Lead, CASCADE

About the Role

The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is seeking a Lead, CASCADE to manage GAIN’s engagement with our CASCADE partner organisations. This role will be on a 3 years’ fixed-term contract basis, subject to availability of funding. This position is open to GAIN’s country offices in Nairobi and Addis Ababa.

Reporting to the Head of GAIN Netherland, you will provide management and leadership of CASCADE implementation activities and coordinate the on-time, on-budget and with quality delivery of GAIN’s role in ‘Catalyzing Strengthened Policy Action for Healthy Diets and Resilience (CASCADE)’ across Benin, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria and Uganda.

The postholder will bring excellent portfolio management skills to the relationship between GAIN, CARE Nederland, CARE International and our other partners, and take a lead role within GAIN in supporting the alignment, exchange and learning within and between both portfolios (CASCADE and GAIN’s market-based programme). In addition, the Programme Lead will manage GAIN’s engagement with our CASCADE partner organisations, CARE Nederland and CARE International.

Key Responsibilities include:

• Co-leading with our partners for the development of annual budgets and detailed workplans for all six geographies
• Working with GAIN country program managers to develop and follow up on their work plans to ensure we deliver on budget, on time and with quality
• Providing guidance on project implementation to GAIN countries and technical know-how to design and deliver strategically relevant, sound, and feasible project interventions
• Working in close collaboration with the CASCADE coordinator (CARE Nederland) to facilitate interactions between all consortium parties to contribute to the programme objective, serving as a member of the consortium project management unit and supporting operation of other governance functions as appropriate
• Working in close collaboration with GAIN’s Programme Services Team, including SUN Business Network team, and our partner’s technical specialists to ensure the Country Teams obtain the support they need to design and implement their projects
• Working closely with GAIN’s Knowledge Leadership team and monitoring expert, as well as our partner’s monitoring and evaluation teams to ensure monitoring and tracking targets, evaluation and learning takes place within CASCADE’s activities
• Working with country teams to ensure completion of timely donor and internal reporting (interim and final reports, periodic progress reports, annual plans)
• Working closely with GAIN colleagues at the Development Office and based in The Netherlands supporting the relationship with the donor and CARE Nederland in determining internal reporting deadlines, templates and governance structures
• Supporting knowledge management and learning, alongside CASCADE MEAL team, CARE, GAIN’s Knowledge Leadership, Communications and Country programmes teams, as well as with GAIN’s partners
• Coordinating with leadership of GAIN’s other Dutch funded programme to ensure complementarity and where relevant cooperation, including combined events, evaluation and cross-learning

About You

The ideal candidate should have substantial level of professional experience directly or indirectly relating to food and nutrition, supply chains and international development. You should have demonstrable success in managing multi-country and multi-partner consortium projects. Candidate with experience working at both global and African country levels is preferred.

The postholder should have ability to operate within the private and public sectors to effectively liaise with food enterprises, development agencies, and governments at senior level. Also, you should have good understanding of policy engagement and advocacy at national level and possess excellent representational, strategic, and diplomatic abilities to represent GAIN and our partners accordingly.

Candidate will have strong communication skills, proficiency in written and verbal English and able to work in multi-cultural and multi-lingual environments. You should be highly flexible and able and willing to travel frequently across Africa and Europe as required.

Postgraduate Degree in business, food and nutrition, development studies, economics, agricultural development or related field. The ideal candidate will possess project coordination, management, negotiation, and advocacy skills and demonstrated excellence in written/verbal communications, research, writing and analytical ability.

About our Offer

The starting salary for each office is as follows, depending on experience:

• Kenya: From KES 6,496,116 (gross) per annum (plus benefits)
• Ethiopia: From USD 30,000 (gross) per annum (plus benefits)

For exceptional candidates, GAIN are willing to offer a higher salary based on any additional/relevant experience.

GAIN has a fair and competitive salary structure that allows for annual progression subject to good performance. In addition, GAIN offers a total of 37 days holiday per year (including annual leave, public holidays and additional office closure days), an attractive pension scheme and competitive insurance cover including health, travel and life assurance.

We are committed to the health of our staff, especially in these challenging times, and have developed a programme of wellbeing that includes flexible working, additional leave allowances, wellbeing days, mindfulness coaching and access to independent and confidential counselling.

GAIN also has a strong commitment to professional development. We will support you to grow in your career through both formal and informal training, and are committed to providing opportunities through internal recruitment, secondments and promotion. All of this is delivered in a supportive and collaborative environment.

About GAIN

The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is a Swiss-based foundation launched at the United Nations in 2002 to tackle the human suffering caused by malnutrition. Due to COVID19, conflict in Ukraine and climate change, malnutrition and hunger have worsened significantly since 2019, reversing a decade of progress. There is growing recognition that our food systems need to change if we are to reverse these trends.

GAIN’s Strategy aims to transform food systems to make healthier diets from sustainable food systems accessible to all people and especially those whose are most vulnerable to shocks. By 2027, we aim to improve the access of 1.5 billion people to nutritionally enhanced staple foods, improve the access of 25 million people to healthier diets, and support positive food system change in 10 countries. This is bold and complex, and the only way to achieve this is to work together with partners including governments, businesses, and civil society at the country and global level. These goals, and the ways of achieving them, build on our twenty-year legacy of transforming people’s lives with improved nutrition through concerted action and effective policy change.

Our Working Culture and Environment

We provide a flexible working environment that includes a combination of home and office working opportunities through our global hybrid working policy. This encourages our staff to have a healthy work-life balance and increases staff motivation, enriches employee wellbeing, and improves performance and productivity.

All of our positions are based in one or more of GAIN’s designated offices as stated on our job advertisements. Successful candidates will be based in one of GAIN’s country offices and must have the existing right to live and work within a reasonably commutable distance of the relevant city / cities in which the role is advertised. Please note, that GAIN does not sponsor working visas and relocations.

GAIN reserves the right to withdraw an offer of employment for candidates who are considered to ineligible under the above conditions during or after the recruitment process.

This advert closes on 20th February 2024. Early applications are encouraged. GAIN reserves the right to close this advert early should we receive suitable candidates ahead of the closing date.

The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition is committed to equality of opportunity and creating an inclusive environment where diversity is valued. We are keen to reflect the diversity of our society at every level within our organisation and therefore welcome applications from talented and committed people from all backgrounds, representing the diverse societies we operate in.