Job Opening: Citizenship Program Associate at Namati

Position Post Date: November 27, 2023

Accepting Applications Until: December 1, 2023

About Namati

Since 2011, Namati has worked to build a movement of grassroots justice advocates worldwide. We’ve grown tremendously, from a small founding group of big-hearted change-makers to a global staff of 170+ people across 12 time zones in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The Grassroots Justice Network, which we co-founded and convene to this day, has grown from 30 people in one room to the world’s largest community of justice advocates. Today, our membership comes from 3,300 organizations across 175 countries.

We have supported local communities to take on thousands of justice issues, directly improving the lives of over 1.5 million people since our founding. Together with communities, partners, and Network members, we’ve envisioned, and won, transformative changes like the Customary Land Rights and National Land Commission Acts of Sierra Leone, and the world’s first Legal Empowerment Fund.

About Namati’s Citizenship Program

Namati’s Citizenship Program works with communities who are citizens in law but who face discrimination in attempts to access proof of nationality and documentation like birth certificates, ID cards, and passports. Paralegals from these communities, supported by Namati and our partners, empower others to overcome discriminatory treatment to access legal identity documents and drive changes to Kenya’s national legal framework on citizenship rights.

About the Position  

We are seeking an organized, self-starting Program Associate with 1-2 years of experience providing excellent administrative support to programmatic teams to support Namati’s Citizenship Program team, based in Nairobi. Responsibilities will be dynamic based on the varied needs of the team and will include program and administrative support, correspondence and outreach, organizing travel and event logistics, handling travel and activity expense reporting, and other special projects. The successful candidate will also play a role in supporting grassroots partners to enhance paralegal capacity and data quality. Overall, the Program Associate will be expected to take initiative, pay careful attention to detail, and establish systems where needed to meet the needs of an evolving program strategy and team.

The Citizenship Program Associate will be responsible for the following:

Finance, Administration & Logistics Support (60%)

• Coordinate the planning, logistics, and expense reporting for Citizenship Program activities and events, including:

  • Creating activity budgets in collaboration with Citizenship Program team members and partner program teams.

  • Coordinating all travel and accommodation arrangements, procurement of venues and services, vendor payment requests, and communication with event venues.

  • Completing all expense reporting after activities are complete, including working with vendors and partner organizations to ensure all reports and supporting documentation is complete and accurate.

  • Liaising with the Namati Kenya finance team on any follow-up questions or requests for further documentation.

• Drafting and editing program correspondence and memoranda.

• Performing clerical duties, including responding to requests from the general public, faxing, photocopying, preparing expense reports, ordering supplies, coordinating program outreach, assisting in scheduling appointments and calls.

• Arranging and coordinating travel logistics for staff travel.

• Assisting with the preparation of budgets and work plans.

Programmatic Support (40%) 

• Assist in the planning of partner meetings, paralegal workshops, and other activities.

• Organize logistics of calls, meetings, domestic travel, and workshops, as required.

• Occasional travel to partner areas within Kenya to support activity implementation, data quality reviews, and programmatic discussion meetings.

• Support Citizenship Program fundraising efforts through conducting research on potential funders, assisting in donor outreach and follow-up communications, and arranging meetings with potential funders when opportunities arise.

• Actively participate in Namati team-wide calls and related initiatives.

Other duties as assigned.

Here’s what you might have tackled last week –

• Convened and participated in a half-day meeting with a partner organization’s team to build activity budgets and logistics plans for three upcoming joint events.

• Completed a 20-item expense report from a recent field visit to a paralegal area.

• Shared reflections from the field visit with the rest of the Citizenship team in order to inform the content for the upcoming paralegal refresher training.

• Sent introductory emails to two new fundraising leads to explain Namati’s work and request a meeting.

• Scheduled calls between Namati colleagues and several partners to plan for an upcoming joint advocacy meeting.

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About You

• Exceptionally organized, self-driven, and attentive to detail: You’re hyper-organized and you obsess about the details (in a healthy way). You take pleasure in being self-driven as you deftly juggle multiple projects and tasks in a fast-paced environment.

• Commitment to excellence: It’s in your nature to work tirelessly on a problem and find a great solution. You genuinely enjoy providing finance and logistics support: you see clearly how the administrative work of this role ties to the overall program goals and strategy and you are happy to take on any task without complaint to advance those goals.

• Nimble, creative, problem-solving: Although careful planning and execution define your work, you are positive and graceful when unexpected challenges arise. You quickly reorient and identify the best new course of action.

• Exceptional communication skills: Your written and verbal communications evidence clarity in both thought and analysis.

• Growth-oriented: You’re always seeking to better yourself and your work, and you will push yourself to the peak of performance to help fulfill our mission. In service of that growth, you welcome and delight in feedback from supervisors, peers, and anyone else.

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Nice to Haves

• Knowledge / experience in an NGO (non-governmental organization, or nonprofit) context and work environment

• Competent in the use of technology and data collection tools

• Knowledge / experience related to citizenship and identification issues

Location

Nairobi, Kenya. Please note, you must already be legally authorized to work in Kenya to be considered for the position. This position will need to work from the office regularly to fulfill the role and meet the team’s needs, though there may be occasional flexibility to work from home.

Compensation & Benefits

The offer range for this position is an annual compensation of 1,410,000 – 1,660,000 KES. Final compensation will be commensurate with the depth of experience that the selected candidate brings. Namati also offers excellent benefits, which include health coverage, generous paid time off, retirement or old-age plan contributions, sick leave, and parental leave. All staff also have access to funds for professional development opportunities.

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To Apply
Please complete our online application form, including a CV and application questions. The deadline to apply for this position is 1st December 2023.

No phone calls, please. Namati is an Equal Opportunity Employer.