Country Director - Spark MicroGrants

Spark MicroGrants believes in a world where everyone lives with dignity and determines their own positive future. Spark has worked in 1350+ villages in 7 countries and 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.

Spark seeks a strategic and seasoned leader with a deep appreciation of systems change and impact-first programming to lead Spark in Ghana. 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 rural communities are led through regular facilitated meetings to organise, conceptualise and implement local development projects, which are supported by a microgrant to fund them. The FCAP has been designed to improve local livelihoods, enhance social cohesion, and improve citizen engagement. 

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 Ghana, Spark will be expanding programs in partnership with local partners hence Spark is establishing a team in Ghana.

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 is ultimately accountable to the villages we serve.

RESPONSIBILITIES

The role involves strategic leadership, partnership management and team management. Primary responsibilities are to:

• Lead management of relationships with government counterparts at the national and district levels and other key partners, donors and stakeholders to deliver on Spark Ghana’s government engagement strategy in order to integrate the FCAP into Government systems.
• Overall responsibility for program quality, timelines and budget management.
• Collaborate with and support internal departments including Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning, Fundraising, Finance and Operations to ensure compliance and leverage Spark’s strengths for success in Ghana.
• 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 laws of Ghana.
• Support fundraising and partnership development efforts and contribute to external and internal communications.
• Support Financial management, grant management and reporting in Ghana.

Required Skills or Experience

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, evaluation and learning, finance and operations, fundraising and grant management;
• 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,
• Strong project management skills and attention to detail are required; 
• Excellent English written and oral communication;

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