Regional Capacity Development Specialist (East Africa)

This is a Consultant Role based in East Africa. Applicants must be citizens or have the authorization to work in the sub-region. GFC will not cover relocation costs or the cost of living. We strongly encourage qualified women to apply.

Who we are:

In the fight for children’s rights, Global Fund for Children champions bold ideas that would otherwise go unheard. We are the only global nonprofit dedicated to discovering, funding, and coaching truly community-based organizations that empower children and youth. More details about our programs and history can be found on our website at www.globalfundforchildren.org.

Global Fund for Children understands that to reach children and youth in disadvantaged, vulnerable, and/or marginalized contexts, it is vital to partner with local, cutting-edge organizations that are already working to solve these challenges in their communities. Although these organizations have a deep understanding and commitment to the needs of children and youth, they often face high barriers to access financial and other resources; technical knowledge; and connections to other organizations working on similar issues. We also recognize the importance of partnering with more experienced organizations, where appropriate, to contribute to specific activities where their knowledge and perspectives will be valuable.

Our local partners in Africa are as diverse as the children and young people they serve. One thing unites them all: a deep, game-changing commitment to children and youth of the “last mile.” GFC’s long history in Africa and our commitment to our mission to reinforce the capacity of grassroots organizations in programmatic outcomes and organizational development, positions us to strengthen grantee partner knowledge, networks and programmatic impact as it pertains to children and youth empowerment and wellbeing across the region.

Who we need:

GFC is launching a pilot initiative to address persistent barriers to education resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The initiative will mitigate intensified risks for children left out and falling behind in a COVID-19 world. GFC believes that, especially in this pivotal moment, grassroots civil society—funded, strengthened, and connected—can and must ensure that those children who have faced the most significant barriers to education are given the opportunity and support they need to succeed.

The initiative will achieve this by supporting grassroots civil society working on various interventions to ensure a return to school for children in their communities, addressing academic gender gaps, creating complementary learning spaces, and advocating enabling environments for consistent, quality education.

GFC seeks a solutions-oriented and partnerships-focused individual to join its globally-based Africa team and lead a consultancy role supporting community-based organizations in the sub-region. We are looking for a driven individual with a deep knowledge of grassroots organizations and a trust-based relationships mindset to work with our prospective, current and alumni partners to provide mentoring as they evolve, strengthen their networks, and identify programmatic growth areas in their field. In addition, the Capacity Development Specialist will strengthen the network of new and current partners linking this group with relevant technical resources to support needs and goals identified by partners. During this consultancy, the Capacity Development Specialist will work closely with their counterpart in West Africa, and report to the Regional Director for Africa in Washington, D.C.

What you’ll do:

Partnership Development and Management

· In collaboration with the regional team, identify African grassroots organizations that align with GFC’s education priorities and that meet GFC’s funding criteria

· Conduct and maintain due diligence in identifying and understanding potential grassroots partners in the region

· Build trust-based relationships with local organization partner leaders and staff, through calls and visits, as the foundation for peer-to-peer capacity development and support, from an empowering partnership approach that challenges traditional power dynamics between donors and grantees

· Facilitate participatory organizational capacity self-assessments and capacity development planning to support grassroots partners’ organizational development

· Build and maintain a resource list of quality organizational development consultants, training firms, and professional development opportunities relevant to partners, particularly local/regional service providers

· Provide direct mentoring and coaching to partner leadership and staff as needed and in alignment with personal expertise and experience

· Contribute to creating, nurturing, and documenting the partner communities of practice;

· Collaborate with program team and global team on articulation and implementation of overall programmatic strategies and practices.

Grant Management

· Advise on selection of new local partners via dissemination of calls for new partners, referral of organizations, scouting visits and vetting of potential partners, and preparation of written recommendations for internal grantmaking committees and official grantmaking cycles.

· Work with potential and current partners to prepare annual grant proposals and budgets, and manage grantmaking process from approval to disbursement utilizing GFC’s online grant disbursement system.

· Lead on the grants disbursement process in collaboration with the finance team

· Facilitate the identification of supplemental grant opportunities with and for partners as well as expeditious grand disbursement

· Ensure partners are informed and equipped to meet grant monitoring requirements, including internal GFC grant reporting and relevant institutional donor/project requirements.

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Knowledge and Learning**

· Design and implement regional and national convenings to bring partners together for peer learning, group trainings, network-building, and catalyzing joint advocacy efforts. This includes setting themes and agendas and coordinating with additional facilitators and local service providers to ensure effective events

· Advise on and contribute to the design and development of a learning agenda for grantee partners and GFC.

· Work in collaboration with the regional team and members of the staff to organize research, information, and results from proposals, reports, and surveys.

· Explore and pursue avenues for reflection, knowledge gathering, sharing, and learning with partners contributing to their development, our thought leadership, and funder insights.

· Support partners in their efforts to monitor and evaluate their interventions focused on innovative mechanisms to provide children access to education.

· Share relevant technical and organizational development resources, contacts, news, and information with partners through regular email communication and newsletters. Use field observations, content review, periodic site visits, and regular communication with partners, and partner feedback surveys, to collect data on partner progress against defined overarching indicators for the project;

· Represent GFC on issue-specific affinity groups, coordinating networks and coalitions;

· Leverage personal expertise on national and regional issues relevant to GFC’s strategy to support advocacy efforts and educate relevant external networks to support positive social change for children.

Communications and Reporting

· Support partners to ensure they are informed and equipped to meet grant monitoring and reporting obligations per GFC and donor requirements.

· Contribute brief, original content for program sections of GFC’s blog, website, annual report, and other communications materials, as well as for external publications.

· Contribute to creation, editing, and dissemination of regional and issue area briefs.

Who we’re looking for:

Candidates should demonstrate the following range of skills, experience, and qualities:

● Extensive experience working with children or youth-focused grassroots and/or community-based organizations in Africa, particularly within East Africa.

● Broad understanding of the education sector within the African context, including different approaches utilized to provide access to education or complement formal education system in the region;

● Demonstrated understanding of strategic, programmatic, and operational challenges that local organizations face, particularly in their nascent and transitional stages of development;

● Existing bank of resources—tools, professional contacts, personal experience, and knowledge—to support partners in facing and resolving organizational challenges and effectively elevating the voices of the children and young people they serve;

● Proven skills in organizing and facilitating dynamic meetings and group learning opportunities with grassroots leaders;

● Sensitivity to safeguarding procedures in institutional settings;

● Excellent writing, communication, presentation, critical-thinking, interpersonal, and relationship management skills;

● High emotional intelligence and the ability to work collaboratively with humility across multiple cultural contexts and time zones.

● Ability and willingness to travel within Africa, usually to rural areas; occasional travel abroad for meetings or conferences;

● Motivated to grow in diverse environments with people of all ages, races, ethnicities, religions, abilities, gender identities, and sexual orientations.

Compensation

The compensation rate for this consultancy will be based on the candidate’s qualifications, experience, and deliverables and will not exceed a cap of 3,100.00 USD per month.

This consultancy is for twenty-four months with the possibility of renewal.

We are committed to protecting the health and wellbeing of our team members and our community during the global coronavirus pandemic. Our full team is currently working from home with plans to return to the office being reviewed on an ongoing basis. We will continue to monitor the situation and our team’s feedback as we plan for the coming months.