Associate Director, Programme Effectiveness

Note: The deadline for submitting applications is on 13th Oct 2025.

POSITION SUMMARY:

Reporting to the Senior Director, Programs, the Associate Director, Programme Effectiveness will provide visionary and purposeful leadership to enhance the impact, quality, and learning of Habitat for Humanity’s programs across the African region through the adoption of robust Country Strategy Plans fully aligned to Africa Strategy framework and Global 50/50 Strategy. This role will lead the integration of strategic program design, technical excellence, and evidence-based practice into all programmatic work, ensuring that initiatives are not only effective but also scalable and sustainable. Additionally, he/she will oversee and strengthen Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) systems to ensure robust evidence generation, adaptive management, and informed decision-making at all levels. This includes guiding the collection, analysis, and application of reliable data to drive continuous improvement, maximize impact, and meet donor accountability standards.

The Associate Director works with country offices, global teams, and partners to ensure Habitat’s programs in Africa are relevant, inclusive, effective, and aligned with global standards. Balancing strategic vision with hands-on support, the role focuses on capacity building, coaching, and fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and evidence-based practice to strengthen program quality and position the Africa portfolio as a leader in housing and settlement programming.

1. Strategy, Planning and Reporting.

• Lead the development and updating of regional and country program strategies, ensuring alignment with Habitat for Humanity’s global priorities and regional context.
• Guide strategic planning processes, annual plans, and progress reviews to ensure measurable impact and timely, high-quality reporting.
• Integrate cross-cutting priorities such as climate resilience, gender equity, disability inclusion, and housing ecosystem strengthening into all programmatic work, ensuring that all strategies are at least gender sensitive.
• Foster organization-wide ownership of strategic plans through clear communication and regular engagement across teams.
• Drive change management initiatives to strengthen program quality, innovation, and achieve strategic objectives.

2. Program Design & Development.

• Provide technical leadership in supporting AO and NO colleagues to access global technical standards and apply them to their contexts, particularly in the areas of:

1. Housing designs, standards and guidelines (drawing on the global Habitability Guidelines)
2. Basic Services related standards for WASH and energy (drawing on the global Basic Services Guidelines),
3. Pro-poor and fit-for-purpose land tenure systems,
4. Affordable housing finance products and services in partnership with TCIS
5. Disaster resilience and recovery programs that are responsive to community needs (drawing on Standard Operating Procedures that are being updated by the global Housing Disaster Resilience and Recovery team).

• Promote People Centered Development (PCD) in program designs models to meet the needs of vulnerable groups, including informal settlement dwellers, displaced communities, and people with disabilities.
• Oversee the development of high-quality, evidence-based proposals, ensuring robust needs assessments, community participation, and integration of MEAL plans in constant collaboration with partnerships and sustainability AO program function. Ensure all program/project proposals are at least gender sensitive.
• Engage partners during program design to strengthen gender equity, disability inclusion, conflict sensitivity, and climate adaptation components.
• Ensure budgets are realistic and aligned to program delivery requirements.
• Work closely with resource development teams for donor engagement and strategic positioning.

3. Program Quality and Technical Excellence.

• Develop and support the implementation of a regional program quality assurance framework with clear performance standards.
• Conduct regular program reviews, field visits, and evaluations to ensure accountability to donors, partners, and communities.
• Monitor Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and lead corrective actions to achieve or exceed targets.
• Promote cross-sectoral integration and innovation across country programs.
• Support country offices in risk management, safeguarding, and compliance with donor and organizational requirements.
• Monitor and provide technical support to Country Support Plans.
• Facilitate knowledge sharing of proven approaches and technical solutions across the region.

4. Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) & Knowledge Management.

• Lead the development and implementation of regional MEAL strategies, tools, and systems to measure program performance and impact.
• Promote sex and age disaggregated data across projects/program.
• Build the capacity of MEAL and program staff through mentoring, training, and knowledge exchange.
• Strengthen evidence generation and research partnerships with universities, think tanks, and other learning institutions.
• Ensure accountability and community feedback mechanisms are integrated into all projects, supporting adaptive management.
• Disseminate learning and best practices within the region and globally to influence program improvement and sectoral policy.

5. Leadership, Staff Management, Mentorship, and Development.

• Lead and manage a regional team of technical specialists, fostering a culture of high performance, collaboration, and continuous learning.
• Set clear goals, expectations, and performance metrics for the Programme Effectiveness team.
• Mentor and coach staff to enhance technical, managerial, and leadership capacity.
• Actively contribute to a high-performing Program team, shaping regional program strategy and direction.
• Promote a positive, inclusive team that is representative of the communities we serve and a culture grounded in Habitat’s core values and mutual accountability.

Minimum Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree with 10years relevant experience or master’s degree in a related field: evaluation, sociology, social work, international relations, international development.
• Specialization and/or professional certification in monitoring, evaluation, accountability to affected populations, participatory approaches, or learning approaches.

Years of Related Experience:

• Minimum 10years of experience in a similar level position with a development and/or humanitarian organization.
• Strong background in MEAL, program quality, and evidence-based programming.
• Proven commitment to gender equity and social inclusion and experience integrating gender equity and social inclusion throughout the program cycle.
• Demonstrated knowledge and experience facilitating participatory processes with marginalized groups, such as PASSA.
• Demonstrated in-depth knowledge and experience in programme management, Strategy development and management, monitoring and evaluation, accountability to communities, learning, research and evaluation methodologies, standards, humanitarian and development principles and practices (preferably in relation to human / social development or housing and human settlement).
• Demonstrated experience with qualitative and quantitative data analysis, statistics, and design of data collection instruments.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:

• Analytical thinker with strong analytical, facilitation, and advisory skills.
• Deep understanding of housing and human settlements issues in Africa, including informal settlements, land rights, disasters and climate resilience.
• Strong leadership and interpersonal skills; experience managing multicultural teams.
• Excellent written and verbal communication.
• Familiarity with digital tools for data collection, program tracking, and reporting (e.g., Power BI, Kobo, DevResults).
• Understanding of contemporary trends and innovations in MEAL
• Strong technical expertise in strategy development, evaluation, and social investigation, qualitative and quantitative analysis, multi-site evaluations, and standards of evaluation
• Strong analytical and critical thinking skills
• Decision-making and problem-solving skills
• Good organizational skills including accuracy, consistency, and attention to detail.
• Ability to work with different people from diverse backgrounds and experience and to use this as a strength.