Job Opportunity-Head of Practical Action Consulting, East Africa

Practical Action is an International Development Organization putting ingenious ideas to work so people in poverty can change their world.
We help people find solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems. Challenges made worse by catastrophic climate change and persistent gender inequality. We work with communities to develop ingenious, lasting and locally owned solutions for agriculture, water and waste management, climate resilience and clean energy. And we share what works with others, so answers that start small can grow big.
We are a global change-making group. The group consists of a UK registered charity with community projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America, an independent development publishing company and a technical consulting service. We combine these specialisms to multiply our impact and help shape a world that works better for everyone.

Our Aims
We help people find solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems, made worse by catastrophic climate change and persistent gender inequality. Our aims are to:

• Make agriculture work better for smallholder farmers, many of them women, so they can adapt to climate change and achieve a good standard of living
• Help more people harness the transformational effects of clean affordable energy and reduce avoidable deaths caused by smoke from indoor stoves and fires.
• Make cities in poorer countries cleaner, healthier places to live and work.
• Build disaster resilience into the lives of people threatened by hazards – reducing the risk of hazards and minimizing their impact on lives and livelihoods.

Practical Action East Africa
In East Africa, Practical Action has a long history of addressing systemic barriers that prevent people from accessing energy that transforms their lives, helping communities and government makes cities healthier and safer, making agriculture and markets work better for small holder farmers and supporting communities and government to become more resilient to climate change.
With offices in Nairobi, Kisumu, Lodwar and Kigali, we use a mix of programming with communities and consultancy services with shapers of policy and practice to achieve our aims in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania.

About the Role
The Head of Practical Action Consulting (PAC) plays a leadership role within the Regional Management Team and is accountable for overseeing and growing the overall operation of PAC in Kenya, Rwanda and the East Africa Region.
In East Africa, Practical Action Consulting works directly in Kenya and Rwanda with potential for extending consultancy work to other neighboring countries. This is a regional role that covers our work across these Countries and others where relevant.
Across all our work, we aim to achieve impact at scale using our Framework for Change. This involves an in-depth analysis of the nature, scale and source of the challenge, defining the change we want to bring about in the system and in people’s lives and using our three pathways to demonstrate what works, learn and use knowledge and evidence to inspire others to adopt similar approaches.
Practical Action Consulting is a consulting business model that provides technical assistance, research and evidence work and capacity building at sub-national, national and regional levels.
The Head of PAC will lead a team of consultants/ Advisors to:

• Secure funding for appropriate consultancy initiatives that are aligned to the Group’s overall Strategic Business Plan in the region and respond to client requirements.
• Ensure the implementation of high quality, professional, influential consultancy projects, on time, within budget and in line with client and internal requirements.
• Ensure strong business management, including risk mitigation and forward planning
• Build and maintain strategic relations with key clients
• Ensure business viability of PAC
• Coordinate and collaborate on all areas above together with colleagues in the NGO.

Accountabilities
Leadership and Strategic Alignment

• Lead, manage and mentor a high performing team of internal and external consultants ensuring effective use of time.
• Recruit and retain high caliber consultants, both as staff and on a roster who are able to deliver.
• Foster and encourage joined-up ways of working with other teams in the region.
• Build team capability on the consultancy model and especially on best practices in quality, timely delivery and client management.
• Actively contribute to the development of annual Strategic Business Plans, including problem analyses, definition/refinement of change ambitions and definition of pathways. Specifically, work with thematic leads and the RMT to define how the PAC business model best contributes to the change ambitions and ensure that structures, ways of working and funding opportunities enable us to leverage PAC in this way.
• Regularly coordinate with Impact & Influence Team to track, document and learn from how PAC assignments are contributing to change ambitions, especially in areas of generating evidence and learning, influencing, building relationships and extending the reach of our work.
• Contribute to quarterly internal reports highlighting how PAC is contributing to change ambitions.
• Adhering to and promoting our Code of Conduct and related policies including the Safeguarding policy and guidelines while ensuring that these are embedded in team culture and well modelled by others (Practical Action staff, partners, beneficiaries and all persons that you will come in contact with while acting on behalf of Practical Action). Also, promote the reporting structures for receiving complaints and respond to concerns appropriately within the policy.

Strengthening Profile, Generating Funding and Managing Relationships

• Build and nurture effective networking and relationships with clients, positioning PAC as a strong contender that is able to leverage learning from the NGO and beyond, provide regional and global expertise and contribute to national and regional level change.
• Work closely with the Business Development team to identify, track and respond to consultancy opportunities, building a strong and healthy PAC pipeline that ensures business viability and growth.
• Develop a strong understanding of the competitive environment in which PAC is operating and, with the Head of Business Development, position PAC to grow the business
• Provide technical and operational capability in the development of high quality bids (expressions of interest and full proposals), responsive to client requirements are submitted on time.
• With the Business Development team, keep abreast of and analyze developing trends in consulting to identify, understand and monitor donor/client strategies and priorities that align with ours.
• Develop an effective professional business development and marketing strategy for growing our PAC business, in a way that maximizes our impact and ensures healthy profit.

Delivering Quality

• Ensure that consultancies are delivered on time, to a very high quality standard, within agreed financial parameters and in line with the client’s requirements.
• Ensure that the PAC businesses in East Africa are effectively managed and are compliant with statutory and other regulations and requirements in all their operations, including in their financial management and reporting obligations (in conjunction with the Finance Team).
• Build channels for cross-learning between PAC assignments and our programmatic work to support our overall Change Ambitions.
• Ensure a viable business model for PAC, in collaboration with the Regional Director and the Head of PAC, Global.
• With the regional and UK communications teams and PAC UK, ensure our Consulting work is understood and well positioned in the market, including with bigger consulting companies, clients, business entities and more traditional donors.
• Represent PAC at multiple levels in the region.

Person Profile
To be successful in the role, the ideal candidate will be able to demonstrate:

Experience & Knowledge

• At least ten (10) years’ experience in senior management in a variety of contexts with demonstrable experience in the innovation and implementation of short and long term consultancy assignments.
• Project management experience: project development, coordinating and managing project associates and teams, project control and monitoring, financial planning and control and liaising with and reporting to clients/donors.

Essential

• Post-graduate qualifications in business management, CSR, value chains or any form inclusive market development is desirable.
• Additional training courses in international development and experience in consulting, project design and management are an advantage.
• Significant Thematic experience ideally in either Climate change, Energy or Agriculture and expertise in any form of inclusive market development (value chains, M4P, PMSD, pro-poor market development, etc.) preferably in developing countries and in professional environments for poverty reduction is mandatory.
• Experience in knowledge management and organizational learning, and/or M&E.
• Strategic management experience: (strategic analysis, decision making and planning for organizations and programs) and strategy implementation (leadership and change management, and organizational development).
• Management of diverse teams inspiring high performance and delivery.

Desirable

• A team player with excellent written and verbal communication skills – able to listen to others, to identify and share important/key information and to influence others in the uptake of new or adapted approaches.
• Clear understanding of gender issues and their implications on project delivery
• Experience working in an international NGO environment is desirable.