Grants Lead - ALM/FGM – Support to the Africa-led movement to end Female Genital Mutilation

Options Consultancy Services Ltd Nairobi Kenya Business Development
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Company Description

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a form of violence against girls and women, held in place by social norms. It is generally practised as a matter of social and traditional convention and is interlinked with social acceptance, peer pressure and fear of not having access to particular resources and opportunities.

Options as part of a UK government funded consortium has engaged to carry out the Africa-led movement (ALM) to end FGM programme, with the goal of ultimately ending FGM. The consortium’s approach to support the Africa-led movement is girl-centred, recognises the intersecting identities that inform their lives, and aims to empower all girls and women - promoting health, bodily autonomy, and their right to live free from violence. The programme takes an adaptive management approach.

One of the programme’s key initiatives is a grassroots grants scheme. Funds will flow to grantee partners through a granting mechanism managed by Options with technical and strategic guidance from across the programme consortium. Youth, grassroots, and women’s rights organisations are a core success factor in reducing FGM and other forms of violence, yet only a small fraction of gender equality development funding reaches these groups. Grants will help finance both community-based initiatives and the roles that these groups might play in the accelerating and scaling programme approaches. The design of the grassroots grants has been inspired and informed by participatory and feminist grant-making processes, including shifting decision making power by establishing local panels to select and support grantee partners; funding cohorts of grantee partners and assigning a more experienced local organisation to provide mentoring/training; and developing participatory forms of monitoring and evaluation that allow grantee partners to contribute to strengthening strategy, ways of working, etc.

The grants strategy has been finalised, and initial tools and processes are in place, with grantee partners identified in focal counties in Kenya. However, ongoing development and learning/adaptation on strategy, tools and processes will be required as we rapidly scale the grassroots grants, including into new countries, during 2022 and 2023

Position


The Grants Lead will initiate, coordinate, and oversee the technical implementation of the programme to provide small grants to grassroots organisations working to end female genital mutilation in four focal countries (Kenya, Somaliland, Ethiopia, Senegal).

The Grants Lead serves as the lead person for the grants scheme, managing the design of a robust, adaptive, and secure granting mechanism implemented across four countries.

  • The Grants Lead will be the strategic lead of the grants programme, and will oversee grant applications, due diligence, contract compliance, grantee relationships, capacity building for grantees, reporting and outcome measurement.
  • They will finalise establishment of the grant programme scheme, oversee and manage the grants programme, provide capacity building, knowledge building and learning related to grant-giving and lead the monitoring and evaluation of grants and client reporting.
  • They should also ensure that all work is aligned with the programme’s Do No Harm and Safeguarding guidance.

Requirements

To succeed in this role, you will have:

  • Significant experience in managing programmes and grants, with a proven track record in disbursing grants directly to grassroots organisations in remote and diverse contexts, across a multi-country programme.
  • Significant financial management experience, as well as budgeting, work planning, and fraud prevention and management.
  • Candidates will be at an advantage if they have experience in the design and implementation of participatory and/or feminist grants mechanisms

Other information

  • As an equal opportunity employer, Options Consultancy Services is committed to the equal treatment of all current and prospective employees and does not condone discrimination on the basis of age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, gender identity, or marriage or civil partnership. We aspire to have a diverse and inclusive workplace and strongly encourage suitably qualified candidates from a wide range of backgrounds to apply and join Options Consultancy Services.
  • Our organisation is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and post holders to share this commitment.
  • We seek people who are pro-choice, promote diversity and inclusion, are energetic and enthusiastic about Options’ vision.
  • Applicants must have the right to work in the Kenya