Head of Partnership and Policy – East Africa (Nairobi based)
This is a unique opportunity to join an innovative, award-winning global charity and its non-profit trading arm, which is selling solar lights at enormous scale across 4 countries in East Africa. Our market-building approach is bringing electricity to hundreds of thousands of rural households and reducing reliance on fuels such as kerosene, and is the first stage in an ambitious programme to eradicate the noxious kerosene lamp from the whole of Africa by 2020. You will be a dynamic relationship builder, capable of forming links with important in-country stakeholders in the government and aid sectors, be able to secure funding and support for our work, and support the conversion of our growth strategy into compelling programmes that can be effectively delivered on the ground. As a fast growing charity we require a strong leader, with a proven track record of people management, project management, and team-building, capable of growing and leading in-country teams in line with the ambitions of the organisation.
Job Title: Partnership and Programme Manager – East Africa
Location: Nairobi, with frequent travel to other East African territories, such as Zambia, Tanzania, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda and potentially West Africa
About SolarAid
The UK-based charity, SolarAid, has created SunnyMoney, an innovative, fast-growing social enterprise, which has operations in Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia. SolarAid focuses on business based solutions to poverty and the charity’s aim is to enable the world’s poorest people to have access to clean, renewable power by tackling problems at their root – in this case, the market failure which means off-grid rural Africa has access to subsidised, expensive kerosene for lighting, but there is no viable market that enables people to buy quality solar lights. By selling small solar lights to rural households through community channels – such as schools – we’re building a vibrant solar market in off-grid, rural Africa from the bottom up. Our overarching goal is to eradicate the use of kerosene for lighting by creating a genuine ‘pico’ solar lighting market, bringing prosperity, creating jobs and offering genuine consumer choice across a range of market players. This strategy underpins our mission to eradicate the kerosene light from Africa by the end of this decade. To find out more, go to www.solar-aid.org.
This is a unique opportunity to join an innovative, award-winning global charity and its non-profit trading arm, which is selling solar lights at enormous scale across 4 countries in East Africa. Our market-building approach is bringing electricity to hundreds of thousands of rural households and reducing reliance on fuels such as kerosene, and is the first stage in an ambitious programme to eradicate the noxious kerosene lamp from the whole of Africa by 2020. You will be a dynamic relationship builder, capable of forming links with important in-country stakeholders in the government and aid sectors, be able to secure funding and support for our work, and support the conversion of our growth strategy into compelling programmes that can be effectively delivered on the ground. As a fast growing charity we require a strong leader, with a proven track record of people management, project management, and team-building, capable of growing and leading in-country teams in line with the ambitions of the organisation.
Job Title: Partnership and Programme Manager – East Africa
Location: Nairobi, with frequent travel to other East African territories, such as Zambia, Tanzania, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda and potentially West Africa
About SolarAid
The UK-based charity, SolarAid, has created SunnyMoney, an innovative, fast-growing social enterprise, which has operations in Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia. SolarAid focuses on business based solutions to poverty and the charity’s aim is to enable the world’s poorest people to have access to clean, renewable power by tackling problems at their root – in this case, the market failure which means off-grid rural Africa has access to subsidised, expensive kerosene for lighting, but there is no viable market that enables people to buy quality solar lights. By selling small solar lights to rural households through community channels – such as schools – we’re building a vibrant solar market in off-grid, rural Africa from the bottom up. Our overarching goal is to eradicate the use of kerosene for lighting by creating a genuine ‘pico’ solar lighting market, bringing prosperity, creating jobs and offering genuine consumer choice across a range of market players. This strategy underpins our mission to eradicate the kerosene light from Africa by the end of this decade. To find out more, go to www.solar-aid.org.
Mission for this post
We are looking for a dynamic, strategically minded individual to create and optimise relationships with governments, bilateral and multilateral aid agencies and relevant financial institutions. We want to promote the ‘right to clean light’ and align stakeholders with the market-building mission SolarAid and SunnyMoney are undertaking. The role will involve relationship-building, sector representation, policy influence and negotiation for funding of specific market-building and educational programmes. There will be a small element of supporting programme design in collaboration with the SolarAid and SunnyMoney teams. As the first in-country partnership role for the charity, the mission is to lead and grow a pan-African team, working closely with our London office, in order to grow our capacity to influence important stakeholders and attract serious funding across our market-building operations.
