DG ECHO Ex-Ante Assessment for 2028-2034 Certificate Support Consultant

The Plan International EU Laison Office (EULO) based in Brussels is seeking an individual consultant, who can also work remotely, to support the coordination of the audit as detailed below.
The purpose of the consultancy is to coordinate in a centralized manner (under the “One Plan” approach) the ex-ante assessment 2028-2034, that is, to accompany the NOs and the auditor to gather all relevant material, e.g., documents/samples, to enable the satisfactory assessment of the systems, controls, rules and procedures’ against the criteria set by DG ECHO in the Ex-Ante Assessment TOR for 2028-2034.
To assess Plan International NOs compliance with the ECHO Ex-Ante ToR, the Auditor will request a series of documents such as general information on the organizational policies, information on portfolios per year, samples across certain projects to assess common practices, etc..
At the end of the exercise, the Auditor will provide a final report for each NO with a conclusion based on scores given through a series of requests. The conclusion will define whether the NOs, individually, will be awarded with the ECHO HPC 2028-2034, or not (with or without conditionality, i.e., recommendations to be addressed).

Expected qualifications of Consultant
The consultant is expected to demonstrate the following qualifications, experience, skills and competencies:
• Postgraduate degree (Master's level or equivalent) in International Development, International Relations, Public Administration, Business Administration, Finance, Accounting, Law, or another relevant discipline.
• A minimum of 5 years of professional experience in humanitarian assistance, international development, donor compliance, grant management, audit coordination or institutional capacity strengthening.
• Demonstrated experience working with DG ECHO or other EU institutional humanitarian donors, including a sound understanding of humanitarian partnership frameworks, donor compliance requirements and funding mechanisms.
• Proven experience coordinating organisational assessments, institutional audits, donor compliance exercises, or similar multi-stakeholder processes involving external auditors and multiple organisational entities.
• Experience in coordinating documentation, document management systems and organisational evidence to support institutional audits or donor assessments.
• Good knowledge of humanitarian principles, humanitarian standards, accountability frameworks, organisational governance, internal control systems and risk management.
• Excellent planning, organisational and coordination skills, with the ability to manage multiple workstreams, competing priorities and tight deadlines.
• Excellent interpersonal, diplomatic and stakeholder engagement skills, with demonstrated experience working across multicultural and geographically dispersed teams.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving and facilitation skills, with the ability to identify practical solutions and promote cross-learning across participating offices.
• Ability to work independently, proactively and with a high level of accuracy while maintaining effective collaboration with internal and external stakeholders.
• Excellent command of Microsoft Office 365 applications is essential, particularly Excel, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, Outlook and Word.
• Excellent written and spoken English is essential. Knowledge of French and/or Spanish is an asset.
• Previous experience working with Federation/Family/Membership organization is an asset.
• Demonstrated commitment to humanitarian principles, safeguarding, child rights, integrity, accountability, diversity and inclusion.