Programme Support Division Director, Africa Regional Office at Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa

Location: Nairobi, Dakar or Johannesburg

The Africa Regional Office (AfRO) is part of the Open Society Foundations (OSF) network, a global network of national / regional foundations as well as thematic network programmes committed to advancing local knowledge, expertise and agency.

The network operates in more than one hundred countries. Serving as the liaison for the Africa foundations, AfRO works to strengthen the OSF network’s African work and to inform and influence policy actors at the pan-African and international levels who have the power to advance or obstruct progress towards open society goals.

Brief description of role: The position reports to the African Regional Director, leading and managing AfRO’s programmatic work to deliver on AfRO’s strategy and work plans.

The position works in collaboration with the African foundations and thematic network programmes active in Africa towards shared objectives using grantmaking, research, advocacy and other tools to achieve AfRO’s objectives.

S/he is responsible for the following:

Key responsibilities

• Providing thought leadership to AfRO and the broader OSF network as concerns Africa;
• Leading the development of AfRO’s substantive strategy and work plans;
• Providing substantive guidance, feedback and support to programme staff executing AfRO’s strategy and work plans;
• Providing leadership and management oversight for AfRO’s programme support division, overseeing building of the division’s budget and tracking of expenditure;
• Monitoring and evaluating strategy and work plan implementation, including grantmaking, research, advocacy and other activities;
• working with programme staff on the above, including through the mounting and delivering of portfolio reviews;
• From time to time, taking responsibility for leading specific projects in AfRO’s strategy and work plans;
• Promoting communication and teamwork within AÍRO team including through regular division and management meetings and liaison as appropriate with human resources on coaching, mentoring and other programme staff development needs.

Requirements:

• Deep substantive knowledge of social justice issues in Africa as well as critical civic actors and movements on the continent as well as state and intergovernmental institutions;
• Masters’ level university degree or equivalent experience;
• At least ten years previous work experience in programme and advocacy work in Africa, including programme/project management and monitoring and evaluation of social justice work;
• Extraordinary initiative, creativity and capacity to think strategically;
• Excellent interpersonal, diplomatic, verbal and written communication skills;
• Integrity, confidentiality and professional discretion essential;
• Appreciation of diversity in the work place and inclusive approaches to teambuilding;
• Proven ability to build and maintain relationships with a wide array of people with diverse backgrounds throughout a complex organisation;
• Technologically competent, experienced with database systems, including the ability to operate spreadsheets and word processing programmes at a highly proficient level;
• Knowledge of languages used in the region additional to English preferred;
• willingness to travel as needed.