Our Organization
The African Impact Initiative (AII) is committed to fostering youth entrepreneurship in Africa through our technology-focused startup incubator - The African Impact Challenge (AIC). This initiative aligns with AII's mission to build the future of the African continent and its diaspora by empowering early visionaries to
create sustainable solutions for Africa and its diaspora. AIC targets a diverse group of young African entrepreneurs fostering a vibrant ecosystem of innovators dedicated to driving positive change.
The Program Manager Role
The African Impact Initiative is currently seeking a Program Manager for the African Impact Challenge, a leader and a strategic thinker who will design a comprehensive monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) framework for our organization.
The Program Manager’s task will also involve designing a strategic plan to assess the progress and impact of AIC’s pre-incubation, incubation and implementation phases. This includes developing key performance indicators (KPIs) to; measure startups’ progress against predefined targets, evaluate the effectiveness of their solutions in addressing pressing challenges and assess their scalability and potential for market penetration. This would be done by prioritizing solutions that target the non-consumption demographic that focus on increasing adoption, accessibility, and affordability for this demographic.
The ideal candidate will have experience in managing Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning activities in multi-year, complex projects, experience in directly engaging with tech-based African startups, ideally in the impact sector as well as prior exposure to the African innovation ecosystem, ideally working with startups. A self- starter team player with an entrepreneurial mindset, excellent organization and communication skills, relevant technical skills to implement new systems and an empathetic but firm approach to lead and support the AIC team effectively.
Responsibilities:
● Responsible for the management and implementation of the African Impact Challenge Program including partner and stakeholder management.
● Design, manage, and direct the African Impact Challenge’s MEL strategy and methodology.
● Supervise and provide technical training and support to AIC staff and participating startups and ensure integration of MEL activities.
● Oversee data collection, storage, analysis, and reporting, ensuring the implementation of data-driven decision-making processes.
● Coordinate external evaluation processes when necessary.
● Lead routine reviews and interpretation of data for learning and adaptation.
● Produce and write thought leadership pieces relevant to collected program data as well as demonstrate the impact of the incubation program with impact reports.
● Develop and implement a long-term AIC strategic plan.
● Establish feedback mechanisms and channels for information sharing.
● Track key performance indicators (KPIs) for AIC and the startups the program supports.
● Drive the adoption of Agile methodologies within the AIC, ensuring startups understand and adhere to Agile principles.
● Review curriculum and automate pre-incubation and incubation learning and grading.
● Facilitate access to additional capital or resources for incubated ventures.
Minimum Qualifications:
● Degree in Business related field or similar; advantageous: Project Management Professional (PMP).
● 7+ years’ experience in a project management role with responsibility for complex program implementation.
● 5+ years of progressive experience in Monitoring and Evaluations managerial roles.