Call for Applications — RFLD Africa Office, Accra

Position context

It is a SEK 54 million continental programme over 36 months, implemented directly by RFLD from its Africa Office in Accra, with no fund transfers and no sub-granting. It develops, tests and publishes three methodologies — Legislative Watch, financial sustainability, the Democratic Governance Standard — with 190 cohort organisations across 20 focus countries, in three simultaneous working languages. The Programme Director leads the dedicated 13-person team, reports to RFLD's Africa Director, and is the programme's single interface with the institutional donor. This is the most senior position in this call: it carries the central promise of the proposal — one team, one MEL system, one quality chain for three methodologies published as commons.

Purpose of the role

Provide overall strategic, operational and financial leadership of the programme; guarantee coherence across the three tracks, the quality of the published methodologies, the achievement of the results framework, and full compliance with the general conditions of the donor agreement, from inception (month 1) to closure (month 36).

Specific responsibilities

• Lead the inception phase (A0.1, months 1–4): recruitment and induction of the team, inception report, approved work plan, systems set-up.
• Manage the contractual interface with the donor: annual narrative and financial reports, annual review meetings, management of the agreement and its amendments, proactive communication of any deviation.
• Directly supervise the other 12 positions: annual objectives, performance reviews, development plans, cohesion of a trilingual, multicultural team.
• Approve the phase gates of the three tracks — diagnostic, drafting, tool development, testing, revision/publication — and arbitrate cohort-data-driven redirections (adaptive management).
• Chair the programme's quarterly risk reviews and keep the risk matrix current, including contextual risks in politically volatile countries.
• Guarantee editorial and methodological quality assurance of the three methodologies before each trilingual publication, and the coherence of the annual legislation reviews.
• Oversee budget execution with the Finance & Compliance Officer: approval of commitments, respect of the cost-separation firewall with the CHARM and NAFASI programmes.
• Represent the programme in continental spaces: ACHPR sessions, regional CSO platforms, annual continental convenings, including the final public launch of the three methodologies.
• Oversee, with the Track 3 Manager, the institutional relationship with the Standards Committee and the institutional reviewers.
• Lead the management responses to the independent midterm (months 18–20) and final (month 36) evaluations, with dated action plans followed up at the annual meeting with the donor.
• Guarantee the application of the Code of Conduct and the PSEA, anti-corruption and data-protection policies; handle, with the Board, reports received through the confidential channel.
• Nurture relationships with the institutional portfolio's co-funders (FJS, Lever for Change, individual donors) in liaison with RFLD's development directorate.

Positioning and working relationships

The position reports to RFLD's Africa Director and works closely with the Board, notably on risk, integrity and the exercise of applying the Standard to RFLD's own governance. It directly supervises the twelve other programme positions and draws on the network's institutional functions: the development and partnerships directorate, the regional finance directorate, and the DƆNÙESÈ Data Center team. Externally, it is the donor's contractual counterpart, the institutional respondent of the Standards Committee and the continental face of the programme.

Travel and working environment

Frequent continental travel — sub-regional and continental convenings, ACHPR sessions, annual donor meetings — up to 30% of time. The role sits within a trilingual team of thirteen, in RFLD's feminist working culture, with a dedicated workstation and full administrative support from the Accra Africa Office.

Position context

Track 1 of the programme develops the Legislative Watch methodology: a system enabling feminist CSOs to monitor, analyse and respond in a coordinated way to bills affecting civic space. It rests on a diagnostic of legislative dynamics across 20 jurisdictions, a network of 40 country respondents (two per jurisdiction), a panel of African legal analysts, a digital platform integrated into the DƆNÙESÈ Data Center, an open library of at least 100 cases in which comparable legislation was challenged, and a full-scale test by a cohort of 80 CSOs — each applying the methodology to at least one bill before its own parliament. The Track 1 Manager leads this entire cycle, under the supervision of the Programme Director.

Purpose of the role

Lead the end-to-end research and development of the Legislative Watch methodology — from initial diagnostic to trilingual publication — and guarantee its legal validity, its usability by organisations of varied sizes and contexts, and its adoption by the test cohort.

