NGO Jobs in Nairobi, Kenya - World Vision

World Vision

World Vision is an International Christian Relief and Development organization, whose goal is to achieve long - lasting benefits in the quality of life for vulnerable children and their families, displaced persons and communities. 

VisionFund Deputy Regional Director, East Africa Region 
 

Reference: 580 - 18G31008
 

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

Purpose of Position: World Vision (WV) is a Christian relief, development, and advocacy organization dedicated to working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice. 

One important component of World Visions work is microfinance, providing financial services such as credit, savings and insurance to the poor, enabling them to earn increased income, build assets and provide for their families. 

Numerous studies confirm the strong impact of microfinance on the well-being of children. Studies also show, however, that the integration of microfinance with other development activities can have an even greater impact when compared to either microfinance alone or development activities alone. 

WVs microfinance operations are managed through VisionFund International (VFI) and its 6,000 staff, a WV subsidiary. 

VFI manages a network of 36 microfinance institutions (MFIs) globally and has outstanding loans of approximately $450 million to some 800,000 clients and annual network revenues of over $138 million.

VisionFund is seeking a Deputy Regional Director (DRD) to assist the Regional Director (RD) in leading and managing the execution of VisionFunds strategy in the region. The CEOs of each MFI in the region will report jointly to the RD and their local Boards. 

The RD is therefore responsible for ensuring the delivery of financial and social performance in the region. 

The role also involves managing the regional MFI technical staff who support the RD in capacity building and oversight of the MFIs, ensuring proper governance, controls, policies, procedures, and performance targets are achieved. 

The role of DRD will involve extended periods in country filling the roles of CEO/COO/CFO as needs arise.

Key Responsibilities:

Ensure MFIs Deliver to Performance Targets:

• Supervise jointly with the MFI board the MFI CEOs and manage performance expectations in support to local MFI and global VFI priorities, ensuring balanced achievement of MFI double bottom-lines of social and financial performance.

Build Capacity in the MFI:

• Support regional roll out of global centre initiatives including how central services and regional banking software can be deployed to improve service to the MFIs and their clients and to reduce costs and improve sustainability.
• Provide timely, and responsive but prioritized consulting services for MFI issues and concerns.
• Ensure competent and quality staff are hired in the key positions of CEO, CFO and COO and support MFI management in other staff hiring as needed.

Develop and Maintain a Strong Control Environment:

• Work with the CEO of each MFI to ensure controls and compliance culture are operating well.
• Sits on and attends all MFI boards in their region where legally possible to represent the interests of VFI.
• Work with Governance Director for ensuring all MFIs (WV/VFI) boards and are in compliance with local laws, regulatory and lender/donor requirements and WV/VFI policies, procedures and directives.

Strategy Development and Execution:

• Provide inputs and work with VF strategy director and the rest of VFI Senior Executive Team on refinements to, or revision of VFI global strategy, especially as it relates to priority MFIs.
• Support fund raising efforts for MFIs and coordinate with VFI director for marketing and fundraising and director for global funding and corporate finance Funding Manager.

Personal and Staff Development

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:

The key ability VisionFund is seeking is leadership. 

In addition to experience with microfinance and banking operations (lending, deposit taking), the successful candidate will have experience developing and nurturing a talented team, and spotting improvement opportunities and making those happen in a complex and dynamic environment. 

In addition, the following specific knowledge, skills and abilities are required, and may have been acquired through a combination of formal schooling, selfeducation, prior experience or onthejob training.

