Regional Project Manager – AGECS Sub-Grants (Africa) at Aga Khan Foundation

Position Summary

AKF is seeking an experienced Regional Project Manager to oversee the overall grant management and coordinate monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and gender equality (GE) technical support for the Advancing Gender Equality through Civil Society (AGECS) Sub-Granting component. The AGECS Sub-Grant component is a part of the Global Affairs Canada-funded Foundations for Education and Empowerment (F4EE) in Africa.

F4EE will be active in five countries (Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Uganda) and will improve education systems at the pre-primary and primary level, in addition to strengthening women’s empowerment, and gender equality. As part of the AGECS component up to 16 Sub-Grants will be issued to partnerships comprised of Women’s Organizations and Gender-Equality focused civil society organizations (CSOs) implementing gender equality targeted and gender equality transformative programming.

The Regional Project Manager for the AGECS Sub-Grant component will be based in Nairobi, Kenya, and will likely include regional travel of up to 40% per year to project countries.

Responsibilities

The Regional Project Manager will provide oversight, leadership, and coordination support to all AGECS Sub-Grants and their implementing partners to ensure the project is implemented on time, on budget, achieving all intended project outcomes, and remaining compliant to all donor requirements. S/he will also provide high-level technical support on M&E and Gender Equality and coordinate more detailed support alongside the Regional GE and Regional M&E Manager.

Specifically, Regional Project Manager will:

• Be responsible for the regional grant management of the AGECS Sub-Grants, including assessing partners’ needs, coordinating human resources and financial inputs.
• Build relationships and maintain coordinated communications with AKF’s Global Partnerships Team and Global Programme Team, AKDN implementing agencies, and other local partners.
• Be responsible and accountable for all AGECS Sub-Grants’ reporting and donor compliance requirements, including the preparation and submission of their final proposals, project implementation plan, annual work plans, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual technical reports, oversight of financial reports and other deliverables as stipulated in the F4EE Grant Agreement.
• Analyze field performance with monitoring and evaluation benchmarks and recommend and implement procedural changes to improve operations to meet objectives.
• Collaborate with AKF field units’ finance teams, and the F4HE/F4EE Finance Managers to ensure timely and quality financial reports are produced.
• Ensure integration of gender equality considerations in all aspects of programme design, implementation, and management.
• Provide technical support and coordination for the AGECS sub-projects during design, implementation, and evaluation, in collaboration with F4EE country gender advisors, AKF’s technical advisory team, and implementing agencies.
• Facilitate the ongoing review and engagement by key partners on the implementation of the project gender equality strategies and programming interventions and report on progress to Project’s Oversight Committee and the global AGECS leads.
• Provide technical support to ensure the AGECS Sub-Grant strategies and programming are either gender equality targeted or transformative and lead to positive gender equality outcomes for all.
• Distill gender equality related lessons learned from programme implementation and ensure these are documented, shared, and used in subsequent adjustments to programme implementation.
• Promote the culture of sharing lessons learning and networking on gender equality across the F4EE/AGECS teams and implementing partners.

Coordinate with / support the Regional F4EE M&E Advisor to:

• Finalize Sub-Grants’ M&E plans, including the selection of appropriate indicators.
• Engage Sub-Grants’ teams to support regular data collection, analysis, interpretation & learning.
• Ensure all data collection processes adhere to robust ethical standards, including AKF’s Safeguarding Policy and all relevant national research and ethics standards, such as obtaining research permits required by national authorities in each country.
• Provide technical and operational oversight of regional M&E-based consultancies, learning components, and policy engagement to elevate visibility and learnings from the programme approach.

Required Qualifications, Experience, and Competencies

• A post-graduate degree in international development, social science, especially gender studies, and/or other relevant disciplines. Additional educational background in design thinking and/or civil strengthening is an asset.
• Minimum seven (7) years of grants and project management experience, preferably with projects funded by Global Affairs Canada.
• Experience with developing and overseeing the implementation of organisational capacity building, data collection tools, and systems for the entry, analysis, and storage of data.
• Exceptional analytical and English writing skills. Samples of past writing will be reviewed, and a written test might be required.
• Experience in conducting gender analysis, using analysis findings to inform program design and implementing gender equality activities and programs.
• Demonstrated capacity to respect and safeguard vulnerable populations.
• Be able to travel to F4EE countries.
• Ability to work well in teams and particularly teams that span across multiple geographies.
• Demonstrated ability to transfer knowledge through training, capacity building and mentoring.
• Capacity to work independently, take initiative and manage a variety of activities simultaneously while meeting strict reporting deadlines and keeping colleagues and senior managers well informed.**
• Ability to facilitate collaborative and participatory processes with partners and stakeholders.
• Excellent analytical, interpersonal, and problem-solving skills in a cross-cultural context.
• Ability to work in local languages relevant to the countries of project implementation is an asset.