Program Development and Reporting Specialist

CARE is a leading relief and development non-governmental organization fighting global poverty. Established in 1946, it is now a confederation composed of 14 members and 4 affiliates. In 2016, CARE worked in 84 countries around the world, supporting development and humanitarian aid projects to reach more than 83 million people. While CARE is a large international organization with more than 11,000 employees worldwide, we have a strong local presence: 95% of our staff are nationals of the countries where our programs are run.

The Program Development and Reporting Specialist is working under the supervision of the Director of Program Development & Impact to scale up the country office portfolio.  S/he plays a key role in the oversight, management, and quality control of the entire proposal development and reporting process, ensuring a compliant and donor-responsive proposal that meets both funder and CARE requirements and internal standards.

S/he is a key contributor in new program development to ensure CARE's financial sustainability; coordinating the development and implementation of an effective resource mobilization strategy; creating, identifying, and accessing new funding opportunities; maintaining a consistent standard of donor relationship and high-quality proposal development; and actively seeking to grow income for the CARE country programs through (national, multi country or global) funding opportunities and building partnerships with donors and civil society stakeholders.

S/he supports the program team in the development of innovative programs for subsequent submissions to donors.  Finally, the Program Development and Reporting Specialist plays an important role in advocating for proposals to reflect CARE's innovative program and approaches.

2. Reporting Lines

Director of Program Development & Impact

3. Organizational Relationship

No direct reports.

Works closely with the program implementation team, finance team, and other colleagues in the program development and impact team.

4. Specific Duties and Responsibilities

Responsibility 1: Program development (70%)

• Contribute to the design and implementation of the country resource mobilization strategy/plan intended to grow income and partnerships with stakeholders at national, regional and global levels to deliver the country strategy; regularly review and keep it up to date (including donor cultivating plans, pipeline, donor tiers etc.); liaise with Finance/Grant to ensure that an accurate financial forecast is provided.
• Coordinate Proposal Development processes as per SoPs including drafting proposal development plans, organize scoping meetings with partners, coordinate pre-IPIAs, submit drafts to CMPs, etc. Before submitting for internal approval, ensure that project plans, resourcing requirements and budgets are logically and clearly articulated, in response to a compelling theory of change and in line with CARE's program strategy and donor requirements,
• Support in developing, editing and quality assurance of concept notes and proposals in line with identified needs and funding opportunities, in coordination with program staff, finance staff, and senior management.
• Ensure that the awards management system on the shared drive is effectively maintained and up to date for all awards and sub-awards including Go/No Go process.
• Develop and update a donor mapping matrix, which maps current and potential donors for CARE International in Lebanon, their priorities, policies and anticipated calls for proposals. As part of the process, the Program Development and Reporting Specialist will also support the Director of Program Development & Impact and Country Director to build and maintained positive donor relationships.
• Identify new opportunities for funding. Utilize CARE Lebanon 'Go/No Go' process to assess the suitability of funding opportunities; take ownership of the process to pursue those which are appropriate.
• Collect information on last reports/needs assessments/response done by CIL and other actors to support proposal writing or decision makers and send the information in a timely manner to the relevant staff.
• Assist the program in organizing grants opening, progress review and close-out meetings. Preparation for grants openings meetings will include compiling all relevant project documentation while developing summaries of project contracts and proposals.

Responsibility 2:  Donor reporting (20%)

• In close collaboration with the grant unit, ensure the program team understand the contractual obligations and regulations and review donor agreements / CARE internal grants agreements.
• Ensure contractual milestones are regularly communicated to relevant project staff; take the lead on internal and external reporting with programs, coordinating with finance, ensuring high-quality, well-written and timely reports meeting donor and CARE requirements. maintain close collaboration with all relevant departments at country and relevant CARE members in preparation of donor reports.
• Assist program coordinators in liaison and communication, including submission of reports, gathering and consolidation of feedback.
• Ensure quality information management related to grants by overseeing the regular maintenance of reporting calendars and updating of internal CARE documentation and reporting tools.
• Prepare a monthly program development analysis for all secured grants and in-pipeline opportunities ensuring actions taken are highlighted to Senior Management Team at country level and to CARE France.
• Attend program related meetings as needed.

Responsibility #3: Others (10%)

• Help identify potential strategic partners and engage in strategic partnership discussions in close collaboration with the Partnership Manager, as well as support and inform the partner capacity assessment results analysis, identify the gaps and areas where partners’ skills need enhancing.
• In coordination with the MEAL Department, support the evaluation of projects and lessons learned to feed into other proposal development processes and ensure findings are institutionalized.

 Skills & knowledge:

• Experience in both emergency and development contexts, preferably with experience in more than one of CiL’s priority sectors: protection, livelihoods, shelter and emergencies.
• Extensive knowledge of program cycle management-design and evaluation.
• Excellent communication, interpersonal, representation and negotiations skills.
• Ability to work under pressure, and for long hours if required with sound planning, time management and administrative skills.
• Excellent analytical and writing (English) skills

 Experience

At least   3-5  years of relevant experience, especially at NGOs, academic organizations, standard-setting bodies, public agencies focused on development and humanitarian programming in the Middle East

Academic background