Coordinator – Strategic Foresight (Africa Region) at Kenya Red Cross Society

Role Purpose:

The role will be responsible for working with a team of people and partners, who source, catalyse, co-produce and undertake cutting-edge trends research and analysis to generate evidence, ideas, innovation and solutions for the Humanitarian sector in a changing world. It will support Leaders and decision makers of National societies to engage with foresight thinking and trends and help them to explore the implications for change and strategy within their National Societies. The position is co-funded by Italian Red Cross through the Solferino Academy and the Kenya Red Cross through the International Centre for Humanitarian Affairs (ICHA). The position will be hosted by the ICHA in Nairobi but directly reporting to a Global team in the Solferino Academy based in Rome.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Producing Futures analysis:  with the teams and partners research, analyse and produce research, position papers, think pieces, blogs and other material that interrogate trends and transformations in the African Region and their impacts on the humanitarian sector.
• Building teams and partners:  working with colleagues in the Solferino Academy and the wider IFRC network source and develop highly effective partnerships with universities, think tanks and other relevant bodies from the African region to collaborate on the agenda.
• Promote engagement with the research: working with the Head of Engagement and Design in the Solferino Academy and others support the design and delivery of strategies that can educate, engage and inspire across a massive distributed network. Utilising both digital engagement across the network and in person experiences at workshops and events, create compelling narratives, story-telling and, discussion and debate that confronts the major challenges facing the organisation and excites and catalyses opportunities for change.
• Support NS Leadership and Strategy and Innovation teams across the African Region to engage with foresight approaches and to utilise futures and foresight in their own strategic planning and operational considerations.
• The role will focus primarily on the African Region but will also support global initiatives and activities.  Given that the role is hosted and part funded by Kenya RC, the role will also provide some extra technical support to Kenya RC strategy, foresight and Innovation initiatives.

Person Specification

Professional experience with some of the following, either as a leader or directly, will be valued:

• Experience with futures and foresight research approaches, particularly in quantitative and qualitative horizon scanning and trend analysis desirable, and Horizon Scanning platforms desirable. 
• Experience with Innovation approaches and practices, including facilitating innovation and design focussed workshops.
• Experience supporting Senior leadership to think through and design Strategy, change and transformation initiatives in their organisations
• Leading or facilitating practice or academic research agendas and/or teams, particularly within the Humanitarian and Development sectors
• Experience working with diverse, distributed and remote teams in matrix arrangements
• Securing and managing strategic alliances and partnerships and building business lines for both internal and external stakeholders
• Experience managing the work of interns and volunteers

In addition, familiarity with the following approaches would be desired:

• Organisational change and transformation
• Complexity and systems thinking
• Leadership development

Knowledge/technical competencies

We are looking for someone who preferably has studied to advanced level one or some of the following, but equivalent work experience is also valued;

Arts, Humanities, social sciences, international development, political science, Knowledge Management, Innovation, Futures or other related fields.

Personal skills/qualities

• Creative, entrepreneurial and innovative
• An inspiring leader who can understand and connect with a diverse range of stakeholders including senior leaders
• Excellent communication skills and relationship management
• Comfortable with collaborating and influencing distributed people and teams in a matrix environment
• Flexile and adaptive
• A self-starter who functions well within multiple concurrent teams
• Excellent command with the English language. Preferred proficiency with French also would be a strong advantage