Lead, National Engagement, Humanitarian and Resilience Investing

Please Note: This role requires the ability to work on site 3 days per week per company policy.
This role is funded through 15 August 2028 .

The World Economic Forum, committed to improving the state of the world, is the International Organisation for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.

Why we are recruiting

As part of the Centre for Regional and Geopolitical Affairs, the Forum’s International Organisations team manages strategic relations with a broad group of multilateral institutions, engaging their leadership and experts on to the Forum’s platforms to disseminate their message and accelerate impact, and help build effective multistakeholder coalitions in support of their mandates. The Forum’s Humanitarian Agenda seeks to support the transformation of the international humanitarian system, as the scale, duration and complexity of crises urgently require more sustainable humanitarian and development responses.

Within this remit, the team spearheads the Humanitarian and Resilience Investing (HRI) Initiative , launched in 2019 as an approach to unlock impact investing in frontier markets with the goal to measurably benefit and increase the resilience of at-risk and crisis-hit communities. Since inception, it has brought together over 100 partners across sectors to scale market-driven solutions by mobilizing commercial and catalytic capital, and strengthen the ecosystem for impact investment in frontier markets.

The Lead, National Engagement will drive a new effort to set up multisector alliances with the goals to create enabling market conditions and support the mobilization of private capital in selected frontier markets.

Reporting lines and interactions

The position will report to the Head, International Organisations and Humanitarian Agenda, in close consultation with the Project Lead of the Humanitarian and Resilience Investing initiative.

Internally, this person will work closely with colleagues from relevant regional teams and relevant Centres, including those that manage relations with specialised International Organisations and those managing engagement with governments, to ensure smooth and successful collaborations.

Externally, the successful candidate will work in close collaboration with national and subnational governments and institutions, and partnering organisations, as well as a broader engagement with stakeholders across the humanitarian, development, investment, development finance, and philanthropic communities.

Breakdown of main responsibilities

• Project design and stakeholder coordination:

  • Develop a cohesive strategy to build favourable market conditions through multisector cooperation in line with the established HRI framework.

  • Lead the incubation of country alliances in Sub-Saharan Africa in collaboration with partners, including supporting the identification of host organisations, managing sub-contracting processes, and supporting the host organisation in developing a national strategic approach.

  • Provide strategic oversight and support to host organisations, including through the development of a country alliance handbook.

  • Act as the primary contact point with lead Ministries and responsible for building strong relationships with key stakeholders in the selected country.

  • Lead knowledge sharing across host organisations to share experiences and best practices on various topics and activities 

  • Responsible for the delivery of impact reporting across country alliances.  
     

• Fundraising: Identify and lead on regional and national funding opportunities, including through developing fundraising proposals and supporting host organisations to enhance in-country fundraising to sustain and maintain phases of each country alliance after incubation.  
   

• Policy dialogue: Drive supportive advocacy and policy efforts at national and multilateral level.
   

• Events management: Lead the delivery of events, including inaugural meetings for the country alliances, and high-level dialogues at Forum and key national, regional or industry events.
   

• Content curation: Drive thought leadership through the creation of knowledge products such a briefing papers or insight reports informed by learnings from the country alliances.

The successful candidate will be assessed on

• Excellent strategic and systems thinking and program management skills to deliver new multistakeholder collaboration in targeted markets.

• Strong diplomacy and relationship management skills to execute complex and impact-driven national alliances across cultures and in collaboration with partners. 

• Capacity to independently lead on the incubation and scaling of country alliances in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Preferred Requirements and Experience

• Master’s degree in a relevant field (e.g. business, finance, international relations, development economics).

• 7+ years’ relevant professional work experience, such as in the field of program management, sustainable development, market building, private sector development. Previous work experience in Sub-Saharan Africa strongly encouraged.

• Demonstrated experience working within multi-stakeholder processes and public-private partnerships across cultures.

• Proactive, self-starting, with a positive and constructive attitude towards getting things done, with a politically astute mindset. 

• Demonstrated ability to build and manage complex multistakeholder projects with the aim to drive sustainable development outcomes, apply systemic thinking, and interact effectively with leaders to build and deepen trusted relationships.

• Excellent cross-cultural verbal and written communication skills in English; working proficiency in French strongly encouraged.

• Proficiency in MS Office/Excel/PowerPoint and recent digital platforms; knowledge of Salesforce and Zoom a plus.

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Why work at the Forum:

The Forum believes that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to improve the state of the world by building awareness and cooperation, shaping mindsets and agendas, and driving collective action. Join us and become a driver for positive change!