Delivery Advisor - Centre of Government at Tony Blair Institute for Global Change

Focus of the Role

Politically and economically, the President’s Big Four economic transformation plan (affordable housing, food security, improved manufacturing and universal health coverage, underpinned by education reforms) as extracted from the wider Vision 2030 priorities, is at the forefront of government policy-making.

Job Introduction

Within this remit, essential offices and departments within the Presidency, include: the President’s Delivery Unit reporting to the Office of The Chief Of Staff and Head of Delivery, Ministry of Interior and Coordination, and the committee established under Executive Order No 1 of…

TBI has accumulated rich experience working with governments across the world in coordinating and supporting delivery efforts. TBI played a significant role in helping to establish the President’s Delivery Unit and providing strong support in key developments such as the Standard Gauge Railway and performance management systems for the government.

In addition, through the extensive experience of our country team coupled with our years of work in Kenya, we have also acquired in-depth knowledge of the Government systems and structures and have built a set of trusted relationships which will enable TBI to provide impactful advice and coordination of the delivery process over the coming years.

Key Responsibilities

The post-holder(s) will play a pivotal role in supporting the Country Head and Senior Advisor to Centre of Government delivery and may be posted to specific institutions or work across the delivery ecosystem. They will regularly engage senior government officials and will work shoulder to shoulder with the government teams on a daily basis. Key areas of responsibility will include:

Supporting insititutional delivery capacities to bridge implementation gaps and accelerate delivery:

• Working with the Country Head and Senior Advisor, support government leadership and teams to institutionalise the delivery culture including through:
• Providing skills-gap analyses
• Delineating a long-term professional development strategy
• Establishing a working guideline and modality
• Developing an effective outcome-based performance management product for the government

Providing quality assurance and oversight on delivery programming

• Work with counterparts and project colleagues to plan, sequence and deliver the right interventions at the right time
• Ensure robust project management processes are in place, including reporting and documentation of activities.
• Assess progress against project delivery plans, highlighting key risks to delivery, proposing mitigation measures and escalating to decision-makers where appropriate.
• Support M&E processes with detailed analyses and working with counterparts to address findings
• Provide briefings and assessments of progress – whether thematically or on a project and programme basis – for a range of senior audiences
• Support the Country Head and Senior Advisor, to develop high quality reports and recommendations for action.

Relationship Building/Management

• Be visible to counterparts and stakeholders and regularly undertake activities to engage and build trust with people and generate commitment
• Develop strong collaborative networks and effective communication with main counterparts, and other relevant agencies and organisations
• Build and maintain relationships with key stakeholders within implementing agencies in order to facilitate issue resolution and unblock issues delaying implementation.
• Support the Kenya team to identify new partnership and project opportunities

Support the coordination of project oversight between the Centre of Government, implementing institutions and other stakeholders such as the private sector

• Support government-to-government and government-to-private sector coordination, engage stakeholders and synthesise inputs
• Develop thematic workstreams as directed and in response to requests from counterparts.

Other internal TBI responsibilities

• Contribute to wider TBI-K activities including strategic development, reporting, organisation wide coordination and engagement; and deputising as appropriate.
• Support the Country Head and Senior Advisor to participate and collaborate with other TBI projects, sharing knowledge and supporting thought leadership efforts.
• Provide overall support to the Country Head including in providing overall advice on economic transformation and delivery to GoK.

In all these areas of work, the Advisor will be expected to work closely with the members of the TBI global team to benefit from the network effect of TBI.

Person Specification

The successful candidate will thrive in an environment where the importance of personal initiative coupled with teamwork is critical. Above all s/he will build effective relationships, win trust, and help shape and influence change delivery in government. With a good knowledge of delivery principles and processes, s/he will have a grounding in project and programme management, capacity development and policy reform.

SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES

• The successful candidate will have the confidence, experience, and credibility to operate at a senior level in a government operating environment. Excellent political judgement and discretion is essential.
• S/he will have highly developed analytical skills that can be deployed in a range of contexts.
• A proven track record of delivery – whether policy, operational or functional – is essential, as is relevant experience of working in a project and programme environment. Familiarity with portfolio management approaches would be valuable.
• Policy and/or programme delivery experience in one of the areas of the President’s Big 4 Agenda (manufacturing, universal health care, food security and affordable housing) will be an advantage
• S/he will have the ability to deliver a challenging and complex agenda - particularly in supporting projects which need to turnaround; to deliver a step-change in performance; or handling agendas that are diffuse or ill-defined.
• S/he will also have the ability to work in the face of a range of competing views and priorities, possessing highly-developed communication and negotiation skills.
• High quality communication, drafting and presentational skills are key.