Partnerships Senior Officer

Job Highlight

Drive strategic growth by building key relationships, mobilizing resources, and expanding the office's portfolio to achieve sustainable development results.

About The Project Office

Since 1995, UNOPS has maintained an active presence in Afghanistan, delivering efficient, agile services in support of both humanitarian response and development efforts. Prior to August 2021, the Afghanistan Country Office (AFCO) implemented projects across a broad range of sectors, including infrastructure, procurement, capacity building, and environmental protection. In response to evolving humanitarian needs, AFCO has shifted its focus to supporting life-saving initiatives and basic human needs. Current priorities include managing large-scale cash-for-work programmes, procuring emergency supplies, and providing inter-agency coordination, communication, and accountability support.

Role Purpose

The Senior Partnerships Officer supports the identification, development and management of strategic partnerships and resource mobilization opportunities for the Country Office. The role provides analytical, coordination and project development support across the partnership lifecycle, from opportunity identification and pipeline management through proposal development, partner engagement and agreement preparation. Working closely with programme teams, senior management and external partners, the incumbent contributes to strengthening UNOPS' strategic positioning and expanding a diversified portfolio of partnerships aligned with country and organizational priorities.

Functions / Key Results Expected

• Partnership Strategy, Intelligence and Opportunity Identification
• Support implementation of the Country Office partnership strategy and annual partnership workplans by analysing the country context, donor priorities and partnership landscape, identifying opportunities and contributing to strategic positioning and portfolio growth.
• Conduct partner intelligence, donor research and funding analysis to identify emerging partnership opportunities.
• Monitor donor priorities, financing trends and funding announcements, recommending opportunities for engagement.
• Maintain partner mapping and strategic analysis to support resource mobilization planning
• Maintain the Country Office partnership pipeline, tracking opportunities, deadlines, responsibilities and follow-up actions.
• Manage Opportunity+ and partnership engagement records, ensuring timely and accurate reporting.
• Prepare partnership dashboards, pipeline reports and portfolio analysis for management.
• Monitor risks and opportunities affecting the Country Office partnership portfolio and provide analysis and recommendations to support strategic decision-making.
• Develop Partnership Opportunities
• Monitor and analyze humanitarian and development trends to identify areas of collaboration aligned with UNOPS’ mandate and capacity.
• Research and track events, publications and announcements to screen opportunities and identify emerging trends that can drive new partnerships.
• Contribute to the identification, design, formulation and negotiation of new projects and programmes, including drafting concept notes, slides, proposals and project briefs for partner discussions.
• Create and maintain partnership opportunities and engagement records in Opportunity+ and OuP, ensuring alignment with corporate guidelines.
• Initiate and follow-up on internal engagement approval and clearance process
• Coordinate technical and financial inputs, for proposals and support internal review and clearance processes.
• Support preparation of agreements, engagement documentation and related partnership documentation.
• Support communication of UNOPS pricing approaches and value proposition during partnership discussions and proposal development.
• Support the diversification of the office portfolio in line with UNOPS' strategic, regional and country objectives.
• Coordinate responses to partnership enquiries and requests for engagement, ensuring timely follow-up across programme and support teams.
• Coordinate internal proposal calendars, review processes and partner engagement tracking.
• Representation and Inter-Agency Partnership
• Support development and maintenance of productive working relationships with governments, donors, UN agencies, IFIs, foundations, NGOs and private-sector partners.
• Support partner engagement, outreach and advocacy activities, working closely with the Communications & Partnerships Officer where appropriate.
• Participate (as authorized by line manager) in inter-agency, donor, and government coordination forums, providing updates on project development issues in consultation with UNOPS project managers and technical experts.
• Contribute to UN common planning and programming processes, including strategic country analyses, United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF), and response plans.
• Maintain productive working relationships with partner focal points and monitor political, economic and development trends affecting partnership opportunities.
• Represent UNOPS at technical partnership meetings, coordination forums and external events, as delegated.
• Knowledge Management and Innovation
• Maintain partnership development tools, templates and tracking systems to improve efficiency and consistency.
• Capture and disseminate lessons learned and good practices from partnership development activities.
• Support Project Managers through guidance on partnership development processes and proposal preparation.
• Monitor partnership performance data and recommend improvements to systems, tools and business processes.
• Contribute to knowledge-sharing initiatives and continuous improvement across the Country Office.
  
  

• Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) with 4 years of relevant experience OR
• Master’s degree (or equivalent) in any discipline with 2 years of relevant experience is required
  
  

• Experience supporting partnership development, proposal coordination, business development, donor engagement or resource mobilization in an international development context.
  
  

• Experience of resource mobilization through bilateral donors, IFIs and MDBs
• Experience of working in multicultural environments or UN system organizations in a developing country is desired.
• Experience in development or humanitarian contexts is desired.
• Experience in project and programme management is desired.