Director, Livelihoods & Economic Opportunities

At the heart of Pact is the promise of a better tomorrow. A nonprofit international development organization founded in 1971, Pact works on the ground in nearly 40 countries to improve the lives of those who are challenged by poverty and marginalization. We serve these communities because we envision a world where everyone owns their future. To do this, we build systemic solutions in partnership with local organizations, businesses, and governments that create sustainable and resilient communities where those we serve are heard, capable, and vibrant. Pact is a recognized global leader in international development. Our staff have a range of expertise in areas including public health, capacity development, governance and civil society, natural resource management, poverty, fragile states, monitoring and evaluation, small-scale and artisanal mining, microfinance and more. This expertise is combined in Pact’s unique integrated approach, which focuses on systemic changes needed to improve people’s lives.

Program Advancement (PADV) - Pact exists to help create a world where those who are poor and marginalized exercise their voice, build their own solutions, and take ownership of their future. The (Integrated) Program Advancement team contributes to this by: Delivering on our promise to global quality and impact via integrated programs; Growing & diversifying our global portfolio integrating the private, public and social sectors; Promoting our work globally to influence the private, public and social sectors.

The LEO+ Director provides key technical direction and assistance to existing Pact projects with livelihoods and economic opportunities components including access to finance, savings groups, digital finance, environmental resilience, households economic strengthening, women and youth economic empowerment, skills development, inclusive market systems, and MSME development. They liaise with Pact field office/project staff and other international organizations to coordinate both internal as well as a global “community of practice” to keep abreast of new developments and help advance the “state of the art” of the sector. The Director represents the organization in relevant forums and will provide strategic guidance on how to move Pact further into the “fourth-sector”/social enterprise space. They are an active member of the IPA Team, which in turn serves as the technical hub of Pact headquarters and advise the head of IPA on a range of issues relevant to LEO+. For clarity- Livelihoods and Economic Opportunities+ (LEO+) combines the previous Livelihoods and Natural Resources Management technical areas into a re-envisioned and expanded livelihoods and economic opportunities program that has as its goal to advance environmentally sustainable and inclusive economic development in the communities we serve.

Deliver- Delivering on our promise to global quality and impact via integrated programs (40%)

• Working with field offices, provide technical oversight and quality assurance of project implementation to ensure the delivery of impact to the satisfaction of key stakeholders while following Pact’s and the donor’s financial standards and monitoring protocols.
• Support projects with discrete deliverables where necessary including work plans, programmatic reports, scopes of work, MERL and other needs as they may arise; recruit, orient and train new program staff; and generally, help the field offices to implement initial project activities.
• Continuously strengthen and revise Pact’s LEO+ tools and approaches, focusing on quality and standards.
• Provide mentoring to field offices so that they better understand and are better able to meet industry standards and expectations of donors, safeguarding Pact’s reputation of technical excellence.
• Recommend or arrange technical assistance upon request, drawing upon Pact’s global resource base as well as external consultants; provide oversight to ensure implementation impact.
• Work closely with other IPA Technical Directors to ensure integration across sectors and core competencies.

Promote and Influence (Promoting our work globally to influence the private, public and social sectors) (30%)

• Provide strategic leadership for Pact’s LEO+ work, continuously strengthening and revising Pact’s LEO+ strategy, focusing on quality and standards to ensure relevance to industry trends and economic changes.
• Foster innovation within Pact’s LEO+ tools and approaches in line with or setting global best practices and develop guidelines and handbooks to assure their effective implementation.
• Represent Pact at relevant fora and work with field offices to increase their representation in global, regional, and local events.
• Facilitate a dynamic community of practice of Pact staff worldwide to share best practices across the full LEO+ portfolio, while seeking opportunities to build LEO+ interested staff’s capabilities.

Grow and Diversify: Growing & diversifying our global portfolio integrating the private, public and social sectors (30%)

• Building partnerships and maintaining excellent relationships with donors, partners, businesses, and other relevant stakeholders as needed to further Pact’s global LEO+ work.
• Engage new non-traditional, non-USAID clients leading initiatives to further economic empowerment.
• Grow Pact’s LEO+ portfolio through support across the spectrum of new business development needs i.e. partner pre-positioning, drafting capacity statements, providing technical inputs, leading design workshops, lead writer, reviewing pink/red drafts, and championing proposals.
• Ensure LEO+ proposals (or others with LEO+ components) submitted by Pact are technically sound and capitalize upon learning from the Community of Practice and the wider sector.
• Collaboration with Pact field offices and other Pact teams i.e. Corporate Engagement, Pact Ventures, to effectively exploit opportunities for synergy, deliver at scale (including multi-country projects), exchange knowledge and strengthen Pact’s position.

Skills and Competence:

• Typically has a bachelor’s degree, and 15 or more years of experience, including 10 or more years of management experience working on Livelihoods and Economic Opportunities related projects in developing countries. Masters with 15 or more years of experience; PhD with 13 or more years of experience.
• At least 10 years of experience managing international economic development projects particularly USAID- and DFID-funded interventions.
• Demonstrated understanding of new trends in the sector particularly access to finance, economic empowerment, inclusive market systems, and MSME development.
• Demonstrated experience in effective design and proposal writing of LEO activities.
• Deep knowledge and understanding of major donor policies, procedures, and regulations for program implementation.
• A track record of high-quality research in two or three economic development areas.
• Proven ability to apply gender analysis to economic research and/or undertake research focusing on women and youth economic empowerment
• Proven research, writing and analytical skills as well as up-to-date research methods used in publications.
• Strong communication skills, both spoken and written, to engage authoritatively with policymakers and non-specialized audiences.
• Established interpersonal and professional relationships with colleagues in Washington DC and across the industry within donor agencies, peer organizations and local organizations.
• Demonstrated strong leadership and teambuilding skills; ability to work effectively in a team which includes remote members, often with limited supervision and under pressure.
• Ability to mentor others and model successful management techniques and approaches.
• Highly organized and systems oriented.
• Demonstrated facilitation and program development skills.
• Ability and willingness to travel frequently both domestically and internationally (estimated 30% of the time) sometimes at short notice for pre-positioning and technical assistance.

• Ph.D. in relevant discipline preferred
• Proficiency in at least one other language
• Publication of relevant journal articles or book chapters