Specific responsibilities

• Design and lead the diagnostic study of legislative dynamics in the 20 focus countries (A1.1, months 1–8), in coordination with the country respondent network.
• Build, contract and animate the network of 40 country respondents: reporting framework, quality control, security and source-protection protocols.
• Recruit and supervise the legal analysts contracted for the comparative legal mapping of the 20 jurisdictions; consolidate their outputs.
• Lead the drafting of the methodology (months 9–18) and organise its legal peer review (A1.3): panels, assessment grids, integration of opinions.
• Define, with the Digital Platforms Officer, the functional specifications of the Legislative Watch platform (A1.4); take part in acceptance testing and user training.
• Design the onboarding and training programme for the 80-CSO cohort (A1.6) and supervise the live test (months 20–30), with close legal support.
• Oversee the building of the reference case library (≥ 100 cases, A1.5) with the documentation consultants and the Research & Data Officer.
• Produce the annual legislation reviews (A1.8) and lead the revision and trilingual publication of the methodology (months 28–36).
• Continuously analyse the legal and security risks of legislative monitoring and adapt protocols accordingly.
• Report against Track 1 indicators in the results framework and document lessons for the Learning Community.

Positioning and working relationships

The position reports to the Programme Director. It functionally supervises the legal analyst panel (C-01), the 40-strong country respondent network (C-02) and the case-library documentation consultants (C-06). It works daily with the two regional coordinations on the 80-CSO cohort, with the Digital Platforms Officer on the Legislative Watch platform, with Research & Data on study quality and with MEL on Track 1 indicators.

Travel and working environment

Regular travel for convenings, peer-review workshops and cohort support, around 25% of time. Work within a trilingual team of thirteen in Accra, with strict security protocols for legislative monitoring and source protection in sensitive contexts.

Position context

Track 2 addresses one of the best-documented vulnerabilities of African feminist CSOs: dependence on a small number of international donors and thin reserves. It develops a financial sustainability toolbox covering domestic philanthropy engagement, membership models, cooperative economics, service revenue, navigation of fiscal status across African jurisdictions and multi-year financial planning; a measurable framework of diversification standards; an open mapping of domestic philanthropic actors in the 20 focus countries; and a web-based self-assessment tool. The methodology is built from a diagnostic of the funding profiles of 100 feminist CSOs and 40 interviews with leaders who have documented diversification experience, then tested by a 60-CSO cohort over a full annual financial cycle.

Purpose of the role

Lead the research and development of the financial sustainability methodology, from diagnostic to trilingual publication, and guarantee that it is anchored in African economic realities, measurable, and directly usable by organisations of diverse sizes.

Success will be measured by one simple fact: that by month 30, a cohort organisation can demonstrate, figures in hand, that its revenue structure has begun to change — and that the methodology that helped it get there is clear enough to be picked up by an organisation that has never met the programme team.

Specific responsibilities

• Lead the diagnostic of the funding profiles of 100 feminist CSOs across the focus countries (A2.1, months 1–10): protocol, sampling, consultant supervision, analysis.
• Conduct the structured learning cycle with 40 CSO leaders with documented diversification experience (A2.2, months 6–16): interview guide, delivery, trajectory capitalisation.
• Oversee the open mapping of domestic philanthropic actors in the 20 countries — foundations, corporates, individual and community philanthropy (A2.3).
• Draft the toolbox (months 12–24): domestic philanthropy, memberships, cooperative economics, service revenue, fiscal navigation, multi-year planning.
• Organise the peer review of the toolbox by financial-management practitioners and CSO leaders (A2.4).
• Develop the measurable diversification standards framework, articulated to the results framework indicators.
• Specify, with the Digital Platforms Officer, the web-based financial self-assessment tool (A2.5) and its scoring logic.
• Design the onboarding of the 60-CSO cohort (A2.6) and support their test of the toolbox over a full annual financial cycle (months 18–30), including individual financial diagnostics and diversification plans.
• Lead the revision and trilingual publication of the methodology (months 26–36) and contribute to annual learning reports.
• Report against Track 2 indicators and document lessons for the Learning Community.

Positioning and working relationships

The position reports to the Programme Director. It functionally leads the financial diagnostics consultant team (C-03), co-pilots the self-assessment tool with the Digital Platforms Officer and animates the 60-CSO cohort with the two regional coordinations. It collaborates with the Gender Lead on gendered analysis of economic models, with Research & Data on the philanthropic mapping and with MEL on the measurable diversification standards.

