Job Description

Job Vacancy: Senior Program Officer

The African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) is a leading Africa-based, African-led, international research institution headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya.

APHRC generates and supports the use of evidence for meaningful action to improve the lives of all Africans through:

• Research that emphasizes health and wellbeing;


• Capacity strengthening that deepens the skills of African researchers, scholars and institutions within the continent; and


• Policy engagement and communication that supports greater influence of evidence in policy – and decision-making across sub-Saharan Africa.

The APHRC seeks to recruit a Senior Program Officer within the Research Capacity Strengthening (RCS) Division, to work on a large scale initiative whose goals are to transform the Research and Development (R&D) ecosystem in Africa through:

1. Designing and running a matching service between universities/research institutes based in all the regions of Africa and funding agencies for R&D.


2. Configuring and running Africa-wide platform-based capacity-building for universities/research institutes based in all of Africa’s regions, to increase their capabilities to do more and perform better on a sustained basis along the spectrum of implementation research.


3. Designing and developing prototypes in selected countries, to link country decision-making systems with national research systems for adoption/scale-up of R&D innovations.


4. Strengthening the African innovation-research ecosystem by developing and deploying connectors – platforms that have cross-cutting benefits to researchers and decision makers.

The overall responsibility of the Senior Program Officer is to support the management of a large-scale capacity strengthening initiative by leading and coordinating specific components of the initiative and supporting the overall Program Manager in the day-to-day running of the initiative.

Responsibilities:

• Coordinate the implementation of specified activities from the overall work plan. This entails reporting and tracking project implementation and expenditure for the assigned activities;


• Participate in specific program activities including desk reviews, in depth analysis, partner mapping and capacity assessments;


• Coordinate submissions of proposals for support by potential grantees in academic/research institutes from all over Africa and organize high quality reviews of the submissions;


• Organize capacity strengthening activities in diverse areas and for diverse participants within the African R&D ecosystem;


• Work with grantees to ensure the execution of assigned research capacity strengthening and evaluation projects to ensure timely implementation of activities;


• Coordinate outreach activities to various stakeholders including funding agencies, academic/research institutes and national/regional/continental policy making bodies;


• Draft technical reports from the various activities;


• Participate in learning forums about the initiative, sharing lessons and findings with appropriate audiences;


• Represent the Center in high- level national and regional forums including relevant technical working groups and expert committees on implementation research and research capacity strengthening;


• Support recruitment efforts for consultants and other program staff;


• Contribute to grant writing and fundraising for the program; and


• Publicize the initiative to relevant audiences.

Qualifications and Experience:

• Master’s degree in a Developmental Research or Public Policy related professional area with a minimum of 7 years’ post-qualification experience.


• Experience managing large scale (multi-year, multi-team, multi-country) projects preferably in research, research capacity strengthening, or policy and advocacy.


• Good understanding of the Higher Education/ R&D/ Policy landscape in sub-Saharan Africa.


• Experience working in a research or academic institution or a policy making body in sub-Saharan Africa.


• Experience conducting implementation research will be an added advantage.


• Excellent written communication and presentation skills.


• Experience in grant writing.


• Excellent interpersonal and organizational skills and ability to work in a culturally diverse team.


• Bilingual language skills (French and English) will be an added advantage.

Interested candidates are encouraged to apply through our recruitment portal https://aphrc.org/vacancies/ by October 07, 2021.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted; shortlisted candidates will be required to have a Police Clearance Certificate.

Cover letters should be addressed to:

The Human Resources Officer
African Population and Health Research Center, Inc
APHRC Campus, Manga Close, off Kirawa Road, Kitisuru
P. O. Box 10787-GPO, Nairobi

Website: www.aphrc.org

APHRC is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to the protection of vulnerable persons.

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