Vacancies at Aga Khan Foundation

Responsibilities

The Project Coordinator- Civil Society Strengthening, will be responsible for leading Civil Society work in Coastal region including – but not limited to.

• Providing leadership in planning and coordination, ensuring effective implementation of the Country AGECS Sub-Project (s).
• Lead capacity development support to civil society including capacity assessments, adapt AKF’s existing tools, and oversee the resulting organizational and technical support including but not limited to the provision of technical assistance, mentoring, coaching and peer learning to effectively, play a prominent, and collaborative role in providing solutions for the region’s development.
• Working closely with technical advisors and project staff, develop and deliver capacity development materials and processes and tools in diverse areas of organizational development.
• Support the technical teams to ensure gender and youth issues are mainstreamed into all capacity development initiatives
• Working with the coastal team to identify ways that partner CSOs can come together with other stakeholders to make use of the potential for increased engagement and participation
• Providing technical support for institutional strengthening for all the CSO partners

Specifically, the Project Coordinator- Civil Society Strengthening, will:

• Develop and regularly update annual workplan and design a specific annual workplan for support to CSOs. In addition, preparation, and submission of AGECS project work plans, activity reports, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual narrative reports
• Assist with the design and delivery of a grant and resourcing schemes as per the different projects
• Facilitate and convene a space for dialogue, discussion, and collaborative working in a range of fora between regional government institutions and civil society entities on regional development priorities.
• Undertake regular meetings throughout the region to identify potential engagement opportunities.
• Ensure that risks associated with working with Civil Society organisations are documented and managed.
• Provide input as required to project reporting on all aspects of the projects working with CSO in coast region.
• Be responsible for the grant management of the AGECS Sub-Projects including Coordination of quarterly and annual review meetings with implementing partners*.*
• Ensure integration of gender equality considerations and social inclusion in all aspects of project design, implementation, and management.

Coordinate with AKF MERL team to:

• Develop, review, and finalize Sub-Projects’ M&E plans, including the selection of appropriate indicators.
• Engage Sub-Projects’ 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.

Coordinate with / support the Coast region Finance focal point to:

• Coordinate with the coast region finance focal point on reporting, forecasting and compliance.
• Work closely with the finance focal point to manage project expenditure and control over/under spending.
• Discuss monthly finance reports with the coast region s finance focal person
• Work closely with the procurement focal point to ensure project purchases are done on time and as per donor regulations.

The ideal candidate will have:

Required Qualifications, Experience, and Competencies

• A bachelor’s degree in social sciences, development studies, organizational development preferably social sciences, , and/or other relevant disciplines.
• Minimum five (5) years of project management experience in implementing civil society initiatives including capacity development programs
• Proven experience in working through and strengthening civil society.
• Demonstrated analytical, organizational, convening, interpersonal, negotiation, and problem-solving skills in a cross-cultural context.
• Expert capacity in written and verbal skills in English with the ability to write high-quality reports for donor projects and analytical briefs.
• Ability to work well in teams and particularly teams that span across multiple geographies.
• Demonstrated ability in public speaking and public presentations in local community and partner meetings, trainings, and workshops.
• 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.
• Ability to work in local languages relevant to the country is an asset.
• Strong understanding of monitoring and evaluation methodologies and logical frameworks.
• Demonstrated ability to remotely work, lead and motivate a diverse team of partners.
• Strong familiarity in working using online and digital technologies including proficiency with Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and other valuable presentation platforms.

Deadline:29th of April 2022

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Consultant Scope of Work

AKF is seeking to engage partner organisations and/or consultants to work as part of a diverse team of educational and creative specialists to develop the “Community Listening Library Starter Kits” content for use across diverse media including visual, audio, and written formats in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. The scope of work includes:

• Developing lists of vetted child-friendly low-cost playful materials to include in the Community Listening Library Starter Kits,
• Writing 10 pages of introductory guide content on using the Community Listening Libraries with suggestions for librarians, parents, and children on using the Starter Kit,
• Developing supplementary materials on using the Yoto Player as needed,
• Working with other partners to finalise the list of written and audio children’s storybooks in English and local languages that will be included,
• Reviewing and selecting relevant playful learning activities based on the selected storybooks,
• Working with a translator to ensure all content is available in local languages,
• Working with the graphic designer to ensure that all content uses a coherent design,
• Adapting the final content for each Community Listening Library Starter Kit per country as needed, and
• Developing other creative content for the Starter Kits as needed.

