Senior Programmes Officer - Bilingual

We are hiring to fill a vacancy for the position of Senior Programme Officer (SPO) - Bilingual.

 

To fill this position, we are looking for a highly motivated team leader who is innovative, passionate about women’s rights in Africa, excited about African feminisms, and embraces African women’s diversity to join our team. 

Background of AWDF

As a pan-African feminist fund, the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) resources, strengthens and upholds women’s rights and feminist organisations and movements across Africa, in order to make gender justice a reality for all on our continent and worldwide. 

Over the past 25 years, AWDF has awarded approximately USD 100 million to women’s rights and feminist organisations throughout Africa (and in selected Middle Eastern countries through one of our initiatives). Through its grantmaking, programmatic and advocacy work, AWDF has supported work that led to changes in law and policy, social norms, narrative, and movement-building for gender justice. 

Building on its strong track record, in 2023 AWDF launched Lemlem, a ten-year strategic framework (2023-2033), which guides its efforts to advance gender equality and gender justice for girls, women and gender-diverse people across Africa. At its core, the strategy’s focus is on resourcing, nurturing and strengthening those who are best placed to achieve transformative change: African women’s and feminist groups, organisations and movements. 

Role fit:

Are you experienced in leading the design and implementation of a resourcing strategy for diverse feminist movement actors and organisations?

Are you a dynamic individual with experience in  strategic leadership for a portfolio of feminist actors and initiatives, with abilities to lead grantmaking, partner engagement and accompaniment, learning and knowledge generation, and portfolio management?

Are you ready to join our Resourcing Team to contribute to shaping, implementing, and continuously evolving AWDF’s resourcing approaches to ensure they are feminist, responsive, trust-based, and grounded in the lived realities of partners and feminist movements across the continent, while contributing to organisational and sector-wide thought leadership on feminist resourcing and movement strengthening?
 

Job Summary 

The Senior Programme Officer (SPO) is responsible for leading the design and implementation of AWDF’s resourcing strategy for diverse feminist movement actors and organisations.

The Senior Programme Officer (SPO) provides strategic leadership for a portfolio of feminist actors and initiatives, leading grantmaking, partner engagement and accompaniment, learning and knowledge generation, and portfolio management. The role is responsible for shaping, implementing, and continuously evolving AWDF’s resourcing approaches to ensure they are feminist, responsive, trust-based, and grounded in the lived realities of partners and feminist movements across the continent, while contributing to organisational and sector-wide thought leadership on feminist resourcing and movement strengthening.

The role ensures that AWDF's grantmaking, accompaniment, and partnership approaches:

• Strengthen women's rights organisations and feminist movements through flexible, holistic and longer-term resourcing and accompaniment. 
• Expand AWDF's reach to diverse, emergent, and non-traditional feminist actors across the continent. 
• Advance feminist, decolonised, and trust-based approaches to philanthropy and resourcing. 
• Build movement infrastructure and collective capacities that enable feminist actors to adapt, respond, and thrive in contexts of change and crisis. 
• Remain responsive to the diverse realities, priorities, and aspirations of feminist movements. 
• Are grounded in feminist, intersectional, and movement-centred principles. 
• Are strategically aligned with AWDF's organisational priorities and broader resourcing strategy.

 

Specific Duties 

Strategy Implementation 

• Contribute to the implementation of AWDF’s resourcing strategies and funding priorities for feminist movements, ensuring alignment with the AWDF Strategic Framework. 
• Develop and adapt a strategic, inclusive, and feminist portfolio of partners and initiatives across diverse organisational and movement structures, ensuring responsiveness to evolving movement contexts and priorities. 
• Lead the development and management of a coherent portfolio of partnerships that is trust-based, collaborative, and responsive, and that enables sustained, longer-term accompaniment and support. 
• Pilot and adapt innovative, feminist, and decolonised resourcing approaches, drawing on AWDF’s funding and accompaniment practices to generate evidence, document learning, and share good practices. 
• Conduct contextual, political, and feminist analysis to inform resourcing decisions, portfolio composition and strategic priorities.
• Identify and analyse emerging trends, gaps, risks, and opportunities within feminist and women’s rights organising across Africa to inform strategic decision-making and resourcing approaches.
• Provide strategic leadership and contribute to organisational and sector-wide thought leadership on feminist resourcing, philanthropy, and movement strengthening through critical analysis, learning, innovation, and external engagement. 
• Contribute to organisational change processes related to resourcing approaches, ensuring effective implementation and alignment across teams. 
• Provide oversight and strategic direction for grantmaking processes within the portfolio, ensuring quality, consistency, and alignment with AWDF’s feminist funding principles.

 

Leadership and people development and management 

• Contribute to strategic and operational oversight of the Resourcing work
• Support recruitment, onboarding, performance and succession planning ensuring adherence to AWDF policies.
• Foster a collaborative, accountable, and feminist team culture that reflects the feminist principles and values of AWDF.
• Strengthen staff capacity, autonomy, and professional growth 
• Promote cross-functional collaboration and shared leadership

 

Programme Management 

• Lead the planning, implementation, coordination of a portfolio of feminist actors and initiatives, ensuring alignment with AWDF's strategic priorities and feminist principles. 
• Provide strategic oversight of grantmaking and accompaniment processes within the portfolio, ensuring timely, effective, and high-quality delivery. 
• Lead the assessment and review of grant applications, applying feminist, contextual, political, and organisational analysis to inform funding decisions and recommendations. 
• Provide quality assurance and oversight for grant dockets, funding recommendations, due diligence, and partner engagement processes, ensuring these are feminist, proportional, trust-based, and context-responsive. 
• Oversee grants management processes across the portfolio, including contracting, reporting, partner accompaniment, and portfolio tracking, with a strong emphasis on learning, accountability, and adaptive management. 
• Lead the development and implementation of planning, monitoring, evaluation, learning, and reporting processes related to the portfolio and broader resourcing priorities. 
• Contribute to collaborative learning, reflection, and knowledge exchange across the Resourcing Team, Programmes Department, and partners to strengthen practice and inform continuous improvement. 
• Convene and facilitate dialogue spaces with partners and movement actors to deepen understanding of contextual realities, emerging issues, and structural challenges affecting feminist organising and movement building. 
• Represent AWDF in relevant external platforms, networks, and forums related to feminist funding, philanthropy, and movement strengthening, contributing to organisational visibility and influence.

