Director, Côte d’Ivoire & Francophone West Africa

Job Description

Are you an Ivorian with the ambition to drive meaningful impact in a senior leadership role? This opportunity could be the perfect fit for you!

Job summary

This is an exciting opportunity for a dynamic, results-driven and politically astute leader. TradeMark Africa (TMA) is a leading aid-for-trade organisation, with a track record in delivering substantive results in driving down the cost and time of trade and enabling companies to benefit from advances. Well established in West Africa, TMA is committed to continue supporting the regional trade programmes developed under the AFCFTA, ECOWAS and UEMOA.

The Côte d’Ivoire-based Director will develop and deliver TMA’s programmes that support selected West African countries and UEMOA. In parallel, s/he will drive TMA’s programme delivery in the French-speaking countries of West Africa while closely coordinating with the other countries and programmes at the corridor level – through developing and implementing TMA’s in-country strategies and trade corridor programmes to generate the required results. S/he will be responsible for liaising with external partners and stakeholders and other major programmes of key development partners, to establish TMA as a significant and respected organisation and programme, in response to the challenges of continental and regional trade. The role involves strategic planning, management, and oversight of TMA’s delivery system to achieve agreed organisational impact objectives. The Côte d’Ivoire-based Director will function with a high degree of autonomy, responsibility, and accountability while reporting on key programme deliverables to TMA’s Senior Director for West Africa.

A strong track record both in delivering strategic results and in new business development, including fundraising, will be critical, as will well-developed trade facilitation, infrastructure and private sector development skills. The job holder will work with other TMA colleagues to develop and sustain a high-performance culture, where TMA delivers results that demonstrate its expertise in trade and regional integration. S/he works with the Senior Director for West Africa and other members of the Senior Leadership & Management Team (SLMT) to ensure strong integration across all functional areas to improve TMA’s effectiveness and to drive a results-focus and institutionalize mechanisms that align people and resources to strategy to enable positive impacts on prosperity for African citizens.

The position holder will need to be fluent in both English and French, at a high standard both verbal and written. The job holder will work from the Côte d’Ivoire office and has a high-performing team under a matrix structure for the programme, while fundraising to continue to grow the regional portfolio with SLMT support.

Roles and responsibilities

Programmedevelopment and delivery (30%)

The postholder will be responsible for effective and timely delivery of existing programming, as well as generation of new areasof work to complement and enhance this, including:

• Proactively develop new business to grow TMA’s portfolio in West Africa, especially in the French-speaking countries and along the corridors. This will include establishing relationships of trust with development partners and clients, horizon scanning for new strategic directions, developing concepts, and dynamically developing programming in order to secure donor investment, with support from TMA teams and SLMT.
• Achieve high impact from current trade facilitation programming in Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Guinea, Togo and Benin, with a focus on ensuring initiatives are strategically coherent and deliver results; implementing crosscutting results and strategies for gender, poverty, safeguards, extractives and climate change; and putting in place data collection mechanisms for evidence-based results management and reporting.
• Drive dynamic delivery of complex programmes in often challenging circumstances, working effectively in a matrix organisation to secure the resources and support required, and focusing teams on efficient working in achieving a comprehensive set of outcomes.
• Ensure highest standards of compliance with donor requirements, and best practice across all aspects of the project cycle, adhering to safeguarding policies and procedures; applying strong controls and embedding a proactive risk management culture; ensuring value for money; providing high calibre financial management as the accounting officer for programme funds; and ensuring value for money in project activities and outputs.

Strategy Delivery and communication (20%)

• Develop and deliver a coherent operational strategy, working effectively with senior management and technical departments to define and agree results with strategic national, regional and international partners, and ensure effective coordination with other development partner work; developing and delivering business and financial planning.
• Contribute actively to broader TMA strategy andcorporate effectiveness, ensuring integration of relevant issues into corporate objectives and approaches, and cross-regional learning.
• Shape and monitor programme communication to achieve corporate and partner visibility commitments; effectively communicating both TMA’s mission and vision, and programme progress and results, to internal and external stakeholders.

Stakeholder engagement and partnership development (25%)

• Lead collaborative and effective engagement with top-level stakeholders, developing strategic (formal and informal) partnerships to enable TMA to achieve its objectives, with national Governments, ECOWAS and UEMOA Secretariats, the international community, the private sector and civil society, liaising and fostering coordination;
• Actively represent and promote TMA’s work and profile and deputise in national and international public events and fora for the Senior Director for West Africa, particularly those related to TMA operations in West Africa and with the AFCFTA; and
• Promote local procurement of all proposed, direct or indirect, TMA sub-contracts and related opportunities in order to develop Africa-based service provider capacity.

Team Management (10%)

• Lead the team to be motivated and effective, providing high-quality performance management and promoting an ethos of empowered accountability in service of a results-driven culture.
• Proactively ensure close coordination and strongintegration between countries of operation in West Africa, and effective working with corporate, technical and other programme teams.

Academic and professional qualifications

• Undergraduate or Master’s degree preferably in Economics, Development Studies, International Trade, Planning, Finance or Management.

Work experience

• Undergraduate degree holders will have at least 12 years’ relevant working experience, and postgraduate degree holders will require at least 10 years’ relevant working experience.
• Minimum of seven years’ experience in leading business units or development programmes, particularly in areas related to TMA’s core focus areas of infrastructure development, trade facilitation and private sector engagement.
• Demonstrable knowledge, skills and experience in programme cycle management and programme delivery, political economy analysis, donor management and fundraising.
• Five years of leadership and management experience of senior level within West Africa or other developing economies are essential for this role.

About the Organization

TradeMark Africa (TMA) is a leading African Aid-for-Trade organisation, founded in 2010 with the mission to grow intra-African trade and increase Africa’s share in global trade, while helping make trade more pro-poor and environmentally sustainable. Our focus on reducing the cost and time of trading across borders through enhanced trade policy, better trade infrastructure, standards that work for businesses, greater use of digital innovations and a focus on creating trade access for vulnerable groups, has contributed to lower cargo transit times, improved border efficiency, and reduced trade barriers. TMA has expanded in recent years to cover 14 countries across East and the Horn of Africa, to Southern and West Africa. TMA operates on a not-for-profit basis and is funded by 12 institutional and philanthropic development partners. TMA works closely with regional and continental organisations, national Governments, the private sector, and civil society organisations to deliver results that drive shared prosperity and reduce poverty.

For more information, please visit www.trademarkafrica.com

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