Liberia: Regional Capacity Development Specialist – West Africa

Do you want to ignite innovation to help children and youth transform the world? Do you believe in the power of community-led change?

GFC is launching a two-year initiative to fund, support, and strengthen the capacity of locally based partners committed to addressing the causes of violence experienced by adolescent girls, while seeking to empower them to act as agents of change in their communities in West Africa. Based on learning from this initial phase, GFC hopes to continue and expand this initiative. This initiative will aim to strengthen 6-8 partners' capacity and programs, which target violence against girls in Liberia, Senegal, and Sierra Leone.

This is a Two Year Consultant Role based in West Africa. Applicants must be citizens or have 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.

You will join a multinational team of caring and committed individuals who believe in investing in bold ideas to help grassroots organizations deepen their impact and advocate for children’s rights. We value courage, excellence, learning, partnership, and inclusion, as well as kindness and passion. Our partners’ visions for change inspire all we do. Feedback and learning inspire us to do better, and we strive to be youth-centered.

How does it all work?

We invest in locally-led organizations, typically in cohorts united by issue areas and geography, which improve the lives of children and youth challenged by poverty, injustice, and discrimination. We provide flexible, small grants and help our partners strengthen their organizational capacity in areas most important to them. We fund organizations that are tackling tough issues in our four thematic focus areas: education, gender equity, youth empowerment, and freedom from violence and exploitation. We seek to boost the collective efforts of our partners to influence transformative change and mobilize networks, and we encourage our partners to learn from each other.

What will you be doing?

Organizational Capacity Development:

• Build trust-based relationships with local organization partner leaders 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
• Support partners to strengthen a girl-centered approach to programming that incorporates girls’ participation and leadership
• Perform joint participatory organizational capacity assessments with partners to identify areas for organizational strengthening and progress over time
• Co-design with partners discrete organizational development activities that may be funded; field and recommend opportunities for professional development and participation in conferences that may be funded by opportunity grants
• Support partners in their efforts to monitor and evaluation their interventions focused on changing knowledge, attitudes, and practices around violence against girls
• 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
• Build an understanding of the effectiveness of partners programs through one-on-one discussions and other means
• 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;
• Lead and support partners in critical thinking and learning processes such as reflection and review processes, TOC development and clarification, log frames and results frameworks where applicable.
• Contribute to creating, nurturing and documenting the initiative’s community of practice;
• Advise on and contribute to the development of a learning agenda for grantee partners.

Grantmaking:

• 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 renewal partners on preparation of annual primary grant proposals and budgets, and manage grantmaking process from approval to disbursement utilizing GFC’s GIFTS online system.
• Process supplemental grants through GFC’s internal decision-making processes and through GFC’s grantmaking online platform from approval to disbursement.
• Ensure partners are informed and equipped to meet grant monitoring requirements, including internal GFC grant reporting and relevant institutional donor/project requirements.
• Provide direct assistance to partners who may need assistance to meet these requirements.

Knowledge Sharing and Networks:

• Design and implement regional and national convenings to bring partners together for knowledge exchange, group trainings, network-building and catalyzing of joint advocacy efforts, including setting themes and agendas, and coordinating with additional facilitators and local service providers to ensure effective events.
• Represent GFC on issue-specific affinity groups, coordinating networks and coalitions;
• Leverage personal expertise on national 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

• Ensure timely and effective fulfillment of grant deliverables and reporting to donors
• 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.

Are you the right person?

We are seeking a Capacity Development Specialist with a strong feminist perspective toward providing empowering support to community-based organizations that address violence against girls. This person will bring a solid understanding of gender justice, with a particular focus on the social, cultural, political, and economic factors that affect violence against girls in West Africa and interest in the intersection of this issue with the women’s and child rights spaces.

The Capacity Development Specialist will work with the cohort of grantee partners to collaboratively identify and strengthen priority areas within their organizations. The Specialist will have knowledge of movement building, grassroots, and policy advocacy to bring to bear as they strengthen a cohort of partners and link this group with relevant regional technical and funding resources. The Capacity Development Specialist will be GFC’s external face and internal resource on the ground in the region. The Capacity Development specialist will work remotely from West Africa (Liberia, Senegal or Sierra Leone), closely with Washington, DC-based staff and report to the Regional Program Director for Africa based in Washington D.C.

Essential Qualifications

• Extensive experience working with grassroots and/or community-based organizations in Africa particularly within Liberia, Sierra Leone, and/Senegal;
• Experience and passionate commitment to girl-centered programming and girl-led organizations;
• Broad understanding of feminist approaches and gender justice within the West African context;
• 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 girls within their organizations;
• Proven skills in organizing and facilitating dynamic meetings and group learning opportunities with grassroots leaders, particularly young women leaders;
• Full professional proficiency in English and French is ideal; proficiency in one or more local languages such as Krio or Wolof is an asset;
• Authorization to reside and work in Liberia, Senegal, or Sierra Leone. This consultancy is expected to be a local hire in one of these countries;
• Sensitivity to safeguarding procedures in institutional settings;
• Excellent writing, communication, and presentation skills;
• Willing to travel within and across Africa particularly the three countries of interest up to 40% of the time;
• High emotional intelligence and the ability to work collaboratively with humility across multiple cultural contexts;
• Motivated to grow in diverse environments with people of all ages, races, ethnicities, religions, abilities, gender identities, and sexual orientations.

How to apply:

Please send a cover letter that describes your experience with girl-centered programming and feminist leadership, including your compensation preferences, and a resume or curriculum vitae, all in English, to careers@globalfundforchildren.org, with “Africa Capacity Development Specialist” in the subject line. The Consultancy is open until filled and only short-listed candidates will be contacted. Check us out at www.globalfundforchildren.org for more information about our organization.

GFC is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.