SoCha LLC
Job Title: Capacity Building Strategist
Company Background: SoCha (a portmanteau of Social and Change) is an independent Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (ME&L) firm that provides bespoke solutions to social challenges.
We are a US-registered, veteran-owned small business, headquartered in Mauritius.
SoCha supports foreign assistance interventions across Africa and Asia and specializes in advancing innovative methodologies and changing the way donors find solutions to social problems.
Activity Background: USAID Kenya and East Africa (USAID/KEA) contracted SoCha LLC to implement the five-year USAID Localization, Inclusion, and Sustainability Activity (LISA).
The activity aims to support USAID/KEA staff and stakeholders to be more efficient, effective, transparent, inclusive, and skilled in achieving development outcomes.
To achieve this, the activity will enhance USAID/KEA’s organizational project design; programming; Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) practices; diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) objectives, and mission-wide localization efforts.
LISA will support USAID/KEA to elevate local voices and co-develop and co-create USAID/KEA programs with local partners, including marginalized populations, girls and women, and youth.
The activity has the following core objectives:
1. MEL: Strengthen monitoring, evaluation, verification, and data utilization to improve development results.
2. Organizational Development: Improve systems, coordination, collaboration, and organizational development to enhance institutional learning and program effectiveness.
3. Capacity Building: Provide capacity building services to empower and enfranchise local actors.
4. Strategy: Support strategy development, implementation, and process management to enable continuous planning, delivering, assessing, and adapting of development programs.
5. Logistics: Provide logistical support to ensure productive and efficient operations.
Position Background: The Localization, Inclusion and Sustainability Activity (LISA), implemented by SoCha LLC, seeks a highly motivated Capacity Building Specialist (CBS) that will liaise with USAID/KEA to identify and empower local actors to pursue USAID funding, strengthen their ability to implement awards, promote learning and adaptive management, and bolster their fiduciary capacity as stewards of public funds.
The CBS will support the Capacity Building (CB) process using organizational capacity assessment tools and will identify and scope local organizations’ needs for additional CB services.
The CBS will engage local CB expertise to optimize the ability of Kenyan organizations to receive, track, and judiciously utilize USAID funds.
The CBS will also monitor the progress of CB activities within USAID/KEA’s local partners. CBS will report to the Capacity Building Lead.
Responsibilities
- Conduct a thorough assessment of the organizational and capacity development needs of current and potential Implementing Partners (IPs). Analyze the findings to understand the root causes of challenges and collaborate with partners to develop action plans.
- Develop organizational capacity assessment tools to assist with the evaluation of partner organizations.
- Design a comprehensive curriculum and provide tailored technical assistance services to USAID-identified local partners, including coaching and managing technical assistance services via consultants and Kenyan firms with the relevant expertise. Technical assistance services would cover areas such as finances and fund management, governance structures, policy formulation, sub-award management, tracking and reporting of third-party contributions, human resource systems and practices, information technology systems, enterprise resource planning and systems, procurement, systematic performance monitoring and reporting, and public and private partnership networks.
- Provide support in the planning and execution of Non-U.S. Organization Pre-Award Surveys and implementing partner procedures/expenditure reviews.
- Empower and support local actors and organizations through capacity building services that promote their inclusion and participation.
- Liaise with USAID support and technical offices in relation to work requests.
- Identify and evaluate opportunities to provide capacity building services to local organizations.
- Monitor the progress of capacity building activities to ensure that goals are achieved within the set timeframe and budget.
Qualifications
- At least 5 years of experience with capacity building, organization development and change management in fields such as risk management, finance, compliance, procurement, governance, HR, or other related fields;
- Preferred experience working for or collaborating with audit, accounting, consulting, or business services firms;
- Master’s degree in a strategy or related field;
- Excellent communication skills in both English and Kiswahili
Only Kenyan citizens or persons with work authorization in Kenya may apply
Period of performance: For two years, unless extended by a modification to the employment agreement, or terminated in accordance with SoCha LLC policy and Kenyan law. LISA staff positions will be extended through the life of the five-year activity based on employee performance and subject to USAID funding.
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
How to Apply:
To lodge an application, please lodge CV via THIS LINK.
Applications close at 1700hrs Kenyan time on May 10, 2023, application review will be on a rolling basis.