Head, Climate Action, Pan African Programs at Mastercard Foundation

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.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Head, Climate Action, Pan African Programs

Location: Lagos
Employment Type: Full-time

Job Opportunity

• Reporting to the Director, of Agriculture Pan African Programs, the Head, Climate Action Pan African programs will take the lead in the implementation and adoption of The Foundation’s enterprise-wide Climate Action strategy across the enterprise. A multi-faceted strategy, The Foundation’s work in Climate Action seeks to build resilience, foster innovation, and empower young women and men seize opportunities in Africa’s emerging green economy - all with the overarching goal of scaling our ambition as articulated in the Young Africa Works strategy.

Responsibilities

• Play a key role in driving The Foundation’s thrust on climate resilience and green jobs by implementing the Climate Action framework across all Foundation programming platforms.
• Develop new regional and Pan-African partnerships with a variety of organizations beyond the established to create additional impact opportunities. This will include the creation of collaboration platforms and networks to enable the scaling and acceleration of Climate Action programs.
• Partner with the Country Heads to provide timely and context aligned support for the implementation of Climate Action programs in the country portfolios in support of Young Africa Works.
• Support country and regional teams to regularly collect and collate learnings from Climate Action related program implementation.
• Synthesize, socialize, and integrate learnings from continental, regional and country programs to feed into future development/co-creation processes.
• Ensure country and regional teams have tangible access to technical expertise in Climate Action.
• Represent the Foundation and its overall Climate Action strategy as a spokesperson at key conferences, workshops and media events and build relationships with senior figures within donors, foundations, private sector, and governments to build awareness and strengthen the brand and public profile of the Foundation and its programs.
• Lead, manage, motivate, and develop staff in the Agrifoods & Climate Action thematic team and ensure they have clear objectives and accountabilities against which individual and team performance is assessed on a regular basis.
• Provide functional leadership to country focused staff to ensure they have a complete understanding of objectives and approaches aligned with the enterprise level Climate Action strategy.
• Collaborate with colleagues across functions and countries as well as senior leadership to deliver the Foundation’s Climate Action related work.

Requirements

• 12-15 years of experience in climate action and a related field e.g. agriculture, energy, with 5 years of experience leading and managing a team in a multi-cultural, multi-country context.
• Demonstrated expertise in the design and development of large, complex, multi-country climate action programs.
• A strategic and entrepreneurial mindset. Experience in initiating new operations, preferably in the Climate Action space.
• Skilled communicator and influencer, from executive through to technical levels and external constituencies, entrepreneurial and pro-active, knows how to navigate ambiguous environments and is comfortable at managing up and beyond hierarchy.
• Experience in public policy with proven experience in effectively engaging and collaborating with high-level government officials, key partners, media, business leaders and other network influencers.
• Demonstrated and established networks and relationships in Climate Action. 
• Experience with public speaking at conferences and other forums including media interaction. Formal media training would be an asset.
• Fosters a positive spirit of collaboration in a complex, and rapidly evolving environment.
• Results orientation, an eye for detail and pragmatic decision maker. 
• Possess professional maturity, sensitivity with different cultures, and impeccable integrity that exemplify The Foundation’s values.
• Demonstrate a commitment to Mastercard Foundation’s values and vision.

Application Closing Date
8th July, 2024.