Head of Innovation Hub, Limited Fixed Term (LFT), P4, Regional Bureau for Eastern Africa (RBN)

BACKGROUND:

As conflict, climate change and price inflation drive up the number of hungry people in Eastern Africa, finding innovative solutions to the complex humanitarian & development challenges in the region is essential, now perhaps more than ever. WFP Regional Bureau for Eastern Africa has recently launched the IGNITE WFP Innovation Hub for Eastern Africa to disrupt hunger in the region (Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda) . Its main goals are to a) upscale & support local innovation ecosystems to strengthen local food systems, b) support WFP country offices to test new products and innovations and c) facilitate best practices & knowledge sharing.

Based in Nairobi, the WFP Innovation Hub for Eastern Africa identifies, supports and scales high potential solutions to hunger worldwide. It supports entrepreneurs (could be WFP innovators or external startups, NGOs, companies) to take their innovations to the next level – either getting ideas to the first proof of concept or already implemented solutions to the next scale-up. Supported innovative projects can access seed funding, hands-on support by our Innovation Advisors and partners as well as gain access to WFP's operations in Eastern Africa countries and globally through different acceleration and incubation programmes. The most promising innovations that can help us to get closer to a world without hunger are supported in scaling further.

Launched in December 2020, the WFP Innovation Hub for Eastern Africa is supported by USAID and the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other partners with more than $5M in seed funding. The Hub ran a flagship program from East African student innovators, launched three food systems accelerator programs in Uganda, South Sudan, and Rwanda and is supporting the implementation of the Milken-Motsepe Prize in AgriTech. With additional funding secured, the Hub is planning to launch new innovation programmes in the region (e.g. a climate-focused acceleration programme), build more services and products to support WFP teams in their quest to build the WFP of tomorrow and implement its newly-developed theory of change and impact framework.

PURPOSE AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

The incumbent, reporting to the RBN Head of Partnerships, will lead the development and growth of the WFP Innovation Hub for Eastern Africa by leveraging WFP brand, public and private partners, deep field access and expertise to develop, nurture and scale sustainable innovations to increase food security in Eastern Africa. The incumbent will be in-charge of iterating the current strategy to deepen the impact of the hub on food systems across the region. She/he will ensure innovation coordination and innovation knowledge management across the region, source innovations, provide technical advice to internal and external innovation projects in country offices and across the regional bureau, develop new programmes and secure adequate funding, as well as support the scale up of innovations through partnerships management. The incumbent will be working closely with all relevant functional units across the wider organization, CARE Denmark and external stakeholders within the Eastern Africa external innovation ecosystems.

Responsibilities will include:

1. Lead and grow the RBN Innovation Hub Team:

• Manage a growing team of 6+ professionals.
• Recruit and grow the team with the right talents and diversity.
• Define the right team structure for the Hub with clear roles and responsibilities.
• Lead performance feedback and development sessions with team members.
• Ensure that each team member has clear quarterly deliverables & KPIs and performs at the highest level to deliver upon their defined workplans.

1. Further define and operationalize the strategy of the Innovation Hub to scale its operations and impact:

• Lead consultations (donors, partners, WFP teams and local innovation ecosystems) to better understand needs of local innovation ecosystems as well as market failures & opportunities overlapping with WFP positioning and key priorities.
• Iterate the vision of the Hub as learn from current activities and respond to programmatic needs across country offices.
• Prioritize and co-design future innovation activities to maximize the impact of the Hub.
• Develop partnerships with corporations, innovation entities, NGOs and development agencies to increase offerings to entrepreneurs.
• Work with the Evaluation team to identify potential partners who can strengthen the Hub’s MEL approach to better qualify and quantify the impact of the Hub and its portfolio, particularly at the systems level
• Attend and engage in relevant conferences, ecosystem gatherings, industry association meetings, and speaking engagements for sourcing, branding, thought leadership and learning opportunities.

