectives.

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• Deliver programme quality consistently throughout our portfolio and embed the

Program Strategy approach across our output so that we are generating learning and

multiplying impact opportunities as standard.

• Manage risk and finances in our programme operations so that we are efficient and

effective.

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Job Description

Overview

A key part of CIUK’s programme strategy is to deliver resource for the Global Programme

Strategy as we build towards supporting 150 million people from the most vulnerable and

excluded communities to overcome poverty and social injustice. Programme funding

coordinators and officers are critical to the achievement of this mission as they will be

designing bids at scale on our priority areas of intervention.

The Programme Funding Coordinator/Officer will work in a multi-functional

Regional/Humanitarian Programme unit and will be responsible for raising significant funds

to grow the team’s programme portfolio. The PFC/PFO will be responsible for ensuring a

strong pipeline that is relevant to the 2020 strategy and enables CIUK to support delivery at

scale. The PFC/PFO will be able to manage the bidding budget and be responsible for the

return on investment. They will work effectively across CI to ensure a swift and decisive go /

no-go decisions are made.

The post holder will work closely with technical teams, Country Offices and other partners in

order to deliver winning bids which showcase CARE’s programme innovation and which

deliver impact as well as full cost recovery for CIUK. Given the seniority of the PFC role, the

post holder will be required to work independently on large (certainly £10m on occasion

many times larger) and complex grants and increasingly often on commercial contracts. As

such they will have a strong grounding in MEAL, Value for Money, cashflow, fee based

budgeting, risk and consortium design and management. The will be able to pull in the right

expertise to support the bid and recruit appropriate chiefs of party etc. They will be able to

do this with limited oversight. They will also be able to support more junior staff learn skills

and take on work at this scale.

Specific Areas of Responsibility

Funding Plans

• Work with colleagues from country offices, Institutional Partnership Team (IPT) and with key UK partners to ensure a robust pipeline of work which will enable CIUK to deliver at scale at the 2020 programme strategy.

• PFC will be held accountable for the income growth predicted in the annual budgeting processes. They will be expected to achieve a win rate of 40-50% of bids that are approved at the full go/no-go stage.

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• Take joint responsibility of the bidding budget and its effective use. Including, planning in advance how best to prioritise it, measuring impact (RoI) and learning and disseminating practical lessons on its use.

• Play a key role in the go/no go process – coordinating with technical teams, IPT and country offices to give the best advice to senior management.

Bid Production and Management

• Lead on the planning, production and negotiation of major bids (grants and commercial contracts) to meet annual ambitious contract pipeline targets – this role will predominantly focus on the larger bids (£10m - £60m+). This may require deployment to Country Offices (we estimate that this will be less than 15% of the post holder’s total time).

• Design strong bid management processes so that CIUK’s output is proactive, timely and to a high standard meeting funder requirements – including giving enough time for senior management and the Board to engage with the design process and to sign off (and offer final comments).

• The post holder will need to work with expertise to design robust MEAL and Value for Money systems in alignment with CIUK core standards.

• The post holder will need to be able to lead the design of robust payment by results systems that take into account competitiveness, risk and achievability of results to ensure that CIUK does not lose money on commercial contracts of complex grants.

• The post holder will need to be able to create consortia and ensure they are well set up and that collectively they achieve the objectives of the bid with clear divisions of labour.

• The post holder must be able to manage consultants to support a bidding process and recruit key staff such as Chiefs of Party to support implementation.

• Work with Contract and Finance Officers to deliver winning bid budgets (including fee based budgets) which enable CARE to fully cost recover. This includes understanding cashflow and borrowing issues related to pre-payments.

• Programme Funding Coordinators to provide support and guidance to Programme Funding Officers working on larger and or more complex bids as needed.

Partnership, Negotiation and Analysis

• Work collaboratively and productively with bid partners including CIUK teams, CI teams and consortium partners.

• Achieve good value for CIUK in bidding partnerships, including with cost recovery, assigning roles and responsibilities and donor engagement.

• Help build CIUK’s credentials as a prime contractor and leader in bidding consortiums.

• Share donor intelligence and feed into a process of learning and continuing improvement on bidding and key donors and work closely with the Institutional Partnerships Team to achieve our desired growth and impact.

• Provide data and analysis on bids for organisational learning.

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Be an effective team member

• Contribute towards the development of the team’s annual operating plan and develop an annual individual operating plan and learning objectives. The post holder is required to be proactive about their own delivery and learning and support staff that report to them / or who are part of their team.

• Contribute to annual budget development and regular reviews of team income and expenditure levels.

• Contribute to team and departmental meetings ensuring that information on specific funding opportunities are proactively shared and opportunities for greater CIUK engagement are known.

• Where capacity allows, assume responsibility for humanitarian funding submissions when humanitarian response efforts require support from across the team.

• Support and provide cover for fellow team members as and when needed.

