Regional Engagement Manager, Africa at C40 Cities

Position Description

• The Regional Engagement Manager is a key part of CFF’s global team, working across different geographies to deliver on their ambitious goals. Central to this role will be to ensure successful engagement with stakeholders in Africa, contributing to the transformational impact that knowledge can have.
• The Regional Engagement Manager will be responsible for building and maintaining a network of stakeholders to support the CFF’s work in the region, including financiers, NGOs, city networks and knowledge forums. This position will work in close collaboration with Senior Project Advisors, which are CFF staff delivering technical support in partner cities, the
• C40 Africa Regional team and other C40 programmes and staff in the region. This position will also be responsible for contributing to the production and dissemination of the knowledge documents produced by the CFF, and for identifying opportunities for feeding into dialogues and discussions on climate finance and sustainable urban infrastructure. The Regional Engagement Manager will engage with policymakers at the local and national level and represent the CFF in events and conferences. This position will also assist the CFF team in the selection of projects that the CFF supports during possible upcoming phases.
• The Regional Engagement Manager will report to the Senior Engagement Manager of the CFF but will also have close interaction with other C40 and GIZ staff based in Africa.

Responsibilities:

City and Stakeholder engagement (60%)

• Contribute to the development and delivery of activities for CFF projects in Africa, jointly with each city nucleus team (CNT) and working closely with both C40 and GIZ staff to ensure effective implementation of in-city and regional activities;
• Serve as regional focal point to the CFF on the continent and represent the CFF and C40 Cities at workshops and conferences (virtual and in person) as part of knowledge dissemination and partnership activities with CFF and non CFF partner cities.
• Support C40 Cities’ Regional Directors in Mayoral engagement and political analysis/engagement with CFF projects ;
• Liaise with Regional Directors and other relevant C40 relevant staff to inform and include them in the city and project development process.
• Maintain and monitor city project progress and report internally through City Asanas and other relevant internal communication tools;
• Work closely with relevant C40 and GIZ teams to ensure coordination and synergies between CFF and other C40 programmes and teams for relevant cities and projects.
• Identify, monitor and report project delivery risks to CFF Management and other relevant stakeholders (e.g. C40 regional directors, relevant partners, etc) together with other CNT members; .

Knowledge creation , creation and dissemination (25%)

• Strategically and proactively disseminate CFF’s knowledge products within the region through regional and local events (virtual/in person).
• Support the CFF’s Head of Regional Engagement Manager, and Head of Knowledge & Partnershipsiin gathering information from CFF supported cities for the creation of knowledge strategies and products. This may include identifying opportunities, gathering information and contributing to different knowledge products.
• Support the delivery of replication and upscaling initiatives identified within each city, and lead on regionally-focussed opportunities agreed upon jointly;
• Support the monitoring, reporting and evaluation of CFF’s knowledge dissemination activities.
• Work with the Knowledge & Partnerships team to support the implementation of the CFF knowledge strategy, including in facilitating the delivery of relevant climate finance and equity & inclusion capacity building activities;

Partnership building (15%)

• Identify, build and maintain regional networks and partnerships to support CFF’s strategic goals (e.g.financiers, NGOs, other project preparation forums, knowledge forums), working in close collaboration with Senior Project Advisors and with the C40 Regional Director
• Identify and prioritise opportunities for partnership engagement for the CFF in the region, including but not limited to policy discussions at the national or regional level that deliver on the CFF objectives.
• Provide information to CFF Management on potential partnership opportunities in the region.

Other:

• Support the CFF communications team with regional communications and raise awareness of the work of the CFF within the region.
• Support CFF’s city selection process for future program phases
• Engage with other CFF and C40 relevant teams as requested
• Engage with regional partners where needed ;
• Support cross-cutting programme activities and other C40 initiatives;

Person Specification:

• You have experience and/or qualifications in one or preferably more of the following fields: infrastructure finance, project preparation, cities and urban development, climate finance and/or climate change or related fields.
• You have gained this experience either at a multilateral, a development bank, NGOs and Community based organisations, a city administration, a development organisation, the private sector or other relevant sectors.
• You embrace the flexibility and agility to operate within a partnership delivery structure, and within a complex organisational structure spanning two organisations and four continents..
• You are someone who enjoys “connecting the dots'' in complex programmes. You enjoy working on cross cutting workstreams.
• You have the interpersonal skills to liaise and communicate clearly with people and partners at all levels of seniority and from different cultures and backgrounds.
• You are great at building and maintaining relationships and enjoy finding innovative ways for collaboration. You have experience in agile teams and role-based working methodologies;
• You understand that delivering a complex programme across organisations requires agility and flexibility while the need to be highly organised, and you have a positive, solutions-oriented mindset.
• Awareness of working with cities, public sectors or governments is highly desirable.
• Experience in communications and/or story telling is desirable.
• Fluency in English (written and spoken) is a must, working level knowledge of French or another relevant C40 city language is desirable.
• You have experience working in a hybrid format (virtual and in person).

Other Requirements:

• Applicants must already have the right to work in the location they are applying for. This position requires moderate travel if deemed safe. The Regional Engagement Manager, Africa may be asked to travel to CFF’s offices in London, Bonn and Berlin and should be willing to undertake moderate travel across Africa if needed.