Project Coordinator- Civil Society Strengthening

Location: Mombasa, Kenya (with frequent travels to Kwale, Kilifi and Lamu Counties)

About the Aga Khan Foundation

For nearly 50 years, the Aga Khan Foundation has been partnering with communities, governments, and the private sector to harness the best from people from all backgrounds to improve the quality of life. The Foundation’s work is rooted in core values of self-reliance, pluralism, and respect for human dignity. AKF is a member of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), one of the world’s leading poverty solutions networks. AKDN makes long-term investments, builds permanent institutions, and cultivates an active civil society, impacting tens of millions of people annually in 30 countries. Alongside its sister AKDN agencies, the Foundation implements innovative, community-driven solutions that are based on decades of experience, evaluation, and learning.**

Position Summary

AKF is seeking an experienced and dynamic individual to coordinate its Civil Society work in Coastal Region of Kenya. Guided by AKF Civil Society framework, the Civil Society coordinator will play a key role in the ongoing Advancing Gender Equality through Civil Society Organisation Project (AGECS) and other Coastal CSO engagements supported through other funding streams in ensuring that project partners initiatives move forward at pace and in line with sub grant agreements and workplans. The role reports directly to the Coast Region Programme Manager with dotted lines to the Regional AGECS Project Manager. The role will work closely with Programme coordinators in the targeted counties and will be required to coordinate with the Gender coordinator, M&E Coordinator and, the Finance Manager to ensure that all the AKF CSO partners are compliant and achieves respective intended results.

AKF has committed to working with and through likeminded CSOs in our geographies and as such has partnered with several CSOs to implement the Education Improvement programme in targeted counties. While this position will be supporting Civil Society Engagement of the various projects under the Education Improvement programme, it will be predominantly be domiciled (75% level of effort) under the Advancing Gender Equality through Civil Society project. The AGECS Sub-Grant component is a part of the Global Affairs Canada-funded Foundations for Education and Empowerment (F4EE) in Kenya seeking to improve education systems at the pre-primary and primary level, in addition to strengthening women’s empowerment, and gender equality. As part of the AGECS component one Sub-Grant has been issued to partnerships in the Coast comprised of Women’s Organizations and Gender-Equality focused civil society organizations (CSOs) implementing gender equality targeted and gender equality transformative programming.
Responsibilities

The Project Coordinator- Civil Society Strengthening, will be responsible for leading Civil Society work in Coastal region including – but not limited to.

• Providing leadership in planning and coordination, ensuring effective implementation of the Country AGECS Sub-Project (s).

• Lead capacity development support to civil society including capacity assessments, adapt AKF’s existing tools, and oversee the resulting organizational and technical support including but not limited to the provision of technical assistance, mentoring, coaching and peer learning to effectively, play a prominent, and collaborative role in providing solutions for the region’s development.

• Working closely with technical advisors and project staff, develop and deliver capacity development materials and processes and tools in diverse areas of organizational development.

• Support the technical teams to ensure gender and youth issues are mainstreamed into all capacity development initiatives

• Working with the coastal team to identify ways that partner CSOs can come together with other stakeholders to make use of the potential for increased engagement and participation

• Providing technical support for institutional strengthening for all the CSO partners

Specifically, the Project Coordinator- Civil Society Strengthening, will:

• Develop and regularly update annual workplan and design a specific annual workplan for support to CSOs. In addition, preparation, and submission of AGECS project work plans, activity reports, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual narrative reports

• Assist with the design and delivery of a grant and resourcing schemes as per the different projects

• Facilitate and convene a space for dialogue, discussion, and collaborative working in a range of fora between regional government institutions and civil society entities on regional development priorities.

• Undertake regular meetings throughout the region to identify potential engagement opportunities.

• Ensure that risks associated with working with Civil Society organisations are documented and managed.

• Provide input as required to project reporting on all aspects of the projects working with CSO in coast region.

• Be responsible for the grant management of the AGECS Sub-Projects including Coordination of quarterly and annual review meetings with implementing partners*.*

• Ensure integration of gender equality considerations and social inclusion in all aspects of project design, implementation, and management.

Coordinate with AKF MERL team to:

• Develop, review, and finalize Sub-Projects’ M&E plans, including the selection of appropriate indicators.
• Engage Sub-Projects’ teams to support regular data collection, analysis, interpretation & learning.
• Ensure all data collection processes adhere to robust ethical standards, including AKF’s Safeguarding Policy and all relevant national research and ethics standards.

Coordinate with / support the Coast region Finance focal point to:

· Coordinate with the coast region finance focal point on reporting, forecasting and compliance.

· Work closely with the finance focal point to manage project expenditure and control over/under spending.

· Discuss monthly finance reports with the coast region s finance focal person

· Work closely with the procurement focal point to ensure project purchases are done on time and as per donor regulations.

The ideal candidate will have:

Required Qualifications, Experience, and Competencies

• A bachelor’s degree in social sciences, development studies, organizational development preferably social sciences, , and/or other relevant disciplines.
• Minimum five (5) years of project management experience in implementing civil society initiatives including capacity development programs
• Proven experience in working through and strengthening civil society.
• Demonstrated analytical, organizational, convening, interpersonal, negotiation, and problem-solving skills in a cross-cultural context.
• Expert capacity in written and verbal skills in English with the ability to write high-quality reports for donor projects and analytical briefs.
• Ability to work well in teams and particularly teams that span across multiple geographies.
• Demonstrated ability in public speaking and public presentations in local community and partner meetings, trainings, and workshops.
• Capacity to work independently, take initiative and manage a variety of activities simultaneously while meeting strict reporting deadlines and keeping colleagues and senior managers well informed.
• Ability to facilitate collaborative and participatory processes with partners and stakeholders.
• Ability to work in local languages relevant to the country is an asset.
• Strong understanding of monitoring and evaluation methodologies and logical frameworks.
• Demonstrated ability to remotely work, lead and motivate a diverse team of partners.
• Strong familiarity in working using online and digital technologies including proficiency with Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and other valuable presentation platforms.