Manager, Digital Innovation Platform at FSD Africa

REPORTING RELATIONSHIPS

REPORTS DIRECTLY TO

Principal-Digital Innovation, Risk & Resilience Pillar, FSD Africa

REPORTS INDIRECTLY TO

Director – Risk & Resilience Pillar, FSD Africa

DIRECT REPORTS

Supporting Consultant(s) engaged in projects, Others TBD

INDIRECT REPORTS

Analyst(s)/Manager(s) – Risk & Resilience Pillar, FSD Africa

JOB PURPOSE

FSD Africa is building a pipeline of digital innovation projects that aims at promoting digital innovation in the Insurance industry, to build digital insurance market. One of the key projects that will enable multiple innovation initiatives and activities is the Digital Innovation platform. This candidate would act as a thought-leader on financial industry digital innovation ,involved in the design of activities/initiatives, implementation, partnership development and digital marketing /PR associated with the initiatives.

In particular, this role will:

1.    Manage all Digital Innovation Platform activities, this will include scaling and maintaining launched activities/services and design/implement new activities and services to build and scale platform traffic & impact.  

2.    Build a network of partners across multiple African markets and industries and manage their onboarding process to the platform. Support partners in utilising the platform to manage their internal and open innovation activities, provide technical assistance to partners and develop and share knowledge around platform activities to other FSD Africa Pillars.

This position will sit within FSD Africa’s Risk & Resilience Pillar and will report to the principle-Digital Innovation

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND ROLE REQUIREMENTS

1.  Build a network of innovation partners  
2. Lead the development of a diversified database of potential partners, across multiple industries within the African FinTech ecosystem. Each partner category should support one or more of the platform Activities/initiatives.
3. Define the priorities of each partner category and design win-win activities /initiates that contributes to platform objectives while being perfectly aligned to the needs of that category of partners.
4.  Carry out initial ecosystem mapping of potential platform partners and users in selected markets to gain a deep and comprehensive understanding of the needs and requirements of ecosystem stakeholders.
5. Develop a platform strategy, ensure the inclusion of a gender equity and climate dimension, as well as developing a geographic strategy.
6. Develop and test theories of change for the Digital Innovation Platform project, aligned to the overall FSD Africa strategy and Pillar-specific theory of change.
7. Share learnings associated with strategy development and programming with the broader FSD Africa organisation and partners; a key part of this role will be upskilling our organisation around Digital Innovation related projects;
8. Work collaboratively with the Digital Economy pillar and FSDi to contribute to the achievement of their relevant objectives
9. Activities/initiatives origination and design
10.  
11. Identify, conceptualise and develop a coherent pipeline of activities and implementing partners as well as user profiles/databases which will collectively be effective in driving impact in Tier A countries.
12.  Design a series of activities and initiatives that might stimulate digital financial innovation in the insurance industry. Such activities will aim at developing a pipeline of InsurTech start-ups, facilitate partnerships with incumbent insurance companies, contribute to growing investment flow into InsurTech start-ups, improve market awareness on InsurTech role in improving resilience, engaging regulators and other government agencies with the InsurTech ecosystem in Tier 1 countries .
13. Identify / select potentially impactful activity partners, support them through the design phase including the development of business cases and marketing strategies.
14. Ensure that all staff, consultants and activity partners involved in a project are fully briefed concerning expectations; especially on project milestone targets, quality standards, data collection/reporting and compliance with accountability requirements. 
15. Develop detailed activity implementation plan and budget and address capacity gaps of partners, especially around open innovation  
16. Activity/initiative pilot & launch
17. Co-ordinate the roll-out of Digital Innovation Activities  so that results are achieved, risks are managed, and quality outputs are delivered; ensuring that ongoing learning from projects is fully utilised to maximise impact and innovation: 
18. Work with activity partners to assist them in implementing their projects according to agreed upon project plans, maintaining a strategic clarity, focus on impact, and collaborative approach at all times. 
19. In case of an activity partner having challenges, provide technical assistance, or organise the provision of support to ensure activity pilot /launch success;
20. Develop and share periodical reports and updates on pilot plan implementation and take appropriate action on the basis of results and analysis: 
21. If desired results have been achieved, initiate strategies for widespread awareness-raising and ‘crowding in’, focusing on applying leverage, replication of the activity, and scaling; 
22. If desired results have not been achieved, either manage performance of the implementation team or adjust the strategy/approach.  
23. Identify, report on and mitigate project risks in a timely manner (project delivery and partnership management). 
24. Communicating for Impact
25. Actively participate in the development and implementation of an advocacy and communications plan for all platform Digital Innovation activities/initiatives within the context of the Risk & Resilience Pillar’s communications approach; ensuring that the approach will result in extensive awareness-building, engagement around topics of InsurTech digital ecosystem building, accelerating innovation within insurance industry , growing platform partner and user database, strategic partnerships established, behavioural changes of ecosystem stakeholders in both private and public spheres and created measurable impact .
26. Consult and collaborate with the Risk & Resilience Pillar and Strategic Communications team to identify how stakeholders need to be influenced to support the success of digital innovation activities/ initiatives; this may include a need to advocate for legislative/policy reform or to incentivise (or some other supporting mechanism) greater action amongst potential beneficiaries for mindset change; 
27. Work collaboratively with the Strategic Communications team and Development Impact function to develop and implement work plans and budgets; ensuring that efforts are monitored and evaluated to ensure impact, and this impact is articulated; 
28. Contribute to the implementation of the Strategic Communications agenda (e.g. by developing content for written materials – blogs, editorials, op-eds, contributing to content development on our website; participating in advocacy campaigns, attending conferences and events etc.);
29. Participate in and contribute to the development of annual and quarterly reports, including our publicly-facing strategy documents and impact assessments;
30. Represent FSD Africa in public forums and networking opportunities; behaving at all times in a manner consistent with FSD Africa’s brand, values, policies and protocols.
31. Carry out any other duties or special assignments as assigned by the Management. 

