Jobs at World Vision Kenya

Purpose of the position:

Somali Resilience Program (SomReP) is an members-owned multi-year, multi-sector and multi-country resilience-building program.  The consortium is made up of 8 local and international NGOs working through area-based programs in 24 Somali districts with LNGO capacity strengthening interventions in Sudan and South Sudan. 

The Chief of Party (CoP) will lead the consortium in fund-raising, including management of existing donors, positioning for new donors through development of knowledge and marketing products and grant-writing.

The position-holder will lead external engagement with government and chair internal governance and management structures of the consortium.  She/he will manage a technical unit with expertise in disaster risk reduction, agricultural sector development, natural resources management, safety nets, economic and social empowerment, gender mainstreaming and market systems development to deliver capacity development to members, government and oversight for the delivery of on-time, on-target and too-specification projects and programs. 

The CoP will provide strategic guidance to various platforms hosted under the SomReP, including the Somali Response Innovation Lab, Livestock Insurance Consortium and Resilience Nexus Learning & Action Network.  He/she will support the development of evidence of the impact of resilience approaches and the dissemination of knowledge products to inform program adaptation and scale best-practices within Somalia and East Africa. 

Major responsibilities:

Donor positioning and grant acquisition

• Lead SomReP Donor Advisory Group (DAG), ensuring inclusive agenda development process, engaging and relevant program updates, as well as strategic topics salient with donor and/or context, and timely development and dissemination of notes and technical content.
• Actively engage existing donors, sharing briefs, soliciting guidance for key decisions and pitching new ideas and approaches to integrate in future designs. 
• Ensure technical unit team members are actively engaged in technical forums, brining SomReP learning to share with others and position the program as a partner-of-choice.
• Lead the development of positioning papers, technical briefs, value-for-money statements, etc. to position the organization with new donors;
• Actively seek out collaborations with peer structures (BRCiS, FAO, WFP, BORESHA, etc.) to position share learning, scale best practices and enhance reputation.
• Develop strategies and technical briefs and provide backstopping to technical unit team members to develop high-quality technical approaches to inform concept/proposal designs.
• Lead proposal development processes through drafting of concept notes and proposal technical narratives, mobilization of grant writers and technical contributors, engagement with GC, support offices and consortium members.
• Lead Crisis Appeal processes for crisis modifier top-ups with existing donor base through, mobilization of shock impact evidence, presentations of data to donors, development of marketing products and concept notes and follow up.
• Pre-position mutually beneficial relationships with government counterparts in strategic line ministries to access World Bank, AFDB and other multi-lateral finance;
• Lead 2024-2029 SomReP Strategy revision process, ensuring that all stakeholders, government, donors, TU, members, academics’, etc. contributions are taken into account and output is relevant to the opportunities and challenges of the Somali contexts and donor environment. 
• Ensure consortium’s social media platforms are active through development of tweets, support to technical unit members to develop content and finance to update platform formats.

Governance and external partnership

• Manage relations with 8 national directors from member agencies, consulting on key strategic decisions;
• Lead 8-member Steering Committee, including developing agenda, drafting decision-making frameworks, mobilizing technical content and chairing quarterly meeting;
• Lead 5-donor Donor Advisory Committee (DAG), including co-creating agenda, leading the development of technical content, chair meeting through presentation and facilitation of strategic topics, follow-up on decisions decided with donors;
• Lead strategic initiatives emanating from DAG, including taking lead in the drafting of sub-strategies, update/revisions of key governance frameworks, and engagement with other entities and/or platforms.
• Lead government engagement with 5 technical ministries based on consortium’s government engagement strategy (SoDMA, MoLRF, MoAI, MoPEID, and MoE), designing joint actions and delivering on commitments within the constraints of resource availability;
• Technical backstop to technical unit and members to engage focal points, drafting ToRs, negotiation and troubleshooting with government, and linkages with financial and technical resources to realize joint actions.
• Support technical unit members to identity and develop strategic partnerships with government, private sector, civil society and academia to realize consortium’s strategies;
• Ensure an active roster of technical expertise is readily available through preferred supplier system.

Managing multiple projects and contracts with teams.

• Oversee a technical unit team with 24 staff members with 6 direct reports, ensuring projects end on-time, on-target and too specification;
• Support technical unit team to address challenges with members, support offices and government which impact on-time, on-target and too specification delivery of projects.
• Support technical unit team members to develop/iterate technical approaches.
• Coordinate technical unit teams to provide timely technical assistance and support to members to develop and deliver interventions; 
• Risk registers are updated, and issues reported in a timely and complete manner to World Vision systems and donors.
• Ensure consortium knowledge management systems are functional and updated, including Grants Management Dashboard, Program Performance Dashboard, and Box filing system.
• Ensure an active roster of technical expertise is readily available through preferred supplier system.

