Terms of Reference

FCDO Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) Trade Facilitation and Customs Support (Tasdeer) Programme

Grants Manager

The Project: FCDO Trade Facilitation and Customs Support (Tasdeer) 

The FCDO Trade Facilitation and Customs Support programme (Tasdeer) is a £15m programme financed by FCDO and operational from 2020 – 2023. The objective of Tasdeer is to improve the trade performance and customs capabilities in the OPTs. It will ultimately contribute to increased inclusive private sector-led economic growth and fiscal sustainability in the OPTs. 

The programme is designed to be flexible and adaptable, and it will work politically and technically to make progress across the four key interrelated workstreams.

• Workstream 1: Support to expedite the movement of goods and reduce transaction costs.
• Workstream 2: Support to improve Palestinian trade-related institutions and business enabling environment.
• Workstream 3: Support to improve the private sector’s skills and innovation to export and create jobs.
• Workstream 4: Support to improve PA’s customs readiness to assume functions from Israel and revenues from trade-related taxes.

The programme is implemented by a Cowater-led consortium on behalf of FCDO. A Steering Committee (including representatives from FCDO, the Ministry of National Economy and the Ministry of Finance) will approve interventions identified and designed by the supplier. Supplier interventions will be reviewed, and quality assured by a Strategic Advisory Panel comprised of experts from the core consortium members. 

Tasdeer program seeks a qualified long term Grants Manager who will provide services to support Workstream 3.

Workstream 3 will assist Palestinian firms to meet their regional and international market growth potentials by addressing company level bottlenecks that limit firms’ ability to grow and diversify exports. This will create export- related local jobs.

The workstream will support activities that will help and encourage medium and large exporting firms with strong growth potential and clear linkages with domestic supply chains to invest and significantly increase their exports.  Our activities will also be geared towards assisting firms, whose exports have declined as a result of recent market changes, to reclaim and grow exports.

Activities will include measures to give preference to supporting firms where the positive results will contribute to women, youth, and marginalized groups’ economic empowerment. We will also analyse specific export clusters that have the potential for establishing a competitive export market and accordingly support these clusters where high economic empowerment for women, youth and marginalized groups where possible.

Description of Role: Grants Manager – Ramallah, Palestine

The Grants Manager, based in Ramallah will be responsible for overseeing grants disbursement and management, including adherence to policies, procedures, and practices as described in the Grants Manual for Gaza, East Jerusalem and West Bank. 

The Grants Manager will work with the Workstream 3 Lead, Business Advisor, Finance and Operations Lead, and the Project Manager to manage and oversee the implementation and disbursement of grants. 

The Grants Manager will administer the process of receiving concepts and follow up with the applicants to confirm all requirements are met. They will conduct Due Diligence at the concept and the grant award stages.

The Grants Manager will support the Workstream 3 Lead in convening the assessment panel, recording panel decisions, preparing grant agreements, control and monitor grants expenditure against approved budgets, review and grant preliminary sign-off on grants payment requests, and maintain all records related to grants.

Roles and Responsibilities:

The Grants Manager will:

1. Manage and oversee the grants implementation activities to ensure compliance with the applicable laws, regulations TFCS programme policies and procedures, including the Grants Manual.
2. Identify issues related to grant, grant subcontracts and programme implementation in a timely manner and propose appropriate programme adjustments.
3. Maintain records for minutes of meeting for the grant assessment panel.
4. Draft the grant agreements and grant amendments and ensure it is arithmetically accurate and in line with the programme policies.
5. Implement the Grant Manual and where necessary propose changes required to improve compliance and/or operational efficiencies.
6. Monitor progress against each activity or milestone in the grant agreements.
7. Monitor and control grant expenditures assigned to activities against the approved budgets. 
8. Review disbursement requests and supporting documents, and ensure the requests are compliant with the Grants Manual. 
9. Following the thorough review of the payment requests and supporting documents, sign the payment request, submit it for approval to TL or DTL and to finance and operations for processing the payment.
10. Conduct period reconciliation of disbursements against approved budgets and the actual payments processed by finance and operations. Identify issues and take timely and necessary actions to rectify the irregularities.
11. Prepare a monthly cash flow projection.
12. Maintain the central approval and authorization matrix in coordination with the Finance and Operations Lead.
13. Be the focal point for Due Diligence of grantees at every stage of the grant cycle, supporting the finance and operations lead in conducting due diligence for the selection of applicants.
14. Maintain a list of approved and rejected applicants.
15. Ensure comprehensive grant files are up to date and available for audit at any time.
16. Ensure that grants reports are prepared in compliance with requirements specified by the programme management and/or the client and are submitted on time and in the proper format.
17. Assist the Project Manager and project team in budget preparation where necessary.
18. Liaise with internal and external auditors and follow up any audit queries/management letters. 
19. Periodically visit grantees' site with the programme teams to observe the progress in the activities stated in the grant agreements.
20. Support to the Workstream 3, Finance and Operations Lead/Project Manager, and collaboration with the Business Advisor on other tasks as required.

جميع الحقوق محفوظة لموقع جوبس.

Required Expertise and Competencies: 

• A minimum of a bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, Economics, or related fields. Holding a Professional Accounting Qualification or an MBA degree is a plus.
• At least six (6) years of practical experience, from which minimum three (3) years of work experience in grants management.
• Experience with donor-funded projects in Palestine, preferably with FCDO, DFID, FCO. 
• Strong analytical, verbal and writing skills in English and Arabic. 
• Strong team player with the ability to adapt to different work styles within the team. 
• Pro-activeness, dedication and a conscientious professional approach.

• Tasdeer offers equal employment opportunities to qualified women and men, youth and people with disabilities.

Reporting Lines and Managerial Responsibilities

• This role reports to the Finance and Operations Lead.

Duration:

This role will be full-time for the duration of the project (end-date September 2023).

Location:

This position will be based in Ramallah. Project-related travel is expected in Palestine (West Bank and Gaza) according to project needs.

Qualified candidates are kindly requested to submit their CVs with a cover letter indicating the position, name and explaining how they are qualified to fulfil the specified requirements.

Completed applications must be sent by email to: [email protected] no later than 4:00 pm (Friday, August 20th, 2021)

We thank all applicants for their interest in this project, however only those shortlisted will be contacted.

Cowater is an Equal Opportunity Employer.