 PERSON SPECIFICATIONS – ESSENTIAL AND DESIRABLE

Qualifications and Education

1. Good quality bachelor’s degree from a recognised university
2. Professional qualification and relevant accreditations (Masters level from a globally respected academic institution) in a relevant field (Actuarial Sciences, Development Studies, Economics, Public Policy, Finance, or other relevant fields).
3. Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English

Essential Experience, Knowledge and Skills

1. Minimum of 7 years’ post-graduation experience of working in a field relevant to innovation preferably in the financial industry , telecommunications industry or information technology  industry across multiple countries and institutions, including in Africa.
2. Excellent knowledge and conceptual understanding of the financial industry sectors and technology applications/use cases targeting financial industry .
3. Track record of measuring and articulating impact measurements systems in practice; including process and framework development.
4. Experience in establishing and maintaining collaborative and trusted relationships with implementing partners, private-sector players and government & public agency counterparts.
5. Demonstrated track record of rigorous project management skills and achievement of results across interconnected and complicated workstreams (with preference for experience managing digital innovation function or related projects).
6. Demonstrated skills in managing large budgets, managing risk and ensuring value for money; ability to manage large project portfolios across multiple countries.
7. Demonstrated ability to coordinate the work of internal colleagues and oversee external suppliers and providers.
8. Excellent interpersonal and influencing skills, with an ability to engage effectively with Senior Management.
9. Excellent written and spoken English.

 Desirable

1. Experience of working in a multi-cultural environment
2. Previous experience of working in donor-funded projects, preference for those funded through UK aid
3. Languages: French, local African languages

 8. KEY RELATIONSHIPS

Internal Relationships

1. FSD Africa Risk and Resilience  Pillar
2. FSD Africa Management/ Leadership Team
3. Other FSD Africa Staff (esp. Strategic Communications & Development Impact)
4. Green Finance Working Group
5. FSD Africa Portfolio and project managers (esp. regulatory engagement, policy development, and in-country SMEs)

External Relationships

1. HMG FCDO and DEFRA officials
2. External and Retained Consultants, especially those procured to produce program deliverables
3. External private partners from across Africa (e.g. financial institutions and corporates)
4. External public partners (incl. sovereigns stakeholders – regulators, MoFs, standard-setters)
5. International Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) and coalitions (e.g. TCFD and TNFD Secretariats)
6. Indirectly – FSD Africa Board, and sub-bodies (esp. Investment & Development Committees)