 

Budget management 

• Develop and provide oversight on portfolio budgets and ensure alignment with strategic priorities 
• Approve expenditures and ensure deliverables are within allocated budget in line with AWDF financial policies 
• Work with the Programme Manager to determine resource requirements for effective delivery 
• Ensure financial accountability and efficiency in resourcing processes 

 

Relationship management

• Support with donor coordination activities (communications, review meetings, consultations) and translate trends and learning about resourcing into appropriate donor communications.
• Coordinate and/or participate in relevant initiatives, working groups and collaborations to exchange knowledge and advance shared goals to influence the donor community.
• Build relationships to understand movement partners contexts to identify priorities to resource and support.
• Establish and nurture relationships with colleagues as an integral element of communication and relationship management.

 

Programme monitoring and applying learning 

• Provide programme and portfolio level monitoring, impact and learning and evaluation support to relevant entities, ensuring diversity and voice and representation.
• Lead on monitoring, evaluation and learning about what we are doing and how our contribution is making a difference, responding to and creating new spaces and opportunities for women-led and feminist activist organisations in Africa?
• Provide quality input into donor proposals and reports, including supporting funded partners to document experiences and outcomes for reporting.
• Coordinate and deliver on internal and external reporting requirements (Board, donor, accountability, project reports etc.).

 

Other 

• The role holder will from time to time be required to carry out any other duties that are within the scope of the job. 

 

The full details of the job description can be found here

 

Essential Knowledge and Experience 

• Ability to apply feminist and social and gender justice principles in development and organizing within the African context.
• Expertise working with and in coalitions, cross-regional engagement, multi-stakeholder interests and dynamics
• Expertise using frameworks like intersectionality, social exclusion analysis
• A team player who is proactive and can take initiative
• Excellent track record in delivering against targets
• Ability to develop strong, long-term external relationships with diverse
• Excellent leadership and people management skills, the ability to motivate and build an effective team and experience of distance management;
• Strong interpersonal skills, high levels of personal integrity and professional credibility and experience of building strong and credible relationships with diverse stakeholders including colleagues, donors and feminist movement actors
• Confidence in communicating the impact of programme results to a wide and expert audience
• Organisation, planning and management skills and the ability to work to tight deadlines
• Strong research, advocacy, capacity building and movement building skills
• Ability to exercise professional judgement and to support and implement difficult decisions
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills and English and French
• Time management, ability to meet deadlines
• Ability to set clear priorities, objectives and work allocations, tracking progress against plans and taking appropriate action to ensure targets are met.
• Ability to facilitate dialogues with different stakeholders
• A high level of proficiency in MS Office and experience working with information management systems/databases, online apps and tools
• Budget planning and monitoring skills
• Work cooperatively with others to overcome conflict and build towards a common goal
• Excellent IT skills and numeric skills
• Excellent written and spoken English. Editing skills, Working knowledge of other languages i.e. French is required.  

 

Qualifications 

• The post requires at least 6 years working experience in participatory and more transformative approaches to feminist philanthropy, grantmaking or movement resourcing.
• Experience working across formal and informal movement entities (i.e. emergent and non-traditional collectives, CBOs, NGOs and/or strategic implementing partners) and/or feminist or women’s rights movements.
• Professional experience around feminist organising, experience of working with African women’s and feminist organisations, an in-depth knowledge of African feminist and women’s rights priorities, approaches, issues and concerns. 
• Preference will be given to applicants with a bachelor’s degree qualification in gender studies or relevant field or related discipline and at least 6 years professional experience in a similar role. 
• AWDF will consider applicants who can demonstrate the necessary competencies through experience. Excellent written and spoken English. Working knowledge of French is required.  

Job Location 

AWDF House, Accra – Ghana or work remotely from any African country where you have the legal right to work from. 

Organisational Competencies: 

All staff members must demonstrate AWDF Core values in all their professional relationships and any interactions that may reflect on AWDF: 

Accountability & Integrity 

Solidarity & Collective care 

Intersectionality & Meaningful Inclusion 

Learning & Adaptability 

Courage & Joy 

Creativity & Curiosity 

 

AWDF has a Zero Tolerance Approach to all forms of corruption which is an offence for which immediate dismissal without benefits will result.

 

Salary Details

• Entry point: USD: 32,493 (anually)  
• Midpoint: USD: 44,690.94 (annually) 
• In practice, we only make offers between the entry point and the midpoint of our salary scale depending on one’s level of experience and competencies

How to Apply: 

Qualified and interested persons should send: 

A cover letter of not more than 2 pages to the Human Resources Manager explaining their interest and excitement in applying for the position to work for AWDF; and highlighting their experience and competencies as they relate to the specific areas of duties indicated in the vacancy to demonstrate a good fit for the role. 

 

A CV of not more than 3 pages outlining their educational qualifications and employment records with key achievements on relevant positions held. 

 

Applications for the vacancy should reach AWDF no later than Friday, 31st July 2026. Due to our limited capacity, only short-listed candidates will be contacted for additional information and interviews.

In line with AWDF’s Mission, qualified African women are encouraged to apply.