Liberia: Grants Manager

LAST MILE HEALTH

Founded by survivors of Liberia’s civil war, Last Mile Health (LMH) is committed to saving lives in the world’s most remote villages. Working in remote jungle communities cut off from even basic life-saving health services, LMH is building a health system that reaches everyone—by bringing health care to villagers’ doorsteps. LMH trains community members to be health practitioners for their villages and connects them with rural health clinics to offer every person access to the care they deserve. These Frontline Health Workers are able to prevent, diagnose, and treat the top ten most life-threatening health conditions.

The unprecedented Ebola outbreak in Liberia has demonstrated that weak, inequitable health systems leave everyone vulnerable. To address this access gap, the Liberian government has conceived an ambitious ten-year effort to deploy community-based health practitioners in every village across Liberia. Last Mile Health is undergoing a major expansion of its team and operations to support the Liberian government in this effort to design, launch, and sustain a national program for remote health access.

Job Summary:

Reporting to the Director of Partnerships & Development (Monrovia, Liberia), the Grants Manager is responsible for providing efficient and effective management of the program’s grant portfolio. He/she is responsible for ensuring quality grant management, assessing needs and developing quality grant management capacity of field teams, ensuring compliance with donor and internal organization requirements, and overseeing information management related to grant and program implementation, including on time and quality reporting. He/she functions as a key liaison between Programs, M&E and Finance for successful project management of grant funded activities.

The Grants Manager works closely with program and development staff and senior leaders to manage a large portion of LMH’s overall grant portfolio, ensure organizational effectiveness and compliance, help set relevant policies and provide technical assistance as required. Because s/he is a vital connector for the finance, development, and program staff, the Grants Administrator must work well with cross functional teams.

Essential Responsibilities

Grant Management

• Responsible for ensuring quality grant management. Vital connector between F&A, P&D, Programs and M&E.
• Own and operates management information systems for grant portfolio as relates to project management.
• Function as a key liaison to Programs and M&E to ensure successful project management of grant funded activities.
• Oversee information management related to grant and program implementation, including timely, quality reporting.
• Liaise with Grants Officer to monitor expenditures to ensure compliance with budgets.
• Organize grant opening, mid-term review and closure meetings and with support of National Partnerships Director
• Assess needs and develop grant management capacity of field teams
• Act as a central point of organizational expertise on donor compliance requirements, ensuring that relevant staff of all departments are informed of donor requirements; work closely with all departments to ensure compliance.
• Maintain and manage the grant filing and retrieval system to ensure that it provides easy and immediate access to information on these grants at country office level.
• Maintain a reporting tracking system to ensure that programs and M&E are aware of upcoming deadlines.
• Verify that financial and narrative reports are coherent and adhere to donor and LMH standards before submission.
• Contribute to ensure strong relationship with donors. Attend donor meetings as required.
• Interdepartmental coordination meetings and monthly Finance/Grants Meetings.
• Ensure Programs staff are provided with the information and training they require in order to understand donor guidelines, compliance issues and LMH grant management procedures.
• Conduct regular visits to field offices and project sites.
• Conduct internal audits of grants processes and project implementation

Process Improvement Projects

• Develop and maintain a basic grant manual and communicate appropriately with staff concerning policies and procedures and updates.
• Research various grant management systems and work in collaboration with program, IT, development, and finance staff to implement new system.
• Serve as the primary administrator for the new grant management system and provide the necessary training to staff; write new standard operations procedures as required.

Reporting Relationships

• Reports directly to: P&D Director, Monrovia
• Works directly with: Grants Officer, Deputy Director of Operations, Deputy Director of Programs, Program Manager, Deputy Director of M&E

Requirements

• BA/BS degree
• 3+ years of experience with grants administration and/or compliance
• Knowledge of compliance requirements for major donors, including USAID, DFID, EU
• Experience in establishing compliance systems
• Strong project management and time management skills; highly organized and detail oriented
• Effective written and oral communication skills
• Prior experience living and working in Africa or similar environments

Knowledge and Experience

• Ability to set and revise policies and procedures while brokering buy-in from all stakeholders
• Ability to provide guidance to people with a wide range of cultural backgrounds, training and experience
• Enjoy working independently and as part of a team
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office required (Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint);
• Experience with Salesforce or other CRM systems (Raisers’ Edge, Donor Perfect) desired
• High level skills in coaching, mentoring and capacity building, around management of accountabilities and compliance in relation to donor funding
• Ability to work as a team with program staff at all levels without holding any direct line management authority
• Demonstrated ability to develop and maintain effective project files for accountability and audit purposes
• Commitment to health and social justice

Location: Monrovia, Liberia with travel to field sites in rural Liberia.

Please apply using our online portal at www.lastmilehealth.org/careers