We are seeking a dynamic and motivated individual with exceptional attention to detail, and skills in finance and project management to join our growing team!
Practical Action is an international development organization putting ingenious ideas to work so people in poverty can change their world. For the past five years, Practical Action has been hosting and building the Global Distributors Collective (GDC): a collective of 200 last-mile distribution companies that cumulatively reach millions of the poorest consumers in the world with beneficial products like solar lanterns, water filters, and improved cookstoves.
The GDC provides a collective voice for distributors to ensure their priorities are heard; drives research and innovation across the sector; facilitates the exchange of information, insight, and expertise; and provides critical services that leverage economies of scale.
The GDC’s 2022-25 strategy focuses on six key areas:
- Accelerating innovation, e.g., through our Replication Facility
- Building capacity, e.g., through information exchange, formal training for managers and agents, learning events, and mentoring programs
- Helping members access products, suppliers, and services at affordable prices
- Helping members access finance and become investment-ready
- Undertaking market intelligence and research, e.g., by creating a performance benchmark for the last-mile distribution sector
- Engaging with members and advocating for their interests
As the GDC Project and Finance Officer you will directly provide support across all of our programmatic areas and will have scope to get more directly involved in areas of interest. In particular, you will work with the Operations Manager to ensure robust program management, project delivery, financial management, and internal/external reporting, and to support the embedding of Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) and Gender across our activities.
About you
You will be expected to have excellent project management, finance management interpersonal, and communication skills with the ability to multitask, work independently, and adapt in a fast-paced environment.
To succeed in this role you should be organized, creative, and self-motivated with a keen eye for detail and a high degree of diligence.
You must have demonstrable familiarity with project management approaches and tools, exposure to donor contracting and reporting, and a high level of financial literacy and quantitative analysis skills, ideally gained within the international development sector.
Why join us?
Highly respected in the development world, Practical Action has been at the forefront of development thinking and practice for over 50 years. Our work regularly receives awards and recognition for innovation, collaboration, and, most importantly, results – as measured by lasting change in people’s lives and livelihoods.
Put simply, to join Practical Action is to join one of the world’s most innovative and influential development teams. Go for it!
Additional information
Practical Action believes that having a diverse and inclusive workplace culture based on respect will enable us to be an effective organization. We seek to create an inclusive workplace in which people are accepted as individuals, regardless of their differences, and where they feel their contribution is valued. We treat all applications for employment on their merits and do not take into consideration any factors that are not relevant to the job such as disability, race, age, religion, gender, gender reassignment, or sexual orientation.
Practical Action is committed to safeguarding and protecting children and vulnerable adults and as such candidates will be subject to pre-employment checks including criminal checks and terrorist financing.
Please note that should we recruit a suitable candidate before the closing date, we will close applications earlier than the specified date.
We are seeking candidates based in Kenya. The successful applicant must have the pre-existing right to both live and work in the country from which they will be based.
Closing date for applications: 10 November 2023
Employment status: Two-Year Initial Contract
If you want to work for a charity with significant people ambitions, then we would like to hear from you. To view the full recruitment pack please go to practicalaction.org/careers. Please include your salary expectations in your supporting statement. Please submit a copy of your CV and a supporting statement that describes your suitability for the role to the relevant People & Culture team at the country office base:
Kenya: recruitment@practicalaction.or.ke