Objectives for this post for first 6 months
1. Identify and create relationships with key stakeholders within the designated territories, presenting the compelling ‘business case’ for market-building for clean solar as a solution to poverty and ill-health in off-grid communities
2. Relationship-building and policy influencing with key stakeholders to ensure solar market-building and the ‘right to clean light’ rise up the agenda to become a priority for governments and aid agencies operating in Africa
3. Seek, nurture and close funding opportunities that will further SolarAid and SunnyMoney’s core work, or build on our strategy to eradicate the kerosene lamp from Africa through partners
4. Where required, support the SolarAid and SunnyMoney teams in the development of well-conceived and deliverable in-country programmes that satisfy funder requirements and strategically fit SolarAid’s overall kerosene eradication strategy
5. Build the in-country partnership and programme capacity across Africa as the organisation grows
6. Ensure that all financial and narrative reports are submitted internally and externally on time, in the correct format and to a high standard
Duties and Responsibilities
Partnership and organisational relationships
1. Build and lead an in-country partnership and programme development team: recruit A-player staff and interns, supervise their performance, create development plans, set performance targets, and regularly review with staff.
2. Develop strong relationships with partners, local and national governments to enable us to further our strategic objectives, and meet and exceed targets
3. Proactively engage and collaborate with senior management team
4. Ensure all legal requirements within remit of the role are complied with
5. Ensure that end of year targets are met and within budget
6. Responsible for ensuring that all reporting deadlines are met.
Secure funding / programme development support
1. Working with headquarters, evaluate funding opportunities, agree targets and develop a funding pipeline, nurturing all agreed leads and opportunities to conversion
2. Support in-country operations teams and charity headquarters to develop programmes in line with the strategic and financial objectives of the charity and its non-profit enterprise, SunnyMoney
3. Report regularly on the funding pipeline and obstacles, working with headquarters and in-country teams to remove barriers to funding
4. Ensure programme and partner requirements are well-communicated throughout the organisation and controls and measures are in place to monitor, evaluate and report on programme progress
Person Specification Skills/ knowledge
Partnership and organisational relationships:
1. Self-starter, capable of shaping, leading and growing a dynamic partnership and policy function within a global organisation
2. Strong communication skills, representing the organisation at all levels at meetings and conferences, writing comprehensive reports and policy/research documents, delivering excellent presentations
3. Experience of organising relationship-building events and hosting policymaker visits
4. Experience of working with Governments and bilateral/multilateral aid agencies. Ideally demonstrable experience of helping to shape government and aid agency policy and practice
5. Strong understanding of the latest trends in international development, programme funding, and ideally the African energy sector – particularly business-based energy access solutions.
6. Experience of sector representation and achieving change through associations, networks or coalitions of agencies pursuing common interests
Secure funding / programme development:
1. Experience of all stages of the project management cycle including participatory assessment, design (including the use of logical frameworks), monitoring, evaluation and learning, and/or equivalent business planning and commercial experience
2. Strong negotiation and financial planning skills
3. Ability to project manage complex proposals involving input from a wide range of colleagues
4. Ability to work closely with colleagues to adapt existing working practices to meet the requirements of large statutory and trust grant applications
5. Entrepreneurial flair, naturally seeking ways to increase exposure and open new opportunities and potential for the organisation
Other
1. Exceptional staff management skills (recruiting, developing, performance managing teams, motivating staff).
2. Experience of managing human and financial resources with the ability to set objectives, monitor and evaluate progress and outcomes
3. Able to make decisions, take the initiative, originate action and be responsible for the decisions made
4. Computer literacy (project planning, spreadsheets, word processing, email/internet)
5. Advanced university degree with experience in partnership and policy management or equivalent career experience
6. Excellent oral and written English
Values:
1. Commitment to our mission and developing the solar market
2. Participatory and collaborative working approach
3. Self starting, passionate, trustworthy, dependable and decisive leader who communicates effectively and consistently works efficiently to high standards
The post involves frequent travel.
We are looking for a dynamic, strategically minded individual to create and optimise relationships with governments, bilateral and multilateral aid agencies and relevant financial institutions. We want to promote the ‘right to clean light’ and align stakeholders with the market-building mission SolarAid and SunnyMoney are undertaking. The role will involve relationship-building, sector representation, policy influence and negotiation for funding of specific market-building and educational programmes. There will be a small element of supporting programme design in collaboration with the SolarAid and SunnyMoney teams. As the first in-country partnership role for the charity, the mission is to lead and grow a pan-African team, working closely with our London office, in order to grow our capacity to influence important stakeholders and attract serious funding across our market-building operations.
