Remote position/Home-based Location: Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) is hiring a Social Protection Programme Director

Remote position – Home-Based Location

Social Protection Programme Director (5 days per week)

About WIEGO

Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) is a global network focused on securing livelihoods for the working poor, especially women, in the informal economy. We believe all workers should have equal economic opportunities and rights. WIEGO creates change by building capacity among organisations of workers in informal employment, expanding the knowledge base about the informal economy, and influencing local, national and international policies.

The Social Protection Programme

The Social Protection Programme works towards increasing access to social protection and public services to workers in informal employment in the global South. We do this through supporting movement building around social protection and public services through support to worker organisations, research and policy advocacy.

The Director of Social Protection provides leadership on social protection and public services issues and manages the Social Protection team in order to achieve the programme’s objectives.

The Position

We are currently seeking a Social Protection Programme Director to provide strategic leadership to the programme and serve as part of senior leadership at WIEGO, participating actively in organisation-wide strategic planning, evaluation and fundraising processes. The incoming Social Protection Programme Director will be a thought leader dedicated to supporting the existing systems-wide approach to social protection and developing a clear overarching vision for WIEGO’s public services work on workers’ health and childcare. The Social Protection Programme Director will be a capable manager who can effectively lead a team in a virtual, multicultural environment; and an agile advocate who is open to collaboration and learning as part of a diverse global movement, working in partnership with our members, partners and stakeholders.

The Terms of Reference for the position are available here.

Responsibilities

A. WIEGO Programme Director Responsibilities

Perform ongoing duties of a WIEGO Programme Director as follows:

• Direct the programme’s annual work planning and budgeting process in accordance with the programme’s 5-year strategic plan and WIEGO organisational priorities;
• Identify priority one-year outcomes towards which the programme is working, and monitor and report on the programme’s progress toward those outcomes at ~monthly intervals via calls with the Director of Programmes and International Coordinator, quarterly intervals via PD calls, bi-annual intervals via the WIEGO reporting process;
• Monitor the programme budget via the WIEGO Xero accounting system;
• Work together with the communications manager to identify strategic communications priorities and monitor their implementation;
• Collaborate with other Programme Directors in implementing and monitoring cross-programmatic and WIEGO-wide priorities as identified in plans and budgets;
• Contribute to WIEGO internal communication via intranet, use of wiego.org email and Google Workspace communications tools.
• Participate in WIEGO meetings and activities as necessary e.g. WIEGO Town Hall meetings, Team Retreat, Directors Meetings, Board, General Assembly
• Participation in MLE training and integration into programmatic activities
• Contribute to the WIEGO website and intranet as needed, including blogs, and worker education and resource materials.
• Contribute to other WIEGO projects and activities as and when necessary.
• Prepare for and attend one in-person WIEGO Board meeting per year (March) and up to 2-3 other in-person WIEGO meetings as appropriate.

B. Oversight and management of the Social Protection Programme:

The Social Protection Programme includes six team members and consultants of which the Social Protection Programme Director will supervise five. The Director will support team members and consultants to meet their annual objectives and advance the five-year strategy. Below are the key priorities for the programme this financial year (April 2024 – March 2025):

• Lead on developing a coherent overarching strategy for the programme’s Public Services stream of work including workers’ health, child care, care systems for older workers, and care service delivery through the social and solidarity economy
• Provide dedicated support to both the Workers’ Health Coordinator and the Childcare Coordinator in achieving their sub-programmatic objectives, while starting up a stream of work on older workers care needs.
• Co-develop and support the Social Protection stream of work alongside the social protection specialists in the team to ensure existing strategic objectives are being met, whilst thinking through how these could be further developed.
• Provide dedicated support to the Asia regional engagements on social protection in collaboration with workers organisations.
• Maintain and develop a social protection platform in Latin America with workers’ organisations in informal employment
• Provide dedicated support to Africa regional work, including the project on digitalisation of social protection in Africa and providing support to StreetNet Africa in building its social protection platform.
• Facilitate bi-weekly team meetings and hold regular 1:1 meetings (bi-weekly/monthly) with all team members and consultants.
• Sustain a sense of trust and camaraderie among team members who are working virtually and across multiple time zones

Externally-facing engagements:

• Thought leadership through research and media engagements on informal employment and access to public services from a gender, class and intersectional perspective.
• Collaboration and support to the Global Networks and other member-based organisations on advancing access to social protection and public services
• Donor liaison on three project grants and developing new funding relationships
• Facilitate an annual meeting of the Social Protection Advisory Committee consisting of worker representatives, researchers and development practitioners and update the group on progress made at regular intervals throughout the year

About You

The successful candidate will bring familiarity with the informal economy and worker-led organisations. The candidate will be able to demonstrate experience in strategy development at a senior level and success in team management and leadership roles. Experience in a range of geographic locations (especially in the Global South) is a plus.

To be successful for this position you will need to have:

• At least five years of management and senior leadership experience in an NGO, research institute, or trade union.
• A strong political economy lens informed by postgraduate level coursework in a relevant discipline such as public policy, political science, sociology and economics etc.
• At least seven years of experience in research and advocacy on the extension of care services that benefit marginalised groups or people, including workers in informal employment.
• A strong understanding of the informal economy and WIEGO’s approach to it.
• Exposure to and experience working with grassroots organisations
• A strong work ethic (thorough, thoughtful and able to manage deadlines) and a demonstrated commitment to social justice
• Strong interpersonal and leadership skills
• Demonstrated ability to manage and coordinate a global team in a virtual and multicultural environment
• Exposure to and understanding of budgeting and financial management, as well as HR
• Experience with monitoring, learning and evaluation methodologies
• Fundraising and project management experience
• Excellent spoken and written English, fluency in another language is a welcome asset.

What we offer

The position is offered on an initial 6-month trial contract (5 days per week) with a probation review at 3 and 6 months, extendable to one year subject to satisfactory performance and thereafter renewable on an annual basis.

Pay is in US Dollars and is dependent on experience, location and the role profile as defined by WIEGO’s Remuneration Policy. This will be discussed with the successful candidate.

The post-holder will work from home and therefore you will need access to your own computer equipment and a strong Internet connection.

WIEGO is particularly interested to hear from candidates based in the Global South.

Next Steps

To apply for this position, please submit a resume, writing sample and cover letter explaining your motivation and how you fulfil the above requirements to [email protected] by the closing date of 8th November 2024.

WIEGO is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion. All applicants are welcome.