Travel and working environment

Regular travel — convenings, review workshops, cohort accompaniment during the annual financial cycle — around 25% of time. The role handles confidential financial data of third-party organisations and demands strict professional ethics, within RFLD's data-protection policy.

Position context

Track 3 develops the Democratic Governance Standard: a peer-reviewed framework specifying measurable dimensions of internal democracy — equitable structures, leadership rotation, membership democracy, transparent decision-making, accountability to constituencies, dialogue with duty-bearers — together with a self-assessment methodology, a web tool and a peer-review protocol adoptable by any African feminist CSO. Its development is steered by a continental Standards Committee of 24 senior African feminist leaders from the four sub-regions, submitted to open peer review, then piloted by 50 institutions — including RFLD itself, which applies the Standard to its own governance with consent-based publication of the results.

Purpose of the role

Lead the development, review, piloting and publication of the Democratic Governance Standard, guaranteeing its continental legitimacy (through the Standards Committee), its methodological rigour and its fit with African feminist organisational forms.

Success will be judged by the Standard's double test: demanding enough to genuinely transform governance practices, and practicable enough that a modest-sized organisation, in any of the three languages, can self-assess without external assistance and publish its results with confidence.

Specific responsibilities

• Conduct the critical mapping of existing governance frameworks and their fit with African feminist organisational forms (months 1–8).
• Constitute the Standards Committee: identification and invitation of 24 senior leaders from the four sub-regions, secretariat, session calendar, honoraria management with the Finance Officer.
• Lead the drafting of the Standard under the Committee's steering (months 6–16), translating its orientations into measurable dimensions and indicators.
• Organise the open peer review of the Standard by self-nominated institutional reviewers (A3.4, months 12–24).
• Develop the self-assessment methodology and specify the associated web tool (A3.5) with the Digital Platforms Officer.
• Formalise the peer-review protocol adoptable by any African feminist CSO.
• Pilot the Standard with 50 institutions (months 18–30): recruitment with the regional coordinations, accompaniment, consent-based publication of results.
• Coordinate the application of the Standard to RFLD's own governance — an internal exercise in exemplarity — with the leadership and the Board.
• Animate the continental dialogue around the Standard (convenings, ACHPR, regional platforms) in support of the Programme Director.
• Lead the revision and trilingual publication (months 28–36) and report against Track 3 indicators.

Positioning and working relationships

The position reports to the Programme Director and provides the technical secretariat of the 24-member Standards Committee, preparing and documenting each session with the expert facilitation. It manages the relationship with the institutional reviewers of the open review, pilots the 50-institution cohort with the regional coordinations, and leads — with RFLD's leadership and Board — the internal exercise of applying the Standard to the network's own governance.

Travel and working environment

Regular travel for Committee sessions, convenings and pilot-institution support, around 25% of time. The role requires particular institutional tact: it brings together senior leaders from four sub-regions and three languages, on a subject — internal governance — that directly engages the credibility of every participating organisation.

Position context

The programme's credibility rests on real test cohorts: 190 organisations recruited through open calls in the 20 focus countries, supported through the testing phases of the three methodologies, and gathered in 12 sub-regional convenings (one per AU sub-region per year) plus 3 annual continental convenings. The programme entrusts the territorial anchoring of this architecture to two regional coordinations. The East & Southern Africa Coordinator covers the anglophone focus countries of these two sub-regions — Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda in the East; Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe in particular in the South — building on RFLD's member network (670 organisations in more than 35 countries). The position is based in Accra, with frequent travel across the zone.

Purpose of the role

Guarantee, across the zone, the recruitment of quality cohorts, the delivery of sub-regional convenings, the vitality of peer-review cycles and close accompaniment of the testing organisations, so that the three methodologies are proven in real East and Southern African contexts.

The role demands the ability to move, within the same week, from negotiating a conference venue in Nairobi to patiently supporting a small rural organisation struggling with its test: this dual competence — operational and relational — is what will make the quality of the zone's cohorts.

