Associate Project Manager, SADA “Youth, Entrepreneurs, and SMEs” at Smart Africa Secretariat: (Deadline 11 December 2022)

Associate Project Manager, SADA “Youth, Entrepreneurs, and SMEs” at Smart Africa Secretariat: (Deadline 11 December 2022)

Terms of Reference Recruitment Associate Project Manager, SADA “Youth, Entrepreneurs, and SMEs”

• Position: Associate Project Manager, SADA “Youth, Entrepreneurs, and SMEs”
• Duration: One (1) year, renewable
• Location: Kigali, Rwanda
• Deadline: December 11th,2022 at 11:00 PM Kigali time (GMT+2)

1. About Smart Africa

The Smart Africa Alliance is a partnership among African countries adhering to the Smart Africa Manifesto (herein after referred to as “the Manifesto”), the African Union (AU Commission, AUDA, specialized institutions and Regional Economic Communities), the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the African Development Bank (AfDB), the World Bank, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the Private Sector, Academic and Research Institutions.

The Smart Africa Alliance (or Smart Africa) is a bold and innovative commitment from African Heads of State and Government to accelerate sustainable socio-economic development on the continent, ushering Africa into a knowledge economy through the usage of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT).

On 30th-31st January 2014, the Smart Africa Manifesto was endorsed by all Heads of State and Government of the African Union at the 22nd Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union in Addis Ababa. This development places the Manifesto at the heart of the ICT agenda in Africa beyond just the 7 original signatories at the Summit to all African countries. The Smart Africa Alliance has since grown to include 32 African countries that represent 815+ million people.

The Smart Africa Manifesto aims to put ICT at the center of the continental and national socio-economic development of Member States. This means increasing access to ICT solutions, improving accountability, efficiency, and openness through ICT, promoting the introduction of advanced technologies in telecommunication, strengthening the private sector, leveraging ICT to promote sustainable development.

The Smart Africa Alliance as an organization is the framework for implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the Manifesto, designed to make it actionable. The Smart Africa Alliance is not a profit-oriented organization.

2. Smart Africa Digital Academy (SADA)

Over the past decade, Africa has made great strides in enrolling children in school, with some countries providing free primary education for the first nine years. Despite this achievement, the average Human Capital Index (HCI) falls below the average, with one of the highest being 52 on a scale of 1001, education being a major determinant factor. With a population estimated to approximately 1.3bn people who are majorly youthful, ensuring quality jobs to leverage on the continent’s demographic opportunity is set to be one of Africa’s game-changer. An estimated 15 to 20 million increasingly well-educated young people will join the African workforce every year for the next three decades.2

The Smart Africa Digital Academy (SADA) is the delivery vehicle of the Smart Africa capacity building and skills development activities across the various digital skills spectrum. It is a pan-African dynamic learning ecosystem in which African citizens of all ages and social classes can gain or improve their digital skills, gain qualifications, meet the emerging talent needs of employers, industry or be self-reliant.

The birth of SADA was driven by the need to meet a genuine need of sustainable jobs driven by the fact that 15% of the world’s working-age population are expected to be from Africa by 2030. The governments of the Smart Africa Member States recognize the urgency to drive inclusion and economic growth through the development and adoption of strategies for education and skills development to build this required future workforce. Digital skills development at all levels – from basic to competency-based – is required to allow the uptake of new technologies in the economy, increase productivity, support growth while avoiding unnecessary disruptions in the labor market and society.

The Smart Africa Digital Academy has grown significantly since its inception in 2020.  After the successful programs for Policy Makers and the launches and implementation of the National Digital Academies in Rwanda, Ghana, Republic of Congo, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire and more, SADA is now starting its module on SADA for Youth and Entrepreneurs.

3. SADA for Youth and Entrepreneurs 

Africa’s future requires a strong focus on our youth. According to the World Economic Forum, by 2030, some 230 million jobs across the continent will require some level of digital skills. This is in addition to the huge increase in the number of young people on the continent and indeed globally. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of young Africans were forced out of work, and new jobs became more “tech-enabled”, with some level of digital fluency required to pursue them. All young people need to learn new skills to rejoin the workforce prepared for technical enabled roles that will be in even greater demand going forward.

The goal of the SADA for youth and Entrepreneurs project is to create the enabling environment for our youth to thrive within the digital technology ecosystem of Africa. This will be achieved by providing capacity building on general digital skills, competency based digital technology skills, entrepreneurial skills towards the creation of opportunities for youth employment and sustainable jobs.

4. Duties and Responsibilities  

The Smart Africa Secretariat would like to recruit an Associate Project Manager for the ‘SADA – Youth and Entrepreneurs’ module to lead, coordinate and implement the defined activities relating to the digital skills for Youth and Entrepreneurs modules in selected Smart Africa Member Countries while ensuring effective linkages to the Smart Africa core objectives and activities.

