Location: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Deadline: January 09, 2023
Job Description
ABOUT MASTERCARD FOUNDATION
Mastercard Foundation seeks a world where everyone has the opportunity to learn and prosper. Through its Young Africa Works strategy and Canadian EleV program, the Foundation works with partners to ensure that millions of young people, especially young women, access quality education, financial services, and dignified work. Mastercard Foundation was established in 2006 through the generosity of Mastercard when it became a public company. The Foundation is independent with its own Board of Directors and CEO.
THE WORK AT THE FOUNDATION
We have entered a very exciting time at the Foundation as we scale up our operations across Africa to realize our Young Africa Works strategy. Our role at the Mastercard Foundation is to be a catalyst. Our Young Africa Works strategy focuses on working with others to spur systemic change so young people have the opportunity to find work that is dignified and fulfilling.
The Foundation has opened offices in Rwanda, Kenya, Ghana, Senegal, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Uganda, building a broader leadership presence in Africa to develop specific strategies that support youth employment. Within a country, we work with governments, the private sector, educators, young people, and other funders to improve the quality of education and vocational training, prepare young people for the work force, expand access to financial services for entrepreneurs and small businesses, and connect job seekers to dignified and fulfilling work.
We are ambitious and driven. Our values transcend and rise above everything else as our guide. We encourage you to bring your bold ideas, curiosity, and expertise to your work. We laugh at ourselves and with each other. We are a team. Our journey together makes our impact even more meaningful.
UNDERSTANDING CANADA PROGRAMS AT THE FOUNDATION
The Foundation has begun working within Canada in partnership with Indigenous communities and post-secondary institutions to listen, learn, and best understand how we can act in meaningful ways. The EleV strategy was co-created with Indigenous communities, young people, and partners to enable 30,000 Indigenous youth to complete their education and transition to dignified work aligned with their values and aspirations.
As reflected in Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action, education is a key driver of improved socio-economic well-being. Through building partnerships with Indigenous communities, we look to expand our initiative ultimately helping to support a generation of transformative Indigenous young leaders who will be change agents within their communities. We believe that by setting a bold target, we will encourage engagement across sectors and create momentum that will elevate the strengths and opportunities of Indigenous youth. In keeping with our approach, Indigenous communities and young people will be the drivers of this transformation. The program will promote innovations to address longer-term systemic change to achieve economic prosperity and social well-being within Indigenous communities.
The EleV team oversees current and emerging partnerships related to Indigenous education. Consistent with our overall vision and Youth Africa Works strategy, we will share learnings and opportunities to connect across the work of the Foundation. While operating in distinct contexts, the centrality of youth voice and vision, affirmation of culture and identity, and priority to enhance community capacity for self-determination are common threads upon which our work is strengthened and reinforced.
If you are an experienced Program Operations professional looking to increase your impact, read on!
THE OPPORTUNITY
Reporting to the Executive Director, Country Program, The Head, Programs Operations will lead and coordinate Country Programs planning, performance management, monitoring, tracking and reporting, and quality assurance in coordination with program-wide planning and other planning functions within the Foundation. The role is accountable for ensuring that resourcing from key enabling functions is supportive and aligned to Country Program needs and support Country Directors to ensure consistency in delivery, and enhancing the quality of Country Programs development, design, reporting, and implementation processes in line with a set impact metrics.
The successful candidate will be based in Canada or any of our listed offices in Africa (Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Senegal, Ghana and Nigeria).
WAYS YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE
- Lead Country Programs level coordination and prioritization of efforts and rolling calendar of priorities and activities.
- Coordinate and plan Country Programs forecast planning and budgeting in coordination with Country Directors, finance business partners and other enabling teams.
- Support the Country Programs portfolio planning and the tracking and collation implementation plans, progress, and status reporting.
- Working with Country Directors to ensure strategic cohesion, coordination of program operations efforts, and knowledge sharing within the business development functional area.
- Keep the Executive Director appraised of program operations improvements being incubated and sharing recommendations for new program.
- Coordinate with the Country Directors and the Executive Director to support consistent quality in the implementation of respective Country roadmaps.
