Deputy Country Director - Francophone West Africa

IPA seeks a Deputy Country Director (DCD) based in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, to support the Francophone West Africa (FWA) country program.

As a member of the IPA Francophone West Africa management team, the Deputy Country Director will work closely with the Country Director to provide strategic direction, research oversight, and capacity building to a team of about 50 full-time local and international staff. The DCD will have a strong focus on operations and financial management for the FWA office, represent IPA in Burkina Faso, and provide oversight to a portfolio of impact evaluations that are expected to span across multiple sectors over time: health, agriculture, financial inclusion, peace and security and enterprise development. He/she will contribute to IPA’s continued expansion by initiating new partnerships and projects in the country and will support the dissemination of results to local practitioners and policy makers.

This position provides a unique opportunity to gain high-level management experience in a large country program, and to be closely involved in policy-relevant research, working with top academics, donors, governments, and other practitioners to foster evidence based-policy making.

Responsibilities

Guide and provide oversight to the operations and financial management in FWA

• Provide oversight to the Operations and Finance functions of IPA FWA.
• Supervise the Operations team, in charge of human resources, procurement, legal compliance, office management and other operational support in the Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Mali offices.
• Supervise the Administrative and Finance Officer, in charge of accounting, financial projections, advances and payments, and ensuring overall compliance with financial procedures.
• Ensure proper compliance with financial procedures, approve expenditures, make accurate financial projections and ensure overall compliance.
• With guidance from IPA global teams, strengthen finance and operations systems to ensure these are compliant with global IPA policies and with donor requirements.
• Take steps to mitigate risk and to safeguard the organization’s reputation.
• Oversee safety and security.
• Ensure IPA Francophone West Africa complies with all legal and statutory requirements.

Ensure high-quality research projects in Burkina Faso

• Manage a team composed of Research Managers/Coordinators whose responsibilities include project design, management of data collection, data management, and analysis, and writing of research reports, all in close collaboration with the Principal Investigators.
• Ensure that IPA research is implemented according to IPA’s quality standards and Principal Investigators’ direction.
• Lead with transitions, on-boarding/off-boarding of new Research Managers/Coordinators staff, and maintaining institutional memory of project activities.
• Promote inter-project best practices and take the lead in sharing best practices with projects through formal and informal training for staff.
• Work to incorporate best practices and lessons learned in research and data quality by other IPA offices and research affiliates.
• Build systems and structures to build staff capacity and ensure overall data quality.

Contribute to IPA’s continued expansion by supporting new partnerships and projects in Burkina Faso and other Francophone West African countries

• Share leadership of business development with the Country Director to grow the two country offices and identify new research and policy project opportunities.
• Oversee project design and budgeting during the proposal stage to ensure evaluations meet IPA standards.
• Develop new and manage existing relationships with IPA partner organizations and Principal investigators to enhance the relevance of IPA’s research.
• Lead a portfolio of project development efforts with researchers, funders, and partner organizations.

Serve as day-to-day high-level contact for government officials and other partners in Burkina Faso

• Maintain and develop positive relationships with key government officials and other partners based in Burkina Faso.
• Coordinate communication with the Country Director and the Head of Policy and RFE to keep them abreast of government initiatives, interactions, and other relevant happenings.
• Identify opportunities to deepen relationships with government or develop new ones through presentations at key forums for sharing project results or examples of evidence co-creation.
• Act as IPA’s in-place legal representative.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in international affairs, international public policy, development economics, project management or field related to social science and economics research or international development
• A minimum of 5 years of relevant work experience
• Demonstrated experience with financial and operations management
• Experience managing large teams
• Experience fundraising and managing funds from multiple donors preferred
• Excellent project management skills
• Excellent organizational and multitasking skills, self-motivating, ability to work under pressure and to prioritize effectively
• Commitment to leading a diverse team and building staff capacity
• Passion for connecting rigorous impact evaluation research to policy makers and practitioners and communicating what works in development;
• Understanding of randomized controlled trials is a plus.
• Excellent French and English communication and presentation skills
• Ability to communicate effectively across cultures with multiple stakeholders including international and local academic researchers, government officials, NGO partners, enumeration teams, and study participants
• Experience living and working in Francophone West Africa
• High emotional intelligence, self-knowledge, flexible, and a team player