The Associate Project Manager will define and execute the digital skills for youth and entrepreneurs’ capacity building strategies and initiatives. The initiative will empower youth and entrepreneurs with the required ICT literacy skills and knowledge to live, learn, work, innovate and thrive in a digital society to ensure digital inclusion and economic growth and to foster employability in the Smart Africa member states.

Responsibilities include: 

• Identify capacity building needs related to youth and entrepreneurs’ module.
• Prepare an annual work plan for submission to the Project Manager in charge of SADA.
• Provide strategic insights and drive the efficient implementation of SADA for youth and entrepreneurs.
• Facilitate the development and implementation of the SADA for youth and entrepreneurs’ programs.
• Provide input on the development of training modules based on the identified needs
• Implement and coordinate with the countries a system to monitor and support the recruitment and nomination of trainees for the various training programmes across all member states to ensure adequate representation and coverage.
• Support in mobilization of funds / resources from development partners and institutions to finance the SADA for youth and entrepreneurs’ module
• Oversee the trainings undertaken by contracted consulting firms across the continent to ensure effective implementation of the program
• Supervise and implement SADA for youth and entrepreneurs’ initiatives and activities, provide proposals, and plans (including work plans, procurement, consultancies, recruitments, logistics, budgeting, and disbursements)
• Provide technical inputs to address identified gaps and bottlenecks.
• Support in Monitoring and Evaluation of the SADA for youth and entrepreneurs’ module implementation
• Establish close collaboration and partnerships with Governments, the Private sector, non-Government organisations, Academia, and other professional associations, to ensure good coordination, collaboration, and timely conduct of SADA’s implementation activities.
• Facilitate the monthly review of SADA for youth and entrepreneurs’ implementation activities.
• Document routine progress, success, and the implementation process
• Provide analytical learnings from the implementation to ease scale-up of activities
• Provide periodical reports (monthly, quarterly, annual, etc.) on the progress of project activities and issues arising
• Participate in regional project meetings and workshops and other activities as required

 Other responsibilities will include:

• Prepare the terms of reference of consultants / institutions that will undertake assignments following the approved annual workplan
• Monitor and supervise the work of consultants, institutions, government staff, and other partners, facilitate meetings and, as far as possible, ensure the timely and responsive delivery of outputs and reports
• Any other assignments or projects, which will be assigned from time to time by the leadership of Smart Africa

5. Key qualifications

Education:

• A Bachelor’s Degree in Education, Youth, Humanities, ICT, Information Management, Engineering, Information Technology, Business Administration, or a related field. A Masters’ Degree in above fields will be an added advantage.
• A Project Management Certification from a recognized International Project Management Certification Body such as the Project Management Institute (PMI) is an added advantage

Professional Experience:

• Recognised work experience of at least 7 years areas of skills and capacity development with hands-on experience in training program development
• Previous work in Innovation Hubs with experience in youth and entrepreneurs related training and capacity building programs is desirable
• Management experience including the ability to provide strategic guidance, technical oversight, build strong teams, mentor staff, develop work plans, and manage budgets and project expenditures.
• Relevant experience fundraising will be an added advantage.
• Proven experience in project management practices with the ability to provide inputs in a team build-up, work plans development, budgets, and expenditures.
• Good interpersonal skills with experience in networking with partners at all levels (Ministry, development partners, private sector, NGOs, and Academia
• Experience working in project coordination.
• Experience in results-based management, project monitoring, reporting, and evaluation

General attributes and skills:

• Demonstrated written, analytical, presentation, reporting, and computing skills and familiarity with modern communication systems (internet, the world wide web, email, etc);
• Demonstrated experience with projects of the same nature would constitute an added advantage.
• Ability to work in a team.
• Strong competence in the use of standard software productivity tools (such as Microsoft Office Suite or others).
• High degree of flexibility, to work independently and on multiple projects simultaneously.
• Good interpersonal skills with experience in networking with partners at all levels (Government Ministries, development partners, private sector, NGOs and Academia);

Languages:

• Fluency in French or English., a good working knowledge of the other language will be an added advantage.

6. Duration of the assignment

The appointment will be one (1) year renewable subject to relevance of the position, availability of fund and performance.

7. Duty Station

The position will be based in Kigali, Rwanda.

8. Reporting requirements

The Associate Project Manager will report to the Project Manager in Charge of the Smart Africa Digital Academy (SADA) under the Digital Infrastructure, skills, and empowerment department.

9. Application Instructions and Deadline

Candidates should send the following documents to the following email address: hr@smartafrica.org, with mention of Associate Project Manager, SADA “Youth, Entrepreneurs, and SMEs” in the subject line:

• A detailed CV with 3 contacts of professional referees.
• A one-page cover letter with a motivation statement in relation to the responsibilities and requirements for this position.
• Copies of academic degree, professional certificates, and other relevant training certificates

The deadline for submitting applications is December 11th,2022 at 11:00 PM Kigali time (GMT+2).

Only selected candidates for interview will be contacted.

Any late application will be automatically rejected.