Business Development and Delivery Manager - Levant

About us 

The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We create friendly knowledge and understanding between the people of the UK and other countries. We do this by making a positive contribution to the UK and the countries we work with – changing lives by creating opportunities, building connections and engendering trust.

We work with over 100 countries across the world in the fields of arts and culture, English language, education and civil society. Each year we reach over 20 million people face-to-face and more than 500 million people online, via broadcasts and publications. Founded in 1934, we are a UK charity governed by Royal Charter and a UK public body.

Geopolitical/SBU/Function overview

Politics, population, economics

There are deep historical ties between the Middle East and North Africa and the region remains critically important for UK security and prosperity as well as a high priority for the British Council.
 
The cluster is currently blighted by conflict and instability, rooted in the geopolitical struggle between regional powers and weakening of the social contract between governments and their populations. The Iran-Saudi and Shia-Sunni conflict is playing out in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, and is having a huge impact more widely in the region. It shows no sign of abating.  The breakdown in the social contract that drove the 2011 anti-government uprisings has occurred due to a number of longstanding barriers to political, economic and social progress. 

•    Dominance of ruling monarchies, authoritarian regimes, and limited democratic institutions
•    Exclusion of young people from political processes and few opportunities for them to express themselves freely
•    A very young demographic and mounting youth unemployment at 30%, twice the global average
•    Poorly performing education systems and low learning outcomes against international benchmarks
•    Inequality of opportunity for women; most development indicators show that women have an increasing participation in education but are under-represented in economic and political life
•    An under-developed sense of citizenship and weak civil society
•    An economic model heavily dependent on oil. Lower oil prices are already having an impact on the social contract in the Gulf 

The majority of young people are finding their path to economic independence and self-fulfilment blocked and given the limited legitimate outlets available to express their grievances and create change, radical thinking and radical action has powerful appeal.

The region is now at a crossroads in its transition, with huge generational shifts taking place in politics, society, geopolitics and the economy. As well as creating conflict as different parties contest the direction of this transition, it is also generating significant opportunities - the new generation is more connected, more educated, more entrepreneurial, innovative and expressive than previous generations. They have the potential to drive sustainable economic growth and stability. Moreover, governments have greater impetus to engage with youth due to their rising numbers and the end of the oil boom, which has increased their need to diversify their economies away from oil and towards a model based around harnessing the region’s human capital.

British Council response

British Council MENA contributes to the following corporate plan objectives: 

•    Greater stability in priority countries in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia and countries affected by the Syrian refugee crisis
•    International opportunities and connections for young people and institutions in the UK

Our regional vision in the Levant and across MENA is:

Changing young people’s lives, inspiring hope, connecting opportunity

Main areas of thematic focus in Education will be:

•    Improving education and English outcomes and quality of education at all levels in order to contribute to increased employment and HE options
•    Building the resilience of young people and enabling them to create alternative pathways for themselves, thereby contributing to the development of diversified and stronger economies
•    HE partnerships benefitting the economies of the UK and Levant/MENA  

Main areas of thematic focus in Society will be:

•    Governance and Civil Society 
•    Stability, Security, and Peace Building
•    Young People and Women and Girls both as a cross-cutting theme as well as through targeted programmes

Main opportunities/challenges for this role

•    The MENA region faces significant resource, capacity and capability challenges in the short to medium term in the areas of pursuit, scoping, proposal management and delivery of grant and partnership programming, despite various capacity building programmes
•    This role is critical to the achievement of the E&S strategy in Levant, a cluster which has an abundance of opportunities (commercial and non-commercial/partnership) that need to be prioritised.
•    The post will lead and support on strengthening the pursuit, project management and relationship management skills of colleagues across the Levant, in close liaison with sector leads for Education and English, Society, SRO’s, Cluster Leads and Country Directors, to support them in managing their accountabilities for overseeing E&S programming in their markets.
•    Coordination of the Partnership and Contract Approval Process (PCAP) for opportunities in the Levant and cross-MENA sub-regions (Levant, North Africa and the Gulf), providing timely information and data and statistics to support planning and decision making.
•    Ensure that our portfolio of E&S programmes in the Levant are successfully delivered, and that corporate best practice is embedded and meets client needs in a challenging operating environment, some being conflict affected and fragile.
•    Identify and prioritize new non-commercial/partnership and commercial market opportunities in E&S in the Levant cluster
•    Lead and support teams to deliver new business for medium to longer term.

