Senior Private Sector Development Advisor

Focus of the Role

The industrialisation of African countries is now a top priority for most of the African governments that TBI is supporting. For many government leaders, it represents a vision of economic (and social) transformation for the entire country. As a result, TBI is strengthening its support to governments on this agenda.

TBI’s Industrialisation Team is a central function that provides technical leadership and support to TBI’s embedded advisors supporting inclusive economic growth, job creation and industrialisation in Africa. The team’s mission is to support the continent to establish or expand productive sectors, including manufacturing industries but also agro-processing and tradable service sectors like tourism and call centres, thereby creating jobs, know-how, net exports and tax revenues. The main support functions provided are market analysis, industry coordination support, tools and frameworks, delivery for industrialisation, investment facilitation, policy and thought leadership, marketing, business development, fundraising and management of the sectoral network.

Key Responsibilities

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Key responsibilities for the role include:

Advisory - supporting industrialisation in the African Continent  

• Support African countries to develop critical industries that can foster the economic transformation of the continent.
• Support product development of our industrialisation offering and in building our relationship with key industry players to build a strong pool of investors.  This will include supporting the team in developing business cases for investment in key sectors and providing the African governments tangible advice to attract foreign and domestic investment.
• Provide high-impact advisory support to TBI country teams – and in some cases where sanctioned by the country head – to senior government leaders (e.g., Ministers of Industry and Trade) to help projects ensure impact (e.g., workstream scoping, strategy support, analysis, technical business advice, quality assurance, partnership connections, technical insights, mentoring of in-country embedded advisors).
• Collaborate with country projects and the investment team to accelerate manufacturing foreign and domestic investment in Africa.
• Support our engagement with continental and international partners and how they facilitate governments to accelerate industrialisation in Africa.
• Ensure transformational technology initiatives are streamlined into our industrialisation work.

Business development and partnerships

• Support fundraising efforts for our manufacturing work in collaboration with the Fundraising Team, Regional Directors, Country Heads and other sectoral team leads (e.g., energy, agriculture and investment)
• Maintain intelligence on market needs, competition and market gaps.
• Represent TBI at international and continental to show case our work and strengthen the voice of partner governments in the global arena.

Contribution to TBI

• Support the industrialisation lead and other sectoral leads (agri-food, energy, investment, technology, centre of government) in strategy development and implementation, thought leadership and management of the practice teams.

Person Specification

This is a role in a fast-paced team working out of different geographies and in complex policy areas.

To be successful in this role you will need to be closely aligned with the Institute’s outlook and mission and be entrepreneurial in your approach to your work.

The successful candidate will need to demonstrate the following skills, knowledge and experience:

• Extensive experience and a proven track-record of working in or with the private sector in Africa in productive sectors like manufacturing.
• Extensive experience engaging African governments to improve the enabling environment for the private sector, either working in the private sector, consultancies or partners.
• Strong expertise in one or a number of sectors for African economic transformation.
• Practical experience in the private sector and with a demonstrated expertise in sectors that are important for the economic transformation of the continent (e.g., Textiles and Apparel, Automotive, Pharmaceuticals, etc.).
• Results oriented, structured and resilient in seeing projects through to conclusion.
• The confidence, experience, communication skills and credibility to operate at a senior level in TBI, including directly with our Executive Chairman
• Highly developed analytical skills that can be deployed in a range of contexts.
• The ability to work in the face of a range of competing views and priorities, possessing highly developed communication and negotiation skills.
• Able to work independently but also be a strong team player.
• Educational experience in business, finance, investment, economics or other related fields
• Fluency in English is required; fluency in French is an advantage.

About The Institute

The Tony Blair Institute (TBI) is a mission-driven not for profit organisation. We exist to equip political leaders and governments to build open, inclusive and prosperous societies. We work hard, every day, to make a difference. When governments work well they are able to create economic and social change in a way that promotes fairness, social justice and opportunity. We work relentlessly to support leader and governments with the challenges they face. Giving them practical solutions and actionable insights, that once implemented, can be transformative for their people  

We do this within two connected divisions: 

 Government Advisory 

Our Government Advisory teams work directly with political leaders and governments around the world to implement reforms that improve the lives of their citizens. It works with a variety of partners and its outputs cover a range of disciplines and projects across countries in Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and South Asia.

 Policy Futures 

Our Policy Futures work encompasses three broad areas: 

• Renewing the Centre: developing a bold and innovative domestic policy programme to help renew the centre ground of British politics; 
• Tech and Public Policy: exploring the policy challenges and opportunities presented by the technological revolution; and 
• Extremism Policy Unit: creating solutions designed to tackle the threat of extremist ideologies in the UK and around the world. 

As an organisation, the core beliefs we all embrace are: 

• Open and Progressive: you’ll believe in the value of teamwork 
• Bold and Pragmatic: you’ll approach everything you do with integrity and authenticity 
• Optimistic Changemaker: you’ll be focused on results 

TBI believes embracing diversity and inclusion make us a better place to work.  It’s our goal to reflect everyone in society and we actively welcome applications from individuals and groups who are under-represented in the workplace. We celebrate difference be it ethnicity, religion, age, gender or gender identity, sexual orientation or disability. We will only ever assess you on your abilities and fit for a role. We’re happy to discuss any adjustments you need to ensure a level playing field during recruitment and, if you\'re successful, discuss any adjustments you might need to thrive in your role.