We are hiring a Country Director in Rwanda.

ABOUT SPARK MICROGRANTS

Spark MicroGrants believes in a world where everyone lives with dignity and determines their own positive future. Spark has pioneered a community-driven development model in sub-Saharan Africa. Spark works with NGO and Government partners to scale the model’s adoption and impact on rural communities – on their own terms. Our model combines facilitated community meetings with a small, discretionary grant to catalyse local action and institution building. Read more about our Approach, Impact and Values on our website.

Spark seeks a strategic and seasoned leader with a deep appreciation of systems change and impact-first programming to lead Spark in Rwanda. The right candidate would champion our work in government integration, high-quality partnerships, and team management. This role requires focusing on government engagements, collaboration across the organisation, developing and maintaining strong partnerships, and compliance with organisational and donor policies.

OUR WORK

The foundation of our approach is the Facilitated Collective Action Process (FCAP), where communities are led through regular facilitated meetings to organise, conceptualise and implement local development projects, supported by a microgrant to fund them. Our currency is quality, which is evidenced in our impact. Spark supports the implementation of the FCAP in rural communities to improve local livelihoods, enhance social cohesion, and improve citizen engagement. Our community-based development model aims to catalyse social and economic transitions in the context of development opportunities in each country we work in.

Spark has worked in 800+ villages in 6 countries. In the next few years, we seek to accelerate the growth of this approach by establishing a global Community of Practice with partners based on cutting-edge facilitation and training design, ultimately integrating in government programming starting with Rwanda, Malawi, Uganda, and Ghana.

Our operating model is based on an international team of functional advisers (e.g. finance team, training team, design team) who support country teams. Country teams co-design the FCAP with local partners and government, train partners, and support quality monitoring and oversight. The size and scope of country teams depend on the needs of our partners.

In Rwanda, Spark is partnering with the Government of Rwanda to implement the Advancing Citizen Engagement (ACE) Project, supported by the Japanese Social Development Fund, the World Bank and Comic Relief. The midline results for external evaluations show encouraging positive change on multiple dimensions of economic development and social inclusion.

WHO YOU ARE

You are a seasoned professional with significant expertise in policy influencing, partnership management and program implementation. You are excited to join us at a crucial juncture in our growth when we are investing in swift expansion, growing our program and in-country partnerships, and focused on maintaining sector-leading quality as we scale. You will lead our team in supporting our partners to incorporate technology into the program delivery while maintaining quality approaches to facilitation and training design. The right candidate will not want to do ‘development as usual’ but question ‘how’ aid works and ensure that Spark’s program is ultimately accountable to the villages we serve.

RESPONSIBILITIES

The role is at the nexus of strategic leadership, partnership management and team management. Primary responsibilities are to:

• Deliver on the country-level government engagement and policy influencing strategy and a roadmap to integrate the FCAP program into Government systems over the medium-to-long term.
• Lead management of relationships with government counterparts at the national and district levels.
• Overall responsibility for program quality, timelines and budget management.
• Collaborate with internal departments like Monitoring and Evaluation, fundraising, and Operations to leverage Spark’s strengths for success in Rwanda.
• Establish and sustain critical productive relationships with donors, partners, and industry stakeholders to advance Spark’s ability to draw on and influence a wide range of advisers and industry partners in our work.
• Active involvement in audit management and compliance with Rwandan laws.
• Support fundraising and partnership development efforts and contribute to external and internal communications.
• Support Financial management, grant management and reporting in Rwanda.

REQUIREMENTS:

Qualifications, experience & skills:

• Minimum 12 years of relevant experience, such as in partnership management, people management and program implementation;
• Proven track record of government engagement and policy influencing;
• Demonstrated experience in leading organisations;
• Strong understanding of monitoring and evaluation;
• Masters Degree in the field of International Development, Social Sciences, Economics, Management or related fields;
• Excellent track record in designing and managing rural development programs, research projects and partnerships;
• Ability to operate independently and strong in working as part of a larger team;
• Strong project management skills and attention to detail are required;
• Excellent English written and oral communication;
• Remains calm and positive under pressure and in difficult situations.

Safeguarding

Our safeguarding follows a do-no-harm principle. All Spark staff are expected to respect and uphold the safeguarding procedures and principles to minimise harm to stakeholders, program participants, and the environment in compliance with the World Bank Environmental and Social Framework and Rwandan Legislation.

OTHER INFORMATION

Job Location: Kigali, Rwanda

Estimated start date: As soon as possible

Application closing Date: On a rolling basis, we reserve the right to close this recruitment process anytime.

How to Apply: Follow this link to apply : https://sparkmicrogrants.bamboohr.com/careers/89

Please note that we areable to sponsor visa applications for this position.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

Spark Microgrants provides equal employment and advancement opportunities to all individuals. Employment decisions at Spark are based on merit, qualifications, and abilities. Spark does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, gender identity, age, disability, marital status, or any other characteristic protected by the law. Spark will make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with known disabilities unless doing so would result in undue hardship to daily operations.