Senior Hub Manager, FLN Advocacy Hub

tendersglobal.net

Position description

Speak Up Africa (SUA) is an Advocacy Action Tank dedicated to catalyzing leadership, enabling policy change, and increasing awareness for sustainable development in Africa Through our platforms and relationships and with the help of our partners, we ensure that policy makers meet implementers; that solutions are showcased and that every sector – from individual citizens and civil society groups to global donors and business leaders – contributes critically to the dialogue and strives to form the blueprints for concrete action for public health and sustainable development.

Education is the key to unlocking opportunity for anyone anywhere – from getting a job and raising healthy families, to creating conditions for sustainable economic growth and independence for entire nations. By 2050, 1 in 3 youth globally will be African – a major demographic opportunity for inclusive growth, opportunity and development. Unlocking Africa’s demographic advantage and realizing this potential depends on whether children learn to read and do math early – essential foundational building blocks of every child’s future. Strong foundational skills need to be acquired for strong learning outcomes and future opportunities.

Foundational learning is now recognized by the African Union as a non-negotiable building block for human capital and inclusive growth. In a rapidly changing world, where economies are strained and global aid budgets have shrunk, a high-impact solution lies in the simplest of places: a classroom where a young child learns to read, write, and do math – because when kids achieve these essential foundational skills by age 10, everything else becomes possible. But the current reality is foundational learning outcomes in reading and math across Africa remain far too low – up to an estimated 90% lack these essential basic skills. The key takes are how to turn these numbers around and expand and scale in more countries the 10% that do acquire these skills. The evidence base for what works at scale that has the greatest impacts on learning outcomes is structured pedagogy and targeted instruction. More countries are deciding to scale these evidence-based interventions, but not yet enough – this requires more and better advocacy to raise the demand and prioritization of foundational learning for better learning outcomes

The remaining gap is at the level of political prioritization – foundational learning becoming a source of political credit, funding what matters from domestic budgets, and accountability

To help drive more and better advocacy is the the FLN Advocacy Hub. It is transitioning to African leadership under Speak Up Africa to provide the continent’s infrastructure of influence: a shared banner, common cadence, and country coalitions that translate evidence into policy and financed outcomes, including more and better investment in evidence-based approachesand uptake (including structured pedagogy, targeted instruction) and to follow the science of reading and emerging on math, close gaps between evidence, policy, and implementation practice, encourage use of data and cultivate the political, funding and civic constituencies needed for better learning outcomes and spending. The Hub will:

Run a white-label, bilingual campaign aligned to the African Union’s Ending Learning Poverty and Born to Learn efforts;
Steward a public microsite that hosts minister-ready briefs, scorecards, and assets;
Curate a pool of champions and an evidence-to-advocacy studio to turn data into policy and finance-ready asks and compelling stories;
Coordinate a Kenya coalition through sub-grants to move Presidential Task Force recommendations to adoption and funding by 2028;
Collaborate with regional actors (ADEA, CONFEMEN-PASEC, Human Capital Africa PAL Network), civil society, UN agencies, donor advocates and the Global Coalition for Foundational Learning, media to align messages, indicators, and regional, global and national moments;
Co-design an AU-level accountability mechanism with annual minister-ready scorecards.
Work with media grantees, identify media opportunities and work with creatives and content creators to get ordinary people talking about foundational learning to indirectly target policy and decision makers – closing gap between polity and the politics.

The Senior Hub Manager will be the Hub’s conductor: the person who holds the strategy, maintains cadence, arbitrates roles, and ensures that continental visibility converts into evidence based and national budget-backed action.

Purpose of the Role

Provide visionary and disciplined leadership to the FLN Advocacy Hub (a mix of direct Speak Up Africa grantees and direct Gates Foundation grantees) so that, by 2028, foundational learning is treated as a policy and financing priority across regional fora, global and domestic contexts, Kenya has adopted and funded foundational learning specific Presidential Task Force recommendations, accountability is institutionalized at AU level, and partners operate under one recognizable African-led campaign.

