Programme Manager – Inclusive Trade at Trade Mark East Africa – July 2025

Roles and responsibilities

Working in close collaboration with the Director Inclusive Trade, the Inclusive Trade Manager will:

Strategy Development

• Support the Inclusive Trade strategy development and revision and provide strategic direction to the country and regional programmes in collaboration with the Director Inclusive Trade, Country Directors, and Programme Managers/Leaders. The strategy should include plans for new programming, scaling up and broadening the scope and ambition of gender and youth targeted initiatives in TMA, implementation modalities and allied fundraising.
• Support in Inclusive Trade related resource mobilisation, including monitoring donor priorities, drafting concept notes, and integrating gender into project proposals aligned.

Programme development and management

• Support programme scoping, analysis, and design processes, including defining frameworks and approaches for implementation for TMAs gender targeted and youth programming.
• Support in the development of draft annual plans, budgets, reports, concept notes and Project Appraisal Reports (PARs).
• Oversee the implementation of a portfolio of projects withinthe unit, provide technical support and oversight to country teams.
• Ensure adequate cover of gender and youth targeted and mainstreaming components in all corporate documents, such as annual and quarterly reports, business plans and specific programme documents.
• Ensure strong collaboration with other technical directorates across TMA.
• Map out potential risks and negative impacts at the programme and corporate level; develop and implement strategies to mitigate against these risks while constantly reporting progress.
• While working with programme teams, ensure compliance with project cycle management guidelines throughout the project design and implementation cycle, including reporting and closure.
• While working with programme teams, ensure compliance with grant management procedures and guidelines, including appraisal, selection, implementation, reporting and closure.
• Understands funding sources for projects, the implementation timelines agreed with funders, monitors implementation and delivery to ensure that projects are within budget, scope, and time. Where changes occur, clearly documents, and ensures that relevant internal stakeholders are informed.
• Ensure compliance with PCM guidelines throughout the project design and implementation cycle, including robust projectplanning, reporting and closure, adhering donor requirements as stipulated in contribution agreements.

Strategic partnerships/relationships

• Identify and maintain a strong working relationship with strategic national, regional, and international stakeholders, including government, private sector, civil society, youth organisations, research organisations, and international trade organisations.
• Identify, organise, or participate in forums where TMA can contribute and raise its profile as thought leaders in inclusion and trade.
• Coordinate with other TMA programmeteams for the effective deliveryof agreed results.
• Contribute to participating and/or forming communities of practice for engagement on issues of inclusion specifically on youth and gender targeted programming.
• Manage relationships and communicate with internal and external stakeholders including donors, partners and service providers and clearly articulate project and programme scope, timeline, budget, risks, and deliverables.

Monitoring, evaluation, learning and dissemination.

• Working closely with the Director Inclusive Trade, support the development indicators for the corporate Results Framework that will lead to the delivery of solid and measurable results and impact.
• Working with the programme, results, and impact teams, develop methodologies to collect and aggregate inclusion-related evidence to monitor progress and impact of programme interventions.
• Support cross-cutting research work around inclusion themes and assist teams in determining relevant gender targeted and youth dynamics and causes of inequities.
• Contribute to knowledge generation and dissemination, working with Impactand Communications Team.
• Collaborate with other key staff and teams to support the overall communications and outreach campaign and identify successful inclusion projects to be showcased in publications, communication materials and conferences.
• Ensure implementation of minimum standards on reporting disaggregated data by gender and age
• Contributes to the development/revision of tools and procedures to document and share knowledge, incentivise staff/teams and enforce compliance and standards.
• Participatesin regular informaland formal reflection, knowledge sharing and learning events.
• Documents and promotes lessonslearned and best practices for knowledge sharingand learning.
• Prepare information briefs on programming highlights or insights for internal knowledge sharing.

Reporting

• Prepare quarterly/bi-annual/yearly reportson the relevant inclusive trade portfolio on TRIMS and to donors, partners, and other stakeholders as required.
• Liaise with the Finance departments on the quarterly donor reporting, annualwork planning and preparing forecasts.
• Actively contribute and participate in external mid-termreviews or impactevaluations as required.
• Ensure inclusion of gender-sensitive /responsive indicators to track progress towards gender integration in all projects.

Human Resource

• Ongoing supervision and mentoring of the programme officer, technical assistants, and consultants to ensure they meet the expectations of their job descriptions.

Academic and professional qualifications

• A postgraduate or undergraduate degree in Development Economics, Social Sciences, International Development, International Business, Social Work and Social Administration, Business Administration, Development Studies, or another relevant field

Work experience

• Undergraduate degree holders will have at least seven years of relevant working experience, while postgraduate degree holders will require at least five years of relevant working experience (i.e., programme/project management experience gained through work in the following thematic areas: supporting women SMEs/traders; women and youth economic empowerment, programming for gender equality, digital and financial inclusion, advocacy for equity and inclusion.
• Proven abilities to conceptualise and design projects with solid inclusive trade components, project implementation, results measurement, reporting, and stakeholder engagement gained through working experience in Africa.
• Experience in managing complex and diverse projects, including conducting inclusive trade assessments and evaluations, and identifying impactful interventions in varied projects.
• Demonstration of a good understanding of successful methodologies and approaches used to mainstream and integrate gender strategies in programming.
• Ability to integrate other cross-cutting issues, such as environment and climate change in programming.
• Experience working in a matrix-managed structure.
• Ability to mentor and build the capacity of direct reports and programme teams to ensure a broad understanding of gender concepts within the organisation.