Africa Co-CEO

About AMPLIFY Girls

AMPLIFY Girls is a network of 40 community-driven organizations in Africa committed to building agency in adolescent girls. We envision a world where agency and opportunity are granted to every girl and resources and respect are given to the community-driven organizations that support them.

We do this by (1) supporting the growth and health of organizations through intentional collaboration and learning; (2) advocating for the inclusion of community-driven organizations in local, regional and global decision-making spaces; and (3) developing cutting-edge research that enables us to understand, measure, and maximize girls’ agency.

Our network was founded in 2018 when a group of locally-led community-driven organizations convened in Rwanda, looking for connection, resources, and solutions in a development sector that had devalued their work. These convenings became more frequent, and the vision for what this group could accomplish became ever clearer until, one day, AMPLIFY Girls was born as its own formal organization. Today, we honor the vision of that original collective by centering the organizations in our network (our ‘partners’) in everything we do. Our board of directors is predominantly made up of partner representatives, our team is majority African and based in East Africa, and our governance model ensures partner buy-in with every strategic decision.

Collectively, the partners in the network serve over 170,000 over adolescent girls across 5 countries using diverse programmatic approaches with incredible outcomes in education, sexual reproductive health, economic empowerment and many other areas!

In a development sector that often espouses the value of a “bigger is better” mentality, AMPLIFY Girls has decided, in the 2024-2026 Strategic Plan, to prioritize honing our collective work with our partners, sharing our learnings with the world while staying network-oriented, and focusing on structures that lead to greater quality and sustainability organization-wide. Our intention is to grow in specific, targeted areas, while ensuring that we are aligned with our goal of incorporating partner voices at every stage of growth and strategy.

As we enter into our new strategic plan, we are building internal capacity as our network reaches new heights and deepens its commitment to our community-driven partners.

About the Position

The current Head and co-founder of AMPLIFY Girls is transitioning to the board after steering the organization since 2018. As part of our efforts to diversify and strengthen our leadership, we are transitioning to a Co-Leadership structure. This exciting change emphasizes our desire to be firmly rooted in community-driven programming in Africa while fortifying our global presence to advocate for and drive resources and respect to evidence-driven solutions for African girls’. Co-leadership is complementary to our values and allows us to set an expectation of collaboration and equitable decision-making at the executive level of our network.

Our current Head of Strategic Partnerships will become our North America-based Co-CEO and we are looking for an Africa-based Co-CEO to help drive towards our ambitious vision!

AMPLIFY Girls’ two Co-CEOs will work hand in hand to steer the organization through and beyond our 3-year Strategic Plan. The Co-CEOs will hold shared responsibilities/decision making, and also split responsibilities as outlined below.

Your Responsibilities will entail:

1. Co-Leadership of AMPLIFY Girls (responsibilities shared with the North America-based Co-CEO)

• Steward organizational vision, strategy, identity and brand.
• Oversee implementation of the Strategic Plan, steering its operationalization, tracking, and annual review.
• Ensure that AG’s partners’ presence, expertise, and priorities are centered.
• Develop and operationalize overall staff management, talent development and organizational culture strategies.
• Lead annual budget creation and review. While the Head of Finance steers this process, the Co-CEOs propose spending allocations for their separate and shared goals and priorities with input from their teams, and harmonize the overall budget in line with the Strategic Plan for discussion at board level.
• Develop shared vision and strategy on board development and engagement.
• HR Planning to evolve the organogram in service of the Strategic Plan.
• Evaluate and improve the Co-Leadership structure in service of AG’s goals
• The Co-Leads will also act as sounding boards to each other on their separately owned responsibilities (as outlined in the table below).

The Africa-based Co-CEO leads:

• Partner Support Programming
• Network Management
• Advocacy
• Africa-side Operations and Administration

The North America-based Co-CEO leads:

• Research, Evidence, MEL
• Fundraising & Donor Relations
• Communications
• Board Management
• North America Operations and Administration

2. Lead Partner Support Programming and Network Management

• Oversee and support the Director of Partner Learning and Development, ensuring alignment on partner priorities and that effective strategies are in place.
• Provide strategic oversight and coaching on the design of responsive programs, high-quality services, organizational capacity development tools and partner peer-learning forums that drive adoption of best case practices.
• Ensure streamlined partner outreach by supporting on all network and country-level partner communication.
• Oversee and support the Network Director. Align on goals, review agendas, and support facilitation of all network-wide and country meetings.
• Work towards increasing cohesion, trust and collaboration across the network.
• Oversee key network processes, such as the identification of priorities and decisions during the in-country meetings, harvesting outcomes for discussion at global board level, and incorporating collective feedback loops. This includes agenda design and facilitation.
• Take lead on our Annual In-Person Convening, shaping the vision, agenda, and planning with the team.
• Shape a learning culture, where all insights generated by MEL and Research are leveraged towards continuous improvement of all programming.
• Work with the Director of Learning, Director of Partner Learning and Development, and Network Director to ensure that all programmatic strategies and activities are centered around partner priorities.