Key Responsibilities

Strategy and Planning

Lead the co-creation and annual refresh of the Hub Strategy and Coordination Compact with partners.
Finalize and own delivery against the Results Framework and annual workplans, with clear continental and country tracks.
Maintain the action plan for AU/SADC/ADEA/CONFEMEN decision and advocacy windows and align partner efforts to it.

Coalition Building and Partner Management

Convene bi-annual in-person grantee meetings and bi-monthly virtual exchanges (alternating months); design each interaction with decision-focused agendas, clear pre-reads, well-defined action points, and identified owners.
Broker structured collaboration with UNICEF, ADEA, CONFEMEN-PASEC, PAL Network, the Global Coalition for Foundational Learning, and media partners, ensuring coherence on messaging, timing, evidence use, and political moments. Maintain a proactive posture that reduces duplication, strengthens complementarity, and drives collective wins.
Set up and maintain a practical knowledge-management backbone:
- a central repository on the FLN Hub microsite (documents, tools, evidence, communication assets),
- a shared action calendar, and
- monthly “at-a-glance” coalition updates sharing upcoming activities, key opportunities, responsible leads, and available assets. This ensures all partners have visibility into one another’s workstreams and can coordinate seamlessly.

Identify capacity constraints across partners early (e.g., strategic communications, PFM/budget tracking, MEL, safeguarding, grant management, media content development) and arrange tailored solutions, including: targeted technical assistance, rapid short sprints, peer-learning formats, or onboarding vetted external specialists when needed.
Maintain a regular coordination cadence with the Gates Foundation senior program officers to ensure strategic coherence and timely updates. The Hub Manager will stay across emerging developments in the Foundation’s innovation and research portfolios (aid/edtech, math, gender, language-of-instruction transitions), as well as its systems and scale work (donor coalitions, funder collaboratives). The goal is to anticipate potential implications for advocacy and integrate these insights into partner workstreams and coalition messaging.

Country Delivery: Kenya Coalition

Oversee a competitively selected anchor grantee and 3–5 specialist sub-grantees.
Chair monthly policy rooms that sequence outputs to the budget calendar and troubleshoot potential risks.
Ensure two Task Force recommendations move from proposal to adoption, appropriation, and in-year disbursement by 2028.

Ensure complementarity and coordination with ongoing work on political coalition-building side of movement-building – Lighthouse Coalition.

Regional Work and Learning Engine

In close collaboration with Speak Up Africa’s MOHEBS Advocacy Manager, steer the Senegal MOHEBS learning loop to codify practical tactics that influence Finance and Education decision-makers. At the same time, stay regularly across the work in South Africa (a priority country for the Gates Foundation’s PST portfolio) to ensure both country experiences are aligned, mutually reinforcing, and strategically integrated into regional and global advocacy moments.
Lead the development and delivery of a structured learning agenda for Hub partners, spanning:evidence use and translation, political economy analysis, budget influence and tracking, accountability mechanisms, and strategic communications for education reform.
Ensure insights from Senegal and South Africa feed directly into shared learning cycles.
Oversee the Hub’s webinar and skills series, and ensure that lessons are captured as concise “what worked” notes, toolkits, checklists, and micro-briefs hosted on the microsite for partner use and external dissemination.
Manage and support targeted regional partners (e.g., ADEA, PAL Network), subject to due diligence and compliance, and oversee deliverables such as FLEX/assessment alignment insights, cross-country learning notes, and contributions to the Hub’s shared evidence library.
Ensure that these regional products reinforce and elevate the combined narrative and create coherence across countries.

Sub-granting, Compliance, and Risk

With Grants & Compliance, design and enforce flow-down provisions that reflect Foundation terms, including the prohibition on lobbying, safeguarding, anti-corruption, and Open Access obligations.
Approve statements of work with quarterly milestones; manage tranche-based disbursements, corrective actions, and reallocation if needed.
Maintain a light pre-clearance for government-facing materials; log audiences, purpose, and approvals; escalate any ambiguity to SUA’s compliance lead and the Foundation program officer.

