Full-Time Regional Advisor, East and Southern Africa
Job Description
Regional Advisor, East and Southern Africa
The Fundación Capital (FK) seeks a Regional Advisor to help developing its East and Southern Africa operations, mainly focused on financial inclusion, asset-building for the poor, economic rights (graduation issues and livelihood opportunities), social protection floor, at scale. The position of Regional Adviser is a very senior position within FK, for which we seek an outstanding and innovative professional with an established international reputation.
FK is committed to offering the successful applicant an attractive financial package in line with the responsibilities of the position, that will be negotiated individually.
Location:
ESA / East and Southern African (ideally Nairobi or Johannesburg) with frequent travel within ESA and occasional trips to South America (FK Headquarters).
Context
Fundación Capital received the 2014 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship (a global recognition for his work in education and economic opportunities).
FK is a recognized international social enterprise, a changemaker aiming at massive assetbuilding and enhancement for the Poor by integrating community practice, public policies and private markets to achieve results at significant scale.
Working closely with government and private sector partners (banks, investors, civil society organizations, and other key stakeholders), we design, implement and provide technical assistance for initiatives across four primary issue areas: Inclusive Finance, Economic Citizenship, Digital Solutions for the Poor and Post-Conflict & Territorial Development.
Throughout, we center our efforts on scale and sustainability, fostering new ideas with the potential to challenge the persistence of poverty and exclusion. We focus on disruptive initiatives and policies that accompany low-income households in building, accumulating, enhancing and protecting their assets, better manage the risks they face, develop their full potential and capabilities and stand for their rights (behavioral change), within a transformative social protection framework.
We prioritize financial asset-building strategies by banking the unbanked, mobilizing their monetary savings, facilitating access to microinsurance schemes, and other diversified formal financial services. For small and growing businesses, we design tools to connect small entrepreneurs and potential investors and mentors, enhancing productive investments. FK heavily invests in digital solutions for the Poor to allow them an easy access to financial services, capital sources, information, training, mentoring and productive opportunities. By aligning public policy, market mechanisms and advances in digital technology, Fundación Capital enables millions of poor families to live their ambitions and decide for themselves how to manage, grow and invest their resources.
FK works in 15 countries in Latin America and The Caribbean. It is based in Bogotá, with presences in Bolivia, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Paraguay. We are expanding our presence / operations in the USA and Africa this year, and looking ahead we will operate in West Africa and Asia in 2015. In recent years FK has expanded its staff and budget while building a dynamic outreach agenda that reflects the fastchanging scalable inclusive strategies for economic rights and citizenship, and a massively growing concern for sharing knowledge and proven solutions within and between countries (south-south cooperation).
Looking ahead, FK wishes to establish and grow a dynamic network of top-level recognized local partners, ESA-oriented additional funders and influent policymakers. We wish to have as soon as possible formal agreements with a growing number of ESA national governments, building on our successful work on asset-building, financial inclusion, savings-linked cash transfers, economic rights and opportunities. We also wish to permanently strengthen our analytical capacity to work in this new market and how we communicate and share our results and findings.
Tasks and responsibilities
The ESA Regional Adviser will be responsible for developing Fundación Capital’s strategy for the ESA region, based on strategic guidelines defined by Fundación Capital’s C-level management. Her/his duties would include identifying priority countries, potential partners, and program development opportunities. This assignment would entail market research and strategic planning coupled with in-country liaising with Governments and other relevant stakeholders.
The incoming Program Director will report to FK CEO and CFO and will be responsible for the following tasks:
support in the identification of FK’s main competitive advantages in the region, based on our experience and know-how;
identify specific opportunities for Fundación Capital in at least four ESA countries. This may include assessing the political, economic and social environment, liaising with key players, and establishing agreements, work areas, timeframes and resources needed;
develop and maintain partnerships with various organizations (governmental, financial institutions, private sector, civil society, etc.) and seek to position Fundación Capital in ESA;
further develop and help implement the innovative and policy relevant outreach agenda of the ESA program;
lead the design work for for FK projects in ESA by providing technical assistance, lead the continuous advocacy effort, bring administrative and logistical support;
lead and help identifying and recruiting, retaining and further developing a respected and diverse team ad-hoc short and longer-term consultants, when needed;
manage the resources assigned by Fundación Capital, taking active decisions on where to invest them and report their use as requested;
under the coordination of the CEO, help identify, acquire and implement external grants for the whole program to co-fund its activities;
network with key donors, policymakers, partners and the media to disseminate the
program’s results and findings; oversee the ESA program’s outreach and dissemination activities;
actively participate in operational and communicational activities of Fundación Capital when requested;
provide support in all activities related to internal and external communication of
Fundación Capital in ESA;
participate in events organized by Fundación Capital, and in external events when requested, with an emphasis on regional events related to cash transfer programs, microfinance, financial inclusion and economic opportunities for the Poor. Actively seek opportunities to showcase the Fundación Capital in ESA, Africa and elsewhere; and
contribute to overall FK activities.
These responsibilities will be managed in cooperation with the corresponding FK operational Divisions and Departments Teams, senior management and FK’s external partners. We are looking for an individual with exciting ideas for these important responsibilities and encourage applicants to propose their own way forward, including new topics, methodologies and scaling-up / outreach activities. Proposals developing FK’s south-south exchange program, new collaborations initiatives will be particularly welcome as will be ideas of how to engage with FK’s emerging inclusive agenda on poverty reduction.
We envisage that the post holder will collaborate closely with local complementary stakeholders (local corresponding institutions, social enterprises, consultancies, universities) in the ESA and African area.
Eligibility requirements
FK is looking for a dynamic individual with the potential to lead and further develop an exciting, massive and innovative poverty-reduction program and the staff progressively working in this program.
Applicants ideally should have a strong track record of intellectual leadership, management skills, outstanding written and verbal communications skills, advocacy experience, particularly with governments, and a detailed understanding of national and international policy debates and processes in our field.
A proven ability to raise additional funds for the whole program will be a key evaluation criterion for the selection of the ESA Regional Advisor.
Additional prerequisites include:
a graduate degree in economics or a related discipline such as political science;
outstanding (minimum ten years) poverty-reduction professional experience within the inclusive finance, banking / microfinance sectors; the economic citizenship and
opportunities field; the asset-building for the BoP and social protection fields; social
policies; advocacy and communications experience in those fields;
extensive international networks in development policy and inclusive programs
communities;
experience in strategic planning and new business development would be strongly
desired;
experience in digital solutions for the BoP and behavioral economics an advantage;
extensive knowledge of the Africa region;
demonstrated work experience with African Governments, including project
implementation. Fieldwork experience with vulnerable communities would be also highly valued;
multidisciplinary and multicultural backgrounds: knowledge of topics related to social protection, financial education and cash transfer programs will be considered an asset;
experience in dealing with the media;
professional experience in other parts of the world will also be considered an advantage;
availability to travel extensively within the ESA region;
fluency in English, working knowledge of Portuguese an important asset.
FK is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture.
The appointment will be for one year initially and is renewable. The post is full-time and the successful applicant will be expected to reside in the ESA region (preferably Nairobi or Johannesburg).