Sibongile Maepa

• Responsible for managing the full lifecycle of Countering Wildlife Crimes’ (CWC) grants, working to maximize impact of funds and ensuring grantees adhere to technical, administrative, and compliance requirements from sourcing through closeout

Overall responsibilities include:

• Administrative and financial oversight of the grant solicitation, selection, award, administration, and closeout process
• Assisting in the creation and oversight of policies, practices, and procedures relating to all aspects of local grants and overall administration of all grant activities of the CWC programme
• Serves as the main focal point for the grants program
• Serves as the chair of the Merit Review Committee
• Conducts grantee site visits in coordination with the Technical Team
• Participates in co-creation sessions when applicable, in coordination with technical staff
• Responsible for the overall compliance of the grants program including site visits
• Responsible for grantee’s skills and capacity building on grant management functions
• Monitors grant expenditures, completions, de-obligations, and cash flow to track funds availability and grant pipelines
• Conducts in-kind procurement on behalf of grantees in coordination with Operations and Finance Team
• Reason for Leaving: Contract terminated due to the cut of foreign aid by the US government

• As a Grants and Finance Specialist under the Water and Energy for Food (WE4F) South and Central Africa Regional Innovation Hub (WE4F S/CA RIH) funded by USAID, implemented by Tetra Tech ES., Inc.; I was responsible for the overall administration of the grant-making component of the project that aims to scale innovations that impact the water-energy-food nexus to increase the sustainability of agricultural food value chains and improve energy and water efficiency and climate resiliency in emerging markets
• This includes overall administration of all grant activities of the Hub including organizing the application setup and grantee intake, conducting the eligibility review, organizing the application evaluation, conducting due diligence and the pre-award survey, preparing the request for USAID concurrence, preparing the grant award package, organizing grantee onboarding, preparing grant modifications, assisting grantees in raising funding from external donors, organizing grant close-out and maintaining trackers and electronic records
• The program has supported a total number of 30 innovators in the Southern and Central Africa region, with a total budget of approximately $2.5 million (R47 million).
• Reason for Leaving: Project ended

• As a Programme Manager for the Living Labs Programme, I was part of the team that established the pilot Programme, which ran for 2 years, from 2019 to 2021.
• Responsibilities include the development and implementation of a fund management strategy that made it possible to establish 5 effective innovation Labs in South Africa
• The Living Labs Programme is a programme of the Government’s Department of Science and Innovation that aims at stimulating innovation in marginalized communities in South Africa
• The programme came to fruition in 2022, leading to the establishment of a total of 13 fully functional and operational technology innovation labs across the country, with total funding of approximately over R45m
• Part of work includes mobilizing external funding, support and other resources through partnerships and from various stakeholders
• Reason for leaving: Contract position

• As a Grants Management Specialist, I was responsible for the overall administration and management of a portfolio of USAID and CDC-funded projects.
• Managed a total of 15 projects.
• Developed grant proposals for the organization, ensuring overall compliance with the donor's rules and regulations to safeguard donor funds.
• Oversee the solicitation processes, coordinating the assessment, selection, and approval processes.
• Conduct pre- and post-award assessments of sub-grantees to identify risks and develop plans of action to mitigate such risks in order to safeguard donor funds, and organize workshops on sources of external funding.
• Providing information about grant writing to individuals, programs, and various departments.
• Reason for leaving: Career change

• Responsible for the grants administration and management of the USAID-funded projects under the Building Local Capacity Project (BLC) Regional Programme in Lesotho, Botswana, Swaziland, Namibia, South Africa, and Angola.
• Managed a total of 30 OVC NGOs across South Africa, with a budget of approximately R57 million, and a total of 15 organizations were funded in Lesotho, with a budget of approximately R20 million.
• Organized grant panel review meetings, participating in the evaluation of grant proposals and budgets, and assisting applicants in refining these documents.
• Documenting the process by which NGOs are selected for awards, and notifying applicants and other stakeholders of awards granted.
• Managing the monitoring and ensuring project compliance with the terms and conditions of the agreements.
• Developing quarterly progress reports for the funders.
• Participating in the design of the grants program, and making recommendations to the Grants.
• Manager for the selection of the grant instruments.
• Assisting with conducting a pre-award survey of the grantees, completing capacity-building plans, and compliance monitoring plans for each grantee, and developing mechanisms for making payments and monitoring/reporting financial performance, in accordance with donor, MSH guidelines, and those established in the Agreement.
• Reason for leaving: Professional growth

• I was responsible for administering and managing USAID funded projects under the Integrated Primary Health Care Project (IPHC Project)
• My duties included developing and adapting formats, procedures, and regulations to be used for formulating, negotiating, executing, monitoring, and closing grants according to donor regulations; collaborating with cluster leaders and donors in revising grants awards, negotiating proposed budgets, and monitoring report on financial activities as appropriate; documenting the process by which NGOs are selected for awards and notifying applicants and other stakeholders of award granted; developing mechanisms for making payments and monitoring/reporting financial performance in accordance with donor and MSH guidelines and assisting NGOs, CBOs and PBOs in developing work plans, monitoring progress, tracking expenses, and preparing reports under the guidance of the Project Director
• Reason for leaving: Project closure

• Responsible for preparing news headlines from several newspapers for the Department of Information in New York, compiling a set of news clippings to be sent along with the news headlines, updating the news-clippings boards in the United Nations building, assisting in the dissemination of information and management of the UNIC library, and responding to telephonic inquiries and electronic UN-related queries.
• Reason for leaving: End of internship