Specific responsibilities

• Lead, in the zone, the open calls, screening and contracting of cohort organisations (A0.3): dissemination, transparent criteria, eligibility verification, signature of cohort agreements.
• Organise the East and Southern Africa sub-regional convenings (6 of the 12 events): programme, speakers, facilitation, follow-up of recommendations, with the Logistics Officer.
• Coordinate the peer-review cycles of the three tracks in the zone: reviewer mobilisation, calendars, transmission of opinions to the track managers.
• Accompany cohort CSOs through the tests: implementation follow-up, close support, problem-solving, escalation of weak signals to the managers.
• Mobilise RFLD's member network and national partners; represent the programme with sub-regional civil society platforms.
• Act as local relay for the country respondents and consultants working in the zone.
• Contribute to field MEL collection (surveys, verifications, case studies) with the MEL Officer.
• Ensure the application of inclusion quotas and the safeguarding policy in all zone activities.
• Provide proximity logistics support (venue scouting, local suppliers, visas) with the Logistics Officer.
• Produce periodic zone reports for the Programme Director.

Positioning and working relationships

The position reports to the Programme Director and works daily with the three track managers, serving as their territorial relay for cohorts, peer reviews and tests. It forms an operational pair with the Logistics Officer for the zone's convenings, contributes to MEL collection and is the local point of contact for country respondents and consultants working in East and Southern Africa.

Travel and working environment

Intensive travel across the zone's focus countries — cohort recruitment, convenings, support visits, MEL collection — up to 40% of time. The role requires strong operational autonomy, a keen reading of the zone's political contexts and rigorous application of the programme's security protocols.

Position context

The programme deliberately inverts the anglophone default of existing methodologies: the three methodologies are developed simultaneously in English, French and Portuguese, so that francophone and lusophone organisations are co-creators from month one — not recipients of late translations. The West & Central Africa Coordinator embodies this commitment: they cover the francophone and lusophone focus countries — Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal and Togo in the West; Cameroon, DR Congo, Republic of the Congo and Gabon in the Centre; plus lusophone Mozambique — and drive their full participation in cohorts, peer reviews and convenings. The position is based in Accra, within a trilingual team, with frequent travel across the zone.

Purpose of the role

Guarantee that francophone and lusophone organisations participate on genuinely equal terms in the co-design, testing and governance of the three methodologies: cohorts recruited, convenings held, peer reviews animated and support delivered in their working languages.

The role demands the ability to move, within the same week, from facilitating a bilingual workshop in Douala to closely supporting an isolated lusophone organisation in its test: this dual competence — operational and linguistic — is what will make the programme's promise of equality between the three languages credible.

Specific responsibilities

• Lead, in the zone, the open calls, screening and contracting of cohort organisations (A0.3), in French and Portuguese.
• Organise the West and Central Africa sub-regional convenings (6 of the 12 events), with interpretation and trilingual materials.
• Coordinate the peer-review cycles of the three tracks in the zone, ensuring francophone and lusophone representation on the panels.
• Accompany cohort CSOs through the tests: close, linguistically adapted support, escalation of difficulties to the track managers.
• Ensure, with the MEL Officer, that instruments (surveys, trainings, digital tools) are genuinely available and usable in French and Portuguese from their first version.
• Mobilise RFLD's member network in the zone and represent the programme with francophone and lusophone sub-regional platforms.
• Act as local relay for the zone's country respondents and consultants; support the building of the lusophone expert pool (analysts, reviewers, interpreters).
• Ensure the application of inclusion quotas and the safeguarding policy in all zone activities.
• Provide proximity logistics support with the Logistics Officer (venues, suppliers, visas).
• Produce periodic zone reports for the Programme Director.

Positioning and working relationships

The position reports to the Programme Director and works daily with the three track managers, serving as their territorial relay for the francophone and lusophone countries. It forms an operational pair with the Logistics Officer for the zone's trilingual convenings, works with the language providers (C-08) on the quality of French and Portuguese versions of the instruments, and contributes to building the programme's lusophone expert pool.

Travel and working environment

Intensive travel across the francophone and lusophone focus countries — cohort recruitment, convenings, support visits, MEL collection — up to 40% of time. The role carries a strong symbolic responsibility: demonstrating, in practice, that the programme keeps its promise of genuine equality between its three working languages.

Position context

This is a research-and-development programme: its three methodologies rest on major diagnostic studies — the legislative dynamics of 20 jurisdictions, the funding profiles of 100 feminist CSOs, the critical mapping of governance frameworks — and its results framework requires that every result reported to the donor be traceable to verifiable data, recorded in an evidence annex. The programme is further committed to publishing its datasets in open access on the DƆNÙESÈ Data Center, RFLD's open-data suite. The Research & Data Officer is the pivot of this evidence requirement: they methodologically support the three tracks, build the programme's documentary assets and guarantee data quality and ethics, under the supervision of the Programme Director.

