Business Development Manager

The Organisation

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls. We believe in the power and potential of every child but know this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it is girls who are most affected.

Working together with children, young people, supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges girls and vulnerable children face. We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood and we enable children to prepare for and respond to crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.

For over 85 years, we have rallied other determined optimists to transform the lives of all children in more than 80 countries.

We won’t stop until we are all equal.

The opportunity

The Business Development Manager will work closely with a variety of functions to ensure Plan International Burkina Faso’s growth, including Project Managers, Technical Advisors, PU Managers, Advocacy & Influencing Manager, Grants Coordinator and Country Finance team amongst others. The BDM is responsible for all funding to the organisation and grants. She/he will facilitate the funding approval process for all resources to a project. The BDM will also oversee the donor compliant design and timely submission of concept notes and proposal packages that deliver lasting impact for children, especially girls, in line with Plan International Burkina Faso’s Country Strategy and donor priorities.

Key responsibilities

Resource mobilisation

• Build relationships with in-country donors and NOs.
• Form strategic alliances with other INGOs, NGOs and donors in country.
• Lead the development and delivery of the fundraising strategy in line with the global and country strategy, ensuring input from key stakeholders within the organisation and alignment with donor priorities and programme needs.

• Identify any systemic and/or structural issues that may impede a rapid growth in funding and recommend and implement mechanisms to address them.
• Produce and regularly update a comprehensive mapping of all donor opportunities (by sector and geography).
• Track funding opportunities and pipelines including submission deadlines and funding available – both for institutional donor funding as well as funding from public appeals and donations.

• Support the development of the annual plans and budgets as needed, based on consultations with relevant team members.
• Update and monitor internal organisational trackers as relevant, including pipeline and funding trackers

Project Idea Phase

• Ensure project ideas are aligned with donors’ and NO priorities.
• Responsible for local donors’ intelligence and engagement.
• Responsible for NO engagement.
• Identifies funding opportunities with local donors and NO donors.
• Lead on the Go-No-Go Process for project opportunities.
• Lead the discussion about the CO internal funding when necessary.
• In charge of all funding approval for projects which include FADs, SPADs, GMFADs, Sponsorship communication and Global FADs Open to All.

Project Design Phase

• Support the design of projects and lead the mapping into successful concept notes and full proposals in line with the country strategy and in accordance with donor requirements and guidelines, in coordination with the relevant NO.
• Ensure active and meaningful partner participation in development of proposal documents and that any additional time and resources required to facilitate this are identified and secured.  

• Ensure concept notes and proposals align closely with the master budget, MERL frameworks, country priorities and Country Leadership Team ( CLT) decisions.
• Submit concept notes and proposals to National Organisations respecting deadlines.
• Develop the compliancy framework to support project design.
• Responsible for setting up a country FOA.
• Negotiate terms and conditions with local donors and review and approve terms and conditions for international donors.
• Lead FAD 3 process ensuring the organisational procedures and policies are complied with.
• Ensure Plan’s cost recovery policy is adhered to in the proposal development process and that the projects are fully funded via donors or other sources of funding. 

Project Planning and Implementation Phases

• Ensure all project and donor documents are filed and stored, e.g. call for proposal, concept note and/or proposals and annexes submitted, FADs, important emails and other relevant contract documents.
• Train project and support teams and any partner organisation on donor requirements with support of the National Organisations.
• Participate in project start up workshops and ensure a full and comprehensive handover of final an approved project documents.

• Maintain a reporting calendar with internal and external reporting and work closely with country teams to ensure deadlines are met, and high-quality reports submitted in line with project requirements.
• Provide updates and reports to the CLT, Regional Office, Global Hub, relevant National Organisations and donors.
• Liaise and coordinate with Programme or Project Managers and Technical Advisors, Advocacy & Influencing Manager, Grants Coordinator and Partnerships Coordinator as needed for donor engagement and external communication and reporting.
• Attend regular calls, meetings, etc. as required with NOs and in country donors.
• Leads on all communications with NOs and donors.
• Responsible for ensuring necessary amendment approvals are undertaken in case of any changes on funding to a project.
• Ensures the timely development of donor reports and analysis of the implementation plans to be used by the management team to track progress against targets, review and decision making;
• Works with the Finance and Program departments to review donor’s narrative and financial reports and  ensure the effective utilization of grants monitoring systems in terms of projections and forecasting, the monitoring of expenditure, negotiations with grantors for budget modifications and completion of project reports;
• Monitors, analyses and consolidates relevant grant information and disseminates where relevant within Plan International Burkina Faso;

