Remote position - Home-Based Location, based in Africa or Latin America
About WIEGO
Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) is a global network focused on securing livelihoods for the working poor, especially women, in the informal economy. We believe all workers should have equal economic opportunities and rights. WIEGO creates change by building capacity among organizations of workers in informal employment, expanding the knowledge base about the informal economy, and influencing local, national and international policies.
The Focal Cities Team
WIEGO’s Focal City initiative supports informal worker organizations to secure more inclusive laws and regulations, improved urban services and a voice in urban planning and policy-making processes. WIEGO has four Focal Cities sites: in Accra, Ghana; Dakar, Senegal; Mexico City, Mexico and Lima, Peru.
The Focal Cities team sits within the Urban Policies Programme (UPP), and the Focal Cities Coordinator will report to the UPP Programme Director. A key function of the role will be to work with the UPP Programme Director to facilitate learning on urban issues between Focal Cities and UPP teams, and with the larger WIEGO network.
The Position
The purpose of the Focal Cities Coordinator contract is to provide global oversight to WIEGO’s Focal Cities initiative, and to provide direct support to Focal Cities teams, in Accra, Mexico City and Lima. In addition, the Coordinator will be involved in providing advisory support to WIEGO’s local work in Dakar, Senegal. The broad aims of the role are to:
- Ensure local teams have the institutional support and information that they need to feel secure and empowered in their work with MBOs and local partners, and ensure that this local work is aligned with WIEGO’s policies and objectives;
- Facilitate a culture of learning and exchange within the Focal Cities team, within “WIEGO Urban” (combined Focal Cities and Urban Policies Programme teams) and between Focal Cities and programmes;
- Represent Focal Cities in internal and external forums to share Focal Cities experiences, strategy and niche in consultation with the team;
- Complete administrative requirements for Focal Cities including donor reporting, internal reporting, budget management and contract administration, among others.
Responsibilities
Support to local teams, project administration and representation:
- Advise and troubleshoot with FC teams on an ongoing basis on activities, strategy, plans, spending, relationships with local partners, managing workload and other issues as needed.
- Guide the Focal Cities team to adopt and apply organizational strategic priorities and processes.
- Work with each local team to track activities against the annual operational plan and budget and provide support making adjustments where needed.
- Act as Focal City budget holder to approve project cost expenditures and invoices for FC team members.
- Editing and advisory support to local teams on writing projects.
- Oversee the development and administration of local consultants’ TORs.
- Providing fundraising support to local teams as needed.
- Monitor progress against plans and lead internal and external reporting for Focal Cities.
- Represent Focal Cities in meetings with WIEGO leadership, and other relevant WIEGO governance spaces.
Facilitate a culture of effective internal communication, learning and exchange:
- Develop and lead annual learning plans, developed jointly with UPP
- Facilitate internal communications and synergies between FC teams and the larger WIEGO team, including reporting directly to UPP on Focal Cities work.
- Coordinate with the Communications team to continue refining a functional operational model for harmonizing global and local communications priorities and requests.
Documentation and dissemination of urban content:
An ongoing goal of the WIEGO Urban team is to document and package cases of good practice of inclusion of informal workers in cities, and learnings about urban governance and planning more broadly, in a way that is useful and actionable for the global network, especially international networks of informal workers such as StreetNet International. WIEGO Urban approaches this work in a way that is not extractive or burdensome for local teams. The Coordinator will be responsible for supporting the WIEGO Urban team in this effort. The particular form this takes depends in part on the skill set of the consultant - it could include academic writing, or packaging into worker education materials or materials for use by practitioners, for example.
About You
To be successful for this position you will need the following:
Required Experience and Qualifications:
- Demonstrated leadership experience with a commitment to co-creative approaches.
- Minimum of five years of experience in people management.
- Proven skills in project administration, including budgeting, monitoring learning and evaluation, grant administration, donor reporting, and strategic planning.
- In-depth familiarity with the informal economy, including relevant policies, debates, and statistics.
- Knowledge of urban planning and related issues, including climate mitigation and adaptation at an urban scale and urban governance.
- Familiarity with grassroots movements and advocacy work.
- Previous experience working with or supporting initiatives related to workers in the informal economy.
- Masters degree in a relevant field (such as urban planning, sociology, political science, or international relations) or demonstration of equivalent experience.
Skills and Competencies:
- Demonstrated commitment to a collaborative, team-oriented leadership approach.
- Ability to foster a culture of mutual support, reflective practice, and exchange within a diverse team.
- Capability to facilitate internal communications and synergies between Focal Cities teams and the larger WIEGO team.
- Strong writing skills with the ability to synthesize complex, detailed information across different lines of work.
- Fluent in English and conversational skills in Spanish and / or French is preferred
- Strong time management skills
- Ability to work effectively in a multicultural and virtual environment (ideally across more than one language), respecting and valuing diverse perspectives and experiences
- A demonstrated commitment to labour rights and social justice.
What we offer
The self-employed consultancy contract is offered on an initial 3-month trial basis (5 days per week, flexible hours) extendable to two years subject to satisfactory performance and thereafter renewable on a two-year basis.
Pay is in US Dollars and is dependent on experience, location and the role profile as defined by WIEGO's Remuneration Policy. This will be discussed with the successful candidate.
The post-holder will work from home and therefore you will need access to your own computer equipment and a strong Internet connection.
Next Steps
To apply for this position, please submit a resume, a writing sample (in English) and cover letter explaining your motivation and how you fulfil the above requirements to recruit@wiego.org by the closing date of 31 January 2024 (11:59 pm UTC/GMT).