Main Accountabilities

Strategy development and implementation
•    Work with E&S leadership in MENA to identify, agree and address strategic priorities and challenges for the business in the Levant cluster.
•    Develop and nurture internal relationships to ensure strategic objectives are aligned, understood and achieved, and opportunities to influence and contribute to corporate strategies are maximised.
•    Deliver the strategy and high-level operational plans for own area of work, ensuring relevant in-country colleagues understand their responsibilities and how they can contribute, and that plans align with business planning timetables.
•    Report against agreed Key Performance Indicators for own area of work demonstrating the value added to the results.
•    Coordinate and support the development of best practice and ensure teams make an active contribution to appropriate initiatives and activities.
•    Support the development of training, mentoring, consultancy and support to build capacity and confidence across the BC Levant network in agreed areas.

Leadership and management 
•    Development of quarterly workforce planning for the Levant, ensuring we have the right staff in the right locations and with the requisite skills necessary to deliver our E&S programming. This will include providing the appropriate capability development interventions where needed and support to the planning process.
•    As Secretariat to the MENA Partnership and Contract Approval Board (PCAB), work with the Business Development and Delivery Manager for North Africa to coordinate the regional approval process to support business development decision-making in region. 
•    Provide line management to the ‘Expert, Associate and Contract Manager’ (PB7) currently based in Lebanon.   

Relationship, stakeholder and key account management 
•    Develops trust-based relationships with a range of key practitioners, partners, organisations, opinion formers and stakeholders (in the UK and overseas) to promote the British Council’s cultural relations strategies, and secure practical and financial support for them.
•    Deliver against appropriate management responsibilities and targets in the matrix, working closely with sector leads and geography, in order to support effective business development and delivery in Levant and cross-MENA clusters (North Africa, Gulf) as required. 
•    Build and maintain excellent relationships with internal partners and stakeholders within and across E&S, to ensure effective, integrated and joined-up delivery of agreed business objectives as well as pursuit of new opportunities.
•    Role model the British Council’s behaviours and values, to ensure a climate is created which coaches, motivates and supports staff to achieve what is required.

Operational management 
•    Support optimal resource allocation, organisational structures and staff deployment to enable effective and sustainable achievement of the MENA E&S business plan in the Levant.
•    Act as a commercial lead for agreed business opportunities in Levant.
•    Coordination and management of MENA Partnerships and Contract Approvals Process (PCAP) and pipeline management. 
•    Lead/support the negotiation and handover process from business development to business delivery, including planning and identifying resources to support timely and effective project start-up in accordance with corporate standards and the BC Project Management Framework.
•    Where agreed, act as a Project Director/SRO for large scale regional projects.
•    Ensure standard operating procedures for the implementation of projects based on best practice.
•    Support the development of increased capability in the Levant region to pursue, design, deliver and evaluate programmes.
•    Work with sector leads to ensure data collection and analysis across the business.

Quality assurance
•    Provide quality assurance of business development and delivery across the portfolio, ensuring the portfolio meets corporate and client standards.
•    Oversee management control check (MCC) process and support reporting to E&S leadership meetings and participate in internal project boards.
•    Support the development, promotion and use of MENA E&S organisational/intellectual assets and products for use in publications, communications and marketing.

