Grants, Subcontract, and Procurement Director | Kabul, Afghanistan | 2024

Chemonics seeks candidates for a Grants, Subcontract, and Procurement Director for the LIVE proposal, a five-year, USAID-funded initiative focused on Afghanistan Women and Men in Agriculture Activity (WAMA) in Afghanistan. This $60 million activity aims to enhance food security, build household and community resilience to climate change shocks, particularly water stress, and generate income for households. The activity places a strong emphasis on women’s participation, especially women-headed households, farmers, and women-owned and led businesses, ensuring they benefit from the agriculture sector. Additionally, the activity will support farmers and communities transitioning away from poppy cultivation to sustainable, USAID-supported value chains, as well as recent returnees seeking livelihood opportunities in the agriculture sector.  

The fundamental objectives of this activity include:  

  • Objective I: Food Security Improved through Increased and Inclusive Resilience, Productivity, Diversification and Stability of Agricultural Value Chains  
  • Objective II: Enhanced Communities’ Resilience to Climate Change-induced Shocks, specifically Water Stress  
  • Objective III: Women’s Economic Empowerment strengthened, and  
  • Objective IV: Selected Emerging Agricultural or Economic Growth Issues and Challenges are Addressed Across Afghanistan  

This position will be based at Afghanistan.  

Responsibilities:  

  • Serve as the primary point of contact for subcontractors, grantees, and/or vendors   
  • Ensure subcontractors and/or grantees are provided with sufficient technical assistance in financial management and reporting   
  • Responsible for reviewing the draft RFP/RFQs before they are released to properly compete vendors and subcontractors   
  • Monitors subtask orders, purchase orders, and other technical procurements to ensure compliance with USAID/Chemonics rules and local laws. Supervise the Grants and Procurement Assistants and build their capacity to effectively assist in implementation and monitoring of grant activities    
  • Ensures compliance with USAID rules and regulations governing grants and ensure subcontracts and negotiation memos are drafted in accordance with Chemonics’ policies, procedures, and best practices.    
  • Monitors contracts and purchase orders issued to vendors and follow up as necessary to ensure compliance to contract terms and conditions.   
  • Reviews subcontract deliverables and confirms deliverables are in accordance with contract terms and conditions  
  • Provides procurement status reports to the deputy chief of party    
  • Works closely with deputy chief of party and technical leads to support the implementation of all grants and subcontracts instruments 
  • Collaborates closely with Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL team) to ensure activity results under grants and subcontract interventions are properly measured and tracked  
  • Work with activity leadership to ensure inputs are being delivered according to established work plans and that lessons learned are successfully incorporated from program implementation into new activity developments.      
  • Establishes systems and procedures to manage activity Grants Program. Provides appropriate training to grants and procurement team, as well as technical team and short-term consultants, to foster clear understanding of grants procedures  
  • Experience in reviewing budgets and financial reports, preparing for, and monitoring audits of grantees   
  • Manages the execution of grant agreements and ensures the proper closure of all activities   
  • Responsible for the monitoring of individual grant budgets to ensure availability of funds   
  • Reviews applications, evaluates the cost application for cost realism and cost effectiveness, finalizes grant documents, and manages and monitors the grants approvals    
  • Provides training to project staff in procurement and subcontract policies and procedures  
  • Ensures that procurement requests are conducted in a timely manner and that procurement, and subcontract-related files are maintained in a current and complete manner and are audit-ready at all times    
  • Perform other duties as required or assigned 

Qualifications:  

  • Master’s degree in relevant field including, monitoring and evaluation, international development/social studies, business administration or economics, or closely related field. An additional 5 years of relevant technical experience can substitute a Master’s Degree 
  • Advanced degree, preferable in business administration, finance, or related field 
  • Minimum 10 years of procurement and grants management experience   
  • Experience with implementing grants under task order programs on USAID projects preferred  
  • Creativity and analytical capacity to manage subcontract/grant compliance issues and assist other staff in ensuring the implementation of SAF activities  
  • Proven ability to build and maintain collaborative relationships with donors, subcontractors, grantees, and multiple host-country counterparts 
  • English language proficiency is required, and local languages proficiency preferred  
  • Excellent verbal communication skills, strong writing and analytical skills are required 
  • Proven ability to interact with multidisciplinary team of professionals on large and complex international development programs   
  • Experience managing and mentoring a multicultural team of staff  
  • Experience building and maintaining relationships with host country professionals including implementing partners and grantees  
  • Preference will be given to Afghan nationals 

 

Application Instructions: 

If you are interested in this opportunity, or know of someone who might be, kindly submit your EOI and/or recommendations to AfghanistanWAGrecruit@chemonics.com by COB Monday, July 08, 2024.  

Chemonics is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in its selection and employment practices on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, membership in an employee organization, or other non-merit factors.

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