View Vacancy – Senior Governance Advisor G7 (10 /24 KG)

Main purpose of job:

The British High Commission in Kigali (BHC Kigali) is recruiting a Senior Governance Advisor to support the delivery of its new governance programme, Twiyubakire. Twiyubakire will support more efficient, effective and accountable policy responses and service delivery in Rwanda. Through non-budget support financial aid to Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MINECOFIN), and the Ministry of Local Government (MINALOC), it will strengthen local government systems and build local government capacity, supporting Rwanda’s vision for decentralisation. Additionally, working with both government and non-state actors (including civil society organisations and the private sector), Twiyubakire will strengthen accountability  and open dialogue between the government and non-state actors. 

Twiyubakire has a budget of up £35m and will be delivered over five years (FY 25/26 – FY 29/30). The programme will achieve outcomes through four funding mechanisms: (i) direct financial aid to MINECOFIN and MINALOC; (ii) grant funding to NGOs/CSOs; (iii) a Technical Assistance Facility (TAF); (iv) a Senior Governance Advisor to work closely with the Government of Rwanda. Funded through the Twiyubakire programme, the role holder will directly contribute to Twiyubakire’s theory of change, delivering its outcome: “more efficient, effective and accountable policy responses and service delivery at the local level”, and impact: “accelerated and more inclusive socio-economic development at the district level”. 

The Senior Governance Advisor will be responsible for technical oversight and leadership of the Twiyubakire programme. A key leadership role for the programme, they will set strategic direction, ensure programme coordination across all components, and promote a strong culture of evidence and learning.  The role holder will spend the majority of the time working closely with the Government of Rwanda (MINECOFIN and MINALOC) and the programme’s TAF, with at least one day per week in the Political and Governance Team at the BHC Kigali. The role holder will regularly lead engagement with senior Government of Rwanda counterparts, including at Permanent Secretary level and above, and coordinate across partners. 

They will also work closely with BHC Kigali’s Governance Advisors, PGTs Deputy Team Leader, Programme Manager and the Programme Officer. The DTL provides overall leadership, strategic oversight and direction of the programme, and is responsible for all programme decisions based on information provided by delivery partners and the role holder. BHC’s Governance Advisors leads on the broader governance portfolio in Rwanda (including other FCDO governance programmes), policy influencing and high-level relationships with GoR and DPs, and supporting across other BHC Kigali teams.

Roles and responsibilities

   1. Technical oversight of Twiyubakire and programme coherence (50%)

• Develop a detailed understanding of the operational and technical delivery of Twiyubakire’s components and ensure interventions across implementing partners align closely with the overall programme objectives and log frame.
• Apply governance expertise (expert level) to advise and shape policy issues to be supported through Twiyubakire’s Technical Assistance Facility and civil society sub-grants. Chairing quarterly or six-monthly meetings to select policy issues and set the strategic direction for Twiyubakire’s interventions.
• Lead the coordination and governance mechanisms for Twiyubakire, including convening relevant senior stakeholders (e.g. GoR, development partners, implementing partners, BHC Kigali teams) to set strategic direction and ensure coordination for Twiyubakire’s programme activities.
• Lead continuous stakeholder engagement with senior Government of Rwanda stakeholders, including at Permanent Secretary and Ministerial level to ensure buy-in and ongoing strategic alingment. Ensure wider engagement outside core partner ministries (e.g. Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Information and Communication Technology and Innovation (MINICT), Ministry of Public Service and Labour (MIFOTRA); etc).
• Ensure policy coherence between MINALOC and MINECOFIN and other government partners. Drawing on governance expertise and senior leadership skills to bring together Government of Rwanda stakeholders on cross-cutting policy issues, identifying opportunities to strengthen cross-Government implementation.
• Work closely with the BHC Governance Advisors to prevent policy incoherence with other BHC Kigali teams and promote cross team collaboration and coordination on shared objectives.

   2. Lead Adviser for the Twiyubakire Technical Assistance Facility (30%)

• Lead the TAF, including overseeing the commercial provider to effectively deliver technical assistance, engagement with implementers and Government of Rwanda partners, and setting the future direction of the TAF under Twiyubakire, through chairing quarterly strategy review meetings.
• Provide leadership to the team of technical advisors embedded across MINALOC and MINECOFIN from Twiyubakire’s  TAF. Whilst formal line management would be owned by the commercial provider, the role holder would be expected to provide thought leadership, set strategic direction, and ensure coordination across the technical teams.
• Ensure the TAF responds effectively to requests and proactively identify opportunities for it to strengthen delivery of Twiyubakire’s components, including identifying evidence and research gaps and working with TAF to deliver this.
• Oversee TAF stakeholder engagement, policy influencing and analytical planning.

 3. Monitoring evaluation, learning and analysis of Twiyubakire (20%)

• Support (during mobilisation) the development of M&E processes for Twiyubakire and provide leadership (during implementation) to deliver the results framework for the programme, using technical expertise to identify opportunities to strengthen outputs and programme outcomes.
• Review annual and quartery workplans and progress reports to ensure alingment with Twiyubakire objectives and Governance and Decentralisaiton and Public Financial Management Sector Strategic Plans, working closely with BHC Kigali Programme Managers and Governance Advisors.
• Quality assurance of data collected from MINALOC and MINECOFFIN and ensure update of data, analysis and learning provided by Twiyubakire by Government stakeholders.
• Provide advice to MINALOC on how to address any specifci risks identified by the Fudiciary Risk Assessment.
• Apply advanced academic and technical skills to deliver 1-2 pieces of comprehensive analysis and high-quality stakeholder engagement plans for the FCDO each year to inform Twiyubakire’s delivery. Working closely with BHC Governance Advisers, the TAF implementing partner, and civil society, the analysis could be sectoral, issue based or on wider governance issues.
• Pro-actively engage with the FCDO Governance cadre, ensuring learning and lessons from Twiyubakire are reflected in FCDO’s central governance policy and analytical outputs; engage in regular Governance cadre learning and participate in key events
• Ensure lessons from Twiyubakire are fed back into the programme, using expertise to advise BHC Kigali, Twiyubakire’s implementing partners and GoR stakeholders and embed learning into programme delivery.

• 5 years experience on working on complex governance policy issues and donor-funded programmes
• 2 – 3 years experience in engaging with senior government officials (PS, Ministers)
• Experience conducting complex Political Economy and similar analysis
• Experience managing complex, and large-scale development programmes
• BA or MA degree in public policy, governance or a similar subject