Knowledge and Learning Manager, Ghana

Location: Bolgatanga, Ghana with some regional travel required

Contract Length: 1 year, renewable

Commitment: Full time, 37.5 hours/week

Compensation: 7,323 GHS/month

Start Date: November 2022

About Youth Challenge International (YCI)

YCI is a leading global youth development organization that promotes youth innovation to drive positive change. Together with our partners we create market ready solutions that catapult youth around the world to succeed and prosper; we are driven by youth and their potential to affect positive change in the world. Our solutions are focused – always keeping the young people we are designing for and with at the center of the conversation. Our approach is rooted in creativity and constantly evolving to respond to changing needs and market realities. YCI is an organization where diversity and talent come together to shape a better future for youth around the world.

HerStart: Innovate the Future

HerStart: Innovate the Future is an initiative developed by Youth Challenge International to foster and create innovative solutions for a more equitable and prosperous economy within Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda.

The program includes training and support for aspiring entrepreneurs in social enterprise, gender responsive business planning, the measurement of social impact, and access to finance. Canadian volunteers will be engaged in providing human capital support for activities through on-site placements and capacity building initiatives with partner organizations. Additionally, an entrepreneurial ecosystem will be catalyzed to identify and reduce gendered barriers, which will foster more enabling environments for young female entrepreneurs. This funding mechanism will also provide programmatic support for organizations to more effectively deliver gender-responsive activities that drive sustainable business ventures.

Position Summary:

Reporting to the Project Lead, the Knowledge and Learning Manager will play a leadership role in the implementation of HerStart: Innovate the Future’s Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) system in Northern Ghana to ensure that relevant program knowledge will be gathered, shared and actioned upon through a dynamic knowledge management system. The Knowledge and Learning Manager will use learning strategies and informational, organizational, and technical skills to implement and continually enhance systems for tracking and managing knowledge – both to improve operations and outputs in Ghana, as well as enhance program effectiveness globally.

We are seeking a passionate, skilled, and creative candidate to deliver exceptional results. We are looking for people to join our team who believe in youth as powerful agents of change and are passionate about contributing to women’s empowerment through the advancement of both national and global gender equality agendas.

Please note that the YCI country office is based in Tamale, Ghana with a satellite office in Bolgatanga, where this position will be primarily based. This position will require some regional travel.

Responsibilities include:

• Strategy and Project Management: Support the Project Lead in strategy, planning and overall management support of the HerStart Project in Ghana including supporting ongoing strategic development and planning with teams and partners, work planning in collaboration with teams and partners, implementation planning and team collaboration; Provide leadership and management oversight of Canadian volunteers placed in Bolgatanga.
• Knowledge Management: Lead the adaptation and implementation of the overall HerStart: Innovate the Future MEAL strategy at the country level in close collaboration with YCI Headquarters staff and key project stakeholders (such as volunteers, sub-contractors and partners); Ensure rigorous data quality control through proactive, participatory monitoring approaches; Contribute to the development of the knowledge management system, including supporting the design of context appropriate tools, resources and activities to capture both qualitative and quantitative data; Drive the effective management of project reporting at the country level, including the collection of project results and performance reports, and other briefings, summaries and presentations for various audiences as needed; Ensure that knowledge about the project’s achievements is well documented and shared with the appropriate stakeholders.
• Learning Management: Identify, document and share best practice, lessons learned and trends in the youth and women’s livelihoods sector to ensure program relevance and effectiveness; Coordinate the consolidation of evidence and learning from program evaluations to identify best practices and lesson learned across the YCI network; Collaborate with YCI volunteers, partners and stakeholders to strengthen the integration of program learnings across all facets of program delivery; Inform HerStart communications initiatives with high level summaries, stories and consolidated data.
• Technical Support: Ensure sufficient onboarding of relevant staff and volunteers on the efficient use of MEAL systems and provide ongoing coaching/support; Provide technical assistance, training and ongoing support to partners on the efficient use of the YCI project monitoring and reporting system and application of findings; Establish and maintain positive, collaborative and productive relationships with project staff, partners and sector stakeholders, providing technical support as needed.

Skills and Experience:

You are a self-starter with 5+ years of progressively responsible leadership experience in participatory knowledge management systems with a successful track record in designing, managing, implementing and monitoring MEAL strategies and systems for program tracking and improvement; you are passionate about investing in women and youth livelihoods and inspired by the possibilities of innovation and entrepreneurship ; you are talented at designing user-friendly data collection tools, conducting high quality qualitative and quantitative data analysis, and writing summary reports and presentations; ; you have a proven ability to manage and provide training and support on MEAL processes to relevant project stakeholders; you demonstrate an integrated understanding of the principles of gender equality and the empowerment of girls, including a familiarity with the socio-economic profile of young women in Northern Ghana you are an effective communicator with excellent written and verbal English proficiency and you are a permanent resident or a Citizen of Ghana.

Prevention of Sexual Abuse and Exploitation YCI recognizes the unequal power dynamics inherent in international development work and our responsibility to protect the human rights of the communities we serve and provide an environment free of sexual exploitation and abuse. Youth Challenge International (YCI) commits to a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA).

How to apply

Link to application can be found here. Please submit your Cover Letter and CV as a single PDF document, maximum 4 pages, saved in the following format: “First Name Last Name_ KLM Ghana”.

Deadline to apply is 11:59 EST on October 16th, 2022, however applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, so we encourage early submissions.

Youth Challenge International provides equal employment opportunities regardless of gender, race, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, or marital status. As such, we encourage groups who have been historically disadvantaged with respect to employment to apply for positions at Youth Challenge International.