Purpose
The Regional Director, Africa serves as the senior leader responsible for growing Women for Women International’s revenue, partnerships, and strategic influence across Africa, while also providing line management, coordination, and leadership support to Country Directors across the region.
- The role strengthens WfWI’s unitary model by ensuring that country strategy, program delivery, operations, and revenue development are better aligned across the continent. The Regional Director, Africa drives a multi-year regional strategy that combines philanthropy, institutional funding, corporate partnerships, diaspora and high-net-worth giving, and selected earned-income or investment-aligned opportunities.
- In addition to leading regional revenue growth, the Regional Director, Africa plays a critical leadership role in mentoring and managing Country Directors, supporting cross-country collaboration, strengthening planning and performance discipline, and ensuring that opportunities and risks are surfaced early and managed in close coordination with Programs, Operations, Finance, Risk, Compliance, and Communications.
- The role represents Africa on the Global Revenue Team and other relevant global forumsand serves as WfWI’s primary external representative for regional partnerships and market development across Africa.
Engagement
- Serve as the primary external representative for WfWI in Africa with regional donors, corporates, philanthropic networks, intergovernmental bodies, and strategic partners.
- Dedicate substantial time to external engagement to raise funds, build alliances, and strengthen WfWI’s regional profile.
- Collaborate closely with Country Directors and global colleagues to ensure integrated regional planning and execution.
- Maintain regular engagement with the CEO, CPPO, COO, and other relevant leaders on regional priorities, risks, performance, and support needs.
- Build and maintain strong relationships with African philanthropic, corporate, institutional, and diaspora networks to position WfWI as a credible and compelling regional partner.
Key Responsibilities
Delivery
Strategy and Planning
- Lead the development and execution of a comprehensive Africa regional strategy aligned with the Global Revenue Strategy and country realities.
- Translate global priorities into a practical regional plan that links market opportunities, country strategy, program capacity, and operational readiness.
- Establish annual priorities, targets, and review mechanisms for both regional revenue performance and Country Director leadership coordination.
- Ensure Africa contributes meaningfully to WfWI’s overall revenue ambition while remaining grounded in delivery feasibility, risk management, and country context.
Revenue, Partnerships, and Market Development
- Lead a multi-year Africa revenue strategy across philanthropy, corporate partnerships, institutional funding, diaspora giving, and selected earned-income opportunities.
- Build and manage a regional pipeline of donors and partners, with particular focus on African philanthropy, corporate CSR, regional institutions, development finance institutions, and diaspora networks.
- Identify and cultivate high-value opportunities with African high-net-worth individuals, family foundations, regional corporates, and pan-African institutions.
- Strengthen and diversify Africa revenue streams so the region becomes more resilient and less dependent on traditional supporter markets.
- Champion WfWI’s program offer and value proposition in the region, ensuring clear and consistent positioning to donors, partners, and external stakeholders.
- Ensure strong stewardship, reporting, and donor engagement standards across regional partnerships and revenue streams.
Institutional and Regional Partnerships
- Build a strong pipeline of institutional opportunities with African development banks, regional bodies, bilateral donors, and regional donor platforms.
- Lead or support co-creation with local and national partners to strengthen competitiveness, partnership quality, and localization credibility.
- Ensure proposals and partnership models are aligned with WfWI standards, monitoring and evaluation frameworks, and country delivery realities.
- Strengthen relationships with institutions such as the African Development Bank, African Union system, regional economic communities, and relevant UN agencies and regional platforms.
Earned Income and Innovation
- Identify and grow earned-income or market-based opportunities linked to WfWI’s work, including VSLAs, market systems, curriculum or training products, digital opportunities, and other mission-aligned models.
- Support country teams to assess, pilot, and scale revenue-generating approaches with clear unit economics and operational feasibility.
- Build partnerships with African private sector actors, fintechs, agribusinesses, and market-linkage platforms where these can advance WfWI’s strategy and women’s economic empowerment outcomes.
Country Director Leadership and Coordination
- Line manage Country Directors in Africa and support their performance, accountability, and professional development.
- Provide coaching, mentoring, and strategic guidance to Country Directors, particularly on leadership, planning, fundraising, partnership development, and cross-functional coordination.
