Programme Manager: Women’s Rights – FILLED

About the Graça Machel TrustLogo

The Graça Machel Trust works across the continent on three issues: women’s rights, children’s rights, and governance and leadership. We catalyse action, support local initiatives, lend solidarity and offer support where it is needed. We connect people and groups that should know each other and work together; and engage both publicly and behind the scenes with power brokers to strengthen, multiply, and amplify the voices of African women and children. We work through networks and collaborations, and incubate and create new initiatives where there are gaps.

The Graça Machel Trust was established to provide a platform to embrace, nurture, enable and inspire women and children to soar to the fullest of their potential. It consolidates the work of its founder, Mrs Graça Machel, and seeks to build on her legacy to empower new generations to take up the challenges of their times and create caring societies that value social justice. Leveraging her access to key national, regional and global networks and champions, the Trust amplifies the voices of those who otherwise might not be heard in certain spaces. In addition to engaging in direct advocacy and policy influencing with governments and regional bodies, the Trust also works with and through existing and established civil society networks and groups across the region.

The Trust’s Women rights programme aims to build a critical mass of highly qualified, active, and effective women across the continent to become a voice in areas where they are currently under represented. Our key focus sectors include women in business, women in finance, women in agriculture, and women in media. We also support women involved in social policy areas, where we believe it is strategic to do so. We are committed to ensuring that each network is sustainable over the long term, thereby fostering and adding weight to African women’s voices on matters that affect various aspects of the continent.

The Trust is currently looking for a creative and forward-thinking Women Rights Programme Manager to be part of a small and vibrant team that is committed to promoting the rights of women and children in Africa.

 

Main Duties and Responsibilities

  • Lead the development of an action plan to guide the Trust’s portfolio of programs on women’s rights;
  • Support and establish pan-African networks of women in business, women in agriculture, women in media and provide overall oversight of the Trust’s networks under the Multiplying Faces, Amplifying Voices initiative
  • Strengthen the capacity and effectiveness of these networks in targeted countries in line with programmatic objectives
  • Design and implement strategies to drive the economic advancement of women through an enterprise development initiative that seeks to grow women-owned businesses in under-represented industry sectors and foster business linkages, access to information, markets and finance.
  • Develop and implement the Trust’s advocacy strategy as it relates to women’s economic advancement and related social and humanitarian issues that affect women;
  • Develop effective working relationships with civil society organisations, government officials, development partners, multilateral agencies, the private sector, and other key stakeholders to promote support for the Trust’s activities, projects and programmes;
  • Establish synergies with relevant national, regional, continental and international organisations and multi-lateral bodies, as relevant and necessary to support and amplify the Trust’s work on women rights.
  • Create, manage and regularly report on budgets for different aspects of the women’s rights work.
  • Identify funding gaps and work together with Senior Management to fundraise for the women’s rights programme.
  • Produce monthly reports for internal purposes and donor reports as required.
  • Promote research and learning to identify the most promising approaches to accelerate women’s economic advancement.
  • Work with the Trust’s senior management team to develop and implement the Trust’s strategy to support the Founder’s role through the Office of the Founder.
  • Manage and direct the growth of the Graça Machel Scholarship Programme.
  • Facilitate development and maintenance of networks and databases to support the work of the Trust, including documentation of the Founder’s work on Women’s Rights for archival purposes.
  • Identify and facilitate synergies between the Trust’s different areas of work.
  • Provide written and oral briefings, and write speeches, op-eds, concept notes, proposals and other materials as required.
  • Develop tools to monitor and evaluate the impact of the Trust’s women’s rights work.

 

Profile

Qualification, Experience and Skills

The successful candidate will be a tested leader with a track record of success in a dynamic, mission driven environment with a history of leading women’s rights work.

  • A minimum of a Masters degree in the social sciences, with a strong preference for degrees in International Development, Gender Studies, Political Science or Economics;
  • A thorough understanding of the African political and economic landscape and a proven familiarity on how to navigate African institutions and fora such as the AU, SADC, COMESA, ECOWAS, NEPAD, ministerial level meetings and other high-level relevant technical and professional associations;
  • A good understanding of the multilateral environment and international organizations in general;
  • A strong entrepreneurial/enterprise development experience to understand and effectively address the needs of business women across different industry sectors;
  • Solid experience working in the development and humanitarian sector in Africa, including experience that addresses policies and strategies in poverty eradication, education, health, gender-based violence and/or women’s empowerment;
  • Experience networking and building partnerships with a range of individuals and organizations in the same field of work;
  • A passionate, forward-thinking, solutions-focused individual with a strong work ethic, as well as an energetic, imaginative, and organised approach to work;
  • A strategic thinker, able to conceive, develop and implement new and existing projects;
  • Strong planning, project and partnership management and diplomacy skills;
  • Demonstrated background in programme evaluation, research and field-based learning;
  • Familiarity with trends and reporting for public, private and philanthropic programmes and grants;
  • Strong communication and writing abilities in English with ability to produce clear precise and focused strategy documents, reports, concept notes, briefings, speeches for technical and policy settings;
  • Understanding of Portuguese or French would constitute an additional asset;

 

How to Apply

Since the Graça Machel Trust has requested KM Global Consulting with the recruitment of this position, all applications must be sent directly to info@kmglobalconsult.com stating the reference GMT-WR-RSA in the subject line.