BirdLife International is seeking a dedicated and visionary Technical Manager to manage an interim Small Grants Mechanism for the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) in the Guinean Forest of West Africa Biodiversity Hotspot as part of an interim “Regional Implementation Team” 2024-2025. A set of maximum 14 grants will be made in four countries: Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire, between July 2024 and November 2025. This job will be mainly for technical management (grant / grantee performance).

The Key Responsibilities:

Grant-making

Administer the programmatic, and support the administrative/financial aspects of the Small Grants Mechanism (SGM), as follows:

• Support the production of an ‘interim Small Grants Mechanism (SGM) manual’
• Support the solicitation and review of Grants by Invitation for Small Grants, following the process described in the CEPF-BirdLife proposal/agreement.
  • Ensure high quality of applications, and define the expected conservation impacts (support grantees with producing good proposals and logical frameworks)
  • Ensure small grant compliance with CEPF funding terms, including with the investment strategy defined for the GFWA Hotspot
• Once award decisions are made, support the CEPF Master Class (expected to be in Ghana in August/September).
• Once grantees have passed the Master Class, together with the Finance team in Nairobi, manage the contracting of successful grant applications of $50,000 or less.
• Ensure all relevant activities, results, impacts and indicators are included in the contracts, as well as safeguards and relevant tracking tools
• Support due diligence process to ensure grantee applicants’ eligibility and capacity to comply with CEPF funding terms.
• Complete programmatic and safeguard risk assessments before grants are made; and support financial risk assessment and security screening
• In liaison with the Finance Officer, manage disbursal of funds to grantees and set up reporting schedules.
• Support grantees with the implementation of their projects
• Report on the performance and the status of the Small Grants throughout the implementation and close-out of grants.
• Ensure all grant information is uploaded in the Conservation Grants system as per CEPF requirements.

Capacity development

Support the Organisational Development of grantees, as follows:

• Work with the CEPF Manager and the West Africa Capacity Development Officer to develop a Capacity Development plan, and support and track progress against this plan.
• Collect and review baseline CSTT and GTT data, and possible existing Organisational Development (OD) plans for the selected grantees.
• Collate specific OD objectives and targets by grantees as included in their proposals, and support efforts to achieve these targets.
• Collect endline CSTT and GTT data as part of the Final Completion and Impact reports of the grantees and assess progress.
• Produce report on ‘on-the-job’ capacity development support to grant

Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning

Coordinate, monitor and report back to the RIT and CEPF on the development of a coherent portfolio of CEPF-supported projects, as follows:

• Work with the CEPF Manager to develop a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) plan, and support and track progress against this plan.
• Monitor, track, and document small grant technical and financial performance and prepare semi-annual summary report to CEPF with detailed information of the Small Grants Programme.
• Assist CEPF in maintaining the accuracy of the CEPF grants management database, including on
  • Progress and final reporting
  • Monitoring visits
  • Against CEPF global and portfolio indicators.
• Ensure that grantees complete regular (based on length of the project) technical and financial progress reports.
• Make monitoring visits to at least 80% of the contracted grantees.
• Produce a lessons learned report and share

Communications

Support the Africa Communications Manager with:

• Making information available on the Intranet.
• Produce stories to be published on the Intranet.

See the full job description here.

Education, Skills and Other Requirements

• Education: A BSc in conservation or development related fields. A Masters Degree will be an advantage,
• Experience: A proven track record of relevant work experience in project management/support, including administration, organisation, reporting, and communications
• Skills: High motivation, desire to achieve; attention to detail, excellent organisational skills, and ability to work to high standards with tight deadlines; and the capacity to work effectively under pressure. Ability to analyse complex problems, and generate creative and pragmatic solutions. Excellent written and oral communication skills; computer literacy in all standard Microsoft office application; Flexibility and ability to work independently.
• Knowledge: Interest in and understanding of conservation and development issues, preferably with Guinean Forest knowledge and experience. Also interest in capacity building; support to Community-Based Organisations/Non-Governmental Organisations support; Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning
• Travel: Willingness to travel at short notice when required requently, up to eight weeks per year.
• Languages: Oral and written fluency in English and French.