The Foundation

We are the largest nonprofit fighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world. Founded on a simple premise: people everywhere, regardless of identity or circumstances, should have the chance to live healthy, productive lives. We believe our employees should reflect the rich diversity of the global populations we aim to serve. We provide an exceptional benefits package to employees and their families which include comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with no premiums, generous paid time off, paid family leave, foundation-paid retirement contribution, regional holidays, and opportunities to engage in several employee communities. As a workplace, we’re committed to creating an environment for you to thrive both personally and professionally.

The Team

The West and Central Africa team, as part of the larger Africa team, is dedicated to achieving the foundation’s goals of saving and improving lives for all through evidence-based interventions and innovations in partnership with governments and partners across West and Central Africa. This team operates through direct engagement with countries, regional and multilateral institutions, grantees, partners, and communities to deploy solutions and develop sustainable partnerships that can scale high-impact innovations and models across the region.

Application deadline: February 14th, 2025.

The Associate Program Officer, West and Central Africa (APO WCA) will play a crucial role in supporting the West and Central Africa regional team through a variety of activities organized into several key areas:

• Conducting technical research and analyses on geopolitical economies, national fiscal space and funding trends for priority countries in WCA to support high-impact investment decisions and equitable designs and execution of programs.
• Executing the implementation of priority policy and advocacy initiatives in WCA in collaboration with the Global Policy and Advocacy (GPA) team.
• Maintaining effective relationships management with governments, philanthropic and public-private partners to optimize impact of the Programs Strategy Teams and the Africa Team Strategy.
• Ensuring an effective rhythm of business and efficient operations that optimizes impact of the Gates Foundation’s voice, investments, and talents and leadership.

The APO will work very closely with other members of the West and Central Africa Team, as well as the Advocacy leads for Health and Global Growth and Opportunity in Africa. Additionally, the APO may be tasked with special projects on behalf of the Africa Leadership Team, such as leading employee groups, implementing process improvements in program operations or in issues management strategies and operations.

This role reports to the Deputy Director, Regional Representative for West and Central Africa.

What You’ll Do

Research and Political Economy Analysis

• Design and/or co-manage grants and contracts for research analysis, intelligence and strategic learning agendas.
• Quality-assure and translate intelligence and research outputs into strategic and actionable insights, concepts, and practical steps for co-creation of issues management with grantees and partners.
• Support execution of decisions from country and regional working groups and implementation of change management and communications plans with grantees, governments, and partners.

Global Policy and Advocacy Support

• Support the execution and translation of Gates Foundation’s priority advocacy for global development goals and scale-up of high-impact innovations in priority countries in WCA.
• Support the development of investment cases, impact evaluations, and learning agendas for West and Central Africa with high-quality data and intentional inclusion of Gender and Equity.
• Support the nurturing and deployment of champions and influencers from West Africa and in the diaspora to influence and set the global development agenda to advance priorities in WCA in alignment with governments and communities’ priorities.

Government and Partners Relationship Management and Engagements

• Develop innovative relationship and knowledge management systems for governments, philanthropic, public-private partnerships, and South-South learning visits.
• Support effective leadership visits and engagements through the development of high-quality briefs, country profiles and data fact sheets.
• Develop agenda and execution of quarterly and annual partners’ meetings; funders’ coordinating meetings, and monitor and evaluate effectiveness of different platforms for partners’ engagements.

Effective Rhythm of Business and Efficient Operations

• Develop, validate and implement an annual Rhythm of Business with clear-value propositions for cost-savings and enhancement of Gates Foundation’s values and culture.
• Develop innovative digital and AI supported approaches for improving productivity in research analyses, policy advocacy and governments and partners engagement.
• Co-lead and co-execute with the Human Resources partners team building initiatives, DEI working groups and other initiatives to improve efficiency of the WCA operations.

Your Experience

• A minimum of 3 years of relevant experience in international development, public health management or the private sector is preferred.
• MBA, MPH, MPA, MA or equivalent degree in a relevant field is desirable.
• Prior experience in supporting research and analysis to inform the design of development programs in the foundation’s programmatic areas preferred.
• Experience working in or living in more than one West and Central African country and fluency in French and English is a plus.
• Strong research and analysis skills, including experience working with analytical models
• Demonstrated ability to convey complex information using supporting tables, graphs and other visual representations.
• Ability to synthesize data and evidence to elicit and communicate implications for program design.
• Strong relevant work experience in roles for developing, implementing, and managing projects/programs.
• Ability to work with a wide range of internal and external partners to incorporate new information.
• Must possess strong oral and written communication skills to represent leadership and staff of the Africa regional team effectively and accurately, as needed, to a variety of audiences as well as draft and proof-read written documents.
• Innovative and open-minded approach to all aspects of work.
• Demonstrated proficiency using Microsoft Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint is required.
• Experience in learning and mastering new software applications.

Other Attributes

• A strong teammate who can work independently, with excellent relationship management skills to handle confidential information and situations with flexibility and diplomacy, fostering trust within the team.
• Comfortable working in diverse cultural, geographic, and operational settings, showing culturally sensitive behavior with a wide range of people.
• Ability to travel up to 25% of the time.

*Must be able to legally work in the country where this position is located without visa sponsorship.

Hiring Requirements

As part of our standard hiring process for new employees, employment will be contingent upon successful completion of a background check.

Candidate Accommodations

If you require assistance due to a disability in the application or recruitment process, please submit a request here.

Inclusion Statement

We are dedicated to the belief that all lives have equal value. We strive for a global and cultural workplace that supports ever greater diversity, equity, and inclusion — of voices, ideas, and approaches — and we support this diversity through all our employment practices.

All applicants and employees who are drawn to serve our mission will enjoy equality of opportunity and fair treatment without regard to race, color, age, religion, pregnancy, sex, sexual orientation, disability, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, and prior protected activity.

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: No requirements