County Delivery Strategic Advisor

Focus of the Role

TBI has a growing programme in Kenya supporting the country’s “Vision 2030” buttressed by a trusted relationship with the government of Kenya (GoK). With the concept of ‘delivery’ running through all our work, the Institute targets the Head of State’s priority projects including in agriculture, health and digital transformation (“Tech”) and overall government (central and county) delivery. Nairobi is also becoming a regional hub for TBI as our work across anglophone East Africa grows.

Please note that due to the very high volume of applications received, we will now be closing this role on Wednesday 28^th September 2022. 

Job Introduction

Over the past 12 years devolution has featured as a critical system of governance that holds potential for improved service delivery for Kenyans, serving multiple purposes including decentralization of power, bringing governance processes closer to citizens, and facilitating the identification of community specific development priorities to be identified and addressed at the county level. This role is intended to support the integration of delivery principles and practice in devolved systems of governance, and to support the establishment of delivery structures and processes at the county level to leverage the full potential of devolution as an efficient and effective system of governance in line with the 2010 Constitution of Kenya.

The Advisor will be a member of a growing TBI team in Kenya consisting of experienced advisors providing embedded support at the Centre of Government. This will also involve working closely with TBI’s Counter Extremism practice, through which they will gain from and contribute to the expertise of TBI’s teams across Africa and beyond.

The County Delivery Strategic Advisor will seek to build relationships between TBI and devolved leaders, including Governors at the highest level and other members of the devolved civil service.

2 year fixed Term contract

Key Responsibilities

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Accountability:

Set and report on the strategic direction of the Kenya Project at county level

• Develop the strategic direction for county delivery support based on TBI’s mission and approach within the Kenyan context.
• Look at how the wider TBI model can be applied at the county level and test and learn quickly to meet devolved governance needs.
• Contribute to the annual strategy setting process for delivery support at the county level and the quarterly review process.

Fundraising

• Understand fundraising and business development market requirements by mapping donor opportunities amongst a wide group of devolution stakeholders.
• Build and maintain relationships with development partners concerned with devolution and county service delivery to inform workstream to ultimately to secure project funding.

Relationship Management:

Create/maintain/grow relationships with principal stakeholders based on trust and high-quality delivery

• Build relationships with Governors, Deputy Governors, County Secretaries, and other civil servants within devolved government administrations to identify county specific priorities
• Deploy resources outside of the team – to wider TBI colleaguesthe TBI delivery practices from a devolved perspective and strategic partnerships within TBI’s network etc. – to support the Project where appropriate. (needs to be reworded)

Provide strategic delivery advisory to Governors and other senior officials within county governance structures on key technical issues

• Support Governors and devolved governance administrations on resource mobilization efforts to plug resource gaps within the County Development Agenda.
• Strengthen the offices of Governors to ensure effective management of their time, information flow and directives
• Support the county level financial, administrative and logistical functions to strengthen public-private partnerships in line with the delivery of the Devolved Development Agenda.

Strong delivery through your team

• Ensure strong teamwork across delivery advisors who may be onboarded to provide sector specific delivery support to the 47 county governments, and provide support as needed to team members.
• Contribute to the planning and evaluation cycle that regularly assesses whether the strategy is ‘working’, and adapt rapidly in response to new challenges and opportunities.
• Be the interface between the county level team and the rest of the Kenya Project by representing the team’s views and communicating issues and priorities from the rest of the Organisation to the team.  

Person Specification

We are looking for an outstanding individual with a proven track record of leadership and delivery in the public or private sectors. All candidates will be required to have significant  experience in a leadership role, managing small to medium teams and project budgets.

The requirements are:

1. Experience working with African governments, particularly Kenya; prior experience engaging with leaders at the devolved level would be an advantage.
2. The ability to work and interact at the highest levels of political decision-making structures; strong political acumen, judgement and discretion.
3. Experience in liaising with the private sector, and key stakeholders (e.g. donors) to deliver the requirements of the role, including a realistic fundraising strategy for the county workstream.
4. An ability to work independently, think strategically and translate strategies into concrete and implementable plans; strong attention to detail with excellent analytical, organisational, and communication skills.
5. Strong sense of ethics and resilience, inter-personal skills and proven ability and experience leading and managing people.
6. Strong familiarity with project development and project management and the principles of delivery in a government context, and in devolved systems of governance.
7. Experience of living and working in developing countries highly desirable.
8. Willingness to travel in-country, sometimes at short notice.
9. Fluency in English is required. Swahili would be advantageous.
10. Right to live and work in Kenya required.

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.