1. Building processes to ensure scalability and documentation of our programmatic activities:

• Design and build the Regional Innovation Hub processes and capabilities in line with Regional strategic priorities with a strong coordination with WFP Legal and Finance teams.
• Leveraging the work of the Munich Innovation Accelerator, the UNIN network and CARE Denmark, develop innovation capacity across country offices by spreading access to and advice on use of innovation methodologies, (such as human centered design, lean start up etc) and innovation process from ideation, sourcing, sprinting and scaling.
• Support in building the UN Regional Innovation Network to share best practices and create a space for innovation related discussion.
• Support resource mobilization and seed funding efforts, ensuring these opportunities are made known and country offices have the support they need to pursue these funds.

1. Scaling up portfolio projects, MSMEs and start-ups to maximize their impact:

• Further test the assumption that WFP can build momentum for private investment in innovations and foster market development: test mechanisms for supporting post-program fundraising efforts and explore financing partnership structures.
• Grow the Innovation Hub brand with local innovation entities (innovation centers, incubators, accelerators, etc.) and develop a robust sourcing process to ensure the creation of an impactful pipeline of entrepreneurs.
• Design and implement the review, selection and due diligence process to select the most promising innovations to attend the acceleration programmes organized by the Hub.
• Leverage an existing entrepreneurial network in the region to provide an alumni support structure for the innovations in the Hub’s portfolio.
• Grow a network of global experts, mentors and partners to support the Hub’s portfolio.
• Leverage the existing work of the Munich Innovation Accelerator in scaling portfolio businesses that show breakthrough potential; develop processes for dropping innovations that aren’t performing.

DELIVERABLES:

• A high performing team that is delivering independently upon set workstreams.
• Innovation challenges launched on time and in full.
• New strategic partnerships in the pipeline for measuring systems-level impact.
• Recommendations on achieving portfolio growth and generating measurable impact.
• Successful country office buy-in and understanding of innovation.
• New pipeline of funding mapped out to execute new projects.
• Annual strategy and theory of change review based on lessons learnt across collective programming.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

Education: Advanced university degree in business, innovation, design, technology or First university degree with additional years of related work experience and/or trainings/courses.

Experience:

• At least eight years of progressive responsible national or international experience in a startup, innovations function in private businesses or innovations in the humanitarian or international development sector.
• Solid experience working in a large-scale humanitarian or development organisation and in the startup or innovation world.
• Proven track record managing and growing teams

Knowledge & Skills:

• Passion and deep understanding of innovation
• Startup experience or intrapreneurial qualities; worked or led cross-functionally and get things done in a scrappy and hands-on way
• Proven track driving projects – effectively delivering impactful elements of projects in fast-moving environment, ideally for new businesses, new business models, startups
• Able to generate new and original solutions to complex problems and to design new products ideas
• Strong conceptual thinking to develop new strategies & innovative projects
• Able to interact with a broad range of stakeholders and external audience with maturity and tact
• Excellent communication/presentation skills, with the ability to write strategy documents, to develop business plans and to write and deliver presentations
• Collaborative spirit, able to partner with a wide range of people at all levels and across different cultures and to act with credibility and diplomacy
• Self-motivated and able to work with a high degree of autonomy
• Sets high-level of ambition for the project and own work to achieve impact for the hungry people we serve
• Fully committed and motivated to achieve the aims of the UN World Food Programme
• Able to hire and grow a team of professionals

Languages: Fluency in oral and written English mandatory. An intermediate knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish) or Portuguese (one of WFP’s working languages) is desirable.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS:

• This position is required for 2 years with a possibility of extension subject to the operational needs and availability of funding.
• A limited Fixed-Term Appointment (LFT) position is a non-mobile staff appointment in the international professional category for a limited period, to a max of 4 years.
• WFP offers an attractive compensation and benefits package in line with ICSC standards (https://icsc.un.org) including basic salary, post adjustment, relocation entitlement, visa, travel and shipment allowances, 30 days’ annual leave, home leave, an education grant for dependent children, a pension plan, and medical insurance.
• The position is based in Regional Bureau of Nairobi, Kenya and the selected candidate will be expected to relocate.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS:

This vacancy announcement will close on 18th November 2022 @ 11:59 PM EAT

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