Purpose of the role

Guarantee the methodological soundness of the programme's studies, the construction of its open documentary assets (case library, mappings, datasets) and the traceability of every reported result to verifiable, ethically managed data.

The success criterion is unambiguous: that an auditor, an independent evaluator or an external researcher can, three years on, trace any figure published by the programme back to its primary source — and that the published open datasets are actually reused beyond the programme.

Specific responsibilities

• Support the methodological design of the tracks' major diagnostic studies: protocols, collection instruments, sampling plans, quality control.
• Build and maintain the reference case library (≥ 100 cases, A1.5) with the documentation consultants: standardised templates, source verification, indexing.
• Produce and update the domestic philanthropy mapping (A2.3) as an open database.
• Produce, document and publish the programme's open datasets on the DƆNÙESÈ Data Center: accessible formats, metadata, open licences.
• Maintain the programme's evidence annex: every results-framework indicator linked to its evidence stream, instrument and calendar.
• Support the baseline, midline and endline MEL surveys across the 20 countries (A0.2, A0.7) with the MEL Officer: processing, analysis, visualisation.
• Guarantee data protection and research ethics: informed consent, anonymisation, security of sensitive data.
• Maintain continuous documentary monitoring (literature, civic-space monitoring, continental sources) in service of the three tracks.
• Produce ad hoc analyses for the programme's adaptive management, at the Director's request.
• Contribute to the annual legislation reviews and public learning reports.

Positioning and working relationships

The position reports to the Programme Director and serves the three track managers transversally. It forms a technical pair with the MEL Officer — one guarantees data quality, the other the functioning of the system — functionally guides the case-library documentation consultants (C-06), methodologically supports the financial diagnostics team (C-03) and works with the DƆNÙESÈ Data Center team on open-data publication.

Travel and working environment

Occasional travel, around 15% of time, mainly for field surveys and convenings. The role is essentially Accra-based, at the heart of the programme's evidence architecture, with privileged access to sensitive data demanding impeccable research ethics.

Position context

Each of the programme's three methodologies comes with an open-source digital tool: the Legislative Watch platform (Track 1), the web-based financial self-assessment tool (Track 2) and the governance Standard self-assessment tool (Track 3). These three tools are developed by African technology partners under fixed-price contracts, tested by the cohorts, then hosted, maintained and secured on RFLD's DƆNÙESÈ Data Center — which already runs twelve bilingual open-data tools. The Digital Platforms Officer is the delivery owner of this workstream: they translate track needs into specifications, manage the vendors, guarantee the tools' accessibility and availability, and prepare their sustainability beyond the programme.

Purpose of the role

Deliver three quality open-source digital tools — trilingual, accessible, secure, adopted by the cohorts and integrated into the DƆNÙESÈ Data Center — on time and on budget, with documentation enabling their free reuse.

The success criterion is concrete: that the three tools are still online, maintained and in use a year after the programme ends — because their code is clean, their documentation complete and their running costs sustainable for an organisation of RFLD's size.

Specific responsibilities

• Draft, with the three track managers, the functional and technical specifications of the three tools (A1.4, A2.5, A3.5).
• Run, with the Finance & Compliance Officer, the procurement of the three fixed-price contracts with African technology partners.
• Manage the contracts by milestone: validated specifications, MVP, cohort testing, production release, corrective warranty.
• Ensure integration of the tools into the DƆNÙESÈ Data Center: hosting, interoperability, coherence of the user experience.
• Enforce and verify accessibility requirements: trilingual interfaces, mobile compatibility, low-bandwidth performance, accessibility standards.
• Guarantee security, availability (uptime) and maintenance of the tools, supervising the dedicated hosting and maintenance contract.
• Control the quality of the open-source code, free licences, and technical and deployment documentation.
• Train the team and cohorts in using the tools; organise user support during test phases.
• Manage the programme's digital risks (data protection, service continuity) with the Research & Data Officer.
• Prepare the sustainability plan for the tools beyond month 36 (code governance, recurring costs, community).

Positioning and working relationships

The position reports to the Programme Director and holds delivery ownership of the three development contracts (C-07) as well as the hosting and maintenance contract. It translates the three track managers' needs into specifications, works with the DƆNÙESÈ Data Center team on tool integration, with Research & Data on data protection, and with the regional coordinations on cohort testing and user training.