Advocacy, Communications, and Brand

Direct the white-label campaign and messaging framework; ensure every major moment has a moment card with audience, assets, and success signals.
Oversee the management, planning, and content production for the Hub’s communications channels and assets, including the podcast, social media pages, and the microsite; set editorial standards and an approvals workflow.
Supervise the Advocacy & Communications Officer to run the microsite, editorial calendar, and bilingual spotlight series with African outlets and Devex.
Curate a diverse champion pool and place voices on priority stages; ensure evidence and human stories translate into finance-ready asks.

MEL and Evaluation

Work with the MEL Lead and an independent evaluator to implement mixed-methods learning: contribution analysis, outcome harvesting, policy and budget text analytics, media analytics.
Run quarterly learning sprints that feed course corrections; publish an annual learning brief.

Finance and Operations

Manage the Hub budget, forecasts, and re-grants; ensure timely and accurate donor reporting.
Oversee the subcontract to Africa Practice during transition and any other vendor agreements.

People Leadership

Recruit, coach, and performance-manage the Hub team; establish clear norms for bilingual collaboration, structured workflows, and the production of high-quality, ready-to-use outputs that partners can deploy immediately.
Embody SUA’s values and safeguarding standards. Foster a culture of trust-building, psychological safety, and close, respectful engagement with partners, ensuring the Hub is seen as a reliable, collaborative, and catalytic ally.
Strengthen internal cohesion and external credibility. Create rhythms for team reflection, learning, and mutual accountability; ensure staff are consistently aligned on priorities, decision-making approaches, and expectations for partner-facing work.

Success Indicators (first 24 months)

Results Framework completed within six months with clear targets and data sources.
Kenya coalition fully operational with signed sub-grants, quarterly milestones met, and at least one priority recommendation with a documented budget path.
White-label campaign and microsite live, with asset uptake by partners.
AU accountability mechanism co-designed and used by Q3 2026.
Documented reduction in duplication through the run-of-show and partner sequencing; positive partner satisfaction.
Clean compliance record and timely donor reports.

Qualifications

Advanced degree in public policy, education, economics, public administration, or related field.
10+ years of demonstrable and progressively senior experience in advocacy or driving education/public-sector reform in Africa, including coalition building and leadership and government engagement.
Demonstrable budget and PFM literacy and a track record of linking advocacy to budget allocations and execution.
Strong grants management experience, including sub-granting to CSOs and compliance with major donor policies.
Proven ability to translate evidence into compelling advocacy products and to manage media and strategic communications.
Excellent relationship management with regional bodies (AU, ADEA, CONFEMEN) and multilaterals; experience with philanthropic partners is an asset.
Bilingual English/French required.
Willingness to travel up to 30%.

Core Competencies

Strategic systems thinking and political judgment
Partnership brokering and facilitation
Results orientation with disciplined follow-through
Clear, persuasive writer and speaker in EN/FR
Commitment to SUA’s values: Inclusion, Diligence, Excellence, Accountability and Sustainability
Team leadership and coaching
Risk management and compliance

Application instructions

Please be sure to indicate you saw this position on tendersglobal.net

Apply Now
To help us track our recruitment effort, please indicate in your cover/motivation letter where (tendersglobal.net) you saw this job posting.

Next UNHCR: Senior Supply Officer – Bangkok (RB) »

Previous « Médiateur maraudes F/H – CDI – PARIS 19 – Réf. 09122025-3227

Senior Hub Manager, FLN Advocacy Hub

Position description

Purpose of the Role

Key Responsibilities

Success Indicators (first 24 months)

Qualifications

Core Competencies

Application instructions

RTI: Staff Meteorologist – New York

Regionalreferent*in Region West

Information Systems Security Officer

Foundational Literacy Technical Consultant

Evaluation and Research Intern, Freetown, Sierra Leone, 6 months – Open only to Sierra Leonean nationals