Director, Gender and Safeguarding at Mastercard Foundation

THE OPPORTUNITY

Reporting to Executive Director, Pan African Programs, will be responsible for building the Gender and Safeguarding unit within Pan African Programs by designing the strategic direction and overseeing a portfolio of multi-country programs that will accelerate the Foundation’s commitment to enable dignified and fulfilling work for young women and men. The role holder will also be responsible for translating strategies into specific operations, including strengthening the organization’s capacity to develop, review and implement gender and safeguarding policies and tools, procedures and measures which meet both continental and international standards.

WAYS YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE

• Contribute to the consolidated Pan African Programs Strategy.
• Design the Pan-African gender and safeguarding strategy and roadmap.
• Providing strategic direction across the entire Pan-African portfolio and in relation to the wider Foundation’s gender and safeguarding programming, ensuring programming meets Foundation values and priorities, have no duplication of efforts and are cohesive in achieving impactful gender and safeguarding outcomes for young people.
• Ensure that young people experiencing a higher risk of poverty, social exclusion, discrimination, violence and other intersectionality are provided with tailored programming that meets their respective need.
• Oversee Pan-African gender and safeguarding programs focused on entrepreneurship.
• Integrate the various programming across the Foundation linked to the Pan-African gender and safeguarding agenda.
• Providing the linkages between the Pan-African Programs and programming at the country-level.
• Interface with rest of the MCF organization, interacting with counterparts from other program teams to ensure strategic cohesion and the adoption of gender safeguarding policies and guidelines.
• Keeping the Executive Director apprised of gender and safeguarding projects being incubated across the Foundation and sharing recommendations for new program area.
• Identify opportunities for operational improvements, effectiveness and efficiencies to support gender and safeguarding integration across the Foundation.
• Develop gender and safeguarding assessments and outcome analysis, disaggregating gender specific data either by tracking and collecting data from existing sources or by approximating using applicable analysis across the thematic areas to support the tracking of progress.
• Manage risks related to gender and safeguarding thematic area and propose respective mitigation plan to the Executive Director for resolution.
• Engage and maintain relationships with the relevant stakeholders including institutions of interest, peer funders and others that have relevance to the Foundation’s work in the field of Gender and Safeguarding.
• Develop and manage stakeholder relationships with key partner institutions and peer funders, along with the relevant thematic advisors and directors, as well as Country Directors to develop strategic engagements to drive the Foundations’ thought leadership.
• Convene gender and safeguarding expertise and advance thought leadership.
• Identify trends and lessons that supports the Foundations thought leadership.
• Facilitate the sharing of expertise and lessons learned across teams both formally and informally.
• Cultivate relationships and facilitate engagements (e.g., roundtables, forums) with external thought leaders to advance Foundation thought leadership across the continent.
• Ensure strategic cohesion, coordination of programming efforts, and knowledge sharing within the gender and safeguarding thematic area while also collaborating with the Foundation’s Senior Advisors.
• Interface with Foundation business partners across other functional areas to test/refine and deploy the most efficient operating model for Gender and Safeguarding.
• Build and lead a team in embedding operational excellence in day-to-day prioritization of work within Gender and Safeguarding thematic area.
• Oversee team resourcing and delegation to align to business partner processes, performance management input for business partners.
• Interface with Country Directors in the design and delivery of Programs that have overlapping themes.
• Integrate the various programming across the Foundation linked to the Pan-African agriculture and climate action agenda.
• Provide linkages in programming at the country-level.
• Manage an agile gender and safeguarding team across functions and countries and collaborating with senior advisors.
• Model and reinforce the Foundation’s values in behaviors and interactions across the teams.
• Coach direct reports across the teams to support their productivity in the consistent excellent delivery of program KPIs while supporting them to build a culture that prioritizes gender and safeguarding across the Foundation.

WHO YOU ARE

• A Masters and Professional qualification in a relevant field is required.
• Ten (10+) years of experience of significant senior level experience driving strategy and program success with organizations across multiple countries in Africa 
• Eight (8+) years leadership and management experience of which at least seven was gained in a multi-country environment in Africa.
• Thematic experience in gender and safeguarding within the NGO and private sectors.
• Experience building large-scale transformative initiatives across geographies and expertise at least one of the Pan-African Programs thematic areas (i.e. agriculture and climate, entrepreneurship development, digital economy, gender and safeguarding).
• Experience in public policy within nonprofit organizations, international NGO’s and/or learning institutions will be an advantage. 
• Industry specific experience in at least one of the thematic areas (i.e. agriculture and climate, entrepreneurship development, digital economy, gender and safeguarding). Experience fostering diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in workplace is a plus.
• Proven experience effectively engaging with senior government officials, key partners, media, business leaders and other influential individuals.
• Functional gender experience in economic empowerment, youth employment, serving vulnerable groups is essential.
• Mastery of Microsoft Office suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel).
• Strong coordination and project management skills.
• Excellent organizational and prioritization skills; demonstrated attention to detail and ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously.
• Exposure to systems thinking with an ability to understand and engage with stakeholders in different ecosystems and design programming that addresses root causes and critical needs.
• Substantive knowledge of key issues and emerging trends and barriers in youth and work across Africa.
• Excellent English written and spoken communication skills, proofreading skills with a high attention to detail.
• Advanced competencies at developing frameworks, models, policies, tools, and capabilities that have focused on gender and safeguarding.
• Excellent multi-stakeholder management skills with senior Foundation colleagues and senior levels of external stakeholders.
• Expertise working with development, political and social issues across Africa.
• Skilled communicator and influencer, from executive through to technical levels and external constituencies, know how to navigate ambiguous environments and are comfortable at managing up and beyond hierarchy.
• Ability to build and directly manage small and agile teams of 2 – 4, but regularly engage with many more across the various thematic areas and countries.
• Fosters a positive spirit of collaboration in a complex, and rapidly evolving environment.
• Results Orientation, innovative and entrepreneurial.
• Possess professional maturity, sensitivity with different cultures, and impeccable integrity that exemplify the Foundation’s values.
• Demonstrate a commitment to Mastercard Foundation’s values and vision.