• Given the need to control financial risk within the MFIs, it is imperative that this individual will have good financial analysis, risk management and accounting skills.
• Thorough knowledge and extensive experience in governance and compliance, microfinance and banking operations. 10 years of leadership experience largely in banking or microfinance environment.
• Although central treasury expertise will be provided by GC, this person will have understanding of balance sheet risk management including interest rate risk, liquidity risk and foreign exchange risk as well as bank funding processes and contracting.
• Solid understanding of financial reporting and performance measurements and planning/forecasting.
• Able to balance Christian values with sound commercial practices.
• MBA preferred but will consider a Bachelor of Commerce.
• Good project management and organizational skills.
• Highly developed Consulting skills, with ability to analyze, recommend solutions, mentor and direct people.
• Balanced and respectful approach to groups differing responsibilities. Sensitive to complexity of WV direction, MFI board independence and shareholder requirements.
• Good communication and influence skills in both oral and written forms.
• Strong staff leader desirous of developing and encouraging staff.
• Effective coach and able to train people in VisionFund policies and procedures.
• Must be experienced in managing effective support of accounting and loan tracking systems.
• Must be able to simultaneously manage multiple priorities and projects.
• Must be cross culturally sensitive as will work with associates from different cultural contexts and time zones.
• Flexibility on hours to contact people within wide time zone differences is required.
• Ability and willingness to travel extensively and for long periods of time.

How to Apply

CLICK HERE to apply online

The Somalia program wishes to invite applications from highly competent dynamic, self-driven and results oriented candidate to fill the below mentioned position.

Senior Program Management Officer

Reference: 1598 - 15N09052
 

Location: Karen, Nairobi, Kenya
 

This is a position within Program Development and Quality Assistance department, focused primarily on providing program management support to multiple key grants. 

The job holder will ensure program reporting and compliance oversight as well as donor relations for high-value, complex, multi-sector, multi partner and multi donor funded grants, in line with WVS strategy. 

He/she will have a high capacity for managing multiple deadlines and project details, to supervise the completion of monthly, quarterly and annual reports of the highest quality and donor satisfaction and compliance. 

This will be done in an exceptionally efficient manner which empowers and capacitates the field project team to complete the bulk of the required report details the first time. 

On occasion he/she will support in proposal planning and development processes in collaboration with the Program Development (acquisition) team, ensuring lessons learnt and experiences from the ongoing grants are inbuilt into new grants acquisition processes. 

The position will support the development and promotion of strategic alliances with donors, multilateral agencies, and other NGOs for purposes of increasing resources for children and families WV serves.

Major Responsibilities:

Programme Development:

• Spearhead the sub- grant agreement application process and preparation ensuring all the donor requirements and project deliverables are included as per the grants checklist and when changes are made the process is updated.
• Support WV Somalia partners in the development of detailed implementation plans, quarterly cash flows, indicator tracking tables, and other project management tools.
• Prepare and execute the Consortium funded program grant tracker and regularly update this sharing with the PD Manager for overall update on monthly basis.
• Regularly review project evaluations, lessons learned workshop documents, field visit reports, and project reports across the program and from other NGOs and donors to apply emerging innovations and best practices in future proposals. 
• Assist the PM Manager in documenting and updating WVS technical program approaches based on emerging practices.

Relationship building and competitive intelligence gathering:

• Represent WV Somalia in various donor and coordination forums at National level and providing programmatic information as required to promote WV visibility, servant leadership, and good will with donors including, UN Agencies, bilateral, multilaterals, Support Offices, and NGO peers.
• Maintain relationships with donor and key partner agencies/stakeholders for current grants being managed and keep up to date in terms of any changes in the same and regularly update PM Team Lead on this.
• Participate in briefing and providing updates (as well as in preparation of documents/ material in advance of such briefings) to current and prospective donor representatives, both in formal and informally to build and strengthen relationships.
• Help plan and execute donor forums and presentations, key meetings such as learning events to share learning, promote best practices, coordinate programming, and foster alliances and consortia opportunities. Support in preparation of effective donor marketing materials for events and meetings.
• Actively research, monitor and plan for new funding and marketing opportunities, including advanced intelligence on competitive calls, staff changes among key donors, new funding available for resilience and related issues, and other new opportunities for the SomReP consortium, in line with SomRePs fundraising strategy.

