ACCORD is seeking to recruit a Proposal Writer to join the Business Development Department (BDD). BDD is responsible for expanding the donor base and managing current grants and donor relations. This person will be the focal point for both BDD and the Operations Department to coordinate complex or strategically critical proposals. The Proposal Writer will work closely with the General Manager of the BDD to prepare for bidding opportunities, write technical proposals and maintain proposal resources. S/he will ensure timely submission of technically sound and compliant proposals. This is a full-time position in ACCORD’s headquarters in Durban, South Africa.
The Proposal Writer should have outstanding English language skills, with at least five years of professional proposal wiring.
The objective of the role is to work within the BDD team to lead the writing of winning technical proposals for tenders, bids, request for applications (RFAs) or unsolicited submissions for various donor countries/organizations. The tenders can be in a range of technical areas in conflict resolution:
- Conflict prevention and early warning
- Support peace processes – mediation and negotiation
- Women, Peace and Security
- Election and conflict management
- Peacemaking
- Peacebuilding
- Peacekeeping
- Youth and conflict management
- Support to intergovernmental organization
- Reconciliation and nation building
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
- Determines proposal concept by assessing opportunities and needs; studying requests for proposal (RFPs);
- Lead the writing of responsive, high-quality proposal in accordance with donor requirements;
- Facilitate and contribute to tender planning and brainstorming sessions where technical content, the response structure and technical approach is discussed;
- Undertakes research and gathers technical information for use in the proposal development;
- Review and revise inputs from other technical area experts both from the Operations department and from external technical consultants if any;
- Attend tender review sessions and lead on incorporating feedbacks from the reviewers in the tender preparation process:
- Review proposals to ensure it complies with requirements, contains winning strategies and themes and complies with format and style criteria;
- Ensure the proposal applications adheres to ACCORD’s vision, mission and objectives;
- Maintains quality results by using templates and maintaining proposal support databases;
- Provides process reports for each proposal/response to funding opportunity written and submitted;
- Ensures timely submission of high quality applications for funding to both solicited and unsolicited opportunities;
- Develop additional proposal development materials, such as capacity statements and web content, necessary to position for upcoming proposals; and
- Lead or support the preparation and delivery of proposal design workshops;
DESIRED SKILLS
- Excellent technical writing and editing skills;
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills;
- Excellent research skills and the ability to write persuasively and articulately;
- Strong analytical skills with proven planning and organizational abilities;
- Demonstrated ability to manage multiple priorities and meet tight deadlines;
- In-depth and up-to-date technical expertise in one or more of the above mentioned technical areas and knowledge;
- Proven experience writing winning proposals for projects funded by major donor countries such as USAID, DfID, Sida, Canada, Germany, EU, etc. (kindly provide a list with your application);
- Demonstrated ability to write clearly and concisely, to structure arguments in a logical fashion and to balance technical rigor with simple explanations;
- Understanding of and ability to apply the logical framework, Project Cycle Management and Results Oriented Monitoring approaches in the review and response to Terms of Reference;
- Ability to objectively assess proposal responsiveness against requirements – and facilitate problem solving;
- A high attention to detail with an excellent editing and proofing ability;
QUALIFICATIONS
- Over 5 years of experience in proposal writing in an international development environment;
- Master’s Degree in any of the social sciences or related disciplines; preferably in peace and security, or international relations
- Demonstrable experience in writing winning proposals preferably large bids (at least US$ 5 Million) or equivalent in other currencies from a wide range of funding sources.
How to apply:
Please send your relevant letter of motivation and CV, including references, with BD-PW-ACCORD in the subject line to: [email protected].
The Closing date is Friday, 05 May 2017 @17:00 (South African Time),
More Information
- Job City Durban
