Saferworld is an independent non-governmental organisation dedicated to preventing and reducing violent conflict and promoting cooperative approaches to security. The Programme Development Manager (Maternity Cover) plays a critical role in supporting Saferworld's strategic goals by ensuring the development of high-quality, partner-centred programme concepts and successful funding proposals, thereby enabling the delivery of country strategies.
Key Areas of Responsibility
Programme Design and Proposal Development
- Work with country teams and partners to make informed go/no go decisions on calls for proposals and invitations to submit funding applications.
- Lead participatory, partner-centred programme co-design and development of programme concept notes and proposals that link to Saferworld’s organisational theory of change and enable delivery of country strategies. This includes coordinating across teams, facilitating locally informed ideas from country teams and partners, and leading the drafting of high-quality funding applications (including narratives, budgets, theories of change, MEL frameworks and risk matrices).
- Ensure programme design and proposal development processes are non-extractive and non-hierarchical, in line with Saferworld’s values and guidelines, including meaningful partner leadership throughout the full design cycle, participatory budget development, equitable budget sharing, and transparent communication of donor requirements and obligations.
- Ensure strong gender and conflict analysis, informed by local partner knowledge and contextual expertise, is integrated into programme design and proposal development.
- Provide guidance and capacity strengthening to country teams and partners on donor policies, strategies and funding opportunities, supporting high-quality programme design and proposal development through coaching, joint drafting and shared reflection.
- Diversify funding sources within country portfolios by identifying and scoping relevant trusts and foundations and non-traditional donors, with a focus on flexible, long-term funding suited to locally led approaches.
- Support due diligence processes when entering into partnerships with INGOs and new or deepened funding relationships with donors, ensuring processes are proportionate, transparent and partnership-focused.
Strategic Development
- Support country teams and partners, where appropriate, to develop, plan and implement resource mobilisation plans to fund country strategies, including coordinating efforts to cultivate and maintain strong donor relationships.
- Oversee a portfolio of donors, tracking strategic priorities and opportunities for engagement, and work with country teams and partners to cultivate and influence donor relationships, including advocating for less top-down and less hierarchical funding approaches, greater flexibility, and increased funding flowing directly to local partners and civil society actors.
- Monitor country resource mobilisation plans and analyse fundraising performance, including proposal success rates, while conducting learning on the effectiveness and quality of programme co-design and partnership processes.
- Ensure cross-organisational collaboration by working closely with colleagues across the Funding Team to align country and regional resource mobilisation plans with global donor outreach and cultivation efforts.
- Keep up to date with donor policy developments and funding trends, maintaining relevant funding intelligence to inform country strategies and organisational positioning.
- Participate in and support negotiations with donors related to new and/or existing grants, advocating for flexible, equitable and partnership-friendly terms wherever possible.
External Representation
- Represent Saferworld at relevant donor conferences, seminars and other fundraising events, actively promoting Saferworld’s partnership-centred and locally led approach to programme design.
- Engage with the wider NGO and fundraising community, particularly on funding trends related to locally led peacebuilding, co-design, equitable partnerships and shifting power within the aid system.
Key Working Relationships
- Regional directors, country managers and country teams: Working together on programme design, proposal development, and the development of resources mobilisation plans to enable the implementation of country and regional strategies.
- Programme support: Working closely together to ensure proposal development and programme design is of the utmost quality and in line with organisational approaches to partnership, gender, climate, MEL and advocacy.
- Colleagues in the fundraising team: Regularly coordinating to ensure country and regional resource mobilisation plans are connected to global outreach and donor cultivation plans, ensure approaches to institutional and non-institutional donors are coordinated with other parts of the organisation and leverage donor research support, support global efforts to diversify Saferworld funding basis in collaboration with Saferworld affiliate offices in the US and Brussels.
- Colleagues in the finance team: Working collaboratively to develop programme budgets, ensuring effective cost recovery and budget sharing with partners.
- Colleagues in the policy team: Ensuring linkages between donor trends and policy developments, and supporting the integration of policy insights into programme design and resource mobilisation approaches.
Knowledge and Experience (Essential)
- Demonstrable experience of co-designing, developing and implementing international development programmes – preferably in conflict-affected contexts – that bring about community-led programme change, and policy and practice change. Experience of designing peacebuilding, security and justice, and/or conflict prevention programmes is an asset.
- Experience leading collaborative design processes alongside civil society partners and a strong understanding of partner-led approaches in programme design.
- Demonstrable experience of writing successful funding proposals – including developing theories of change, MEL frameworks, risk matrixes and complex budgets.
- Proven experience of financial design, including programme budgeting and development of budget narratives.
- Demonstrable experience of leading programme design sessions/workshops including developing and remotely managing processes to write successful concept notes and proposals while building and managing relationships, including remotely, with country offices and/or local partners.
- Demonstrable experience in building and maintaining relationships with donors, and understanding of donor requirements, particularly for donors relevant to Saferworld such as GAC, the FCDO, EU, UN agencies and Sida (among others).
