Mastercard Foundation is a global foundation based across four hubs in Kigali, Rwanda, Nairobi, Kenya, Accra, Ghana and Toronto, Canada. Our programs promote financial inclusion and advance education and learning in Africa, primarily for young people, and in Canada for Indigenous youth. The Foundation was established in 2006 through the generosity of Mastercard when it became a public company. From inception, the Foundation was designed to be a separate entity and independent from Mastercard. Our policies, operations, and funding decisions are made by our President and Board of Directors.
The Foundation believes that youth employment is key to unlocking prosperity, both for youth and their societies. Enabling young women and men from disadvantaged communities to secure dignified and fulfilling work will ensure inclusive development and economic growth in Africa.
We are recruiting to fill the position below:
Job Title: Lead Impact
Location: Lagos, Nigeria
The Work At The Foundation
We have entered a very exciting time at the Foundation as we scale up our operations across Africa to realize our Young Africa Works strategy. Our role at the Mastercard Foundation is to be a catalyst. Our Young Africa Works strategy focuses on working with others to spur systemic change so young people have the opportunity to find work that is dignified and fulfilling.
The Foundation has opened offices in Rwanda, Kenya, Ghana, Senegal, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Uganda, building a broader leadership presence in Africa to develop specific strategies that support youth employment. Within a country, we work with governments, the private sector, educators and other funders to improve the quality of education and vocational training, prepare young people for the work force, expand access to financial services for entrepreneurs and small businesses, and connect job seekers to dignified and fulfilling work.
We are ambitious and driven. Our values transcend and rise above everything else as our guide. We encourage you to bring your bold ideas, curiosity, and expertise to your work. We laugh at ourselves and with each other. We are a team. Our journey together makes our impact even more meaningful.
If you are an experienced monitoring and insight professional ready to build something new and increase your impact, read on!
Understanding & Measuring Impact:
The Foundation has developed a comprehensive strategy for understanding and measuring Impact through a more holistic approach. In this context, Impact spans from the effects that our investments trigger directly in creating work opportunities, upwards to the significant changes and outcomes derived from the influence that the Mastercard Foundation Programs have on the institutional and system level changes in policies, practices and larger investments that open-up for expanded impact, at scale, on youth employment.
Working with young women and men in Africa represents a unique opportunity to develop, implement, and learn from programming and influencing activities in ways that value African and Indigenous ways of being and knowing. Impact measurement and the associated narratives will be guided by youth-focused lenses and located within the nexus of nationally owned strategies and global best practices and thought leadership. The methodologies, tools and insights throughout this journey will be determined and co-created in partnership with youth and other Indigenous vectors of knowledge in communities and countries where we work.
The Opportunity
- Reporting to the Head, Country and Regional Impact Africa, functionally; operationally to the Country Head, the Impact Lead is based in Nigeria and will cover the designated states where MCF programs are targeting.
- The Impact Lead will inform strategy and program development, defining measurable and evaluable outcomes and the associated tools for measuring; while leading the development of the Country Review and Evaluation plans of the Impact department.
- Critical to this role will be the ability to understand and gather evidence to assess the impact of the Foundation’s work in influencing shifts in institutional behavior and policy orientations towards catalyzing opportunities for dignified and fulfilling work for young women and men, at scale.
Ways You Will Contribute
Stakeholder Influencing:
- Support the development and implementation of strategies, tools and events that strengthen dialogue with key government and private sector stakeholders – referred to as Mandated Institutions. These include policy briefs and support to external thought leadership events.
- Lead knowledge translation activities, working in partnership with the Foundation’s communications team to map audiences and develop engagement strategies that seek to promote value-addition by the Foundation in the field of Measurement and Impact narratives.
Impact Measurement and Associated Narratives:
- Support the Program Planning and Implementation Teams to analyze root-causes, establish intentional goals and strategies to accelerate the opening of these opportunities. You will also help to define the outcomes that will lead to Impacts at scale and aligned to National strategies and support the development of methods, tools and techniques for measuring the set outcomes and corresponding Impact narratives.
- Lead the development and implementation of a holistic, culturally-relevant and spiritually-rooted methodologies for assessments and research activities that enable the understanding of impact insights and narratives that resonate with African cultures and ways of knowing.
- Oversee external Impact Partner Organizations (IPOs) who will be engaged to support impact monitoring and verification activities that contribute to Impact Assessments at the program, strategy and Mission levels of the Foundation's work Nigeria and other Regional locations. Activities to include baseline assessments, human-centered design research, formative, mid-term and final evaluations and impact studies.
- Ensure alignment with the Foundation’s strategic objectives, cross-cutting priorities, and policies, procedures, especially gender-equity and social inclusion considerations.
- Play a leading role in the commissioning and management of quarterly impact reviews, and their collation into annual Impact Reviews to inform Foundation adaptive management processes.
Facilitation:
- Facilitate participatory focused group and learning events with young women and men, as well as culturally relevant vectors of knowledge and elders to generate insights that will foster adaptation and collaborative planning.
- Support and facilitate Program Teams in the formulation of outcomes that are responsive to the transformation intents of program managers and implementers.
Focus on Youth:
- Support and nurture youth voices and enhance their agency to lead transformation in their communities.
- Identify talented youth in various disciplines of the countries covered that have interest and potential capacity for community-based research, story-telling and the ability to assess impacts in a participatory manner.
- Support the engagement of young women and men in serving as “Youth Impact Associates” who may be trained and supported to engage communities in the assessment of impacts.
- Design and help deliver training modules that build the capacity of young women and men to engage with Foundation Partners.
- Engagement with and solicit the support of elders in gathering insights that will shed light on identity, spirituality and sanctity of the indigenous communities as they translate their wisdom in the context of impact.
Who You Are
- Post-graduate degree in Development Studies / Social Sciences / Economics / Statistics or its equivalent.
- Minimum of 10+ years' experience in research, evaluation and learning working with the private and non-profit sectors, particularly in roles relating to national and regional institutions in Nigeria/West Africa/ECOWAS, as well state and non-state actors in the field of Evaluation, Reviews and Impact.
- Strong familiarity and experience leading the development and implementation of M&E policies, nationally including experience in building the capacity of both state and non-state actors to function efficiently in the evaluation sector.
- Technical expertise of quantitative and qualitative research methods and research approaches related to gathering data and insights among indigenous communities, youth and other vulnerable groups, using appropriate cultural lenses and perspectives.
- Experience navigating research protocols, review processes and management of big data with national and regional mandated institutions responsible for collecting, collating and analyzing data to measure and report on impacts.
- Strong public policy experience and understanding of the Governance, Accountability, Data & Knowledge systems, as well as the M&E architecture of Nigeria.
- Excellent project management skills, and a team player who can share information and collaborate effectively across multiple functions and geographies, with both internal and external stakeholders.
- High tolerance for ambiguity and change, and ability to adapt to changing priorities within a fast-paced work environment with a “roll up the sleeves” attitude.
- Ability to travel within Nigeria, West Africa region and internationally, when required in the future.
- Fluent in English. Ability to speak local Nigerian language(s) is highly preferred.
- Possess excellent verbal, written, and presentation skills with the ability to articulate information to a variety of constituents across cultures.
- Possess professional maturity, sensitivity with different cultures, and impeccable integrity that exemplify the Foundation’s values.
- You have a commitment to Mastercard Foundation’s values and vision.