Key Deliverables

• At minimum, the deliverables include:
• A comprehensive vetted list of child-friendly low-cost playful materials for the Community Listening Library Starter Kits
• A final Starter Kit Guide for use by librarians, parents, and children
• A list of playful learning activities
• 3 finalised lists of written and audio content and materials for Community Listening Library Starter Kits, adapted for each country
• Recommendations for activities, games, and further content-development opportunities based on the content
• Other content and deliverables can be recommended by the applicant

Criteria for selection

All submissions will be assessed on the following criteria:

• Technical proposal 40%
• Technical experience 30%
• Value for Money 30%

Deadline: 2nd May 2022

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Contextual project background.

AKF has committed to working with and through likeminded CSOs in our geographies. The Foundation is currently in the process of scaling up its interventions in the Education Improvement Program and in the coming months, will be rolling out initiatives in Kilifi and Kwale counties. It is this breadth that AKF seeks partnership with Civil Society Organisations that work around Women empowerment, Gender Based Violence and Education to deliver both Value Based Education and, facilitate the process of HCD.

The design of this partnership will be one where AKF firsts builds the capacity of successful CSOs in Value Based Education and HCD approach before jointly developing a pool of competent facilitators capable of rolling the same to target teachers and educators.

While this is not a grant opportunity, CSOs that will successfully demonstrate ability to cascade both Value based Education and HCD process will be contracted to provide training services and manage training related logistics at agreeable service charge.

Overall, the basis of this initiative is as described under the Foundation for learning Project which seeks to reduce gender and social barriers to the utilization and uptake of education and other sustainable development services in targeted counties. AKF will thus be working with the identified CSOs to provide Gender-responsive professional development to primary school educators and pedagogical leaders. Working with the identified CSOs, AKF through this project will:

• Deliver Value Based Education (VBE) course (3 modules) to primary school teachers and school leadership in project schools
• Deliver gender-responsive play-based learning module to all primary school teachers in project schools
• Deliver the Value Based Education (VBE) Master Facilitator Course to teachers who have demonstrated aptitude and application of the VBE principles
• Design and deliver the Gender Responsive, play based Pedagogies Champion course to teachers who have demonstrated aptitude and application of the Gender Responsive Play Based (GRPB) principles
• In addition, AKF through this project will support the establishment of professional networks and gender responsive peer-to-peer support platforms for primary educators and school leaders through:
• Conducting Human Cantered Design (HCD) process with pedagogical leaders and teachers to determine how teacher owned networks of learning could function at the intra-school and interschool levels
• Providing budgetary support to enable cost-effective delivery of community of learning networks
• Disburse funds to government officials via investment mechanism to enable them to conduct high quality support visits to all schools in their jurisdictions
• Support the establishment and implementation of Education information application to inform planning and learning improvements.
• Further, the project will will work with the CSOs and other contacted professionals to provide targeted institutional strengthening to government departments in target counties.

Purpose of the expression of interest.

By responding to this Call for Expression of Interest (EOI), eligible Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) are encouraged to apply. Specifically, AKF will work with the successful organisations to embrace VBE and HCD processes at the institutional levels before embarking on rolling out the same in targeted communities. This will entail going through both the VBE and HCD processes as organisations and, agreeing on joint plans for training and logistical management.

Concept note template instructions

Organization particulars (1 page)

Address, locations, and point of contact information; including the specific location of operations and how they relate to target areas.

• Ownership/Type of Entity
• Description of the organization and its main activities (history of operation, milestones)
• Management Team
• Targeted geography (ies)

Organizations wishing to apply should meet the following criteria:

• Be registered in Kenya.
• Previous and/or current interventions in the target counties for this initiative.
• Demonstrated experience in delivery of supporting targeted gender training and programmes in Kenya.
• Institutional capacity for delivery of the technical support.
• Demonstrates value for money.