Sustaining Defenders: Programme Assistant Economic, Environmental & Climate Justice At Urgent Action Fund-Africa

Organisational profile

Urgent Action Fund-Africa (UAF-Africa) is a feminist, pan-African Rapid Response Fund committed to transforming power relations through resourcing African feminists and womn human rights defenders and their formations as an act of solidarity. Recognizing the need to move resources rapidly on a continent where opportunities and threats arise and decline quickly, UAF-Africa uses a Rapid Response Grantmaking mechanism to support unanticipated, time-sensitive, innovative, and unique initiatives that promote womn’s agency in peace and political participation, social and economic power building as well as natural resources governance and stewardship. The Fund works to support African Womn Human Rights Defenders (AWHRDs), particularly in the feminist and womn’s rights movements, in their actions, which enable them to support and sustain themselves, each other, and their work before, during, and after urgent situations.

UAF-Africa mobilises resources from a broad base of international and increasingly local funders committed to protecting and advancing womn’s rights and feminist agendas in Africa. Our primary purpose is to provide funding to AWHRDs and their groups, organisations and the movements to help them prepare for and navigate urgent situations with appropriate actions.

UAF-Africa is registered in Kenya and Zimbabwe. Operating as a virtual organisation, the Fund boasts of strategic physical presence in East Africa: Nairobi, Kenya, Kampala, Uganda; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, North Africa: Cairo, Egypt; Southern Africa: Harare, Zimbabwe, Lilongwe & Blantyre, Malawi, Johannesburg, Pretoria & Cape Town, South Africa, Antananarivo, Madagascar and West Africa: Abuja, Nigeria, Parakou & Cotonou, Benin, Douala & Yaounde, Cameroon, Lome, Togo.

Position Overview

The Sustaining Defenders Programme Assistant assists in the timely financial and technical response to interventions and needs of womn’s rights activists and organizations with the aim of advancing womn’s human rights and social justice on the African continent. This includes support in the awarding of grants to African womn human rights defenders and their formations while maintaining relations with Grantees and Advisors.

Specific Responsibilities.

• Act as the initial interface with grantees and provide prompt and suitable communication with the applicants.
• Review of grant requests, prepare checklists for the grantmaking team to review and follow through the grantmaking process up to the point of issuing the grant notification letter and awarding grants.
• Correspondence with finance on funds disbursement to grantees.
• Correspondence with grantees, advisors and fiscal sponsors.
• Seeking opinions and working with formal/informal advisors and endorsers on grant proposals.
• Data entry of Sustaining Defenders: Economic, Environmental & Climate Justice inquiries, requests and grants on the grantmaking database, salesforce etc.
• Conducting and reporting on due diligence research of potential grantees and requests under review.
• Completion and filing of grant related paperwork.
• Assisting with documenting activity reports when required.
• Preparing country related context trends and analysis on Sustaining AWHRDs, Economic Justice and Environmental & Climate Justice.
• Assist with planning and implementing outreach missions and other UAF-Africa networking or programmatic activities as assigned.
• Performing any other duties as may be assigned by the direct supervisor.

Qualifications

Bachelor’s Degree in Development Studies, International Relations, Social Science, Gender Studies or related fields of study.

Skills and Experience

• Minimum of 2-3 years relevant experience for degree holders and (2) years relevant experience for diploma holders.
• Demonstrate high levels of integrity and confidentiality
• Excellent interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills in English. French is a plus.
• Strong Organizational, planning and administrative skills.
• Understanding of the Feminist and women’s human rights issues on the African continent required.
• Good attention to detail and ability to work with minimal supervision.
• Good time management skills and ability to produce quality work with minimal supervision.
• Teamwork and ability to work in diverse teams

Role Specific

• Able to coordinate tasks
• Creativeness
• Translation.
• Ability to organise oneself and complete assignments on time.
• Understanding of the Feminist and women’s human rights sector required.
• An understanding of gender equality and womn’s rights issues, particularly in Africa.
• Demonstrated understanding of a feminist political analysis and familiar with feminist movement building.
• Passionate about UAF-Africa’s mission, committed to teamwork, and achieving results
• Ability to perform detailed work, frequently and/or to handle a large volume of work systematically, optimally, and accurately.
• Able to identify project needs, develop a detailed timeline for completion, oversee schedules, and milestone management.
• Ability to organise, categorise, and synthesize information from a range of datasets existent within and outside the Fund.
• Ability to contribute on a team and coordinate assignments to achieve common goals.
• Excellent interpersonal, public speaking, writing, and negotiation skills.
• Flexibility and willingness to travel on the African continent and beyond as and when required.
• Experience working in a virtual work environment is an added advantage.

Work Environment

UAF-Africa is an equal-opportunity employer and does not discriminate in its hiring practices. UAF-Africa actively seeks a diverse applicant pool to build the most robust possible workforce. The Fund is committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. The position will be based in Kampala, Uganda.