Interim Coordinator – WYFEI 2030 Programme

Location: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia or remote

Immediate Supervisor: Dual reporting to the Director of Programmes GMT, and Director, Women, Gender and Youth Directorate (WGYD)

Tenure of Appointment: 3 Months
This will be a consultancy contract with the Graca Machel Trust for a three month secondment to the Women, Gender and Youth Directorate of the African Union Commission

Background

In July 2022, the African Union launched the African Union Women and Youth Financial and Economic Inclusion Initiative (WYFEI) 2030. WYFEI is overseen by the Women, Gender, and Youth Directorate (WGYD). WYFEI 2030 and is operationalized through a partnership framework comprising 3 clusters – Financial Inclusion, Entrepreneurship and Business Development and Quotas. These clusters are communities of action that comprise an open network of people with complementary skills from different organizations jointly delivering, leading and coordinating continental efforts towards women and youth financial and economic inclusion.

The African Union Commission, together with the Graca Machel Trust (GMT) and the Mastercard Foundation are seeking to develop a coordinated Pan African response to the aspirations of the AU Women and Youth Financial and Economic Inclusion Initiative. The response will leverage existing commitments and relationships across the three partner organizations while exploring opportunities to catalyze quick additional results.

In that regard, the Graca Machel Trust seeks to recruit and second to the AUC Women, Gender and Youth Directorate, an Interim Coordinator to support the implementation of the Women and Youth Financial and Economic Inclusion Initiative

The coordinator will lead the interim WYFEI secretariat to prepare a programming framework with priority actions aligned to AU WYFEI 2030 initiative.

Key responsibilities

As a member of the WYFEI Secretariat, the coordinator will collaborate with the AUC Women, Gender, and Youth Directorate staff to implement the following tasks:

1. Lead the review of the challenges and opportunities underpinning the design of a Pan African economic and financial inclusion programme in Africa in line with the priorities of the AU WYFEI initiative.
2. In coordination with the WGYD directorate and the secretariat, hold consultation with relevant stakeholders including the WYFEI clusters and other thematic networks to assess and evaluate needs and capacities for a priority WYFEI programme.
3. In collaboration with the WYFEI Secretariat lead the development of a WYFEI priority programme concept and proposal to provide an overview of implementation objectives, priorities and structure.
4. Identify the best approaches and practices for effective monitoring of the WYFEI Programme.
5. Propose a governance framework including organizational, technical and coordination priorities for the WYFEI Secretariat.
6. Responsible for translating overall project objectives and milestones into country level objectives and activities.
7. Responsible for delivery of results within set timelines. This includes the development and oversight of the interim AUC WYFEI Secretariat; the successful completion of a WYFEI African landscape analysis; and the submission of a full WYFEI programme implementation proposal to the Mastercard Foundation
8. Drives quality control to ensure that project execution meets project quality standards.
9. Troubleshoot implementation challenges, escalating to the Director Level as required and recommending course correction strategies.
10. Develop technical and operational plans, including quarterly work plan.
11. Leads on project administration, operations, implementation, and fiscal management at the country level to ensure technical and financial activity aligns with scope and budget allocations, internal policies, and donor regulations.
12. Provides day to day coordination of the project’s consortium, including ensuring effective communication with all project partners, proactively identifying, and resolving partnership issues and ensuring cohesion throughout project implementation.
13. Continuously and proactively manages risk at the project level.
14. Reports on the budget expenditure in consultation with the GMT CFO
15. Adopts a youth lens in their project management approaches.
16. Perform additional tasks as requested by the immediate supervisor.

Expected Outputs

• Comprehensive landscape analysis of women and youth economic and financial inclusion in Africa developed in consultation and validated with the AU WYFEI clusters
• Proposal for a priority WYFEI programme addressing the priority, interests and resources of the AUC, GMT and Mastercard Foundation
• Proposed governance architecture for the implementation of the AU WYFEI priority initiative

Qualifications and required skills

• Master’s Degree in Gender studies, Economics, International Relations, international development, law, Sociology, Business Administration, Public Administration, or related studies.
• Eight (8) years of relevant work and professional experience including Financial Inclusion, gender and women’s economic advancement, management of gender portfolio, strategic planning and programme design. Experience working at a regional or international level will be an added advantage. Five (5) years out of total experience needs to involve strong expertise and/or coordination exposure, with three (3) years exposure to supervisory responsibilities.
• Knowledge and understanding of legal and policy frameworks at the regional level that impact the status of women and youth.
• Project management skills and experience.
• Programme development skills will be considered an advantage
• Experience and exposure to working in Economic and/or Financial Inclusion
• Experience working directly with the AU, particularly on women or youth development will be an additional advantage
• Demonstrated ability to work under pressure in a multicultural environment.
• Strong oral and written communication skills.
• Sound planning and organizational skills.
• Ability to work across business units/geographies; cultural sensitivity.

Language requirements

Proficiency in English is a requirement and fluency in another AU language (French, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic) is an added advantage