- Strengthen collaboration and knowledge sharing across African country offices and promote a more integrated regional approach.
- Ensure key country risks, dependencies, and support needs are surfaced early and addressed with the relevant global functions.
- Support alignment of country strategies with regional opportunities, organizational priorities, and available resources.
- Contribute to performance management, succession thinking, and leadership development across the Africa region in coordination with PCC.
Cross-Functional Integration
- Work closely with the CPPO and COO to align regional revenue ambition with program quality, delivery feasibility, staffing, compliance, operational readiness, and financial controls.
- Coordinate with Finance, PCC, IT, Risk, Compliance, and Communications to support strong country and regional execution.
- Ensure disciplined forecasting, planning, and performance review processes across the region.
- Promote practical ways of working that strengthen collaboration between country teams and global functions.
- Governance, Risk, and Stewardship
- Maintain high standards of safeguarding, donor compliance, financial integrity, and ethical partnership management across the region.
- Lead regional assessment and escalation of risks related to markets, partnerships, funding, operations, and delivery.
- Ensure transparent communication with global leadership on emerging issues, mitigation actions, and support required.
- Demonstrate stewardship of donor resources, partnerships, and organizational reputation through disciplined decision-making, clear accountability, and appropriate escalation of issues.
Representation and Thought Leadership
- Position WfWI as a credible and influential voice on women’s economic empowerment, gender equality, financial inclusion, and market-based approaches across Africa.
- Represent WfWI in regional policy dialogues, donor forums, philanthropic networks, corporate platforms, and strategic partnerships.
- Build alliances with INGOs, local NGOs, private sector actors, and research institutions that can strengthen WfWI’s regional position and impact.
- Support visibility, thought leadership, and strategic communications in coordination with the relevant global teams.
Team Management and Culture
- Build and lead a high-performing Africa regional team with clear goals, accountability, and professional growth.
- Foster a culture of performance, collaboration, learning, and disciplined execution.
- Ensure country and regional staff understand how their work contributes to both regional results and the broader global organization.
- Promote inclusive leadership and strong cross-functional relationships across the Africa region and beyond.
Other Responsibilities
- Undertake additional duties as required by the International Chief Executive Officer.
- Uphold WfWI’s Code of Conduct, Safeguarding policies, and organizational values: Empowerment, Integrity, Respect, Resilience.
- Demonstrate WfWI leadership principles: Decisive, Accountable, Courageous, Adaptable, Inclusive.
Skills Knowledge and Expertise
Requirements
All criteria tagged (A) for Application must be addressed in your covering letter or the application will be disregarded.
- Located in one of the African countries specified with the existing right to work in that country of employment (A)
- Master’s degree required. (A)
- Minimum 10 years of combined senior leadership experience in fundraising, partnerships, business development, international development, or related fields. (A)
- Ability to articulate donor trends and revenue opportunities in Africa, particularly relevant to WfWI’s mission, with a track record of raising a minimum of $5 million a year from at least two types of donor sources, including corporate sources, for social impact causes, inclusive of women’s empowerment. (A)
- Strong familiarity with market-based revenue strategies, social enterprise, or blended finance approaches, as evidenced in past employment. (A)
- Experience designing and implementing strategic Africa-focused partnerships with regional and global development entities, evidenced by clear outcomes. (A)
- Experience overseeing multi-country programs in Africa, inclusive of strategy development and budget planning, revenue forecasting, team management, financial reporting, and liaising with a global office. (A)
- Participation in women’s rights and or economic empowerment networks and strategic spaces. (A)
- Proven track record of securing significant funding from philanthropists, corporates, foundations, institutions, or strategic partners in Africa or comparable contexts.
- Strong understanding of African philanthropic ecosystems, corporate CSR trends, diaspora giving, and institutional funding landscapes.
- Demonstrated experience developing and delivering multi-year strategies with measurable growth targets.
- Strong people management, coaching, and leadership development skills.
- Excellent relationship-building, negotiation, and external representation skills.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills in English. Additional African languages are an advantage.
- Deep commitment to women’s rights, gender equality, and ethical fundraising.
- Willingness to travel regionally and internationally as required.
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