Short Term Contract- Proposal Development Officer

Background and Context to the Role

ActionAid Ireland has a partnership agreement with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Ireland, as represented by Irish Aid. Programme Grant (PG) ll runs for six years from 2017-2022 and ActionAid Ireland has been implementing a Women’s Rights Programme (WRP) under this grant scheme.

The overall goal of the programme is to increase the safety and security of women and girls and improve their economic wellbeing, by working with women, girls, boys, men and relevant system actors to build community capacity to prevent violence against women and girls and support women’s livelihoods in the three countries (Kenya, Ethiopia and Nepal).

The programme also aims to deepen the Irish public’s understanding and support for overseas development aid over the lifetime of the programme.
To realise WRP outcomes of safety and economic security, ActionAid Ireland has since 2017 consistently applied an actor-based behaviour change model, building on recommendations made by the evaluation of the previous programme cycle. The model used to develop the Theory of Change (ToC) and change pathways for the WRP focuses on Capability, Opportunity and Motivation (COM) as influences on behaviours in the target groups and programme actors and ActionAid uses the Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW) Framework to analyse behaviours and design targeted interventions to bring about sustainable behavioural change that addresses the root causes of community issues.

ActionAid Ireland is required to submit a proposal to Irish Aid at the start of 2022 for the next 5 years of funding (2023 – 2028) and has decided to contract a Proposal Development Officer from June to December 2021 to lead this process.

Purpose of the Role:

To lead and ensure the creation of high standard proposal document (including Results Framework) that incorporates the Behaviour Change approach as the key methodology for sustainable change.

Collaborations:

The Proposal Development Officer will report to the ActionAid Ireland Head of Programmes and will work closely with:

• All members of the ActionAid Ireland Programme Team & members of other relevant teams in ActionAid Ireland
• Country teams in ActionAid Ethiopia, Kenya, Nepal & possibly other ActionAid countries
• Selected staff from ActionAid International supporting strategy development
• Researchers and students with relationships to ActionAid Ireland and the Women’s Rights Programme
• Staff at Centre for Behaviour Change, University College London
• ActionAid Ireland Development Evaluator

Key Tasks for the Proposal Development Officer:

• Organise the selection criteria for country participation in the 2022 application to Irish Aid including a process to decide if the programme should be extended to further countries
  • Organise a Reference Group for proposal development and schedule and facilitate meetings as needed to deliver the proposal
  • Conduct research on relevant ActionAid country strategies, Irish Aid’s A Better World Policy, feminist leadership, behaviour change approach and liaise with students, researchers, consultants currently working with ActionAid Ireland
  • Curate information from development evaluation reports, process evaluation, final programme evaluation, Irish Aid Monitoring Exercise, ActionAid Ireland and country monitoring reports to be used in proposal design
  • Liaise with country teams to collect and collate impact information on the current programme
  • Lead on research to gather content for the new proposal for Irish Aid to be submitted in 2022 (including contextual update, mapping change pathways, developing a logic model and results framework (RF) and fully integrating the BCW framework into the proposal methodology)
  • Draft key sections of the proposal application (which will be assigned) and ensure drafts are reviewed by the Reference Group and feedback is incorporated
  • Produce a draft proposal document (key sections) and RF to be presented to country teams in a final validation workshop at the end of 2021

Qualifications:
Essential for the Role:

• Relevant first degree in social sciences, international development or equivalent
• Extensive knowledge and demonstrable experience of the Human Rights Based Approach (HRBA)
• Knowledge and experience of working with the Behaviour Change Wheel framework
• Experience of adaptive programming
• Experience of drafting successful proposals for donors such as Irish Aid or similar
• At least 5 years PCM (system) knowledge & experience and personal experience in managing projects
• Ability to work across a varied network of collaborators at all levels and collate information gathered across these various stakeholders
• Experience of working in intercultural teams
• Ability to work alone/remotely but in a team and willingness to follow up information where required
• Strong online facilitation skills and analytical skills – ability to distill information from meetings and other sources into high level briefings in English

Desirable

• Knowledge of the ActionAid Federation
• Knowledge of Feminist Leadership principles and practice

Type of Contract:

Fixed term full time: 6 months (June to December 2021)
*But flexibility of hours can be discussed and agreed upon
Start date for Role: 28^th June 2021
Salary: €20,000 based on 6 months full time

Applications are currently welcome. Interested parties to send their current CV and a brief cover letter (no more than 1.5 pages) to triona.pender@actionaid.org by Friday 28th May 2021 and be ready to meet over Zoom to chat through the role if called upon.

ActionAid Ireland currently has no voluntary or interning roles available.

If you are interested in volunteering or interning in the future, please email your CV to Brigitte.Frenkel at actionaid.org