Director of Programmes and Partnerships

Position Overview

The Director of Programmes & Partnerships is responsible for providing strategic direction, programme governance, and partnership leadership across the entire initiative. This role exists to ensure that all programme interventions are strategically coherent, technically sound, donor-compliant, and impact-driven, while building and sustaining high-level partnerships that enable scale, sustainability, and long-term systems change.

The Director will serve as the primary interface with donors, strategic partners, and senior stakeholders, and will be accountable for overall programme performance, credibility, and results. This position offers a great opportunity for career growth.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & Programme Direction

• Provide overall strategic leadership for programme design, implementation, and scaling
• Translate the programme's vision into clear strategic priorities, portfolios, and implementation pathways
• Ensure alignment between programme objectives, donor strategies, and national development priorities
• Lead adaptive management processes to respond to learning, evidence, and contextual changes

Programme Oversight & Delivery

• Oversee the end-to-end delivery of all programme components, ensuring quality, coherence, and results
• Ensure interventions are grounded in sound market systems and MSME development principles
• Provide executive oversight to programme teams, technical leads, and implementing partners

Donor Engagement & Partnership Management

• Lead and manage high-level relationships with donor agencies, development partners, and funders
• Support resource mobilisation, proposal development, and donor negotiations
• Ensure compliance with donor agreements, reporting requirements, and governance expectations
• Represent the programme in donor reviews, steering committees, and high-level forums

Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning & Impact

• Ensure robust monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) frameworks are established and maintained