Thought leadership and scaling best practices in East Africa to INGOs and LNGOs

• Provide strategic guidance to three scaling platforms hosted by the consortium: Response Innovation Lab (SomRIL), Somali Livestock Insurance Consortium (SLIC), and Resilience Nexus Learning & Action Network (RNLAN);
• Identify opportunities and partnership and mobilize finance to scale resilience knowledge across East Africa;
• Develop and disseminate knowledge products, including SomReP Brief, case-studies, technical approach summaries, etc. 
• Support the design and review of research products and development of summaries;
• Identify relevant research and advocacy topics and mobilize finance and technical expertise to develop knowledge products to inform programming and raise awareness and acceptance;
• Support technical unit to implement and disseminate Annual Resilience Measurement (ARM) in partnership with government.

People management

• Develop and update performance management plans.
• Monitor staff performance and provide real-time guidance;
• Motivate staff members to learn new skills, take on new responsibilities and grow professionally.
• Take remedial actions for poor performing staff;
• Sustain women’s internship program to overcome systems obstacle to employment in the consortium.

Requirements:

• Preferred Masters, but acceptable Bachelor’s degree in international development, business administration, social and agricultural development studies;
• A minimum of 7 years’ experience in humanitarian and development practice, with at least 3 years in management positions;
• Strong leadership skills with demonstrated experience either (i) leading a consortium; and/or (ii) managing a 4+ member acquisition/technical team to acquire and deliver complex project/program;
• Experience in external engagement with NGOs, donors, private sector, etc.;
• Excellent oral/written and interpersonal skills;
• Confident communication and documentation skills; ability to represent the consortium to a variety of stakeholders in a range of forums;
• A team player with leadership qualities, excellent flexible project management skills, organization and dependability;
• Capacity to prioritize and manage a diverse range of staff members, projects and activities;
• Able to work on a cross-cultural environment with a multi-national and multi-agency staff members;
• Ability to solve complex problems and to exercise independent judgment;
• Capable of working independently and with demonstrated experience engaging a wide range of stakeholders;
• Master’s degree a strong asset;
• Experience working with or in fragile context settings
• Preferred Master but will consider Bachelors graduates (if other relevant experience is demonstrated)
• International relations/studies, Agricultural science, MBA and/or market systems development; Social science;

go to method of application »

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Communications - development and distribution of content that promotes the KBD impact

• Develop and execute an overarching KBD communications strategy that delivers on the program’s priorities in the region, in close coordination with WVUS.
• Produce material (blogs, stories, videos, etc) oriented towards engagement of industry/ sector peers and donors that demonstrates thought leadership and advancing change in child protection.
• Travel to the field to train and coordinate the KBD Field Teams to gather weekly content (from program participants like teachers, students, etc) that elevates the project’s impact, then write and produce stories of change that can be shared via social media and with donors.
• Work with the Support Office to identify material suitable for donor engagement, donor visits, etc.
• Support the Resource Acquisition and Management (RAM) team by producing communication resources for profiling the project.

Learning and Development – communicating impact of the Kenya Big Dream

• Raise the visibility of KBD by capturing and communicating evidence and/or program impact, that speaks to a variety of stakeholders.
• In collaboration with the project team, produce engaging and high-quality learning products from project monitoring data, project evaluations, learnings on Social Behaviour Change, etc.
• Represent KBD and its research findings and learnings to external forums and networks.

Other responsibilities

• Support the celebration of days and weeks that mark key events or topics (e.g International Day of Zero Tolerance to FGM) in order to promote, through awareness and action, the objectives of KBD and WV.
• Carry out any duties that may be assigned from time to time by the supervisor or designee.
• Attend and participate in daily and weekly chapel and devotional meetings.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience required

• Degree in Communications, Public Relations, International relations, international development or related field
• Minimum four (4) year’s professional experience in the international development sector specializing in communications, public relations, or a similar field.
• Demonstrable experience in writing engaging print and digital content for programmatic knowledge, learning or evidence, e.g. blogs, case studies, summary reports, and stories of change, for technical audiences and/or other stakeholders.
• Proven track record of distilling complex information into accessible communication content.
• Competent in digital communications and working with digital platforms and devices; including but not limited to MS Office, Adobe Suit and other knowledge management platforms.
• Competent in basic graphics designs; Adobe Suit is desired and photography skills preferred
•  Strong team player with an interest in co-creating engaging content
• Must be a self-starter with proven analytical, problem-solving skills and ability to work with minimum supervision
• Understanding of knowledge exchange and impact approaches such as networking, engagement activities, communication to professionals and the public
• Ability to interpret and identify key results from research evidence and summarize in plain language