Senior Manager - External relations, DR Congo

Our programs in DRC

GiveDirectly DRC launched in 2018 to deliver unconditional cash transfers to poor, rural populations via mobile money, promoting food security, poverty reduction, and financial inclusion. We set out to demonstrate the operational feasibility and cost effectiveness of sending high volumes of digital cash transfers in one of the least developed countries in the world. In the 4 years since it began, GiveDirectly DRC has used mobile money to commit over $14M to over 65K beneficiaries in four provinces: South Kivu, North Kivu, Ituri, and Kinshasa. GiveDirectly’s work in DRC has scaled from compelling proofs-of-concept of mobile-money-based cash transfers, to bringing innovative mobile targeting technology to the urban poor in Kinshasa, in collaboration with the DRC’s social protection agency, the Social Fund of the DRC, to delivering cash completely contactlessly to recipients in Beni and Bunia impacted by the economic shocks of COVID-19. You will be joining Give Directly DRC at an exciting point in our history as we build and hope to launch multiple new programmes and strengthen our partnerships with the Government of DRC. 

Role Overview

Working closely with the Country Director, the Senior Manager - External Relations will be a key point of contact for all GiveDirectly DRC partners based in Kinshasa, ranging from government partners and funders to coordination mechanisms, implementing partners, and mobile network operators. They will help GiveDirectly to establish a presence and stronger reputation in Kinshasa.

Responsibilities

• Program partnerships and coordination 
• Coordinate and communicate our program activities with program partners, including governments, funders, and implementing partners
• Facilitate the provision of technical assistance and other capacity building with the support of GiveDirectly’s implementation and technology teams both nationally and globally
• Liaison with Kinshasa-based advisors and collaborators
• Manage Kinshasa-based sub-contractors
• Participate in multilateral fora such as the Cash Working Group and humanitarian cluster coordination meetings
• Collaborate with the Country Director and country management staff in facilitating administration, timely reporting, and ensuring 100% regulatory compliance
• Write regular project reports

• Fundraising & partnerships
• Build relationships and reputation for GiveDirectly with partners of all sorts in Kinshasa
• Support the CD in domestic fundraising efforts and key account management
• Provide pitch materials for management outreach to potential funders.
• Identify relevant funding opportunities to pursue and surfacing key details for Go/No Go decision-making on whether to pursue
• Attend in-country meetings, as appropriate, to identify possible partners for future collaboration
• Organize visits and events

• External relations
• Maintain stakeholder matrix for DRC 
• Senior point of contact for provincial level authorities in all provinces where we work
• Develop concise reports for national and local government officials. 
• Ensure reporting to government partners, and communicate important issues and recommendations from the government to GiveDirectly and vice versa. 
• Provide support to field teams that guarantees adherence to national and local government guidance and protocols. 
• Identify possible future risks and areas of non-alignment and work with different teams to implement preventative actions. 
• Prepare high gloss content for brown bags and presentations with internal and external audiences

• Communications
• Work on employer branding in the DRC labor market
• Collaborate with the CD and global communications team on communications efforts
• Developing high quality, brand-accurate content for the country office, including one-pagers, proposal FAQs, standard pitch decks, templates etc. that leverage global templates and global core content, for example to support partner visits
• Conducting country-specific research and analysis on country context, stakeholder landscape, and program-specific domain areas.
• Craft external media or government-facing talking points and messaging for various GiveDirectly projects. 
• Develop strong relationships with key members of the local and national media. 
• Source story ideas from across GiveDirectly projects and translate them into compelling and effective content for media pitches.
• Monitor social media and online media data to ensure that the right messaging around the organization is being delivered. 
• Liaise with the internal audit team on any risks flagged from field investigations that have program or Government relations risk. 

Qualifications:

• At least 5 years’ work experience, including at least 2 years’ experience in partnerships and/or fundraising
• Outstanding interpersonal skills, comfortable representing GiveDirectly across a wide range of stakeholders. 
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to work in a highly independent and self-directed manner, while effectively communicating about gaps and risks 
• Good time-management skills 
• Ability to work on your own, taking initiative and developing your own work
• Must have experience working with government(s) in complex and fragile states in Africa
• Professional fluency in French and English is a must for this role 
• Enthusiasm for the work that we do 
• Good attention to detail 
• Experience working with distributed and multicultural teams across different time zones
• Experience working with government(s) in DRC and knowledge of the Congolese government

Nice to have

• Expérience préalable dans l’obtention de fonds auprès des principaux bailleurs de fonds des programmes de protection sociale : Banque mondiale, USAID, EU, etc.
• Connaissance des systèmes logiciels pertinents : Salesforce, Slack, GSuite, Asana
• Capacité à créer des présentations de haute qualité dans PowerPoint et/ou Google Slides
• Aisance avec la création de budgets
• Excellent representational and communication skills, written and oral in French, English and preferably Lingala or Swahili. 
• Taking initiative and ownership mindset (excellent at problem solving)

We welcome and strongly encourage applications from candidates who have personal or professional experience in the low-income and/or historically marginalized communities that we serve - as well as candidates from under-represented genders, ethnicities, and other groups. You can read more about our diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts here.