- Monitor the implementation of Country Program processes, policies, guidelines and standards within and recommend contextual changes to ensure continued coherence and alignment to the needs of various thematic areas.
- Maintain visibility of various guidelines, tools, processes, templates used across programs that are aimed at ensuring standardization and consistency and mainstream their application within Country Programs.
- Lead change efforts within Country Programs thematic areas and adoption of Program-wide ways of work in consultation with other business partnering functions and enabling functions.
- Taking the central role in providing strategic direction on planning and implementation of Pan-African programs across all thematic areas and in relation to rest of the Foundation programming, ensuring programs operations meet Foundation values and priorities and have no duplication of efforts.
- Collate data, prepare dashboards across Country Programs thematic areas including forecasts, targets, commitments, disbursements and impact metrics in coordination with business partnering teams to support enhanced visibility on progress across thematic areas.
- Prepare management performance reports, key analysis, and trends reporting.
- Working directly with the impact team to design new and/or tailor existing M&E frameworks to support consistent excellent delivery of programs implementation.
- Provide the Executive Director with a regular status update/report on program operations, highlighting areas at-risk of delay or impact, with recommendations for mitigating actions.
- Oversee and ensure consistency in the delivery of the KPIs for the Foundation’s Pan-African programs across thematic areas, and unblocking operational issues escalated from Country Directors.
WHO YOU ARE
- Ten (10) years of experience driving strategy and program success within organizations across multiple countries in Africa.
- Six (6) years leadership and management experience of which at least four was gained in a multi-country environment in Africa, with a preference for private sector experience.
- Experience supporting program operations for a large-scale transformative initiative across multiple geographies or similar level and scope of experience.
- Understanding of at least one of the thematic areas within Country Programming (i.e., agriculture and climate, entrepreneurship development, digital economy, gender and safeguarding).
- Experience in public policy within nonprofit organizations, international NGO’s and/or learning institutions is also helpful.
- Mastery of Microsoft Office suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel).
- Strong coordination and project management skills.
- Excellent organizational and prioritization skills; demonstrated attention to detail and ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously.
- Exposure to systems thinking with an ability to understand and engage with stakeholders in different ecosystems and design programming that addresses root causes and critical needs.
- Substantive knowledge of key issues and emerging trends and barriers in youth and work across Africa.
- Excellent English written and spoken communication skills, proofreading skills with a high attention to detail.
- Critical thinker and problem solver with an agile mindset.
- Familiarity with Foundation processes and policies yet unafraid to innovate and redefine them.
- Strong partnership mindset and able to align stakeholders across different roles toward common goals.
- Advanced competencies in program reporting, and synthesizing key decisions required.
- Skilled communicator and influencer, from executive through to technical levels and external constituencies, know how to navigate ambiguous environments and are comfortable at managing up and beyond hierarchy.
- Excellent multi-stakeholder management skills with senior Foundation colleagues and senior levels of external stakeholders.
- Demonstrated financial management experience including preparation and management of budgets and contracts.
- Fosters a positive spirit of collaboration in a complex, and rapidly evolving environment
- Results orientation, an eye for detail and pragmatic decision maker.
- Possess professional maturity, sensitivity with different cultures, and impeccable integrity that exemplify the Foundation’s values.
- Demonstrate a commitment to Mastercard Foundation’s values and vision.
Deadline for Applications is January 09, 2023.
Mastercard Foundation (the “Foundation”) values and respects your privacy. By submitting an application for this opportunity, you hereby agree to the Foundation’s collection, use and disclosure of your personal information in accordance with its Privacy Policy (available at https://mastercardfdn.org/privacy/). Please note that the Foundation may share your personal information with third-party agencies that support the Foundation’s recruitment activities, and such third-party agencies may contact you directly regarding this opportunity. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Foundation’s Privacy Officer at the address indicated in its Privacy Policy.
The Mastercard Foundation values the unique skills and experiences each individual brings to the organization and we are committed to creating and maintaining an inclusive and accessible environment for everyone.
Completion of satisfactory business references and background checks are essential conditions of employment.
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