Objectives for this post for first 6 months
1. Identify and create relationships with key stakeholders within the designated territories, presenting the compelling ‘business case’ for market-building for clean solar as a solution to poverty and ill-health in off-grid communities
2. Relationship-building and policy influencing with key stakeholders to ensure solar market-building and the ‘right to clean light’ rise up the agenda to become a priority for governments and aid agencies operating in Africa
3. Seek, nurture and close funding opportunities that will further SolarAid and SunnyMoney’s core work, or build on our strategy to eradicate the kerosene lamp from Africa through partners
4. Where required, support the SolarAid and SunnyMoney teams in the development of well-conceived and deliverable in-country programmes that satisfy funder requirements and strategically fit SolarAid’s overall kerosene eradication strategy
5. Build the in-country partnership and programme capacity across Africa as the organisation grows
6. Ensure that all financial and narrative reports are submitted internally and externally on time, in the correct format and to a high standard
Duties and Responsibilities
Partnership and organisational relationships
1. Build and lead an in-country partnership and programme development team: recruit A-player staff and interns, supervise their performance, create development plans, set performance targets, and regularly review with staff.
2. Develop strong relationships with partners, local and national governments to enable us to further our strategic objectives, and meet and exceed targets
3. Proactively engage and collaborate with senior management team
4. Ensure all legal requirements within remit of the role are complied with
5. Ensure that end of year targets are met and within budget
6. Responsible for ensuring that all reporting deadlines are met.
Secure funding / programme development support
1. Working with headquarters, evaluate funding opportunities, agree targets and develop a funding pipeline, nurturing all agreed leads and opportunities to conversion
2. Support in-country operations teams and charity headquarters to develop programmes in line with the strategic and financial objectives of the charity and its non-profit enterprise, SunnyMoney
3. Report regularly on the funding pipeline and obstacles, working with headquarters and in-country teams to remove barriers to funding
4. Ensure programme and partner requirements are well-communicated throughout the organisation and controls and measures are in place to monitor, evaluate and report on programme progress
Person Specification Skills/ knowledge
Partnership and organisational relationships:
1. Self-starter, capable of shaping, leading and growing a dynamic partnership and policy function within a global organisation
2. Strong communication skills, representing the organisation at all levels at meetings and conferences, writing comprehensive reports and policy/research documents, delivering excellent presentations
3. Experience of organising relationship-building events and hosting policymaker visits
4. Experience of working with Governments and bilateral/multilateral aid agencies. Ideally demonstrable experience of helping to shape government and aid agency policy and practice
5. Strong understanding of the latest trends in international development, programme funding, and ideally the African energy sector – particularly business-based energy access solutions.
6. Experience of sector representation and achieving change through associations, networks or coalitions of agencies pursuing common interests
Secure funding / programme development:
1. Experience of all stages of the project management cycle including participatory assessment, design (including the use of logical frameworks), monitoring, evaluation and learning, and/or equivalent business planning and commercial experience
2. Strong negotiation and financial planning skills
3. Ability to project manage complex proposals involving input from a wide range of colleagues
4. Ability to work closely with colleagues to adapt existing working practices to meet the requirements of large statutory and trust grant applications
5. Entrepreneurial flair, naturally seeking ways to increase exposure and open new opportunities and potential for the organisation
Other
1. Exceptional staff management skills (recruiting, developing, performance managing teams, motivating staff).
2. Experience of managing human and financial resources with the ability to set objectives, monitor and evaluate progress and outcomes
3. Able to make decisions, take the initiative, originate action and be responsible for the decisions made
4. Computer literacy (project planning, spreadsheets, word processing, email/internet)
5. Advanced university degree with experience in partnership and policy management or equivalent career experience
6. Excellent oral and written English
Values:
1. Commitment to our mission and developing the solar market
2. Participatory and collaborative working approach
3. Self starting, passionate, trustworthy, dependable and decisive leader who communicates effectively and consistently works efficiently to high standards
The post involves frequent travel.
How to apply
Interested applicants please email CV together with a covering letter addressed to Pippa Palmer which explains how you meet the criteria in this job description to: recruitment@solar-aid.org
Important: Please entitle your email subject line with: Your Name Head of Partnership and Policy and save letter together with CV in one attached file. Deadline for applicants: 31st August 2013
Interested applicants please email CV together with a covering letter addressed to Pippa Palmer which explains how you meet the criteria in this job description to: recruitment@solar-aid.org
Important: Please entitle your email subject line with: Your Name Head of Partnership and Policy and save letter together with CV in one attached file. Deadline for applicants: 31st August 2013
Head of Partnerships and Policy - East Africa
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