Grants Manager – Trade4SMEs Initiative’ to unlock the potential of AfCFTA in Uganda

The AfCFTA agreement promises green exports by triggering trade and investment towards sectors and products that could be friendlier to the environment and create more jobs for disadvantaged parts of society. However, the realization of the full promise will depend on the African countries being fully compliant with and implementing the AfCFTA, while concurrently  investing in the necessary enablers such as business development services, trade financing, skills training, as well supporting  industry and investment policies and regulations.

The AfCFTA can potentially reposition Uganda’s industrialisation strategy, organise an agile business ecosystem across high-value sectors such as agriculture, tourism, and mineral development to propel the desired structural transformation. Uganda’s geo-positioning and relations within the region also offers an opportunity to address transboundary challenges related to trade. The comprehensive Local Economic Development (LED) framework also places the country in a good stead to advance inclusive sustainable development agenda.

However, there are also several challenges that Uganda and other Least Developed Countries (LDCs) must overcome to effectively and fully benefit from the AfCFTA Agreement. These include i) the need to strengthen the institutional, human capital and compliance capacity to assure Uganda’s readiness to implement the AfCTA; ii ensure a conducive environment including access to trade finance, de-risking/incentive funding for SMEs, skills training for youth, and complementary integrated industry-trade-fiscal policies to facilitate inclusive participation in trade and investment in reginal value chains.

Access to finance has been identified as one of the critical enablers for SME participation in trade – both domestic and regional. In this regard an “SMEs4Trade Facility” will be established to support the integration of SMEs into local and regional trade. The Facility will provide a window to de-risk and incentivize SME investments in products and services value chains for export in agriculture, mining and tourism, with special focus on greening the target value chains thereby contributing to improvements in Uganda’s readiness for the AfCFTA.

The facility will support firms in seizing the trade and investment opportunities of the emerging climate regime and carbon market, promote green trade through certification and labelling schemes that will help producers and traders fulfil internationally agreed social and environmental standards, and thus contribute to increased employment, improved livelihoods and increased incomes.  The SMEs4Trade Facility will also facilitate the integration youth and women enterprises into regional value chains by leveraging the ongoing Youth4Business initiative and will also promote South to South co-operation between and amongst African countries.

It is against this background that UNDP-Uganda is seeking the services of a Grants Manager SMEs4Trade Facility”. He/she will be responsible for establishment, operationalization and management of the facility.

Lead the Grant-management processes:

• Manage and oversee all operational and project management processes related to the grants life-cycle, including, initiating the call for proposals, coordinating the identification, review and selection of proposals, disbursement of grants, monitoring the implementation of the grants, reporting and impact assessment of the grant utilization.  of lessons learnt?  This includes keeping information on internal and external stakeholders up-to-date for each active grant;
• Lead the coordination on all aspects related to the assigned grants portfolio to ensure efficient oversight. This includes liaising with external stakeholders to ensure the required documentation is received according to the timeline agreed upon and stored appropriately. This also involves reviewing progress and other reports on the grants and providing feedback to the grantee with respect to implementation of the grant;
• Provide technical assistance and backstopping to grantees including assisting grantees in clarifying the proposed outputs, indicators of success, methods of baseline and data collection, activities, and budgets;
• Provide tailored technical support throughout the grant life-cycle, review progress reports and provide feedback to grantees as needed to ensure results-based reports, analyses and capturing of data;
• Perform a basic review of financial reports and flag inconsistencies between financial spending and project implementation during implementation of the grants and subsequent disbursements;
• Monitor, document and assess progress towards overall results based on the agreed workplan and monitoring schedules.
• Undertake monitoring missions and finalize mission reports in accordance with the mission report template, summarizing key findings and recommendations;
• Ensure consistent monitoring and reporting on grant activity outputs to the project M&E Framework and other data monitoring tools;
• Ensure that the grant component of the project is well documented in UNDP online project management and reporting portals;
• Support in the Uganda Country Office grant management and reporting activities to ensure that data is readily available in a timely, usable and consistent manner.

Provide technical support in Grant-making:

• Participate in the periodic grantee selection processes including thorough review and substantive analysis of concept notes and full-fledged proposals, accompanying budgets, and monitoring and evaluation frameworks submitted to the WPC Trust Fund;
• Prepare application feedback correspondence for all shortlisted applicants and grantees;
• Systematically generate and update these grantee summaries based on application outcomes, progress reports and monitoring missions;
• Provide guidance to the grantees to ensure adherence to UNDP policies, administrative and financial procedures;
• Coordinate the grantee pitching exercises prior to grantee selection;
• Review and clarify the grantee proposals through dialogue with grantees on submitted documents;
• Undertake enterprise assessment prior to grantee selection and award in accordance with UNDP Standard Operating Procedures for Grants.

Provide technical inputs into Reporting and Knowledge Management:

• Maintain a centralized portfolio matrix of grants and provide quarterly portfolio updates to the Project/Fund Advisory Committee;
• Prepare written contributions for various purposes, including inputs for the annual donor reports, newsletters, fundraising efforts, and other reporting needs;
• Contribute to tracking and synthesizing, on an ongoing basis, developments, tools, emerging issues, or good practices in the field of ending violence against women and girls, including capturing findings and lessons learned from evaluations, as applicable;
• Update and maintain a grant-making and knowledge management tracking database with relevant grantee and other pertinent information;
• Support the Fund’s communications efforts through direct engagement with grant recipients to curate information about their achievements and impact of the grant, knowledge products, media, etc. and ensure communications accurately reflect grant outcomes;
• Keep systematic track of noteworthy grantee achievements and communicate to colleagues for possible visibility, adaptation and scale-up as part of the learning and knowledge management practice of UNDP;
• Support and organize knowledge-sharing events and identify good and promising models that can be shared widely across grantees and other key stakeholders;
• Identify challenges and lessons learned across the grants portfolio and contribute to a process of institutional learning through documenting lessons learned and contribution to modification of strategies and programs.

Provide technical support to Capacity Development of grantees:

• Play a key role in the development and quality assurance of capacity development tools, including training materials and packages, program guidance notes, and other related support specifically as it relates to monitoring and reporting for grants;
• Support, organize and participate in knowledge sharing and capacity development events and training for grantees;
• Support grantee participation and access to training opportunities from UNDP and other partners pertinent to grant management or any other pertinent technical areas.

• Respect for Diversity;
• Integrity;
• Professionalism.

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
• Accountability;
• Creative problem Solving;
• Effective communication;
• Inclusive collaboration;
• Stakeholder engagement;
• Leading by example.

Functional Competencies:

• Ability to build strong relationships with, and focuses on results for clients and partners, responds positively to feedback;
• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities;
• Ability to work in a global multi-cultural setting respecting gender equality and an ability to contribute to team work and provide conceptual leadership;
• Ability to work under pressure and meet strict deadlines;
• Ability to use critical thinking, conceptualize ideas, and articulate relevant subject matter in a clear and concise way.

• Advanced University degree or equivalent in Economics, Business Administration, Development Studies, or other relevant fields;
• A first-level university degree in combination with 7 years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• 5 years of relevant experience in managing complex and multi-component interventions with various partners and stakeholders;
• Knowledge and experience in working on addressing issues related to trade, finance, banking, private sector, agriculture, tourism and mining;
• Experience in grants management is required;
• Experience with databases and data management a plus.
• Experience in the United Nations, a governmental, other multilateral or civil society organization in a developed or developing country is highly desirable.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is a must.