Advisor for Project and Grant Management

İşin təsviri

Reports to: Team Leader

Strengthening Citizen Participation in Azerbaijan 

Location of the project office – Baku, Azerbaijan

Duration: 1st April, 2024 – 31th December 2025.

“Strengthening Citizen Participation in Azerbaijan” (SPA) is a Multi-Donor-Action that is jointly co-financed by the European Union (EU) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and will be implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is a service enterprise for development cooperation with international operations and global experience. Owned by the Federal Republic of Germany, the organization operates as a private-sector enterprise with a development-policy mandate: to make sustainable improvements to the living conditions of people in partner countries worldwide. 

“Strengthening Citizen Participation in Azerbaijan” (SPA) aims at fostering the positive role that citizens’ initiatives can play regarding development, particularly on local and community levels. Therefore, SPA sets on to strengthen the capacity of citizens and citizens’ initiatives to engage in policy dialogue and serve the needs of local communities. 

To reach its aim of strengthening citizen participation in development, SPA carries out activities in 3 fields of action:  

1. Capacity development of citizens’ initiatives, enabling them to be institutionally and financially sustainable and empowering them to play an active role in the development of Azerbaijan. 
2. Promotion of policy dialogues and exchanges between Azerbaijani citizens and state authorities; 
3. Support to measures by Azerbaijani local citizens’ initiatives to implement development projects that serve the needs of their constituents. 

SPA foresees a broad range of support measures to support citizens and citizens’ initiatives in playing a positive role as development actors in selected sectors, such as climate change and environment, improved participation of persons living with disabilities, promotion of gender equality, youth participation, rural and community development and social cohesion. These include capacity development measures and process advice; support in conducting and presenting research and studies; or support citizens’ initiatives to implementing projects serving the needs of their communities. Capacity development measures are key to all lines of action. Capacity development measures will increase their abilities for financial, project and event management, communication and organisational development and sustainable operations and project implementation. 

All lines of action target the people of Azerbaijan, as constituents of the supported citizens’ initiatives that represent their interests, and as beneficiaries of the projects implemented by them. 

The project is looking for an Advisor for Project and Grant Management in Azerbaijan to support citizens’ initiatives in improving their capacities to manage grants and implement own projects in a practical manner. The expert will mainly be responsible for designing, organising and implementing measures within the third component as described above, but is expected to provide support to the implementation of all project components. The successful candidate is expected to conduct frequent duty trips within Azerbaijan as well as to attend meetings and events in a regional context.  

Responsibilities:

The advisor based in Baku will independently design, organize and implement all activities related to the third line of action as described above. In this framework, the expert will conduct training on the topic and give advice to NGOs and other organizations, including in Baku, as well as in other regions of Azerbaijan. The expert will closely accompany the selected initiatives and support them in developing adequate approaches to develop and implement projects with a focus on community development. Through trainings and advise, citizens’ initiatives will increase their operational and organisational capacities and become more sustainable, including at the institutional and financial level. In addition to training, the expert will work with citizens’ initiatives to explore development options based on good practices and promising opportunities, and test new approaches. The expert will support the data collection and the Monitoring and Evaluation of activities, as required by project for steering and reporting. The main tasks include but are not limited to

• Knowledge of national and international legislation on citizen initiatives and non-governmental organizations
• Good knowledge of the NGO sector in Azerbaijan 
• Good connections within state bodies relevant to NGO
• Good knowledge of grant procedures to NGOs in Azerbaijan
• Experience in working with NGOs on local, regional, and national levels is an asset
• Developing and overseeing grant schemes for citizens’ initiatives
• Supporting citizens’ initiatives to design and implement pilot projects for community development
• Support citizens’ initiatives in networking and setting up sustainable dialogue formats with relevant actors, including state actors and non-state actors
• Support citizens’ initiatives in reporting and fulfilling grant obligations
• General tasks: 
  1. Facilitate quarterly grant management meetings to track and monitor risks, and capacity assessments, assess and provide training and support to staff and grantees, monitor the implementation and closure of grant agreements, and provide high-level reports on grant performance
  2. Facilitate, co-design and deliver capacity development training for potential and existing grantees, including training during the proposal design and submission stage for potential applicants and the grant implementation stage for new and existing grantees.
  3. Design, conduct and manage an efficient Capacity Assessment process and facilitate the Risk Analysis and Mitigation process of potential and existing Grantees.
  4. Contribute to the external presentation of the project. 
  5. Contribute to the Monitoring and Evaluation as requested by the project’s M&E system.
  6. Participate in workshops and trainings within the team, including at regional events (requires travel abroad).
  7. Support the project team and the project management in any other task upon request 
  8. All tasks mentioned above will be shared with other EU co-financed projects.

Required qualifications, competencies, and experience:

Qualifications:

• A university degree (Master level) in political science, social science, economy, psychology or an equally relevant field is required.

Professional experience:

• At least 5 years’ experience working as project advisor or grants’ manager. Experience and understanding of all stages of a project management cycle is expected.
• Experience in undertaking capacity assessments (or due diligence processes for development projects,) and risk management for a range of stakeholders with different capacities.
• Experience in monitoring, evaluation, and learning of development projects and/or grants.
• Experience in project designing, organizing, and implementing project activities measures for public, private and/or civil society organizations.
• Experience in the project and grant management.
• Experience in designing and conducting qualification and skills development activities. 
• Working experience in Azerbaijani regions, besides Baku, is a strong asset.

Other knowledge, additional competences:

• Excellent command of Azerbaijani and English; knowledge of German or Russian is an asset. 
• Willingness to travel regularly within the country, including to rural districts, and occasionally abroad.  
• Work/ study experience in rural districts of Azerbaijan.
• High working level knowledge of MS Office programs. 
• Team player. 
• Good knowledge of rural regions of Azerbaijan.
• Strong ability for self-motivation, self-organization, and priority-setting.  
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
• Building Individual Capacity

Qualified candidates are kindly asked to send their motivation letter and resumes/CVS applications by e-mail. 

Please indicate the name of the position (SPA – Advisor for Project and Grant Management) you are applying for in the subject line of the email.

Deadline for submitting applications: 10.03.2024

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

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