Travel and working environment

Occasional travel, around 15% of time, notably for cohort testing sessions and convenings. The role sits in Accra at the interface between the programme team and the technology vendors, with one constant requirement: that the tools stay simple, lean and usable in the continent's real connectivity conditions.

Position context

This is an Afrofeminist programme: gender equality is not a sector here but the raison d'être. Even so, RFLD's proposal makes gender integration a tooled, verifiable function rather than a statement of intent: systematic application of the donor's gender toolboxes and human-rights-based approach (HRBA) to all programme instruments, inclusion quotas in cohorts and bodies, annual equity reviews, systematic disaggregation of monitoring data and gender analysis of the diagnostics. The Gender Lead carries this cross-cutting function in service of the three tracks, under the supervision of the Programme Director and in close liaison with the MEL Officer.

Purpose of the role

Guarantee that the three methodologies, all programme instruments and all its bodies effectively integrate gender analysis, the rights-based approach and inclusion requirements — from the design of the diagnostics through to the final publications.

Success will be read not in declarations but in traces: quotas respected and documented, data genuinely disaggregated, equity reviews published with their corrective commitments — and final methodologies whose gender analysis is a load-bearing frame, not a chapter.

Specific responsibilities

• Develop the programme's gender strategy and its implementation plan, articulated to the results framework.
• Integrate gender analysis into the three tracks' diagnostic studies (legislative, financial, governance): research questions, instruments, analysis.
• Apply the donor's gender and HRBA toolboxes to all instruments: terms of reference, trainings, digital tools, surveys, cohort agreements.
• Define and monitor inclusion quotas in the cohorts, the Standards Committee, the peer panels and events; document compliance.
• Conduct the programme's annual equity reviews and publish their findings and corrective commitments.
• Support systematic MEL data disaggregation (sex, age, disability and other relevant dimensions) with the MEL Officer.
• Train the team, cohorts and committees in intersectional feminist approaches and safeguarding.
• Provide ongoing gender advice to the three track managers; conduct gender review of deliverables before publication.
• Serve as safeguarding/PSEA focal point in liaison with RFLD's confidential integrity channel.
• Represent the programme in continental gender spaces, in support of the leadership.

Positioning and working relationships

The position reports to the Programme Director and exercises a cross-cutting advisory function with the three track managers, the regional coordinations and MEL. It sits on the quality reviews preceding every publication, works with the MEL Officer on data disaggregation and, in liaison with the Board and the confidential integrity channel, serves as the programme's safeguarding focal point.

Travel and working environment

Regular travel for trainings, convenings and equity reviews, around 20% of time. The role demands both conceptual solidity — translating intersectional feminist analysis into verifiable instruments — and a caring but demanding accompaniment of teams and cohorts.

Position context

The programme is budgeted at SEK 54 million over 36 months and subject to the donor's general conditions: separate project accounting, an annual project audit to ISA 800/805 standards with ISRS 4400 agreed-upon procedures, verified monthly timesheets for all staff, a ban on top-up allowances for already-salaried personnel, and a seven-year document retention rule. RFLD manages other institutional grants in parallel (GIZ/BMZ, Fondation CHANEL, FJS) and applies a strict cost-separation firewall: no programme staff member is charged to the CHARM or NAFASI programmes, and vice versa. The Finance & Compliance Officer is the operational guardian of this architecture, from the programme's very first month — one of the three positions recruited in October 2026.

Purpose of the role

Ensure dedicated, accurate and auditable financial management of the programme: controlled budget execution, compliant procurement, unqualified audits, an intact inter-programme firewall and impeccable financial reporting to the donor.

Success comes down to three unqualified annual audits, a cost-separation firewall never caught out, and a team that treats compliance not as an external constraint but as the condition of the trust that 190 organisations and a public donor place in the programme.

