Programme Officer – Special Initiatives, Ford Foundation

JOB TITLE: Programme Officer – Special Initiatives, Ford Foundation

Background

The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) is a pioneering grantmaking foundation headquartered in Accra, Ghana. AWDF was founded by and for African women. Since its founding in 2001, AWDF has continued to support a growing portfolio of grants to leading women’s rights organisations and feminist movements across Africa, while also supporting knowledge generation, capacity building, movement building and donor advocacy around African women’s activist histories, movement resourcing needs, and more recently, feminist futures.

Job Summary

The Programme Officer – Special Initiatives, Ford Foundation, plays a critical role in the Grants Department with a primary responsibility for development, coordination, management and implementation of the Ford Foundation funded Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) project in Senegal, Nigeria and Ghana. Also aggregating learning and contributing to the other
work of the Grants team in general. The latter includes working closely with the team to grow the grants portfolio, knowledge production particularly related to sexual and gender based violence in the Ford focus countries, and contributing to monitoring, learning and evaluation. The role will work in close collaboration with other Grants Programme Officers and Assistants, and with staff in communications, knowledge management, movement building, resource mobilisation, finance, administration and overall management.

Specific Duties

• Support AWDF’s grant processing, analysis and provision of technical support to grantees
• Oversee a specified portfolio of grants under the Ford SGBV fund among others
• Coordinate and lead the outreach initiatives, acting as a point person for the Ford funded SGBV initiative
• Support development of processes, work plans and budgets to meet Ford Foundation requirements, including coordination of due diligence, analysis and reporting of information trends from grantees and working closely with Donor Liaison in the production of the relevant reports.
• Act as point person for agreed liaison and information sharing on the Ford funded SGBV initiative
• Liaise closely with the Capacity Building team regarding strengthening work with grantees funded under the Ford funded SGBV initiative
• Provide support to AWDF’s advocacy, outreach and communication functions, in Senegal, Nigeria and Ghana and West Africa
• Participate and support for AWDF’s fundraising activities as relevant
• Participate in Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning, working closely with the MEL specialist and Knowledge Management team to develop and implement creative ways of documenting and disseminating learning under the Ford funded SGBV initiative
• Support the development of tools and processes for greater efficiency during the evaluation and selection of grantees
• Lead in development of due diligence practices and activities for the Ford funded SGBV initiative, in liaison with the Finance Department and MEL team. Participate in due diligence visits that manage grants processes related to lessons learned re: processes and subject matter content and context.
• Analysis, Report writing and documentation of Ford funded grantee’s contributions, challenges and overall performance.
• Lead in the analysis, documentation and learning of implementation in relation to Ford Foundation requirements
• Keep abreast of relevant issues for African women’s rights overall and in reference to SGBV, with a focus on Senegal, Nigeria and Ghana, and share knowledge and learning with team members and other internal and external stakeholders as appropriate
• Keep abreast of relevant issues for African women’s rights overall and in reference to SGBV, with a focus on Senegal, Nigeria and Ghana, and share knowledge and learning with team members and other internal and external stakeholders as appropriate
• Contribute to AWDF technical support activities for African women’s rights organisations and movements and build and maintain relationships with other individuals and institutions as necessary
• Represent AWDF at national and international public events and meetings as requested by AWDF senior management
• Promote AWDF’s values and principles which include a feminist ethos, equality, collaborative ways of working, team-work and positive interaction with diverse staffing and stakeholder groups

Essential Knowledge and Experience

• In depth understanding of feminism and strong commitment to social justice, women’s rights and social change in Africa
• Skilled at assessing and managing grants/ project budgets/ donor funds to women’s rights organisations, ideally in the context of grant making
• Experienced with bilateral and/or multilateral funding and working with bilateral and multilateral donors
• An excellent communicator – French and English – both written and oral, a critical thinker with an analytical approach to information.
• A team player, who demonstrates the values and principles of feminism and social justice
• An experienced programme officer
• Proactive and able to work and lead with minimum supervision
• High level of proficiency in MS Office and your experience of working with information management systems / databases
• Excellent planning and management skills
• Ability to work both independently and as part of a team
• Ability to work to tight deadlines
• Ability to travel within Africa/ internationally essential
• Willingness to work flexible hours, occasionally outside of regular working hours
• Knowledgeable about women’s rights and social justice issues/ rights-based development and organising in Africa with a focus on SGBV in Senegal, Nigeria and Ghana
• In depth understanding of feminism and strong commitment to social justice, women’s rights and social change in Africa with a focus on SGBV in Senegal, Nigeria and Ghana.

Qualifications

• Minimum education level is a first degree in Gender, Women’s Rights or a related field
• At least 5 years relevant work experience on SGBV, ideally with a women’s rights, human rights or development civil society organisation or multilateral agency
• A minimum of eight (8) years relevant experience ideally in gender, women’s rights or a related discipline ideally in West Africa, both English and French speaking
• Excellent spoken and written English and French are a requirement for this role.

Job Location

Either Accra – Ghana or remotely from any country on the African Continent.

How to Apply:

Qualified and interested persons should send a cover letter indicating their relevant skills and experience and CV of not more than 3 pages by email to: The Human Resources Manager at [email protected] with application for the position being applied
for indicated as the subject line. Applications for the vacancies should reach AWDF no later than 14 July, 2021. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted for additional information and interviews.

In line with AWDF’s Mission, qualified African women based on the African continent are encouraged to apply.

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