Associate Director - Africa at Co-Impact

Where You Fit

• Reporting directly to the Regional Director- Africa, you will serve as a deputy to the regional program lead, responsible for sourcing, vetting, and finalizing grant recommendations in Africa; supporting program partners (grantees) to develop effective strategies for gender equality, women’s leadership and systems change at scale; strengthening organizational capabilities to achieve lasting results; and contributing to improved learning and practice among partners, at Co-Impact, in global development, and in philanthropy.

The Role

Core responsibilities will include:

Strategy Development and Implementation : Programs Partners

• Supporting the Regional Director- Africa (RD) in the development of the strategy and annual program plans.
• Serve as a close thought partner to the Regional Director- Africa for ideating and executing priority specific strategy and plans (eg Women in Leadership (WIL), unpaid care etc).
• Drive the execution and adoption of the annual Program Partner (PP) support plans, including ensuring that the Program Assistant is updating the tracking sheets, and Account Leads(AL) are documenting Program Partner calls. Track progress and deviations at a portfolio level via regular check-ins with Program Manager (PM) and Program Assistant (PA).
• Work closely with the Regional Director-Africa to develop the sourcing strategy and approach document for the region.
• Identifying and meeting with potential pipeline organisations and assessing their fit for Co-Impact. Sharing these insights and plans with the Regional Director-Africa.
• Play a lead role in ensuring that the pipeline PPs are identified and green lighted by the Regional Director-Africa and leadership to ensure movement through the sourcing process is done in a seamless manner. This includes quality assuring and preparing recommendation memos when needed, guiding and supporting the Program Manager with the due diligence processes and overseeing the Program Manager (PM for coordination with the PM ops and grants).
• Serve as account lead for a select number of grants – independently supporting the PPs reach their goals towards just and inclusive systems change, taking independent decisions and managing the grants.
• Identify trends, problem areas and other insights (around PP support and sourcing of new ideas) and share with the Regional Director-Africa on a regular basis to adapt plans accordingly.
• Link up with the account leads and the Learning Monitoring and Evaluation (LME) team to: provide LME support to PPs to achieve outcomes, source research partnerships in the region aligned with Co-impact’s philosophy and goals.
• Support the Regional Director-Africa and the LME team to draw out cross-cutting themes and lessons and their dissemination and in measuring and tracking our impact at a meta level through the work of our PPs.

Team Coordination and Representation

• Serve as a liaison and coordinator with other Co-impact functional teams to ensure flow and exchange of information and decision making for the region as needed and based on consultation with the Regional Director -Africa.
• Represent Co-impact and the Regional Director-Africa in important external meetings and convenings including building relations with regional funders in consultation with the Regional Director- Africa.
• Support the team (Program Assistant and Program Managers) in their growth and development.
• Help foster culture in line with Co-Impact values, and serve as a trusted colleague that demonstrates Co-Impact values including outcomes-focused – for meaningful, lasting, and inclusive impact; Be program partner- and community-centered; Bring a beginner’s mindset; Draw from unity in diversity and build trusting partnerships.
• Perform other reasonable responsibilities and duties as requested by the RD.

Qualifications:

• 12 plus years professional experience and extensive knowledge of advancing gender equality (with an intersectional lens) and at least one of our areas of sectoral focus (education, health, and economic opportunity).
• Experience being an outcomes-focused and program partner grantee-centered grantmaker, having supported civil society efforts in the Global South would be a real asset, though context dependent working with government, NGOs, grantmaking, social sector etc.
• A master’ degree or equivalent in a relevant area.
• At least 5 years of experience managing a team and mentoring staff to deliver strong results within a positive work culture
• Prior exposure to an array of different working contexts, stakeholders, etc.
• Right to work in Kenya (as we are unable to sponsor a visa).

Required Skills

• Strategic Agility: Ability to spot high-potential opportunities and facilitate the design of strategic approaches backed by evidence-informed analysis.
• Organizational Effectiveness: Evidence of delivering results through developing strategic coherence, thoughtful business strategy, strong leadership, and sound understanding of operations.
• Decision Making: Ability to listen well, integrating gender analysis, see perspectives from different sides, making good judgements based on values and principles balancing data, experience, and risk.
• Working with People: Experience motivating, contributing to, and managing collaborative teams to work productively, effectively, and inclusively
• Managing Action with Purpose and Values: Ability to motivate colleagues and get things done in accordance with core purpose and values
• Results Orientation: Strong project management skills, deadline management, sense of responsibility and accountability, and the ability to manage multiple responsibilities and work effectively remotely and independently.
• Interpersonal Savvy: Great at making and fostering relationships inside and outside the organization, keen intercultural appreciation, inclusive style, comfortable around senior leaders, can represent Co-Impact well.
• Dealing with Ambiguity: Ability to shift gears comfortably; decide and act without having the total picture; can comfortably evaluate and handle risk and uncertainty.
• Learning Orientation: Intellectually curious; seek and work with evidence, demonstrated an openness to new ideas and a diversity of perspectives; unafraid to admit and learn from failure.
• Strong Moral Compass: Impeccable personal ethics and integrity, kind and caring.
• Communications: excellent written and oral communication skills, including the ability to effectively manage and influence a variety of relationships in a multicultural environment
• Global Flexibility: Given the global nature of the organization working across time zones, a willingness to be flexible with working hours and international travel .
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate equally effectively with colleagues in 'remote' and diverse teams.
• Collaborative Focus: Demonstrating an infectious enthusiasm for collaboration and partnership. Recognizing the value in fostering an environment that promotes shared communications, efforts, and results.
• Writing Ability: Ability to write and communicate ideas with clarity.
• Language Proficiency: Fluency in English, as well as at least one other major language spoken in Africa.
• Perspective: Sense of humor and ability not to take oneself too seriously