Project Development & Partnerships Coordinator in ActionAid International

Location: Kyiv, Ukraine with travel (up to 30%)

Contract duration: 6-month contract (15/02/2025 - 31/08/2025), renewable

Contract Type: Consultancy contract

Open to: National candidates

Salary: Coordinator level within the salary grid (N-D-1 level)

Reporting to: Head of Programmes

Direct Reports: 1 – Sr. Partnerships Officer (line manager)

About us:

ActionAid is a global federation working for a world free from poverty and injustice. ActionAid’s Regional Office for Eastern Europe was established in Kyiv in 2022 and is covering projects in Ukraine, Romania, Poland, Moldova and Georgia. ActionAid works through a wide range of local partner organisations in the nexus, prioritising young people’s leadership, civil society development, women’s rights and leadership, the protection of at-risk groups and minorities, as well as humanitarian assistance.

The Role:

The Project Development & Partnerships Coordinator is responsible for developing winning proposals and bids, in close collaboration with local partners and teams, managing donor-funded programmes, and ensuring compliance of partners and teams during project implementation..

The role reports to Head of Programmes based in Kyiv and manages a team of one staff. The role works closely with the Partner Finance Specialist, the Sr. PQMEAL Officer, and project managers and advisors.

Tasks and Priorities

1. Project Development, Proposal Writing, and Grants Management

· Lead and coordinate the identification of funding opportunities in close collaboration with sectoral leads and civil society partners.

· Drive the end-to-end development of high-quality project proposals, including concept notes, theories of change, logframes, narratives, workplans, and budgets, ensuring strong alignment with organizational strategy and donor priorities.

· Coordinate internal inputs and external partner contributions throughout the proposal development process, ensuring coherence, feasibility, and compliance with donor requirements.

· Provide hands-on technical support to partners to strengthen evidence-based proposal design, includingproblem analysis, results frameworks, indicators, and risk mitigation strategies.

· Review, edit, and quality-assure proposals prior to submission, ensuring clarity, competitiveness, and alignment with available financial and human resources.

· Maintain a comprehensive and up-to-date grants and partnerships tracking system, including proposal pipelines, submission timelines, approvals, and documentation.

· Support the preparation of donor reports by consolidating inputs from partners and project teams and ensuring consistency with approved proposals and donor templates.

· Serve as a focal point for donor compliance, providing guidance on grant conditions, reporting obligations, and contractual requirements throughout the project cycle.

2. Project Oversight and Adaptive Support

· Provide light-touch oversight of project implementation to ensure activities remain aligned with approved proposals, budgets, and donor commitments.

· Track project progress against agreed outputs and outcomes, flagging risks and deviations and supporting teams and partners to adapt implementation as needed.

· Conduct targeted field visits to validate implementation progress, document lessons learned, and inform future proposal development and donor engagement.

· Liaise with the MEAL team to ensure monitoring data and learning are effectively used to strengthen reporting and feed into new concept notes and proposals.

3. Partnership Development and Management

· Lead the development and management of strategic partnerships with local civil society organizations, with a strong focus on co-creation of project ideas and joint proposal development.

· Coordinate partner assessments, due diligence processes, and risk analyses to inform partnership decisions and proposal design.

· Facilitate the drafting, review, and amendment of partnership agreements (MoUs, sub-grant agreements), ensuring alignment with donor and organizational requirements.

· Provide targeted support to partners to address proposal-related, contractual, or compliance challenges that may affect grant performance.

· Convene regular partnership review meetings to assess progress, capture learning, and identify future funding opportunities.

4. Cross-Sectoral Programme Design and Coordination

· Work closely with sectoral leads to integrate cross-cutting priorities, such as women’s rights, civil society strengthening, humanitarian response, and social movements, into project concepts and proposals.

· Facilitate internal coordination to ensure project designs are complementary, strategically aligned, and contribute to broader organizational objectives.

· Act as a coordination point between programme, operations, and MEAL teams during proposal development to ensure realistic planning and costed designs.

5. Operational and Administrative Support to Programme Development

· Coordinate logistical and administrative inputs required for proposal development processes, including partner consultations, design workshops, and validation meetings.

· Ensure systematic filing and documentation of all proposal, grant, and partnership materials in line with organizational standards.

· Provide administrative and coordination support to enable smooth communication between sectoral teams, partners, and donors throughout the project cycle.

(The responsibilities of this position are subject to change as required by the rapidly evolving context.)

Who we're looking for:

· A master’s degree in a relevant discipline such as international relations, political science, law, economics, social sciences, or similar.

· At least three years of relevant experience working for an international humanitarian non-governmental organisation in the Ukraine context.

· A track record in leading successful competitive international institutional donor proposal development processes.

· A minimum of two years experience in partnership, with a strong understanding of good partnership principles, the localisation agenda, approaches to partner capacity building, and downward accountability.

· A solid understanding of all phases of the project management cycle.

· Experience in working with institutional donors and a solid understanding of donors’ rules and regulations in the Ukraine context (DG ECHO, DG INTPA experience preferred).

· Proven experience in managing, and building the capacity of, staff and local partners.

· The ability to communicate to external stakeholders in a non-technical way, in English and Ukrainian.

· Exceptional interpersonal skills: tact, patience, diplomacy, confidentiality, and appropriate assertiveness when communicating with external stakeholders.

· A motivated self-starter with a ‘hands on’ attitude who can work independently, find solutions, and drive the work of AA in Ukraine.

· Consultative and empowering working style and willingness to learn from others.

· In addition, we expect:

o A strong commitment to AA’s vision, mission, and values, especially the rights-based approach and the principles of equal opportunity as outlined in ActionAid’s Code of Conduct.

o A strong commitment to embedding feminist leadership and ActionAid’s humanitarian signature.

o A strong commitment to adhering to and promoting ActionAid’s approach to Sexual Harassment, Exploitation, and Abuse and other Safeguarding concerns (including child abuse and abuse of adults at-risk)

o A strong understanding of and commitment to women’s rights and cultural sensitivity.

o A commitment to the importance of downward accountability to rights-holders and transparency in humanitarian response.

What we offer:

ActionAid is committed to providing a welcoming, supportive workplace where we recognize a job well done, encourage close collaboration and sharing power, and where safeguarding standards and

feminist leadership are exemplified everywhere. At ActionAid, you can look forward to a fair compensation package and a flexible working environment, including.

· A workplace that embraces intersectional feminist principles

· Generous maternity, paternity and adoption pay.

· Flexible, family-friendly working arrangements.

· Salary according to the Coordinator/Specialist level within the salary grid (N-D level).

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How to apply:

Please send your CV and cover letter as pdfs in English (no more than 2 pages each) to [email protected] with the reference Ukraine – Project Development & Partnerships Coordinator.

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This offer is contingent upon pending funding applications for the role.

ActionAid conducts thorough reference checks before making an offer.

Due to high volumes of applications received, we can only correspond with short-listed applicants. Should you not have received feedback on your application within two weeks of the closing date, please consider your application as unsuccessful.

ActionAid will not consider unsolicited candidates from recruitment agencies.

ActionAid reserves the right to modify, re-announce, or withdraw any of our vacancies at any time.

ActionAid is committed to recruiting candidates who promote ActionAid’s SHEA and Safeguarding policies and values and will only recruit candidates who are committed to SHEA and Safeguarding and ActionAid’s values, thereby helping to create safer working cultures.

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