Terms of Reference for the recruitment of

Associate Project Manager, Smart Africa Digital Academy

Position

Associate Project Manager (APM) in charge of Smart Africa Digital Academy

About Smart Africa

Smart Africa is a bold and innovative commitment from African Heads of State and Government and a wide range of stakeholders including the private sector, international non-government organizations, and academia to accelerate sustainable socio-economic development on the continent, ushering Africa into a knowledge economy through affordable access to Broadband and usage of Information and Communications Technologies.

The Smart Africa agenda is led by visionary Heads of State who believe in ICT’s power for the advancement and betterment of the African continent. This agenda will lead Africa to the 04^th industrial revolution, using the transformative power of ICTs through successful implementation and deployment of major ICT infrastructure, applications, services, and creating locally relevant content for Africa while developing a vibrant ICT industry and creating jobs.

Smart Africa aims to put ICT at the Center of the National socioeconomic development agenda of member countries, improve access to ICT, especially Broadband, improve accountability, efficiency, and openness through ICT. It promotes the introduction of advanced technologies in telecommunication while putting the Private Sector first, and leveraging  ICT to promote sustainable development.

About the Smart Africa Digital Academy

Over the past decade, Africa has made great strides in enrolling children in school, with some countries providing free primary education for the first nine years. Despite this achievement, the average Human Capital Index (HCI) falls below the average, with one of the highest being 52 on a scale of 100, education being a major determinant factor.

With a population estimated to approximately 1.3bn people who are majorly youthful, ensuring quality jobs to leverage on the continent’s demographic opportunity is set to be one of Africa’s game-changer. An estimated 15 to 20 million increasingly well-educated young people will join the African workforce every year for the next three decades.

The Smart Africa Digital Academy (SADA) is the delivery vehicle of the Smart Africa capacity building and skills development activities across the various digital skills spectrum. It is a pan-African dynamic learning ecosystem in which African citizens of all ages and social classes can gain or improve their digital skills, gain qualifications, meet the emerging talent needs of employers, industry or be self-reliant.

SADA’s birth was driven by the need to meet a genuine need for sustainable jobs driven by the fact that 15% of the world’s working-age population are expected to be from Africa by 2030. The Smart Africa Member States governments recognize the urgency to drive inclusion and economic growth through the development and adoption of strategies for education and skills development to build this required future workforce.

Digital skills development at all levels – from basic to competency-based – is required to allow the uptake of new technologies in the economy, increase productivity, support growth while avoiding unnecessary disruptions in the labor market and society.

Position Description

The Smart Africa Secretariat would like to recruit an Associate Project manager (APM) in charge of SADA to lead, coordinate and implement the defined activities across Smart Africa Member States while ensuring effective linkages to the Smart Africa core objectives and activities.

More precisely, the APM will define and execute the digital capacity-building strategies and initiatives that provide digital skills capacity building. The initiatives will empower Children, Youth, the General public, and Policymakers with the required skills and knowledge to develop harmonized policies for a successful digital transformation of the continent. These will ensure that citizens remain digitally-skilled and digitally-engaged, and therefore, take a leading role in providing digital skills and digital citizenship development.

The primary duties of the Associate Project Manager will include:

• Preparing an annual national Work Plan for submission to the Head of division.
• Provide Strategic insights and drive the efficient implementation of SADA
• Facilitate the development and implementation of the Digital competency, Digital Skills Assessment, and Digital Content Frameworks for all SADA concept levels.
• Facilitate the development of the SADA platform.
• Support the In-Country Implementation of SADA
• Coordinate the research and mapping of digital skills across the African member states.
• Coordinate the development of training content and annual program for the capacity building activities under SADA.
• Establish and coordinate the communities of practice to share knowledge on policy-related issues related to Digital Transformation initiatives.
• Supervise and implement Smart Africa projects/initiatives activities, providing proposals and plans (including work plans, procurement, consultancies, recruitment, logistics, budgeting, and disbursements).
• Establishing close collaboration, working arrangements, partnerships with Governments, the Private sector, Non-Government organizations, Academia, and other professional associations, to ensure good coordination, collaboration, and timely conduct of Smart Africa activities.
• Liaising with government and other key stakeholders to promote enabling ICT policy and regulatory environment that would facilitate the implementation of initiatives under his/her supervision;
• Following through mobilization of funds /resources from development partners and institutions to complete the financing of the Smart Africa projects, especially those under his/her supervision;
• Providing periodical reports on the progress of project activities and issues arising;
• Participating in regional project meetings and workshops and other activities as required;

Other responsibilities will include:

• Prepare the terms of reference of consultants/institutions that will undertake assignments following the approved annual Work Plan;
• Monitor and supervise the work of consultants, institutions, government staff, and other partners, facilitate meetings and, as far as possible, ensure the timely and responsive delivery of outputs and reports;
• Any other assignments or projects, which will be assigned from time to time by the leadership of Smart Africa;

 Key qualifications

Education:

• A Bachelor’s Degree in Education, Humanities, Information Technology, or a related field with recognized experience of at least 5 years of technical expertise; or
• A Masters’ Degree in Humanities or Education or Human Capital Development
• A Project Management Certification from a recognized International Project Management Certification Body such as the Project Management Institute (PMI) is an added advantage.
• Excellent Knowledge and Fluency in French or English.
• Good working knowledge of another language will be an advantage.

General experience and skills:

• Strong management skills including the ability to provide strategic guidance, technical oversight, build strong teams, mentor staff, develop work plans, and manage budgets and project expenditures;
• Relevant experience in the field of Education and capacity building, fundraising will be an added advantage.
• Good interpersonal skills with experience in networking with partners at all levels (Ministry, development partners, private sector, NGOs, and Academia);
• Experience working in project coordination;
• Demonstrated written, analytical, presentation, reporting, and computing skills and familiarity with modern communication systems (internet, the world wide web, email, etc);
• Demonstrated experience with projects of the same nature would constitute an added advantage;
• Good knowledge of matters related to adult learning frameworks;
• Ability to work in a team;
• Strong competence in the use of standard software productivity tools (such as Microsoft Office Suite or others).

Duration of the assignment

The appointment will be for 12 months subject to a probationary period and performance and extendable (renewable) as necessary to reflect the ultimate completion date of the project as well as the availability of funds.

Reporting

The Associate Project Manager will report to the assigned supervisor in the  Digital Infrastructure Department of the Smart Africa Secretariat.

Location

Kigali, Rwanda

Please send your Curriculum Vitae, cover letter, either French or English to the following email address:[email protected] not later than 11^th January 2021 5:00 pm Kigali time.