Region: Southern Africa

Office: Harare, Zimbabwe

Hours: 37.5

Application deadline: July 23, 2024

Hivos is seeking qualified candidates for the position of Knowledge Management & Learning Officer (KLMO) for the Urban Futures Program.

Job context

Hivos is an international non-governmental organization that seeks new solutions to persistent global issues. With smart projects in the right places, Hivos opposes discrimination, inequality, abuse of power, and the unsustainable use of our planet’s resources. Hivos seeks to contribute to both a counterbalance in power and structural change. Thus, Hivos cooperates with innovative and progressive citizens, businesses, civil society organizations, and governments to foster sustainable economies and inclusive societies.

Hivos, a global fund and program manager, leads the Urban Futures (UF) Program. This program empowers local partners and youth to build inclusive, climate-resilient urban food systems. The UF program has a global management team that leads the knowledge management and linking and learning programming and supports the work of three regions: Southern Africa (SAF), Latin America, and Indonesia, each with a regional team.

UF works with local partners in 10 intermediary cities across Southern Africa, Latin America, and Indonesia. Each regional team is composed of a Regional Coordinator, a Linking and Learning officer, Communications officers (in Indonesia and Latin America), a project assistant, and a financial officer.

Role purpose

The purpose of the role is to support the UF Program in the development, and implementation of information and knowledge management strategies and systems aligned with Hivos processes, donor guidelines and relevant platforms and existing tools. The KMLO will further work closely with the global management team to ensure program-wide alignment and best practices. The KMLO will liaise and support their regional counterparts (Indonesia and Latin America) to ensure vital cross-learning and strategic and coherent communications across the program. The KMLO prioritizes fostering active participation and knowledge exchange among program partners. This collaborative approach aims to generate continuous program improvement, leading to successful project implementation and lasting impact.

Knowledge Management and Linking and Learning strategies aim to improve organizational learning and effectiveness, a knowledge management strategy focuses on the internal processes of handling knowledge, whereas a linking and learning strategy emphasizes the importance of external relationships and shared learning experiences. For Hivos, both strategies work in synergy and are consolidated as the Linking and Learning strategy.

The Linking and Learning Strategy

The Linking and Learning Strategy (LLS) is essential to the Urban Futures (UF) Program, fostering knowledge sharing, collaboration, and learning among Hivos staff, partners, and stakeholders. It builds on Hivos’ Knowledge and Learning strategy, addressing assumptions and risks identified in each city’s Theory of Change (ToC) and localized ToC Workshops and City Strategies. The LLS incorporates new technological and data-driven trends to create a dynamic learning environment.

The LLS encompasses activities and processes designed to:

• Boost collaboration between partners, rightsholder groups (especially youth), Hivos teams (global and regional), Global Partners (Humanis, RUAF), and Fondation Botnar.
• Enable knowledge exchange through online communities, forums, and Hivos’s dedicated knowledge document base.
• Facilitate learning exchanges in a Community of Practice (CoP) between partners from different regions to share best practices and diverse approaches.
• Spark innovation with a potential fund embedded within partner plans to support novel linking and learning initiatives.
• Promote collective intelligence by leveraging the network’s expertise, boosting the idea that UF is a global project.
• Contribute to lobby and advocacy at various levels.

Key Responsibilities

• Development and Implementation
  • Support LLS Development and Implementation: Collaborate with the global management team, program partners, and Regional Coordinators to co-create a robust Linking and Learning framework.
  • Conduct Needs Assessment: Work with relevant staff and program partners to conduct a comprehensive needs assessment, identifying and analyzing L&L needs across the program.
  • Foster Knowledge Exchange: Oversee the development of the LLS, ensuring alignment with M&E and communication plans, and propose diverse L&L activities. Guide the Community of Practice (CoP) initiatives
  • Document Best Practices: Identify and document best practices and lessons learned, making them accessible for future use.
  • Manage Knowledge Strategy: Support the global and regional knowledge management strategy and project, identifying new areas for knowledge management support.
• Facilitation and Knowledge Management:
  • Develop Knowledge-Sharing Platforms: Implement platforms for resource sharing and discussions among partners, contributing to program visibility.
  • Facilitate Learning Exchanges: Enable learning exchanges between program partners at various levels, ensuring documentation for M&E and communication purposes.
  • Manage Knowledge Base: Establish a comprehensive knowledge base with curated resources for all program partners.
• Develop Innovation Funds:
  • Explore and potentially develop innovation funds to support L&L initiatives proposed by partners.
• Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL):
  • Implement MEL Plan: Support the MEL plan implementation in the SAF Urban Futures Program.
  • Track and Document Activities: Meticulously document L&L activities and their outcomes, ensuring alignment with M&E frameworks.
• Reporting:
  • Prepare comprehensive reports on activities and progress for internal and external stakeholders.
• Communication and Collaboration:
  • Maintain Clear Communication: Ensure consistent communication with program partners regarding activities, updates, and connections to the LLS, M&E, and communication strategies.
• Build Relationships:
  • Foster a collaborative environment with partners, contributing to effective program communication. Advocacy
• Support Advocacy Efforts:
  • Assist local and regional partners in developing lobby and advocacy capacity and activities with the UFSGL and regional L&L officers.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in a relevant field such as knowledge management, development studies, international cooperation or agriculture.
• A minimum of 3 years of relevant experience in knowledge management or a similar role supporting development programs and projects that use knowledge management techniques.
• Demonstrated experience in monitoring and evaluating project implementation processes.
• Proven track record of designing and implementing Linking and Learning strategies for complex development programs.
• Demonstrated understanding of knowledge management principles and capacity to deliver knowledge management and/or organizational learning activities
• Strong grasp of adult learning principles and expertise in facilitating participatory approaches.
• Solid ability to identify, collect, analyze and synthesize knowledge from a variety of sources and disseminate it in a form desired for easy utilization by staff and stakeholders;
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and collaboration skills with the ability to build trust and rapport with diverse stakeholders.
• Experience working in Southern Africa and a solid understanding of the region’s social, cultural, and development context is highly desirable.
• Demonstrated capacity to interact with various stakeholders and facilitate linkages within an organization.
• Fluency in English and another Southern African language is a strong asset.
• Occasional travel within the Southern Africa region, as well as to other UF countries when necessary

What we offer

Hivos offers a challenging position in an international environment.

The Regional office is based in Harare, Zimbabwe. This position will be based in Harare, Zimbabwe. Hivos welcomes International & Regional applicants but can only offer a position to only those with a valid work permit for Zimbabwe. Hivos can only offer employment on local terms and conditions.