Any additional duties as may be reasonably required by a senior manager within the scope of the above. This document forms part of the post holder’s contractual terms and conditions of employment. The document is not an exhaustive list of core elements of the role. This job description is a working document and may be amended from time to time by mutual agreement.

Data Protection The post holder hereby agrees not to disclose any confidential or sensitive information to a

third party or outside organisation except where required to do so by law.

Health and Safety The post holder agrees to abide by CIUK’s Health and Safety principles and code of conduct

and to take all reasonable steps to ensure both their own safety in the work place as well as

that of their colleagues.

Equal Opportunities

The post holder agrees to promote and uphold the principles of equal opportunities in

accordance with CIUK’s Equal Opportunities Statement and all related policies.

Safeguarding

CARE International UK has a zero tolerance approach to any harm to, or exploitation of, a

vulnerable adult or a child by any of our staff, representatives or partners. Recruitment to all

jobs in CARE International UK includes, in particular, criminal record checks and the

collection of relevant references. Safeguarding our beneficiaries is our top priority in

everything we do.

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Person specification

Essential Desirable

Education /

Qualifications

• Educated to degree level or equivalent.

• Extensive experience of a range of programme types – complex grants and commercial contracts. Particularly with DFID.

Relevant masters qualification

Prince 2 qualification or similar

Skills / Abilities • Must be able to design a range of large programmes – complex grants and commercial contracts.

• Ability to set, prioritise and manage a bidding budget and measure the impact of this.

• Ability to set up consortia.

• Strong understanding of MEAL and Value for Money and be able to design payment by results systems.

• Excellent understanding of programme and wider risk and be able to communicate, mitigate and manage those.

• Ability to recruit key staff – surge capacity and chiefs of party etc.

• Need to understand cashflow and borrowing particularly in relation to pre-payments.

• Willingness to work with new donors.

• Excellent communication skills – with a particular emphasis on fluent English written skills and the ability to edit complex bids in order to meet funder requirements and gain high bid scores.

• An innovative and creative approach and the ability to match funder needs with organisational needs.

• The ability to contribute positively to a team and build positive relationships that will lead to successful outcomes.

• Strong analysis and numerical skills and the ability to spot trends and errors.

• Attention to detail alongside the ability to see the big picture.

• Problem solving, inclusive with a positive attitude

• A positive collaborator and a strong team player.

The ability to

work in French

would be a

plus

Experience /

Understanding

• Proven success at leading and coordinating major +£10 million Institution/Foundation bids (ideally with DfID).

• Experience of and proven success at developing commercial bids

• Significant contributions to multi-partner, multi-country major bids.

• Understanding of how to take programme design and add value in order to increase the win rate.

Overseas

experience is

highly

desirable.

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Other • A degree of international travel will be required for senior bid or resource mobilisation support in country and if working in the Humanitarian team, short notice deployments may occur.

• CIUK takes continued professional development seriously. The post holder is expected to use available learning and development budgets and opportunities to drive forward their own skills and those of their direct reports.

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CARE UK competency framework is based on four core behaviours: Responsible

Stewardship, Working with Others, Professional Accountability and Cultivate learning.

Whilst every role might have a different focus in relation to each competency, every

employee is expected to provide evidence against the four indicators for each competency.

The indicators for each competency are as follows:

RESPONSIBLE STEWARDSHIP

Align performance with CARE strategic goals / Lead with respect /

Take an active approach / Use resources effectively

WORKING WITH OTHERS

Communicate effectively / Express appreciation and empathy /

Foster internal and external relationships / Provide and receive constructive criticism

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PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY

Commit to equality and diversity / Take responsibility for own words and actions /

Understand our sector / Uphold professional standards

CULTIVATE LEARNING

Be aware of one’s knowledge and skills / Be open to different perspectives and approaches /

Manage uncertainty / Reflect to improve

The competency framework provides a selection of competencies that are important for

performance at CARE UK. All roles, regardless of their seniority, within CARE UK should have

all core 4 competencies identified as essential for effective performance in the job. Having

core competencies defined and applied across all levels allows us to ensure a consistent and

transparent standard across the organisation.

WORKED IN THE CIVIL SERVICE? Are you/have you been a member of the Civil Service in the past two years? Before accepting any new appointment or employment, whether in the UK or overseas, which you intend to take up after you have left the Civil Service, you must consider whether an application under the Business Appointment Rules for Civil Servants is required. If it is required, you should not accept or announce a new appointment or offer of employment before it has been approved. The model application form for this purpose is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/492789/Civil_Servants_Business_Appointments_Application_Form_-_2016.doc and on civil service departmental intranets. This form should be used for all applications under these Rules. Retrospective applications will not normally be accepted.

Please Note:

In accordance with the DfID Code, all applicants shortlisted for recruitment to commercial

contracts will be asked to declare any conflict of interest.

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For further information about CIUK:

www.careinternational.org.uk

Twitter: @careintuk