Spark Microgrants
Spark MicroGrants believes in a world where everyone lives with dignity and determines their own positive future. Spark has pioneered a community-driven development model in East Africa, and works with NGO and Government partners to scale adoption and impacts for rural communities – on their own terms. Our model combines facilitated community meetings with a small, discretionary grant to catalyse local action and institution building. Read more about our Approach, Impact and Values on our website.
Spark is seeking a strategic and seasoned leader with a deep appreciation of systems change and impact-first programming to lead Spark in Malawi. The right candidate would champion our work in high quality partnerships, team management and eventual government integration. The role also includes overall compliance with Malawian laws and local board management.
This role requires collaboration across the organisation, with a particular focus on government engagement, developing and maintaining strong partnerships, and collaboration with various internal teams..
We are looking for a senior strategic leader who will bring implementation expertise, champion a collaborative working approach and demonstrate excellence in management, mentoring, and leadership.
WHO YOU ARE
You are a seasoned professional with significant expertise in partnership management, program implementation, and policy influencing. You are excited to join us at a crucial juncture in our growth when we are investing in swift expansion, growing our program and in-country partnerships, and focused on maintaining sector-leading quality as we scale. You will lead our team in supporting our partners to incorporate technology into the program delivery while maintaining quality approaches to facilitation and training design.
In addition to technical skills we also want the person in this leadership role to have a passion for a culture of excellence. The right candidate will not want to do ‘development as usual’ but question ‘how’ aid works and ensure that Spark’s program is ultimately accountable to the villages we serve. The Country Director will continue our excellent work in establishing a culture of excellence and collaboration within Spark and with our partners.
RESPONSIBILITIES
The role is at the nexus of strategic leadership partnership management and team management. Primary responsibilities are to:
- Develop and deliver on a country level government engagement and policy influencing strategy and a roadmap to integrate the FCAP program into Government systems over the medium- to long-term.
- Recruit and manage a team to support our partnerships in Malawi.
- Lead management of the relationships and contracts with our implementing partners in Malawi to deliver on the current pilot and expand it considerably over coming years.
- Overall responsibility for program quality, timelines and budget management.
- Collaborate with internal departments like Monitoring and Evaluation, fundraising, and Operations to leverage Spark’s strengths for success in Malawi.
- Establish and sustain critical productive relationships with government officials, donors, partners, and industry stakeholders to advance Spark’s ability to draw on and influence a wide range of advisers and industry partners in our work.
- Audit management and compliance with Malawian laws.
- Reporting on progress and strategic plans to Spark Malawi’s Board of Directors..
- Support fundraising and partnership development efforts and contribute to external and internal communications.
- Financial management, grant management and reporting in Malawi.
Qualifications, experience & skills:
- Minimum 10 years of relevant experience, such as in partnership management, program implementation and leveraging technology for programming.
- Demonstrated experience of leading organisations.
- Strong understanding of monitoring and evaluation.
- Masters Degree in the field of International Development, Social Sciences, Economics, Management or related fields;
- Excellent track record in designing and managing rural development programs and partnerships, and research projects and partnerships;
- Proven track record of government engagement and policy influencing;
- Ability to operate independently and strong in working as part of a larger team;
- Strong project management skills and attention to detail are required;
- Excellent English written and oral communication;
- Remains calm and positive under pressure and in difficult situations.
Estimated start date: As soon as possible
Application closing Date: On a rolling basis, we reserve the right to close this recruitment process at any time.
How to Apply: Follow this link to apply https://sparkmicrogrants.bamboohr.com/careers/59
Safeguarding
Our safeguarding follows a do no harm principle. All Spark staff are expected to respect and uphold the safeguarding procedures and principles to minimise harm to stakeholders, program participants, and the environment, in compliance with the World Bank Environmental and Social Framework and Rwandan Legislation.