Romania: Project Development Officer – Bucharest or Iasi (to work on the Ukraine mission)

Fixed-term | 6 months | ASAP

ACTED

Since 1993, as an international non-governmental organization, ACTED has been committed to immediate humanitarian relief to support those in urgent need and protect people’s dignity, while co-creating longer term opportunities for sustainable growth and fulfilling people’s potential. ACTED endeavors to respond to humanitarian crises and build resilience; promote inclusive and sustainable growth; co-construct effective governance and support the building of civil society worldwide by investing in people and their potential.

We go the last mile: ACTED’s mission is to save lives and support people in meeting their needs in hard-to-reach areas. With a team of 5,900 national staff and 400 international staff, ACTED is active in 38 countries and implements more than 500 projects a year, reaching over 20 million beneficiaries.

ACTED Whole of Ukraine

ACTED started its operations in Eastern Ukraine in 2015 to provide support to vulnerable people affected by the conflict that began in 2014. In 2022, as refugees are fleeing clashes across Ukraine triggered by military operations, ACTED is now extending its activities to deliver critical assistance to displaced persons in the main hosting regions and to support self-help and local organizations groups that have spontaneously formed. As the number of civilian casualties continues to grow and damage to critical infrastructure increases, ACTED is scaling-up its humanitarian assistance to help ensure those in transit, internally displaced or remaining in hotspots receive the basic support they need, including cash assistance, water, food and hot meals, blankets, hygiene supplies and access to mobile heating points. Finally, ACTED is also taking part in the ongoing efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to refugees in the neighbouring countries of Poland, Romania and Moldavia where 3 humanitarian response teams have been deployed.

You will be in charge of

1. Fundraising

Context Analysis

• Analyse the country’s socio-economic situation, (donor) trends, needs and gaps
• Regularly conduct stakeholder analysis, in particular who does what and where (3W)

External relations

• Maintain active and regular working relationships with donors
• Maintain active and regular working relationships with other NGOs, UN agencies, clusters, working groups, Alliance2015, consortia and academia
• Regularly update a directory of donors, international and local NGOs, other partners and stakeholders
• Contribute to the reporting to national and local authorities as required by ACTED registration/legal status in country
• In the absence of Technical Coordinators, represent ACTED in key clusters and working group meetings

Fundraising and proposal development

• Identify funding opportunities;
• Contribute to the identification of potential relevant international and/or local partners (private sector partners, national and international NGOs, think tanks, academia, etc.) to be included in proposals
• Liaise with AMEU to contribute to the ToRs of assessments to be conducted for proposal development and to request their input in the logframe development (esp. formulation of SMART indicators)
• Contribute to the development of fundraising documents (be it expression of Interests/ Concept Notes/ Proposals) in line with ACTED country strategy and donor requirements and in close collaboration with ACTED HQ GMU (Grant Management Unit) and finance
• Liaise with Area Coordinators, Project Managers and Technical Coordinators to ensure that proposals are relevant and technically sound
• Integrate learning from previous interventions (e.g. lessons learnt and best practices) into new proposals
• Involve FLATS teams in the development of fundraising documents, particularly finance for the budget and logistics in case of specific donor procurement rules

Contracting

• Contribute to addressing in a timely manner all comments by donors on proposals in liaison with relevant staff in country and ACTED HQ GMU and finance
• Read thoroughly all contracts before signature, seeking ACTED HQ GMU and finance advice when required

2. Grant Management

Contract follow-up

• Ensure that contractual obligations (including visibility requirements) and reporting deadlines are known and met by Programme, AMEU and FLATS team
• When any issue is identified in meeting deliverables in the given timeframe and budget, inform relevant staff in country and seek ACTED HQ Program Department advice on potential solutions that would meet donor rules

Reporting

• Participate in and take minutes of kick-off and close out meetings for each project
• Write quality narrative reports, reflecting the progress and status of projects in a transparent, timely and professional manner, in liaison with ACTED HQ GMU and finance, which will contribute ultimately to steady cash inflow
• Work in close relation with AMEU to incorporate AME data (incl. data on input, process, output, outcome and impact indicators, lessons learnt and best practices) in reports and review M&E reports from AMEU
• Liaise with FLATS teams when preparing reports, especially with finance to ensure greater coherence between financial and narrative reports by crosschecking the matching of data in the narrative and financial reports
• Contribute to the monthly update of the Reporting Follow Up (RFU) and ensure smooth and regular communication with ACTED HQ GMU
• Ensure ad hoc requests from donors are addressed in liaison with the CD, programme and support teams

Partner Follow-up

• Liaise with partners when required to develop relevant grant agreements in close coordination with ACTED HQ GMU and finance
• Ensure partners report to ACTED in a timely and qualitative manner as per the requirements of the grant agreement

3. Management and Internal Coordination

Staff Management (if any)

• Manage a Project Development Intern and/or Assistant(s) if any, following up the work plans and day-to-day activities
• Mentor the PDI and/ or PDA with the aim of strengthening their technical capacity

Internal Coordination and Communication

• Facilitate interdepartmental communication and information sharing from the Base, to the Area, Capital, and even up to the regional and HQ offices by taking minutes of the various ACTED coordination meetings
• Ensure these meeting minutes are sent monthly to HQ
• Keep ACTED HQ GMU and finance updated on latest developments, opportunities and challenges so that GMU can best advice on the way forward

Filing

• File properly contractual project documents both in hard and soft copies
• Update regularly the Resource Centre at the office with appropriate and relevant external and internal resources

4. External Communication

Contribute to ACTED external communication strategy by feeding regularly ACTED HQ Communication Department with informal updates on projects, a flash news, pictures, articles on projects progress and/or specific events for ACTED communication tools, including, but not limited to, ACTED Newsletter, websites and ACTED Annual Report

Ensure the update and design of in country communication and visibility tools and publications, their dissemination and availability to ACTED teams, as well as the capitalization of media and pictures of the mission

Expected skills and qualifications

• Master Level education in a relevant field such as International Relations, Development or Political Science
• 1-2 years previous work experience in a relevant position
• Previous related work experience, with knowledge of project design, proposal writing and grants management
• Knowledge of the humanitarian aid system and ability to understand the donors systems
• Strong oral and written communication skills, analytical skills
• Strong coordination and interpersonal skills
• Ability to work in a multicultural and fast-paced environment
• Ability to work well under pressure
• Good team spirit and ability to work with diverse profiles

Conditions

• Salary defined by the ACTED salary grid depending on education level, expertise, security level and experience
• Living allowance of 300 USD
• Lodging and food provided in the ACTED Guesthouse / or housing allowance (depending on the contract lenght and country of assignement)
• Flight tickets in and out + Visa taken in charge by ACTED
• Provision of medical and repatriation insurances