Project closure Phase

• Ensure that both donor and Plan compliance are adhered to at the end of the project.
• Support the assets transfers, staff separation and grants closure where applicable.

Additional Responsibilities

• Responsible for keeping the organisational system, such as SAP, up to date at all times.
• Represents the Country Office with donors as needed.
• Custodian of all funding approval documents.
• Formally capture and disseminate learnings from successful and unsuccessful proposal submissions to help strengthening proposal development capacity in the country team, for young people and with implementing partners.
• Provide coaching, mentoring and advice to direct reports as required.
• Ensures that Plan International’s global policies for Safeguarding Children and Young People and Gender Equality and Inclusion are fully embedded in accordance with the principles and requirements of the policy including relevant Implementation Standards and Guidelines as applicable to their area of responsibility. This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring staff and associates are aware of and understand their responsibilities under these policies and Plan International’s Code of Conduct (CoC), their relevance to their area of work, and that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures.

What We’re Looking For

Essential

• Expertise and extensive experience in international development programming and fundraising relevant to Plan International’s global focus area.
• Knowledge of main donors for Plan International.
• University degree in relevant field.
• 3-5 years of experience in a similar role.
• Proven experience at a similar management level in a reputable international organisation.
• Understand the foundations of a good quality proposal design, donor landscape mapping.
• Understand the fundamentals of designing and delivering quality proposals and donor reports.

Skills

• Strong management skills;
• Strong negotiation, facilitation and influencing skills;
• Analytical skills;
• Communication skills, adapted to the audience;

• Ability to speak, read and write English and French fluently.

• Ability to work in a multidisciplinary and multicultural environment.
• Strong motivation and team building skills;
• Problems solving;
• Results-oriented staff;
• Proactive and attentive;
• Very good at prioritizing and understanding the importance of donor timelines.
• Use evidence-based to make choices and drive change.
• Ability to make effective, thoughtful and timely decisions to ensure programme safety.
• Ability to convert project designs into winning proposals
• Great at building personal relationships with other INGO staff, local donors and NO staff.

For more information regarding this position, please click to following link :

BFA_Business Development Manager

Location: Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Type of Role: Local Fixed-term contract (one-year renewable depending on performance and budget availability)

Reports to: Business Development Manager

Grade: Level 17. We will be happy to disclose the salary and applicable benefits to applicants as part of this process, however, please kindly note that the salary and employment benefits will be set according to Plan Burkina Faso country office salary scales.

Closing Date: 21st December 2025, 12pm GMT        

Anticipated 1st round test dates: 29h October 2025

 Equality, diversity and inclusion is at the very heart of everything that Plan International stands for.

 We want Plan International to reflect the diversity of the communities we work with, offering equal opportunities to everyone regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.

 Plan International is based on a culture of inclusivity and we strive to create a workplace environment that ensures every team, in every office, in every country, is rich in diverse people, thoughts, and ideas.

 We foster an organisational culture that embraces our commitment to racial justice, gender equality, girls’ rights and inclusion.

 Plan International believes that in a world where children face so many threats of harm, it is our duty to ensure that we, as an organisation, do everything we can to keep children safe. This means that we have particular responsibilities to children that we come into contact with and we must not contribute in any way to harming or placing children at risk.

 A range of pre-employment checks will be undertaken in conformity with Plan International's Safeguarding Children and Young People policy. Plan International also participates in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. In line with this scheme we will request information from applicants previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment. By submitting an application, the job applicant confirms their understanding of these recruitment procedures.

Please note that Plan International will never send unsolicited emails requesting payment from candidates. 

Female qualified candidates are strongly encouraged