Ecuador: Consultant - ECHO Program Grant Officer

Project/Consultancy Title: ECHO Program Grant Officer

Project Location(s): Ecuador

Background:

A 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck at 6:58 local time on April 16th and lasted about a minute. The numbers of affected people varies depending of the sources, oscillating between 150,000 according to the Government and up to 350,000 according to UN figures. With funding from ECHO, Mercy Corps, through our partners CRS and COOPI, is addressing the immediate WASH, Shelter, Livelihood and Protection needs in areas heavily affected by the earthquake.

Purpose / Project Description:

The ECHO Program Grants Officer is a key position supporting Mercy Corps' Ecuador response grant implemented in partnership with CRS-COOPI. With the overall objective of ensuring high quality programming, the main goal of this position is to ensure effective grants support and coordination. This position will support programmatic and budgetary monitoring, compliance with donor and internal Mercy Corps rules and regulations, coordinating donor reports, information management and capacity-building efforts.

Consultant Activities:

The Consultant will:

• Support MCE and the CRS Field Level Emergency Program Coordinator in programmatic and budgetary monitoring.

• Lead day-to-day aspects of donor reporting processes and coordinate with CRS and COOPI to ensure timely submission of quality narrative and financial reports.

• Support in providing guidance and interpretation of donor rules and regulations, and monitor and facilitate compliance of programs with donor and Mercy Corps requirements, including program progress and adherence to objectives, submission of timely modification and extension requests, procurement and financial regulations and requests for derogations, etc.

• Adhere to MCE rules for all expenditure – following procurement procedures Approval Authority Matrix and maintain documentation of all MCE expenditure incurred in field, to be shipped to HQ at project closure.

• Ensure quality information management through regular maintenance of grant files, reporting calendars, funding trackers, timely submission and updating of internal M&E MCE documentation.

• Assist the Mercy Corps Europe Senior Program Officer (SPO) in preparing, reviewing and documenting memoranda of understanding, agreements and agreement modifications.

• Support the MCE Senior Program Officer in the preparation, coordination and follow-up on grant meetings including grant opening, review and closing meetings, and ensure that meeting notes are taken at all times and disseminated to relevant staff members.

• Coordinate with evaluator to ensure smooth process of data collection and field visits during last month of implementation

• Support MCE in responding to ad-hoc donor requests and in other key grants management, program development, communications and external relations activities as requested.

Consultant Deliverables:

The Consultant will:

• Provide email progress updates on programming to MCE Senior Program Officer
• Provide consolidated (from all partners) narrative monthly reports to MCE Senior Program Officer, based on MCE template
• Deliver monthly expense reports of MCE expenditure, scanning all receipts, to be approved and financially reviewed by MCE.
• Review all partner financial reports on a monthly basis and send to MCE
• Consolidate all partners' narrative final reports into the ECHO Single Form format at project closure

Timeframe / Schedule:

August 15, 2016

Start of Consultancy

30 April 2017

Closure of Implementation Period

31 May 2017

Submission of final report, end of consultancy

The Consultant will report to:

Senior Program Officer MCE

The Consultant will work closely with:

Field Level Emergency Program Coordinators for CRS and COOPI

Programmatic and finance staff of COOPI and CRS

MCE Finance, Latin America Desk

MC Regional Program Director for Latin America

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

• Bachelors/or equivalent in international development field required;
• Excellent oral and written Spanish and English skills required
• At least 5 years of field experience in international relief and development programs.
• Demonstrated success working effectively and respectfully with host country government, private sector, INGO, NGO partners, UN cluster and working group system as well as other stakeholders in complex environments.
• Proven skills in grants management, including strong financial skills and narrative report writing skills (preferably with ECHO funded grants);
• Prior experience with emergency response grant management for both private and institutional donors desired
• Knowledge of SPHERE and other humanitarian programming standards.
• Knowledge of donor procurement rules and regulations, preferably ECHO.

• Successful and proven negotiation, communication and organization skills.

• Ability to work effectively with an ethnically diverse team in a sensitive environment.

PI95077929

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