Summary
Date Posted: Thursday, February 27, 2020 , Base Salary: Not Disclosed

JOB DETAILS:
The AAS is a pan African organisation headquartered in Kenya, which aims to drive sustainable development in Africa through science technology and innovation. it has a tripartite mandate of pursuing excellence by recognising scholars and achievers; providing advisory and think tank functions for shaping the continent’s strategies and policies; and implementing key science, technology and innovation programmes. The AAS utilises its membership pool which consists of a community of scientists to engage with governments and policy makers on the continent.
Organisation Overview
The African Academy of Sciences (AAS) is a non-aligned, non-political, not-for-profit Pan-African organization headquartered in Nairobi, with a hosting agreement with the government of Kenya. The AAS’s vision is to see transformed lives on the African continent through science. It is the only continental Academy in Africa enjoying the support and recognition of the African Union, and with joint programmes with NEPAD Agency, now the African Union Development Agency (AUDA), as well as several governments and major international partners. It has a tripartite mandate: to recognize excellence through its highly prestigious fellowship and award schemes; to provide advisory and think tank functions for shaping the continent’s Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) strategies and policies; and to implement key STI programmes aimed at addressing Africa’s developmental challenges
Job Purpose
The Developing Excellence in Leadership, Training and Science (DELTAS Africa) is a 10-year (2015-2025) programme of The AAS being implemented under AESA. This is with the support of Wellcome and other funding partners to train and develop world-class researchers and research leaders in Africa. The vision of DELTAS Africa is to support the Africa-led development of a critical mass of world-class researchers and research leaders in Africa. This new generation of scientists and research leaders will play a major part in shaping and driving a locally relevant research agenda in Africa, contributing to improved sustainable development on the continent. To achieve its vision, DELTAS Africa funds programmes that address four broad strategic areas: scientific quality, research training, scientific citizenship, and research management and environment. These strategic areas are recognised as necessary for strengthening, sustaining, attracting and retaining excellence in research. The first five years of DELTAS Africa from 2015 to 2020 have focused largely on biomedical and health research on the continent. While significant progress has been made in this area, the AAS has taken a strategic decision to include the social sciences and humanities as a new component of the DELTAS Africa programme during its second phase from 2020 to 2025 and beyond, with the intention of improving social science and humanities research leadership capacity on the continent to be more responsive to Africa’s persistent and emerging sustainable development challenges. It is expected that DELTAS Africa II will continue to support a large portfolio of networks that will be implementing various projects in health research, biomedical, biosciences and related transdisciplinary sciences. The incumbent will also be expected to work closely with the Senior Programme Officer (Social Sciences and Humanities) to ensure the overall aims of the DELTAS Africa Initiative are effectively and efficiently met.
Position Overview
The overall aim of the Senior Programme Officer (Social Sciences and Humanities) is to support the delivery of a vibrant social sciences and humanities research leadership capacity development programme on the continent. In the short term, this will be delivered as a component of the DELTAS Africa programme, promoting excellence in social science and humanities research leadership capacity on the continent based on the DELTAS Africa model or a variant thereof, and in the long term contributing to its development as an independent flagship programme of The AAS.
ID: AAS/SPOSS/20/001 .

Key Responsibilities
1. Define and deliver the benefits of the Social Sciences and Humanities component of the DELTAS Africa programme in time, within budget and at the required quality, including:
• Planning and budgeting;
• Leading in effective technical and financial management to ensure VFM throughout the programme cycle, including: using evidence to enhance program learning and development, seeking out and implementing solutions which achieve a good mix of quality and effectiveness for the least outlay, financial tracking of spend against budget, accurate forecasting, asset management, timely payment of invoices/claims, and timely submission of financial reports and Annual Audited Statements where required, in line with grant and donor requirements.
• Ensuring that technical outputs throughout the program cycle including reports are of high quality and respond to donor guidelines and requirements
• Promoting and marketing, this may include social media, website page management and/or article writing, working in collaboration with The AAS Communications team;
• Support in identifying, tracking and mitigating programme management risks and issues;
• Identification of experts for peer review and selection panels;
• Planning and delivery of large-scale events, potentially including events in other countries on the continent
• Monitoring and evaluation of scheme outcomes and impacts, and communicating outcomes and learnings to key stakeholders
• Preparing consolidated technical and financial reports from grantees. This involves reviewing reporting templates, liaising with grantees M&E teams during reporting periods to support their reporting needs, consolidating the reports for internal use and for sharing with relevant funders; and data mining from reports to prepare outcomes and impact reports
• Liaising and managing relationships with key stakeholders (other AAS funding and delivery partners, relevant steering groups, partners throughout the continent, Fellows of the Academy and grant beneficiaries);
• Financial tracking of spend against budget;
• Management of scheme activities and awards;
2. Assist in the provision of secretariat support to relevant steering groups.
3. Assist in utilising the outputs, networks and relationships created through the DELTAS Africa programme to further the Academy’s strategic objectives.
4. Contribute, as required, to the development of evidence-based positions on research and innovation policy issues linked to the scheme.
5. Contribute to the establishment of systems to enable the Academy to maintain and derive value from contact with past beneficiaries or alumni, and to manage these relationships where appropriate.
6. Contribute to the effective use of administrative resources across the AESA platform, including by providing colleagues with clear and timely information about requirements for administrative support.

Competencies
• Excellent presentation and public speaking skills
• Ability to interact with and to manage multiple stakeholders with diverse interests
• Proficiency in standard
• Possess well-developed interpersonal skills and ability to network and communicate across different levels of the organisation and with external partners;
• Able to perform work independently with minimal supervision, but also participate as a team member;
• Possess strong attention to detail and maintaining a timely and efficient workflow;
• Have strong planning, organisational skills and ability to work under pressure;
• Ability to multi-task and to prioritise work amidst competing demands;
• Have unquestionable integrity, confidentiality and respect.
• Project/Programme management skills (essential)
• Risk management
• Financial management and financial governance
• People management/team working

Qualifications and Requirements
• A PhD degree in a relevant Social Science/Humanities research field obtained over the past 10 years with proven research leadership qualities and experience of carrying out key research work for priority social science and humanities agendas.
• A proven record of research capabilities in social science/humanities research as demonstrated by peer-reviewed publications and other quality outputs.
• At least 3 years’ experience working in research/research leadership capacity development programme design and implementation on the African continent
• Knowledge of funding/how research is funded/grants or research management
• A professional qualification and relevant experience in large scale programme/project management or training in research administration, ethics, leadership or related will be an added advantage

Job Education Requirements: Not Specified

Job Experience Requirements: Not Specified

Work Hours: 8

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Job application procedure
All applicants must submit a filled application form here, curriculum vitae, and a cover letter submitted by email to recruitment@aasciences.africa , with the Position and Vacancy Number as the Subject no later than March 4 2020. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

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