Position Title: Head of Impact & Influence
ABOUT US
We are an international development organisation putting ingenious ideas to work so people in poverty can change their world.
We help people find solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems.
Challenges made worse by catastrophic climate change and persistent
gender inequality. We work with communities to develop ingenious,
lasting and locally owned solutions for agriculture, water and waste
management, climate resilience and clean energy. And we share what works
with others, so answers that start small can grow big.
We are committed to advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment
through all our work. This includes programmes, knowledge sharing,
advocacy, external communications, and our own organisational
development. At a minimum, we ensure that all our work is gender
sensitive, seeking gender transformative approaches as our overall
ambition and in accordance with context.
We’re a global change-making group. The group consists of a UK
registered charity with community projects in Africa, Asia and Latin
America, an independent development publishing company and a technical
consulting service. We combine these specialisms to multiply our impact
and help shape a world that works better for everyone.
OUR AIMS
We help people find solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems,
made worse by catastrophic climate change and persistent gender
inequality. Our aims are to:
• Make agriculture work better for smallholder farmers, many of them
women, so they can adapt to climate change and achieve a good standard
of living.
• Help more people harness the transformational effects of clean
affordable energy and reduce avoidable deaths caused by smoke from
indoor stoves and fires.
• Make cities in poorer countries cleaner, healthier places to live and work.
• Build disaster resilience into the lives of people threatened by
hazards – reducing the risk of hazards and minimizing their impact on
lives and livelihoods.
PRACTICAL ACTION IN KENYA
In Kenya, Practical Action has a long history of addressing systemic
barriers that prevent people from accessing energy that transforms their
lives, helping communities and government make cities healthier and
safer, making agriculture and markets work better for small holder
farmers and supporting communities and government to become more
resilient.
We use a mix of programming with communities and consultancy services
with shapers of policy and practice to achieve our aims in Kenya, with
offices in Nairobi, Lodwar and Kisumu.
ABOUT THE ROLE
Reporting to the Country Director, this highly influential role will
have their eyes on the big picture and future trends, shaping Practical
Action’s strategy in Kenya and setting the Change Ambitions which define
the impact the group will make.
The Head of Impact & Influence will champion Practical Action’s
Framework for Change; ensuring that we achieve the most positive impact
on the lives of women and men and that we capture the learning and
evidence.
The role leads in strategy development, provide strategic leadership of
the country’s MEL approach and how we capture our impact and learning,
manages gender as a cross-cutting function, and co-ordinates our
communications both internally and externally.
ACCOUNTABILITIES
Leadership and Strategic Alignment
• Lead, manage and motivate the impact and influence team ensuring that
they have clear work objectives and individual/teamwork plans and
receive meaningful feedback on their performance.
• Work closely with the Business Development and Programs’ teams to support a stream of high-quality new funding proposals.
practicalaction.org
• Together with the Head of Programs, lead the development process of
the country office strategic business plan (SBP), ensuring that change
objectives are developed to achieve change in the lives of people that
we work with.
• Lead in the routine quarterly and annual reporting of the SBP, working
with programs’ team on evaluating impact against change objectives.
• Ensure detailed understanding of organizational key performance
indicators (KPIs) to enable effective tracking of progress on quarterly
and annual basis.
• Ensure that Practical Action’s work draws on learning and innovation
and is shared effectively with the wider Practical Action organization.
• Ensure that Practical Action cross cutting themes on gender and
climate technology are embedded in change objectives and measured as
part of the organization’s impact.
Strengthening Profile, Generating Funding and Managing Relationships
• Ensure that the Impact and Influence team contributes to the proposal
development process by leading design workshops that build proposals on
overall change objectives and Practical Action’s approach to
understanding system change is embedded in design.
• Ensure that MEL and Impact functions and processes are budgeted for in proposals and new funding.
• Ensure that impact and lessons from program delivery feeds into
organizational profile strengthening through stories of change and
impact reporting.
• Participate in learning forums and opportunities to showcase the organization’s impact.
Delivering Quality
• Responsible for provision of effective support to ensure systems
thinking, gender and inclusion and MEL practices are at the heart of all
our work. Ensure that progress is tracked against project deliverables,
working with project team on MEL plans for each project.
