Lead for West and Central Africa, GIRL Center

TITLE: Lead for West and Central Africa, GIRL Center

REPORTING TO: Director of GIRL Center

LOCATION: Dakar, Senegal

JOBS CO-SUPERVISED: West and Central Africa Program and Research Officer, GIRL Center

ASSIGNMENT LENGTH: Two-years, renewable yearly based on mutual consent and funding availability

POSITION SUMMARY: The Population Council’s Girl Innovation, Research, and Learning (GIRL) Center is seeking a bi-lingual, multi-faceted, evidence driven professional to lead and grow its West and Central Africa Regional Hub. The GIRL Center, one of the Council’s five innovation hubs, is a cross-cutting research hub that brings together today’s leading scholars in adolescence to generate, synthesize, and translate evidence effectively for decision-making. The Center envisions a gender-equitable world where girls and boys make a healthy and safe transition into adulthood and reach their full potential. We contribute to this vision by: 1) generating evidence on adolescence, 2) convening key stakeholders and communicating evidence to drive evidence-based policy and practice and 3) growing current and future talent and networks of adolescent researchers and scholars.

The GIRL Center convenes policy makers, practitioners, advocates, researchers, donors, and business leaders to accelerate global progress by making impactful change guided by data and evidence. To improve their health and well-being and support them in exercising their power, the Center works directly with adolescents themselves, civil society representatives, and government leaders to design programs that respond to adolescents’ needs and complement existing initiatives. The GIRL Center is invested in several adolescent-focused thematic areas, including: economic empowerment; sexual and reproductive health and rights; the digital space; humanitarian settings; mental health, resilience, and thriving; climate change; and participation, leadership, and accountability.

As part of its Roadmap to 2030 strategy, the GIRL Center has established regional hubs to drive change from within and across countries in respective regions. Based in Dakar, Senegal, the GIRL Center’s West and Central Africa regional hub – known as the Hub régional pour l’Afrique de l’Ouest et du Centre (AOC) – covers 24 countries. In its first phase, the GIRL Center’s regional strategy will focus on seven countries: Benin, Central African Republic, Congo, Guinea, Mauritania, Senegal, and Togo. The GIRL Center seeks to recruit a bilingual (French/English) leader for its AOC Hub.

• The ideal candidate will be from the West and Central African region.
• Candidates must be local nationals of the country where they will work, or regional non-nationals from LMICs holding, or able to acquire and maintain, the proper work permits/visas.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

1. Provide strategic leadership for the GIRL Center’s innovations, visibility, and impact in the AOC region.
2. Finalize the AOC regional hub’s 2024-2030 strategy.
3. Manage and grow a high-performing team to operationalize the AOC strategy.
4. Provide technical leadership in and contribute to the Center’s evidence-generating and Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL) activities in the AOC region.
5. Develop and implement a strategy for building/maintaining relationships with key partners and stakeholders in the AOC region – governments, regional organizations and hubs, youth-centered associations and organizations, research and academic institutions, national, multi-country and international development partners, non-governmental and civil society organizations – to increase the GIRL Center’s external profile and influence.
6. Lead regional fundraising efforts, including identifying new funding opportunities, leading proposal development, and successfully managing current donor relationships.
7. Manage budgets and reporting, ensuring efficient use of resources and compliance.
8. Collaborate with other GIRL Center regional hubs leads and Population Council’s innovation hubs to identify and capitalize on areas of synergy and impact.
9. Produce quality outputs to ensure impact and document alignment of AOC activities with broader GIRL Center strategic pillars, thematic foci, and objectives.
10. Represent the GIRL Center and AOC regional hub externally.
11. Travel in the region about 20% of the time
12. Other duties as assigned by the GIRL Center Director.

QUALIFICATIONS:

We understand that there are many paths to acquiring expertise and experience and strong candidates may not have every qualification listed here. We encourage applications from individuals who bring passion, skills, and experience in many or most of these areas.

1. Hold an advanced university degree in Public Health, Demography, Sociology, Gender, Economics, Communications, International Development or other related fields
2. At least eight years of increasingly responsible professional experience working in areas of adolescents and youth wellbeing in Africa; emphasis on AOC region is desired.
3. Capable of effectively communicating fluently in both French and English (written and spoken), facilitating interactions with and between Francophone and Anglophone actors across the AOC region.
4. A passion to improve the adolescent and youth ecosystem and ensure sustainable pathways for them to thrive.
5. Substantive knowledge and practical experience in research, project development, implementation, and management related to the Center’s thematic areas on adolescents and youth.
6. Demonstrated skills and publications in at least one research methodology (quantitative or qualitative).
7. Experience with oversight, leadership and heading teams.
8. Solid understanding of the economic, governmental, and socio-cultural ecosystem in the AOC region, including regional institutions and entities as well as public, private, and civil society sectors.
9. Experience with resource mobilization and donor relations, particularly focused on the AOC region.
10. Excellent planning, forecasting, strategic thinking, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
11. Experience in supervising, supporting and inspiring leadership capacity of team members.
12. Experience working with or belonging to youth/gender-centered organizations, associations, or networks in the AOC region is a plus.

SALARY AND BENEFITS: Salary range and benefits will be in accordance with the pay scale and benefits structure in the relevant Council international office. Our international offices provide competitive benefits packages including health insurance available immediately upon hire, generous annual and sick leave, and paid parental leave. The ideal candidate will be from the West and Central African region. A one-time lump sum allowance will be provided for candidates relocating from another country within the region to Senegal.

We strive to provide an environment of professional growth and development.

Application Deadline: March 20, 2025

When applying through the web portal please attach your CV and Cover Letter in Word or PDF format.

The Population Council is an international, nonprofit, nongovernmental institution that seeks to improve the well-being and reproductive health of current and future generations around the world and to help achieve a humane, equitable, and sustainable balance between people and resources. The Council conducts biomedical, social science, and public health research and helps build research capacities in developing countries. Established in 1952, the Council is governed by an international board of trustees. Its New York headquarters supports a global network of country offices. We are seeking an individual to fill the position described. If you know of a qualified candidate or are interested in this position, please apply at: http://www.popcouncil.org/employment/index.asp.

The Population Council provides equal opportunity; it does not discriminate against any person with regard to age, color, creed, national origin, disability, political belief, veteran status, religion, marital status, gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation. Decisions on employment are based on an individual’s qualifications as related to the position for which they are being considered. The Population Council is international in the composition of its board of trustees and its staff, as well as in the nature and deployment of its activities.