3. Spearhead our growing Advocacy agenda

• Lead an internal process to build out an advocacy strategy that identifies AG’s key global and regional arenas and audiences, and defines our goals, priorities, messaging and approaches for each.
• Actively seek out events, platforms and opportunities that further our advocacy goals.
• Ensure we have an effective engagement plan for each advocacy opportunity and position our various advocacy assets well in these spaces (our research and evidence base, our amazing partners, team, allies and like-minded networks, etc).
• Personally participate in speaking engagements, panel discussions and in-person and virtual forums. Help colleagues or partner representatives in preparing for the same.
• Write and prepare presentations, content, thought pieces as needed, collaborating with the Co-Lead and Communications Team.
• Strengthen our advocacy capabilities through engaging and learning from experts and consultants, and potentially creating an in-house position as our advocacy ambition grows.

4. Support Fundraising and Communications (lead by North-America based Co-CEO)

• Represent AG’s work, impact and opportunities in partner support programming and network management to current and potential donors.
• Attend local, regional, or international donor meetings, calls and convenings as part of donor stewarding efforts.
• Keep eyes open for funding opportunities, both for AMPLIFY Girls and the members.

5. Lead Africa-side Operations and Administration

• Supervise, support, mentor, and develop all direct reports.
• Hiring, appraisal and oversight of all African reports and consultants
• Oversight of Africa budget (all Africa side programs and operations).
• Sign-off on payments, MoUs, contracts, procurement etc.
• Ensure Kenyan legal status and regulatory compliance, including oversight of outsourced accountant, external audit, NGO board compliance, regulatory requirements, etc.
• Onboard Head of Operations later in 2024, in a bid to delegate operations and administrative work, strengthen internal controls and operational systems

Who we are looking for

• You’re deeply passionate about equity in development. You’ve built your career around the idea that all voices should be heard and that resources, power and respect belong to community-driven organizations. You are acutely aware of the inequities of the development world and have worked to overcome them and created access for those previously excluded.
• You want to serve African girls by serving the organizations that serve them.
• You have at least 3-5 years experience in an executive or senior leadership position in a growing non-profit with a social-justice mission. You’ve been at the forefront of overseeing implementation of an organization’s strategic plan, shaping programming based on learnings and engaging senior level stakeholders and board.
• You are visionary, with strong strategic thinking skills with a track record of creating successful strategies to achieve ambitious long-term goals in various contexts.
• You’re excited about Co-Leadership. You are highly collaborative, know how to achieve alignment and are comfortable dealing with conflict in a remote, cross-cultural setting.
• Strong experience in amplifying underrepresented voices in key spaces: You have successfully identified and delivered on influencing opportunities (local, regional, global level). You know how to package and position a message to stakeholders to educate their hearts and minds! Technical advocacy training/skills are an added advantage, but not required.
• You are an experienced, engaging networker and a confident public speaker. You know how to make people feel welcome and connect with them to build mutual benefit. You have strong connections within the sector and have a track record in building strategic new linkages and partnerships.
• Vast experience managing teams. You have a track record in mentoring and developing people, to help them succeed in ambitious goals and in new responsibilities. You are comfortable with driving recruitment and performance management processes to build a performing team.
• You have a strong ability to bring people together and facilitate insightful conversations using participatory methodologies that lead to consensus around the way forward, e.g. change in strategies or processes.
• Strong writer and comfortable adapting your writing style to the occasion, from global development audiences to busy leaders of local community organizations.
• You have good operational skills, e.g. spreadsheets for budget creation, understanding of HR processes, and the attentiveness needed for regulatory and legal issues.

Why work with us? What to expect at AMPLIFY Girls!

• AMPLIFY Girls is on an exciting upward trajectory, and we believe our growth in less than six years of operation is a great indicator of how much our work is needed in the sector
• Our relationship with our network of partners means that we can both focus on broader sector trends and on the programs and adolescent girls that help us feel grounded in the cause
• Interact with many of the most dynamic and accomplished players in our sector – from multilateral development organizations to world-class researchers.
• AMPLIFY Girls is a remote organization with a flexible work-from-home culture. Our team knows the value of in-person interactions, even for a remote organization, and you can expect travel for face-time with colleagues as well as an annual strategic and restorative retreat.
• We pride ourselves on maintaining a supportive and collaborative environment that allows for strategic input, requests, and growth opportunities to come from all staff at all levels of management
• We, as an organization, value excellence, but not at the cost of practicality. Expect management and processes that prioritize making your working life easier rather than sticking to a strict procedure.

Other information

The role is based in one of our current five network countries (Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda). Our team works fully remote. Regional and International travel will be around 15-20%, with more time spent in the first year visiting partners to build familiarity. Collaboration with the North America-based team will require flexibility for calls in the late afternoons and early evenings.

Ideal start date is May/June 2024, and we will be flexible with the chosen candidate’s availability.

Salary range will be 115,000 – 130,000 USD annual gross depending on relevant experiences and qualifications. Private health cover is provided.