Program reporting & donor compliance:

• Review final drafts of project reports from field Project Managers for completeness of narrative information, accuracy of quantitative data, sufficiency of lessons learned documentation, inclusion of project or security challenges, and other donor requirements or preferences.
• Track continuous improvement of report quality from the field by tracking on behalf of the Programs team the hours spent by all Program Officers reviewing project reports, along with quality rating of each draft report. Assist Program Management Team Lead in consolidating findings for Operations to act upon.
• Ensure delivery of timely reports and other contractually obligated donor deliverables (e.g. baseline reports, learning reports) by documenting and sharing internal deadlines on all deliverables with full project team and SO stakeholders on each assigned project. Support other Program Officers to do the same by sharing internal timeline templates and other effective tools.
• Provide timely, detailed and quality program reports to Support Offices and donors on consortium, emergency and rehabilitative grant funded programs.
• Spearhead final review of narrative reports for all assigned projects, providing appropriate feedback to implementing teams (Ops Manager, Project Managers) and/or implementing partners.
• Streamline report review process to incorporate feedback from M&E, Finance, and any Technical Advisors for each project report.
• Coach as appropriate implementing teams or partners on satisfactory reports writing.
• Proactively raise reporting, implementation or donor compliance challenges with QA, Ops Managers, Program Management Team Lead, and SOs to seek efficient resolution.
• Support consortium funded grants to ensure compliance and adherence to WVS policies and procedures, donor regulations and monitoring mechanisms which allow transparent and accountable implementation of projects;

Field project events, monitoring visits and support:

• Partnering with the Acquisition PO for each new grant won and assigned, utilize the startup process as an avenue to build capacity/coach the implementing teams and or partners on donor compliance and expectations from each grant to be managed.
• Participate as appropriate in midterm reviews, mid-year and final lessons learnt events with the purpose of acquiring insight on the progress of implementation, addressing challenges related to under expenditure, slow pace of implementation, capturing best practices across partners with a view of highlighting those in subsequent grant acquisition phases.
• Coach and follow-up with project teams on specific reporting gaps to ensure continuous improvement. Support Program Management Team Lead in providing guidance and training curriculum on high quality reporting standards and practices.
• Participate in field-level Quarterly Review Meetings, visit field project sites, and meet with operations staff to gather emerging challenges, lessons learned, and innovations to apply to future proposals.
• Escort donors and partners to the field on monitoring visits as may be required.

Qualifications: Education / Knowledge / Technical Skills and Experience

Educational level required: First degree in Development studies or related field

Technical Training qualifications desired: Professional technical skill desired: Humanitarian standards (SPHERE, HAP), specific trainings on donor requirements e.g. OFDA, DFID, EuropeAid training, personal security awareness training.

Experience: 3+ years working in humanitarian or development field, preferably with one or more previous assignments in developing contexts. Previous professional performance ratings should indicate consistently high performance and potential for future growth.

Other: Demonstrated, exceptional writing skills: the ability to develop quality reports under tight deadlines. Must be able to succinctly express key points in technically accurate fashion, efficiently summarize and compile large amounts of information, and ensure accuracy and logical flow of reported information.

Proven programming and project management experience:Must be highly organized, detailed oriented, able to detect gaps or missing information others may not, efficient in analyzing information, and succinct in producing verbal and written summaries of key points.

Experience working with both bilateral and multilateral donors, particularly USAID, Danida, Sida, EU/ECHO, and DFID. Experience working with development banks, such as World Bank, African Development Bank a plus.

Excellent English languages skills; written and verbal.

Networking/external engagement skills: proven experience in networking with donors and partners to bring about funding opportunities and/or negotiate favorable terms in existing agreements. Able to speak persuasively in front of groups a plus.

Team player; the ability to mobilize and work as part of a diverse team to achieve the overall goal

How to Apply

CLICK HERE to apply online

Regional IT Director, East Africa Region
 

Reference: 1296 - 17G18013

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

Purpose of Position:

• Provide IT leadership in the region and align the IT strategy to enable the ministry and contribute to its effectiveness, quality and accountability in achieving strategic business goals.

• Provide a strategic interface between business and IT, engaging stakeholders, managing relationships and understanding business requirements to align technology solutions and services to enable the achievement of short and long term business objectives in the region.