Specific responsibilities

• Maintain the programme's dedicated project accounting in QuickBooks: project and activity codes (A0–A3) guaranteeing cost–activity–result traceability.
• Prepare annual budgets and cash-flow forecasts; produce monthly budget monitoring and alert the leadership to any significant variance.
• Run the programme's procurement (consultancies, technology partners, events): competitive tendering, documentation, award committees, archiving.
• Prepare and support the annual project audit (ISA 800/805 + ISRS 4400, A0.8); implement and document audit recommendations.
• Enforce the cost-separation firewall between the programme and RFLD's other programmes; verify allocations monthly.
• Administer the monthly timesheets of the 13 positions, verified by line managers, so that every salary cost charged to the programme is systematically substantiated.
• Produce the annual financial reports to the donor, reconciliations and disbursement requests.
• Pay the fees of consultants, the Committee and the country respondents in line with contracts, applying required tax withholdings.
• Operate internal anti-corruption controls and support the financial handling of any report; apply the seven-year retention rule.
• Administer per diems (SEK 300/day) and travel reimbursements with the Logistics Officer, in line with RFLD policies.

Positioning and working relationships

The position reports to the Programme Director, with a functional line to RFLD's regional finance directorate for network-wide accounting coherence. It works in a daily pair with the Administrative Officer, supports the Logistics Officer on per diems and event procurement, manages the relationship with the external auditors, and pays all programme providers — consultancies, the Standards Committee, country respondents, technology partners.

Travel and working environment

Limited travel, around 10% of time, mainly for verifications tied to major events. One of the three positions recruited from October 2026: it installs the programme's financial architecture before the rest of the team arrives, and remains its guarantor through to the final audit.

Position context

A programme that contracts 13 staff, dozens of consultants, 24 committee members, 40 country respondents and 190 cohort organisations rests on flawless administration. The programme also applies the seven-year document retention rule required by the donor: every contract, minute, attendance sheet and supporting document must be archived and retrievable for that entire period. The Administrative Officer builds this administrative backbone from October 2026, alongside the Programme Director and the Finance Officer: one of the programme's first three hires, precisely because the staggered recruitment of the ten other positions (months 1–4) demands immediate, rigorous HR support.

Purpose of the role

Ensure contract administration, HR support, document management compliant with the seven-year rule, and day-to-day support to the programme's meetings and correspondence, so that the technical team works on secure administrative foundations.

Success in this role is recognised by its invisibility: contracts signed on time, archives where anything can be found in minutes, and recruitments from which every candidate — successful or not — walks away feeling treated with fairness and consideration.

Specific responsibilities

• Administer the employment contracts of the 13 positions: drafting with legal counsel, signatures, probation periods, amendments, deadlines.
• Administer service contracts (consultancies, Standards Committee, country respondents) with the Finance Officer: compliance, signatures, tracking of contractual deliverables.
• Support the staggered recruitment of months 1–4: vacancy publication, application management, invitations, interview logistics, reference checks.
• Maintain personnel files and HR registers compliant with Ghanaian labour law and RFLD HR policy.
• Set up and maintain the programme's document management system (paper and digital) under the seven-year retention rule.
• Organise programme meetings: agendas, minutes, decision follow-up; manage official correspondence.
• Support the programme's internal bodies (steering committee, quarterly risk reviews): convening, documentation, archiving.
• Manage office supplies and services allocated to the programme and the follow-up of related insurance policies.
• Organise the welcome and administrative induction of new hires.
• Provide the administrative interface with headquarters and RFLD's other offices (Porto-Novo, Dakar, Banjul).

Positioning and working relationships

The position reports to the Programme Director and forms a daily pair with the Finance & Compliance Officer, whose documentary standards it shares. It supports the whole team — contracts, files, meetings, correspondence — and provides the administrative interface with the Porto-Novo headquarters and the Dakar and Banjul offices, as well as with external legal counsel on Ghanaian employment contracts.

Travel and working environment

Very limited travel, around 10% of time. One of the three positions recruited from October 2026: it administers the staggered recruitment of the ten other positions itself, which demands method, discretion and a sharp sense of fairness between applications.

Position context

The programme organises fifteen in-person events across twenty countries: twelve sub-regional convenings (one per AU sub-region per year) and three hybrid annual continental convenings, including the final public launch of the three methodologies. Add the continuous travel of the team, facilitators, the Standards Committee and panels — all under RFLD's travel policy: economy class only, good mid-range hotels (budget reference SEK 800/night), per diem of SEK 300/day. Participant verification and custody of programme assets (including the 13 IT workstations) fall to the same role. The Logistics Officer turns this multi-country complexity into safe, punctual, compliant events.

Purpose of the role

Plan and execute, without fault, the logistics of the fifteen events and all programme travel, in strict compliance with RFLD's travel, per diem and procurement policies, while guaranteeing people's safety and asset custody.

