Deputy Director 391 views2 applications

JOB DESCRIPTION

Job Title: Deputy Director

Location: Nairobi, with occasional travel to the field, locally and internationally.

Reports to: Executive Director

Direct Reports: Program Manager, Branding and Communications Manager

About Akili Dada

Akili Dada is a feminist, girls and young women leadership incubator based in Nairobi Kenya working across East Africa. We work alongside adolescent girls and young women cognizant of their agency and inherent capacity to create and implement solutions to the challenges that their communities face. Our investment lies in programming that intervenes at critical and potentially catalytic periods of transition for adolescent girls and young women – primary to secondary school, secondary to tertiary education, professional career and young adulthood – to propel them into effective change agents for the African continent. By selecting from and building the capacity of some of Africa’s most innovative young women, we are meeting the urgent need for both more African women in leadership as well as the overarching need for creative and empathetic leadership that holds justice at its core.

Our vision: A world in which African women leaders are actively participating in key decision-making processes across sectors

Our mission: To nurture transformative leadership in girls and young women from underserved backgrounds to meet the urgent need for more African women in leadership.

We apply a girl centered approach to educating and cultivating leadership in adolescent girls and young women. This is executed through four key strategies to nurture growth and meaningful impact;

● Financial support: We offer long-term* financial support to girls and young women, effectively bridging the gap of access to financial resources which often bars them from accessing opportunities.

● Leadership develop: We build the capacity of girls and young women, equipping them with the internal resources, personal support and experiential learning necessary to build leadership experience and track record.

● Feminist Movement Building & Advocacy: We convene girls and young women facilitating training, alliance building and networking to enable them to organize and advocate with decision-makers. We deliberately amplify girls and young women’s voices using our platforms to highlight the issues that are critical to them while raising the profile of their contributions to Africa’s development.

● Mentorship: We facilitate the space and community for girls and young women to learn from role models and female leaders. We intentionally foster a culture of sisterhood – ensuring that they build support systems for themselves for the long term.

From individual dream to collective reality:

Akili Dada continues to co-author a number of great life-changing stories with remarkable girls and young women who are positively impacting the African continent. A summary of our impact to date includes:

● 164 Scholarships awarded to academically gifted girls from underserved backgrounds (2005 to date)

● A 100% graduation rate of Akili Dada scholars who complete their high school education and transition to institutions of higher learning locally and abroad.

● Over 530 young women student leadership aspirants trained from public universities across the country (2014 to date)

● Approximately 64,000$ in seed grants awarded to young women social entrepreneurs and innovators (2013-2017)

● Over 45,000 individuals impacted through girl and young women leaders social change initiatives

● Journeying with 40 young women drawn from 20 women led human rights organization in Kenya and Tanzania seeking to ignite the feminist movement in the two countries. Through the initiative, the 20 organizations access grants of $25,000 per year (total grants = $1,000,000) that the young women in the program will use to implement projects of their design in communities of their choosing.

Job Purpose:

As a learning and growing organisation, we are rapidly expanding our work and are looking for an ambitious, visionary, authentic, dynamic and fearless young woman to join our vibrant and passionate team.

Under the overall strategic direction of the Executive Director, the Deputy Director will play a major role in leadership and implementation of the current strategic plan providing oversight to programs and support departments. As the Deputy Director your role will include:

Resource Mobilization & Reporting

● Prospecting, identifying and following up on potential opportunities/call for proposals from a wide variety of donors and partners.

● Lead proposal development processes including proposal writing, packaging and submission.

● Support the Executive Director in donor cultivation and relationship building including friend raising for the organisation.

● Lead the donor reporting process including report writing, review and submission of reports within the stipulated period.

● Support the Executive Director in developing and submitting other donor related reports and facilitating program updates.

Staff Management

● Model and encourage active practice of the principles of the “Akili Dada’s – Standards for Professional Conduct” including Sisterhood.

● Support the Executive Director in maintaining a healthy and empowering office environment that encourages open, honest and productive communication among staff and with partner organizations through coaching and professional development for staff.

● Support the Executive Director in promoting and monitor staff care and well- being. Model healthy work-life balance practices and support appropriate interventions in response to identified collective staff care needs.

● Facilitate interdepartmental coordination including monitoring implementation of program/project work plans against budgets and the strategic plan as well as coordinating reporting of the same.

● House and operationalise internal controls as well as ensure organizational policy compliance.

● Support staff to develop and measure key performance indicators including facilitating adequate capacity building for effective performance of their roles.

● Identify and support individual and collective staff learning needs.

Advocacy & Stakeholder Management

● Map out Akili Dada’s stakeholders and develop a stakeholder engagement plan to keep them informed and engaged.

● Map out key external policies and government regulations to ensure that Akili Dada remains compliant with the same.

● Represent Akili Dada in various networking and advocacy spaces that Akili Dada is part of.

● Ensure institutional relationships with external stakeholders (national/international), donors and different actors i.e. government and government bodies, networks, embassies and the private sector for both partnership & fundraising opportunities.

● Ensure that the Program Leads provide adequate level of representation in relevant thematic networking spaces.

● Oversee Akili Dada’s advocacy strategy implementation.

● Prospect, identify and cultivate advocacy spaces that Akili Dada can engage in.

Monitoring and Evaluation

● Oversee the implementation of a robust Monitoring and Evaluation system.

● Oversee tracking of Akili Dada strategic plan key performance indicators.

● Support staff, programs and support departments to develop Key Performance indicators to drive the attainment of strategic goals

● Manage the team and other departments in the absence of the Executive Director

● Other responsibilities as may be required.

Academic & Professional Profile

● Education related with Development studies or any related field (communications, political science, law, etc.) at the Undergraduate Level. A master’s degree is desired but not a must. (Significant work experience equivalent in lieu of a degree is acceptable)

● Knowledge and experience in girls and women’s rights programming, program development, donor rules and regulations, coordination of processes and donor liaison.

● 3-5 years in senior management with at least 7 years work experience

Competencies and Skills

● A self identified feminist who is passionate about girls and young women.

● A lover of people with excellent interpersonal skills.

● Experience in Project Cycle Management and Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Lessons Learned tools.

● Able to oversee multiple tasks, prioritizing and delegating. Able to build trust and enforce procedures.

● Experience of representation at national and local levels.

● Experience in dealing with donors and government officials.

● Excellent written and verbal presentation skills

● Adaptive leadership

● Willingness to travel

● Excellent negotiation and networking skills

This is a full time position (40 hours per week) with a competitive remuneration package, which includes health and life insurance, retirement benefits as well as an allowance for your own professional development. True to our mission, Akili Dada believes in investing in the leadership development of our own staff in a nurturing, collaborative and supportive environment.