• Accountable for end to end delivery of IT services in region, leveraging the IT governance framework, that defines the working relationships and sharing of IT resources in the global IT organization, for the delivery of technology solutions and services to ensure business and customer satisfaction.

• Provide leadership to the IT resources in the region, fostering a team environment, identifying, nurturing and developing talent, driving performance improvement and creating experiences that motivate, stretch and celebrate the capacities of the resources in achieving results.

Key Responsibilities:

Leadership & Strategy:

• Provide IT leadership in the region.
• Align IT strategy to enable the regional business strategy.
• Trusted advisor and partner to the business.
• Member of advisory board for the prioritization of IT initiatives in the region.
• Owns regional IT operating plan (ROP).

Engagement / Relationship Management:

• Establish and maintain a strategic and positive relationship with business stakeholders.
• Proactively serves as the primary point of contact from IT for business leaders and key stakeholders, enabling business to leverage WV IT technical and leadership capability.
• Understand business context, strategy and plans, identifying customer requirements and unmet needs.
• Maintains awareness of changes to the organization (s) strategy, goals and processes to ensure requirements appropriately reflect the needs of the organization(s).
• Facilitates changes in services required/provided when necessary.
• Analyzes technology trends to determine impact to the achievement of organization(s) goals.
• Lead business through the demand management process for new requests and maintain visibility of the regional demand pipeline.
• Negotiate Service Level expectations based on customer requirements and in accordance with the WV IT standards.
• Advises on options, risks, costs versus benefits, and impacts on products, business processes and system priorities.
• Works with business stakeholders in the identification and evaluation of risks associated with business decisions and supports the development of risk mitigation plans.

Customer Satisfaction / Service Fulfilment:

• Accountable for end to end delivery of IT services in the region according to SLAs.
• Owns regional IT performance metrics for measuring and reporting how IT services are meeting service level expectations.
• Owns customer satisfaction metrics for measuring and reporting how IT services are meeting customer expectations.
• Manages customer expectations.
• Owns Voice of Customer feedback loop for gathering customer input to drive customer satisfaction and service improvement.
• Works with the business to validate that expected business outcomes are realized - return on investment (ROI).

People Leadership:

• Accountable for the performance of the IT resources in the region.
• Set performances objectives, individual development plans and conduct annual performance reviews.
• Drive performance improvement targeting specific identified areas of development.
• Build trust-based relationships that foster a team environment and a team that lives the WV IT culture.
• Create experiences that motivate, stretch and celebrate the capacities of resources in the region.
• Coach, guide and mentor IT team in the region.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:

• Bachelors degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Information Technology, Business Administration or other related field, or equivalent work experience.
• Requires leadership, business knowledge, negotiation skills and experience/in-depth knowledge of IT infrastructure operations and/or software implementation and support across multiple countries.
• Requires demonstrated ability to launch and deliver one or more IT project(s) across multiple countries on time and within budget.
• Typically requires 10 15 years of IT experience, 5-7 years of experience in the areas of IT leadership, project management, process engineering or solutions management.
• Requires experience in managing teams and building relationships with people at a variety of levels.
• Willingness and ability to travel domestically and internationally, as necessary.
• Industry certifications from Microsoft, Cisco, CoBIT, ISACA, PMI, etc.

How to Apply

CLICK HERE to apply online

Regional Governance Advisor, Africa
 

Reference: 1612 - 17R15004

Purpose of Position: The purpose of this regional position is to apply the relevant knowledge, skills and methods that promote the development of high performing national office governing boards and advisory councils that guide, protect and ensure the achievement of the World Vision Mission and Vision.

To this end, the position will lead board development, provide and manage governance training, clarify decision rights and accountability in all aspects of World Vision governance in the region. 

As a member of the Global Governance Dept, the position supports regional implementation of WVIs best practice governance model by national boards, advisory councils and alignment with microfinance organizations boards.

It also supports the Partnership national office governance Transition and Peer Review processes according to established standards. 