• Lead the development of a range of methodologies and indicators to
enable a rigorous assessment of our progress against plans. Ensure that
data is collected on the reach of our work and is measured, including
beneficiary numbers as a standard and global measure of our outputs.
• Ensure that plans adequately define the impact they will make and that
they have adequate measures in place to monitor progress, and capture
evidence and impact.
• Provide senior management with a periodic high-level assessment of our
impact and our learning, and recommendations on ways to maximise our
effectiveness.
• Work with the Communications Team to share our impact and our learning internally and externally in a compelling way.
• Oversee the development of the infrastructure and culture to capture
knowledge, evidence, impact and learning; contributing to capacity
building efforts.
• Working closely with the Heads of Change Ambitions (in the UK) to
guide the work of defining impact and participation in the Global Change
Hubs, and Gender Group to ensure that learning, evidence and
influencing efforts contribute to the Change Ambition work across the
group.
• Ensure that evaluation of our work includes critical aspects on how we
work, such as gender integration, partnerships (including learning from
community partners), and aspects of value for money.
• Lead and support effective processes for reflection, learning,
documentation and dissemination. Ensure meaningful participation of
field staff, partners and beneficiaries in the reviews.
• Advise and assist programme staff in undertaking quality baseline
studies, external midterm and final evaluations of their projects and
follow up to ensure that recommendations are acted upon and where
appropriate, made available to other members of the group.
• Ensure that MEL staff are working with project delivery teams to design and monitor MEL plans.
• Through regular monitoring, work with finance and award management to
understand and capture delivery risks, share with SMT and the wider
organization.
• Build capacity of delivery teams and others in the organization on
defining and measuring change, consistently working with global teams on
implementing the overall MEL Framework.
• Take lead in preparation of quarterly reports including quarterly risk register reviews
PERSON PROFILE
To be successful in the role, the ideal candidate will be able to demonstrate:
Experience & Knowledge
• Proven experience of design and delivery of monitoring and evaluation,
and impact assessment methodologies in an international development
setting.
Essential
• Masters in Monitoring & Evaluation/international development or any other relevant field.
• At least seven years relevant experience, three of which must have
been at middle management level preferably in an international NGO
setting.
• Substantial MEL training and capacity building experience preferably with field and remote based staff.
• Successful track record of implementing effective MEL systems,
including experience in quantitative and qualitative data collection and
management.
• Proven analytical and problem-solving skills to understand the range
and content of the organization’s thematic work and provide practical
solutions to operational challenges.
• A flexible and initiative-taking, proactive, inspiring attitude with
the ability to manage and prioritize and unpredictable workload,
including the ability and willingness to change work practices and hours
in the event of a larger demand.
• A strong understanding of and commitment to gender and diversity.
• Willingness to travel within the country and internationally.
• Fluency in English, with strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Proven project/programme management experience, research experience,
including hands on experience in program assessments, problem analysis
and project and program design, project cycle management, grants
management and donor liaison.
Desirable
• Ability to collect, collate and assimilate information from a
variety of sources and to present it to others clearly and simply.
• Competence in managing appropriate database systems for monitoring and evaluation.
• A team player with excellent written and verbal communication skills –
able to listen to others, to identify and share important/key
information and to influence others in the uptake of new or adapted
approaches.
• Understanding and experience engaging in Market System Development
(MSD) programming with focus in rural areas including the dry lands.
A detailed Job Profile can be accessed on the website using this link- https://practicalaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/JD-Head-of-Impact-and-Influence-Jan-2024.pdf
How to apply
If you have the experience, skills and the ability we are looking for, please email your application letter stating your motivation and suitability for the role and an up to date CV to: recruitment@practicalaction.or.ke with the title “Head of Impact & Influence” not later than **1st February 2024.**All information/data given will be in the strictest confidence and will only be used for recruitment purposes.
Practical Action is an equal opportunities employer, and we encourage applications from under-represented groups. We stay committed to cultivating an inclusive and diverse working environment and believe that people from different backgrounds or cultures give us different perspectives, and the more perspectives we have, the more successful we will be. By building a culture where everyone feels heard, respected and valued we give everyone working with us the opportunity to achieve their full potential.
Practical Action is committed to safeguarding and protecting children and vulnerable adults and as such candidates will be subject to pre-employment checks.
The successful applicant must have the pre-existing right to both live and work in Kenya.
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.