Vacancy 

for 

Advisor and Liaison Officer on 

Digital Development in the Smart Africa Secretariat Kigali

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is a federally owned international cooperation enterprise for sustainable development with worldwide operations. GIZ has worked in Rwanda for over 30 years. The primary objectives between the Government of Rwanda and the Federal Republic of Germany are poverty reduction and promotion of sustainable development. To achieve these objectives, GIZ Rwanda is active in the sectors of Decentralization and Good Governance, Economic Development and Employment Promotion, Energy and ICT (Information and Communications Technology).

GIZ Rwanda is looking for a professional to facilitate collaboration and project implementation between Global Programme Digital Development and Smart Africa Secretariat as regional platform fostering digital transformation in Africa. In particular, this role will consist of connecting partners and supporting the coordination of the two projects (1) AU-EU Digital for Development (D4D) Hub as well as (2) Smart Africa Digital Academy (SADA) with the aim of developing large-scale and effective partnerships in digital transformation between multiple stakeholders in Africa and Europe.

Both projects focus on fully harnessing the potentials of digital transformation for the African economy and society, while minimizing risks such as reinforcing the digital divide. For this, both projects collaborate with like-minded partners in Africa and Europe with the aim of joining forces to take up digital challenges and exploit untapped digital opportunities. The AU-EU D4D Hub project focuses on facilitating AU-EU digital cooperation and partnerships by strengthening technical capacities, sharing best practices and facilitating policy exchanges. The Smart Africa Digital Academy has a focus on providing training and opportunities for peer exchange to policymakers, business leaders and future professionals on policies and regulations in the area of digital transformation.

Location: Kigali

Fixed Term: 12 months (renewable upon review)

Position: One (1)

Responsibilities

The Advisor and Liaison Officer is responsible for:

• Facilitation of collaboration and project implementation between Global Programme Digital Development and Smart Africa Secretariat as regional platform fostering digital transformation in Africa.
• Connecting the partners and supporting the coordination of the two projects (1) AU-EU Digital for Development (D4D) Hub as well as (2) Smart Africa Digital Academy (SADA) with the aim of developing large-scale and effective partnerships in digital transformation between multiple stakeholders in Africa and Europe.

Tasks

The Advisor and Liaison Officer performs the following tasks: 

• Contribute to the identification of thematic areas that African partner countries are interested to discuss or learn from each other on regional, pan-African and AU-EU level
• Inform and advise Smart Africa and their network on the services, expertise and activities offered by the AU-EU D4D Hub as well as on opportunities for scaling and linking SADA activities through new digital partnerships
• Make significant contributions to scaling up of good practices and proven concepts for digital transformation on regional, pan-African and global level
• Report regularly to the two project teams and Smart Africa counterparts on any relevant new activities, trends and developments arising in Africa and Europe as well as from key partner countries (new strategies, regional/pan-African projects, relevant activities of ongoing initiatives and events, etc.) with the aim of detecting synergies and supporting potential alignment of activities for enhanced impact.
• Contribute to the two projects’ communication and visibility initiatives, as well as monitoring, learning and evaluation activities by contributing to website and social media feeds, reports, factsheets, presentations, annual progress reports, etc.

with a special focus on the AU-EU D4D Hub:

• Strongly contribute to fostering political dialogue on digital transformation between European and African decision-makers, private sector and civil society.
• Together with the project team, organizing regional, pan-African and transcontinental dialogues by contributing to the drafting of terms of reference, the design of events, the consultations with relevant stakeholders, the drafting of agendas, the identification of participants, the involvement of relevant actors from Smart Africa.
• Engage African stakeholders from the public and private sector, civil society organisations, academia in the AU-EU D4D Hub activities. This concerns mainly the identification of relevant African counterparts for project activities, supporting stakeholder management and facilitating engagement in the D4D Hub Advisory Groups.

with a special focus on SADA project:

• Collaborate with Smart Africa Secretariat to further develop and implement SADA in cooperation with partners from the digital ecosystem, such as digital ministries and regulatory authorities, development partners (such as World Bank, BMZ, ITU and GSMA) and also private sector and civil society.
• Actively engage the GIZ Digital Transformation Centers across Africa for a smoother collaboration with SADA incountry implementation initiative.
• Make significant contributions to the coordination of the SADA implementation in selected countries leveraging on existing GIZ’s projects and facilities in those countries.
• Provide stimuli for SADA’s strategy and operation through knowledge of initiatives of other key stakeholders, also by aligning with their implementation strategies.
• Foster synergies for cooperation with SADA on digital transformation facilitated through the D4D Hub project and its “Team Europe” partners, raise awareness and connect with key stakeholders to promote the work and the impact of SADA.

Required Qualifications, Competences and Experience 

Qualifications and Professional experience 

• University degree or professional qualification (Master level equivalent) on digital development (or other related fields such as social or political sciences, economics, social work, education, media, ICT, engineering or similar)
• Good understanding of the digital development topics in the context of Africa and the stakes of the digital partnership between the AU and the EU,
• Several years of professional experience in the area of digital transformation, on a policy and/or strategic level, will be an asset
• Proven track-record of advisory services to African stakeholders and policy makers preferably in the field of digital transformation
• High aptitude for cooperation management and process design such as stakeholder management, conceptualization of dialogue formats, etc.
• Several years of international experience in Africa, ideally on pan-African levels and experience in working in intercultural contexts will be considered as assets
• Highly developed teamwork and networking skills, combined with the talent to think conceptually and analytically and the ability to utilize agile methods for implementation
• Structured work style with a high degree of self-organization, flexibility and creativity
• High proficiency in English, French will be an asset