Success is measured at both ends of the chain: participants who arrive, work and return home safely and without friction, and files — compared quotes, contracts, signed attendance sheets — that the annual audit crosses without a single observation.

Specific responsibilities

• Plan and execute the logistics of the 12 sub-regional convenings and the 3 hybrid continental convenings: venues, rooms, equipment, catering, interpretation.
• Organise international travel for the team, facilitators and committees — economy class only, including ACHPR sessions and regional platforms.
• Book accommodation compliant with RFLD policy and local transport; optimise costs through negotiation and anticipation.
• Coordinate visas, travel insurance and transfers for participants from 20+ countries.
• Administer per diems (SEK 300/day) and expense claims with the Finance & Compliance Officer.
• Support participant verification: identities, eligibility, signed attendance sheets, as required by the programme's compliance framework.
• Contract local event suppliers in compliance with procurement rules; maintain supplier files.
• Ensure custody, inventory and maintenance of programme assets: 13 IT workstations, peripherals, event equipment.
• Contribute to travel security: contextual monitoring of volatile countries, security protocols with the programme leadership.
• Coordinate interpretation logistics for trilingual events (booths, equipment, technical direction) with the MEL Officer.

Positioning and working relationships

The position reports to the Programme Director and forms an operational pair with the Finance & Compliance Officer on per diems, expense claims and event procurement. It works hand in hand with the two regional coordinations — who scout venues and suppliers in their zones — and with the MEL Officer on the interpretation direction of trilingual events.

Travel and working environment

Sustained travel, around 35% of time, for scouting and delivering the fifteen events. The trade operates under real constraints — visas, connectivity, political surprises — and a double requirement: impeccable events for participants, impeccable files for the audit.

Position context

The programme's MEL system has four layers: input tracking (QuickBooks project accounting and the work plan), output tracking (a dedicated results database), outcome tracking (baseline, midline and endline surveys, plus interview cycles with cohort and diffusion organisations) and impact evaluation (two independent evaluations to OECD/DAC standards, published in full). Every indicator in the results framework is served by a named evidence stream, with instrument, owner and calendar. Add the Learning Community of Practice (quarterly trilingual online sessions), coordination of translations, publication of programme data to the IATI standard, and programme communications. The MEL, Learning & Communications Officer orchestrates it all, in close liaison with Research & Data and the Gender Lead.

Purpose of the role

Run the four-layer MEL system, feed the programme's adaptive management with reliable, timely data, animate trilingual collective learning and make the programme's results public, traceable and intelligible.

Success will show in a deliberate paradox: a monitoring system rigorous enough to satisfy the most demanding evaluator, and learning reports honest and alive enough for cohort organisations to recognise themselves in them — documented failures included.

Specific responsibilities

• Deploy and administer the four-layer MEL system and its operations manual; maintain the results database and monitoring dashboards.
• Conduct the baseline survey, then the midline and endline surveys across the 20 countries (A0.2, A0.7), with the support of the Research & Data Officer and the regional coordinations.
• Guarantee the traceability of every results-framework indicator to its evidence stream, in line with the dedicated section of the proposal.
• Support the two independent evaluations (midterm months 18–20, final month 36): terms of reference, data access, logistics, follow-up of management-response action plans.
• Animate the Learning Community of Practice: quarterly trilingual online sessions (A0.5), capitalisation, circulation of lessons across tracks.
• Coordinate EN/FR/PT translations and Kiswahili summaries with the language providers.
• Publish programme data to the IATI standard and keep the publication current.
• Produce the annual public learning reports and the MEL contributions to the annual reports to the donor.
• Lead programme communications: web pages, social media, consent-based stories of change.
• Guarantee, with the Gender Lead, systematic data disaggregation and instrument compliance with the donor's HRBA and gender toolboxes.

Positioning and working relationships

The position reports to the Programme Director, whose main adaptive-management instrument it is. It forms a technical pair with Research & Data and a pair of standards with the Gender Lead on disaggregation. It coordinates the language providers (C-08), supports the independent evaluators (C-09) and feeds the three track managers with progress data, while carrying the programme's public voice.

Travel and working environment

Regular travel for surveys, convenings and evaluation debriefs, around 25% of time. The role combines two temperaments rarely found together — the rigour of monitoring and evaluation and the storytelling instinct of communications — in service of a programme committed to making its results public and traceable.