 
The position makes an important contribution to governance policy development, research and creation of quality resource materials.

Key Responsibilities:
Board Development & Capacity Building:

• Provide capacity building and development facilitation and training in best practice governance to Boards and Advisory Councils, in collaboration with the RL, SDs and NDs.
• Facilitate the assessment of governance effectiveness in National Offices and develop action plans to address identified gaps.
• Create and implement regional governance strategy, annual work plan and Regional Forum Plan for capacity building and other learning processes.
• Support the defining of baseline Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for governance at national, regional, and global level, to promote effectiveness and alignment to Partnership standards.
• Ensure monitoring, observation, regular communication and quality board meeting reporting, so as to keep track of Board and Advisory Council performance.
• Provide support and quality control for National Office Board and Advisory Council Transitions where appropriate.
• Coach and advice national directors and senior leadership to support their boards and Advisory Councils and derive value from their work.
• Contribute content and develop board training modules.

Peer Review & Global International Audit (GIA):

• In conjunction with the Peer Review department, provide support and counsel to board and staff with regard to the self-review, in preparation for Peer Reviews.
• Provide advice for an appropriate follow-up and implementation of peer review recommendations.
• Participate as a peer in reviews assigned and scheduled by the Peer Review Department.
• Support GIAs risk audits related to the governance functioning.
• Contribute to regional senior management meetings as appropriate and articulate governance issues as well as Global Governance Department planning and coordination meetings.
• Participate in the development of a contextualized Regional Forum that is governance-focused and a development opportunity for boards and Advisory Councils.
• Occasionally attend Board or Advisory Council meetings as a resource advisor /observer on governance with agreement of parties concerned.
• Liaise with VisionFund governance department to ensure alignment between National Offices and VisionFund MFIs on governance issues as per WVI policies.

Other:

• Attend and participate in weekly chapel, devotions and regional/departmental retreats.
• Practice the Core Values, Covenant of Partnership and Partnership Principles.
• Undertake any other tasks that are consistent with the positions purposes, as may be required by the Partnership Leader, Global Governance.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
 

Required:

• Masters level or higher degree in related field such as Human Development, Law, Organisational Development, Corporate Business and related Management, or Governance.
• Extensive knowledge and understanding of the functioning of International NGOs such as World Vision in terms of their governance, management and operations.
• Broad knowledge and understanding of current board governance issues in the region and/or the world.
• Experience in senior management roles, including working directly under and reporting to a board, serving on a board, preferably including experience in the non-profit sector.
• An understanding of current practices in governance in the corporate as well as the NGO sectors.
• Excellent communication skills and strong interpersonal and diplomacy skills.
• Proven ability to work with high level members of board and advisory councils across physical and cultural distances.
• Understanding of peer review mechanisms.
• Ability to lead and coordinate board assessments and facilitate board training.
• Ability to conceive and formalize sound strategy to meet the mission and deliver on objectives and tasks on time.
• Outstanding coordination skills, with ability to handle multiple activities concurrently, work under pressure, and meet deadlines.
• International experience/exposure through travel or living working in other countries.
• Ability to participate effectively in a virtual team while ensuring achievement of team objectives.
• Good diplomatic, influencing and negotiating skill with ability to exercise discretion.
• Demonstrated commitment to World Vision's mission statement and Core Values.
• Proven ability to work across different cultures and nationalities within the region.
• Effective in written and verbal communication in English.
• Ability and willingness to travel domestically and internationally up to 30% of the time.
• Willingness to work outside the normal working hours from time to time, due to the need to connect with people in different time zones.
• Ability to work in a virtual team.

Preferred:

• Masters Level or Higher Degree in related field such as Human Development, Law, Organizational Development, Corporate Business Management or Governance.
• Experience in development of quality board tools and polices.
• Board experience and board development facilitation.
• Ability to work in a complex organization.
• Understanding of current practices in corporate governance and NGO sector governance.

How to Apply

CLICK HERE to apply online

Application Deadline Date: 13-Sep-15