PRACTICAL ACTION

Role Profile

UNIT/AREA: Practical Action Consulting, West Africa

Title:Regional Coordinator, West Africa

Responsible to:

Managing Director Practical Action Consulting with Matrix management from Head of Practical Answers

Purpose of the role:

The Coordinator will lead the development and delivery of Practical Action’s West Africa Strategy. Working closely with the Head of Practical Answers and the Managing Director of PAC (both of whom are based in the UK) she/he will have a key role in relationship building, networking with potential donors and clients, developing and fulfilling a business plan to grow our profile and portfolio in the region, securing funding, managing projects and consultants and overseeing the delivery of Practical Action’s work while honoring organisational standards and values. The Coordinator will represent Practical Action in the Region with full support from appropriate departments and teams in the wider organization.

Key Outputs for the role:

  • A strong and long term strategy for Practical Action in West Africa and adequate funds and relationships to deliver it.
  • Practical Action seen as a key development stakeholder by external actors in West Africa including government, NGOs and stakeholders including the private sector.

Objectives within the contract will include;

  1. Establish regional strategy
  • Based on Practical Action’s strengths, develop a strategy for West Africa in 2013/14 and in the longer term (up to 2017)
  • Establish short and medium term objectives for our work in the region
  • Develop a fundraisingstrategyfor 2013 – 2017 and annual fundraising plans
  • Explore options for registration in the region, present risk/opportunity analysis of these options to the UK Board/charity trustees, develop links with legal advisors and once agreed put into action steps for legal registration in West Africa
  1. Profile raising and networking
  • Represent Practical Action and Practical Action Consulting in West Africa
  • Build Practical Action (PAC and Practical Answers)’s profile in the region, putting in place a profile raising strategy to make us the go-to agency of choice for all actors seeking consultancy support and technical advice relating to energy access, climate change adaptation and markets.
  • Build relationships with donors/clients, potential donors/clients, partners and key government bodies
  • Proactively approach donors and clients to market PAC and Practical Answers’ areas of expertise, pitching innovative solutions and securing client interest and funding
  • Raise profile of the organisation and achieve high visibility in West Africa by influencing key institutions (identify opportunities or events where we can be more strategic for this purpose)
  • Keep abreast of news and developments across the funding environment and up to datewith all the necessary policies, procedures, and systems.
  1. Portfolio development / income generation
  • Independently conduct the day-to-day operational management and implementation of all activities pertaining to fund development and management under general directions and supervision
  • Secure funding from institutional donorswith inputs from consultants in the region, PAC and Practical Answers staff in the UK and the international PAC and Practical Answers teams.
  • Build Practical Action (PAC and Practical Answers)’s portfolio in the region, securing funding across our thematic areas, aiming to increase the number of successful proposals, the quantity of income and the number of clients on an annual basis.
  • Explore opportunities for PAC by analyzing the priorities and funding strategies of potential clients, initiating dialogues and putting into action strategies to position PAC to access such funding
  1. Office establishment and management
  • Explore options for office locations (including hosting by partner organisations), set up a small office (initially just for yourself)
  • Manage the budget for this office, including efficient financial reporting of any expenditure
  • Analyse options for setting up/registering an office in the region. Secure quality intelligence from a variety of sources, including legal experts and develop clear options and next steps for the West Africa office.
  • Facilitate legal registration of the Practical Action office in West Africa
  • Develop a risk analysis of work in the region, and prepare regular updates on any areas for concern and risk mitigation measures
  • Potentially line manage one junior office assistant/translator
  1. Develop strategic partnerships with consultants and other local/regional actors
  • Form strategic partnerships to deliver knowledge sharing service covering at least 4 countries in Francophone West Africa.
  • Build a strong network of associate consultants (international and local consultants, researchers, academics, technical specialists) in our thematic areas
  • Build links with suitable partner organisations (local and international NGOs, academic institutions, private sector/consultancy actors as appropriate) in our thematic areas
  1. Knowledge sharing
  • Map relevant knowledge sharing systems and initiatives in francophone west africa
  • Identify and secure specific partnerships to facilitate the effective sharing of knowledge around appropriate technologies in West Africa, potentially awarding a franchise to one or more organisations. Partners might be in the public, private or third sectors
  • Provide training and support to partner organisations for knowledge sharing.
  • Establish a technical enquiries service
  1. Project Management
  • Follow-up leads / funding opportunities on behalf of Practical Action Consulting
  • Respond quickly and effectively to appropriate funding opportunities (calls for proposals, tenders, EoIs), pulling together well written proposals, often to short deadlines.
  • Deliver components of consultancy assignments as an expert (depending on skill set of selected candidate, potentially deliver consultancy assignments in technical thematic areas in addition to overall project management and quality assurance functions).
  • Coordination and Management of assignments/projects/consultants in West Africa
  • Line manage consultants hired for any West AfricaRegional work
  1. Coordination across Practical Action
  • Have good coordination with UK-based functional Heads and the international teams.
  • Proactively share updates across Practical Action
  • Engage with multi-regional initiatives eg. Global Groups

Person Specification

The successful candidate will require:-

  • Post graduate qualification in development related discipline.
  • At least 5 years post graduate field experience, with significant experience in countries in the Francophone West Africa region.
  • Good knowledge of development issues and key developmental challenges in the region (especially those relating to energy, climate change adaptation (including DRR and agriculture) and markets).
  • Communications: Fluency in both French and English. Experience in communications and networking with a proven ability to tailor content and presentations to a variety of audiences. Should have an engaging personality with excellent interpersonal verbal and written skills in both languages. Will need to be able to work comfortably at all levels, make strong external relationships easily and earn respect of government and other agencies;
  • Significant experience in project management, financial reporting, and management of consultants.
  • Significant experience of successful fundraising from a variety of institutional donors.Excellent knowledge of budgeting, writing successful tenders, expressions of interest, and proposals, which are tailored effectively to score highly against evaluation criteria. Strong planning and prioritizing skills and an ability to multi-task. Ability to think strategically and consider all relevant operational issues.
  • Experienced cross cultural team worker. Ability to work in an international and diverse environment. Able to work remotely and independently with an understanding of working in a multi-sited environment.
  • Share the values of Practical Action: Believe in and be committed to contribution to poverty reduction through development interventions; particularly in strong participation at local level; be committed to working in partnerships while respecting and learning from partners as well as strengthening their capacities; and respect diversity and able demonstrate through personal behaviour that equality is maintained.

The contracting mechanism

  • This will be a 2 year objective based consultancy contract.
  • The consultancy will be based on a day rate for 225 days of annual inputs. There will be no additional remuneration or benefits beyond this.
  • The consult will be responsible for payment of local taxes.
  • A budget will be provided for business related activities as well as for capital investment as and when appropriate
  • The intention is that with time as Practical Action establishes in the region we will seek to move this contract towards an employment relationship