Regional Business Development Manager

Requirements

• Master’s Degree or equivalent experience in international relations, development studies, business administration or a related field. Postgraduate qualification in related fields is an added advantage.

• Proven track record in business development, grants management, or fundraising in different thematic areas including Health, Sustainable Livelihoods, Climate Change, Education or related field.

• Strong understanding of the funding landscape in East and Southern Africa

• Excellent proposal writing, editing, formatting, research, and communications skills. Demonstrated ability to build and maintain relationships with donors and partners.

• Minimum of 7 years of relevant professional experience with at least five years of proposal development experience.

• Ability to work effectively with others across the region.

• Strong knowledge of the competitive market within CORDAID’s technical areas.

• Proficiency in English language.

Business Development & Grant Acquisition

• Identifies, tracks and analyses new business development and funding opportunities.

• Coordinates and leads the process of proposal development and writing of high-quality project proposals. Able to formulate strong theories of changes and results framework.

• Contributes to the bid management process in accordance with Cordaid and donor requirements and respective Country strategic plans.

• Ensures the follow up and review of the entire grant proposal development process.

• Develops a funding strategy for building relations and securing Cordaid ESA budget and annual plans.

• Translates the strategy into a plan and concrete actions. Follows up on those actions.

• Account Management & Implementation.

• Leads on development and implementation of a Donor Relationship Management Plan (DRMP) for each donor to ensure to outline the required action points and timeline to achieve donor-specific goals. Identifies and expresses Cordaid value proposition(s) for each donor or account.

• Builds active relationships and creates strong bonds with (potential) donors, allies and partners. Identifies and leads on the formation of new consortia.

• Monitors donor intelligence and community priorities/needs, creates opportunities and positions Cordaid for funding opportunities.

• Ensures the participation of technical and program teams in donor engagement fora(s).

• Negotiates and coordinates team agreements, memorandums of understanding and other relevant institutional agreements with (consortium) partners.

• In liaison with the respective Country and Programme Managers, the Regional Communications Coordinator, and the M&E Advisor facilitates the development of country specific Strategic Plans and Annual Reports to be shared with potential donors and government agencies as appropriate.

Donor Coordination

• Coordinates donor contacts and presents focused comparative advantages, efficiency and synergy for Cordaid as a whole, in collaboration with Country Offices for locally present key accounts representations.

• Provides active support to Global Office and respective Country Offices on donor coordination mechanisms and ways for Cordaid to join and activate locally.

Donor Compliance

• Provides technical advice in negotiations with institutional donors over contracts, costs, governance and accountability, and donor conditions.

• Ensures donor reporting, compliance standards and requirements are communicated to relevant thematic leads promptly.

• Attends to queries and addresses them timely.

Innovation

• Keeps informed of new developments and emerging issues of relevance to Cordaid by attending events, reading current literature and attending workshops and conferences.

• Advocates the adoption of innovative approaches to Business Development.

Networking & Partnership building.

• Fosters and maintains relationships with key stakeholders to enhance collaboration and funding prospects.

• Maintains and/or builds a relevant external network.

• Ensures visibility of Cordaid's thematic expertise.

• Represents Cordaid in relevant fora. Develops and/or maintains partnerships.

Capacity Building

• Identifies the need for support and facilitates the training of managers, project leaders and other relevant staff in effective donor engagement.

• Develops and implements tools, templates, and best practices for proposal development and donor engagement.

Reporting

• Prepares and submits periodic reports on business development activities and outcomes to the ESA management for the benefit of the Cordaid Global Office.

• Tracks deadlines and timelines and informs the relevant Country Manager of any potential challenges in meeting deadlines.

• Convenes post-proposal debriefing meetings with management to discuss the proposal process and identify lessons learned.

Integrity

• Showcases integrity standards as outlined in Cordaid’s integrity policies.

• Fulfills integrity responsibilities as outlined in Cordaid’s Integrity Framework and Standard Operating Procedures.

• Actively contributes to a safe environment within their scope of influence by encouraging dialogue, trust, as well as understanding and adherence to Cordaid’s integrity standards and procedures

Other

• Any other duties assigned by the Cluster Director.