Lead, Digital Economy - Mastercard Foundation

Full Job Description - Read Carefully

Mastercard Foundation is a global foundation based across four hubs in Kigali, Rwanda, Nairobi, Kenya, Accra, Ghana and Toronto, Canada. Our programs promote financial inclusion and advance education and learning in Africa, primarily for young people, and in Canada for Indigenous youth. The Foundation was established in 2006 through the generosity of Mastercard when it became a public company. From inception, the Foundation was designed to be a separate entity and independent from Mastercard. Our policies, operations, and funding decisions are made by our President and Board of Directors.

The Foundation believes that youth employment is key to unlocking prosperity, both for youth and their societies. Enabling young women and men from disadvantaged communities to secure dignified and fulfilling work will ensure inclusive development and economic growth in Africa.

Values are timeless, they transcend and rise above all. They guide everything we do, as employees of the Foundation. We share a common vision of a world where everyone has the opportunity to learn and prosper. We make mistakes, we reflect, and we grow so that we can impact our world – it’s why we are here. We are ambitious and driven. We encourage you to bring your bold ideas, curiosity, and expertise to your work. We laugh at ourselves and with each other. We are a team. Our journey together makes our impact even more meaningful.

We have entered a very exciting time at the Foundation as we scale up our operations across Africa to realize our Young Africa Works strategy. If you are an experienced Program Management professional ready to build something new and increase your impact, read on!

DIGITAL ECONOMIES IN AFRICA 

Digital technologies will shape the future of work, both influencing a country’s labour market and offering levers to strengthen young people’s success. The Foundation’s strategy features a cross-cutting IDEA theme to help unlock the power of inclusive digital economies for youth in Africa. To ensure this linkage is fully realized, the IDEA team primarily supports the development of country strategies and programs. The IDEA team provides technical support, helps colleagues build a shared understanding of key issues and opportunities related to inclusive digital economies in Africa, and contributes to the Foundation’s learning agenda. 

Digital technologies are transforming every aspect of life for billions of people. Digitally-enabled businesses – local and global, small and large – create new work opportunities that require new skills and mechanisms to link appropriately-skilled workers with opportunities. Youth who currently use digital technologies can anticipate a lifelong journey to ensure their skills remain relevant to evolving needs and opportunities. Those who have yet to benefit from digital inclusion need support and encouragement to begin to climb the ladder of basic digital literacy and skills. Lack of meaningful progress towards digital skills leaves millions of young Africans at risk of exclusion from opportunities in an increasingly digital world. It limits the ability for teachers or students to use digital solutions effectively within the educational systems, as well as the competitiveness of workers wishing to join local, regional and global ICT labor markets. Ultimately, this constrains the ability of firms to implement new technology and create new jobs. 

THE OPPORTUNITY

The Program Lead, Digital Economy will report to the Regional Head of Western, Central and Northern Africa. In this role, the Program Lead will also work collaboratively with other Foundation staff, such as Program country team members who are developing country strategies and other program team members in other technical areas (e.g. education finance, agriculture, MSME, etc.).

WAYS YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE

• Work closely with the Country Team staff to achieve team goals.
• Provide digital technology expertise to support the design and management of programs that leverage technology to scale country-level inclusive education, financial and labor systems in Africa.
• Diagnose and contribute expertise on digital enabling environment and policy to inform country strategy design, partnership development, and monitoring processes.
• Work closely with the program and country teams to leverage synergies across programs and across geographies.
• Support and/or Manage current or future programs as appropriate, distilling learnings for the country and technical teams as well as wider Foundation staff.
• Contribute insights to the Foundation’s thought leadership on digital skills development in Africa by writing blogs, attending and presenting at conferences and identifying other opportunities to share and deepen learning.
• Assist in expanding the Foundation team’s capacity relating to digital skills development and digital policy, by sharing learning, facilitating training and supporting country teams.
• Support the design and delivery of appropriate mechanisms to monitor effectiveness and impact of skills development interventions in close collaboration with the Impact team.
• Participate in governance activities related to programs, such as investment committees, advisory committees or other stakeholder fora to provide oversight or elevate and leverage learnings.
• Build and maintain relationships with partner organizations, key stakeholders at country-level, communities of practice and global stakeholders.

WHO YOU ARE

• Master’s degree or equivalent experience in education, business, or a technology-related field.
• Ten (10) plus years of experience working with the private and non-profit sectors, particularly in a role relating to digital technology and skills development in Africa.
• Experience in a commercial function in at least one relevant digital technology industry focused on low income customers – e.g. product management, strategy, design.
• Familiarity with relevant technologies and sectors with potential for emerging markets - software solutions, app or platform providers, venture capital, incubators, digital financial services providers, e-government, data analytics, etc.
• Experience successfully procuring and managing consultants and technology vendors and suppliers to achieve goals.
• Excellent project management skills, including multi-stakeholder projects.
• Command of quantitative and qualitative business analytics
• Experience working with the non-profit or public sectors, particularly in a role relating to digital technology.
• Experience with entrepreneurship or intrapreneurship.
• Demonstrated knowledge of African social, economic and political contexts.
• Experience living and/or working in Africa.
• Excellent presentation and listening skills.
• Strong written and spoken communication skills in English required.
• You are flexible, adaptable, and able to execute a range of job duties and changing priorities.
• Proactive, engaged and a self-starter.
• Excellent prioritization and time management skills.
• Ability to work both independently and as part of a team.
• Good organizational skills and demonstrated ability to handle multiple tasks.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications (PowerPoint, Word and Excel).
• High emotional intelligence and comfort with ambiguity.
• Knowledge of digital inclusion policy is an asset.
• You possess excellent verbal, written, and presentation skills with the ability to articulate information to a variety of constituents across cultures.
• You possess professional maturity, sensitivity with different cultures, and impeccable integrity that exemplify the Foundation’s values.

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