Risk management & corporate compliance
•    Monitoring and reporting on project compliance with all corporate policies and procedures, (e.g. HR, Finance, Legal, Security, EOD etc), intervening where required, to ensure effective management of risk.
•    Support to the management of financial (FCCF) and non-financial (ERMF) regional programme risks and assurance of effective programme risk management procedures in the region.

Key Relationships

Internal
•    Director E&S, Director Business Development and Delivery E&S, Cluster Lead and Country Directors in the Levant region, E&S Business Development & Delivery Manager – North Africa, E&S Regional Operations Manager, MENA Commercial Manager and the MENA Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor.
•    Education and Society Strategic Business Unit colleagues in MENA, the UK and in the other regions.

External
•    Ministries of Education and national education organisations in countries in the Levant region where this relationship needs development or sector expertise.
•    Ministries of Social Solidarity and Social Welfare, Ministries of Planning and Development, Ministries of Youth and Sports, National Commissions for Women. 
•    Major or important public and private sector education institutions (universities, colleges, schools). 
•    Major or important Civil Society Organisations.
•    Major education institutions, think tanks and organisations in the UK with an interest in the region.
•    Relevant international and national donor organisations and International NGOs active in the region.
•    Corporate sponsors (both multi-national and regional/national), foundations and government-funded sponsors.

Role Requirements

Passport requirements/ Right to work in country:    Eligible to live and work in Jordan or Lebanon and travel in all countries in the Levant region

Direct contact or managing staff working with children?    No

Notes:    Locally appointed post

Person Specification

Language requirements 
Essential       
Fluent in English

Desirable  

Fluent in Arabic

Assessment Stage     

Shortlisting and Interview 

Qualifications
Essential        
Qualified to degree level or equivalent by experience

Desirable

• Project/programme management qualification
• Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Qualification

Assessment Stage

Shortlisting

Role Specific Knowledge & Experience
Essential

• Significant Business Development and Delivery experience with donors (EU/HMG) and partners on large scale programmes and partnerships
• Knowledge and experience of Education or Society in a development context
• Project Manager experience on large scale/complex programme

Desirable

• Management experience in a role supporting a dispersed team based remotely
• Project Management qualification 

Assessment Stage
Shortlisting and interview

Role Specific Skills

Essential

• Ability to operate in highly ambiguous strategic context and maintain a systematic and integrated approach
• Experience of analyzing complex data and writing/working on winning proposals

Assessment Stage
Shortlisting and/or Interview

British Council Core Skills

• Communicating and influencing (level 4). Uses influencing techniques

Uses formal and informal negotiating and motivation techniques to influence others’ behavior and persuade them to think and act differently, while respecting difference of view and culture.

• Managing projects (level 4). Leads Larger projects

Analyses requirements with the sponsor/stakeholders defining the specification with awareness of equality and diversity impact, planning, revising, implementing and evaluating on medium-to-large and/or high risk projects, coordinates a diverse team and handles changes in specification or plan to meet unexpected circumstances.

• Finance and resource management (level 4) Supports budget management

Monitors and controls an agreed budget within a defined area, producing reports and analyses and contributing to planning.

• Commercial and business development (level 4) Plans and deploys resources

Negotiates and agrees the resources for a defined area as part of forward planning, monitoring progress and adjusting resources or priorities to meet goals.

• Account and partnership management (level 4) 

Develops and leads on the delivery of account management and development plans across a range of stakeholders/customers/partners to deliver medium term business and/or reputational gains for both parties.

Assessment Stage
Interview

British Council Behaviours

• Creating shared purpose (more demanding): 

Creating energy and clarity so that people want to work purposefully together

• Connecting with others (more demanding):

Actively appreciating the needs and concerns of myself and others.

• Working together (most demanding):

Creating the environment in which others who have different aims can work together.

• Being accountable (most demanding):

Showing real dedication to the long-term mission of the British Council or the team

• Making it Happen (More demanding):

Challenging myself and others to deliver and measure better results