Impact Investing Technical Lead
Thank you for your interest in joining Investing in Women.
IW’s new phase continues the ambitious agenda of advancing women’s economic empowerment championed by its predecessor program. It builds on the results, partnerships, learnings and credibility established under the first eight years of IW. IW’s new phase will extend and scale Australia’s contribution to supporting women in the region and advancing gender equality through continuing to influence an ecosystem of policymakers, business leaders, capital providers and women’s economic empowerment actors in Southeast Asia.
If you are interested in joining our small, dynamic team and applying your skills, experience and passion to this mission, we want to hear from you.
Investing in Women
Investing in Women: Women In Inclusive Sustainable Economic Recovery (IW) is a multi-country Australian Government initiative in Southeast Asia that seeks to accelerate women’s economic empowerment through increased and equitable opportunities in the private sector, contributing to inclusive, sustainable economic recovery and growth in targeted countries.
Positioning women at the centre of economic resilience and recovery and accelerating their economic empowerment is critical to achieving a wide range of objectives pertaining to sustainable development in Southeast Asia. As the region recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, gender-sensitive economic recovery strategies will be critical to prevent further deterioration in women’s economic empowerment indicators seen during COVID-19. Focus on an inclusive recovery seeks to harness the productivity, skills, capacity, talent, innovation, and leadership that women offer, and realise the benefits of women’s economic empowerment for themselves, their families, and their communities.
IW will run for four years, from January 2023 to 2027, with an option to extend for a further six years. Initial countries of focus will be at least Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam, with some activities engaging at a regional level.
IW has four mutually reinforcing outcomes for the new phase:
- Workplace Gender Equality – More business adopt and implement workplace gender equality organisational changes.
- Affordable Quality Childcare – Evidence created to build the case for the importance and value of childcare – to business, the economy and women’s economic empowerment
- Quality Jobs for Women – Private sector and government partners progress strategies and initiatives to increase quality jobs for women
- Impactful Capital – A significant increase in gender lens investing (GLI) in target countries
About the Opportunity
Reporting to the Impact Investing Director, the Impact Investing Technical Lead will assist the Director. Specifically, the successful candidate will:
- Cultivate and manage partnerships and collaborations with capital providers, impact investors, and ecosystem thought leaders to increase awareness and build the business case for gender lens investing; and
- Be responsible for grant portfolio management, including but not limited to, concept design, procurement, stakeholder consultations, budget analysis, monitoring and evaluation, and insight communication.
Specifically, the Impact Investing Technical Lead will be responsible for:
- Ecosystem Engagement
- Actively promote Workstream 4’s agenda at related industry forums and conferences.
- Support the IW communication strategy in promoting the business case for investing in women, particularly to crowd in more impact investments for women’s SMEs in Southeast Asia.
- Conduct periodic interviews with women’s SME investees and SME Funds, including from the first phase of IW.
- Contribute to Workstream 4 inputs for IW reporting (including Annual Plans) and publications, such as brochures, website content, and social media outlets.
- Portfolio Management
- Provide technical inputs to the blended finance granting arrangements, including performance incentives and instrument for new impact investing partners.
- Coordinate appropriate due diligence of new partners and monitor investment compliance, performance, and impact.
- Manage a portfolio of grantees in impact investing, including
- Inputs into grant contracting, including due diligence and gaps analysis for organizational improvements;
- Regular monitoring of partnership performance, including periodic site visits, teleconferences with grantees, and data collection for IW reporting;
- Risk mitigation to identify and address performance issues, corruption, mismanagement, and other misuse of funds.
- Contracts compliance and performance reporting across designated portfolio;
- Appropriate record-keeping of portfolio documents, in close coordination with the IW Contracts team; and
- Development of communication materials, videos, and collaterals on the designated portfolio.
- Provide regular updates to IW Senior Management on portfolio performance.
- Lead Workstream 4’s coordination with the MERL team of IW to ensure regular data collection from the impact investing partners including
- Aggregate Key Performance Indicators and impact metrics across the impact investing partners
- Cultivate impact investing learnings and contribute to the evolving evidence base.
- Create and support opportunities for DFAT public diplomacy and events, including
- Drafting of DFAT options paper, briefing memos, and press releases; and
- Coordination of events management and logistics within IW and the Strategic Implementation Unit.
- Travel
- Travel for business as required and deemed appropriate by management.
- Submit travel reports and claims for reimbursements in a timely manner.
Employment type: A citizen role, but open to others who have legal right to work in country under a local compensation package.
Location:Manila, Philippines or Jakarta, Indonesia
Duration: October 2023 to 30 June 2027.
About You
We are seeking an individual who has:
- Is proactive, enthusiastic, and diligent to lead key aspects of the Impact Investing Workstream;
- Is a strong communicator with an eye for details;
- Is comfortable with numbers and has experience in impact investing or finance;
- Is passionate about creating measurable social impact; and
- Is excited to be a contributing member of an innovative team that is motivated to create a more gender equitable society.
For your application to be considered by the Panel, interested applicants must submit a response to each of the following Key Selection Criteria (KSC):
- KSC 1: A bachelor’s degree in economics, finance, or related field.
- KSC 2: At least 8 years of relevant work experience in similar development programs or in impact investing.
- KSC 3: Technical capability in investment and finance; knowledge building and investor relations; and/or quantitative analysis.
- KSC 4: Understanding of global fields of gender lens investing, impact investing, and/or international development.
- KSC 5: Familiarity with, knowledge of, and/or experience working in gender equality and women’s economic empowerment issues, especially in Southeast Asia.
- KSC 6: Ability to proactively engage, influence, and build relationships within regional and global impact investing industry, and with experts in gender lens investing.
- KSC 7: Ability to (a) deliver concise, intuitive communication material and (b) develop compelling knowledge products to engage the investor community.
- KSC 8: Fluency in spoken and written English is required. Native speakers of the local language at duty station are preferred.
How to Apply
We are an equal opportunity employer and encourage applications from experienced and capable women.
Please submit your application online. Upload your cover letter, CV and your response to the KSCs. Submit your CV and KSC response as a single document, and address how you meet the requirements of this role in your KSC statements. We are unable to proceed with an application that has not addressed the KSCs.
Application close: 1 September 2023, Friday
About Abt Associates
Abt Associates a mission-driven, global leader with a proven track record in complex program implementation in the international development sector. We offer bold solutions and technical excellence in Health, Economic Growth, Governance, Research & Evaluation, Environment & Energy, Gender Equality & Social Inclusion. Working with our many partners, we have driven measurable social impact for more than 55 years, to achieve our mission of improving the quality of life and economic well-being of people worldwide. We operate in remote and challenging environments and employ more than 3,700 staff in over 50 countries. For more information about us and what we do, visit our website at www.abtassociates.com.
Equity
Abt Associates values individuality and celebrates difference with a strong commitment to all forms of diversity and equality including racial equity, gender, sexual diversity and disability inclusion. We strongly encourage people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to apply for this position. We offer flexible work arrangements and a culturally safe environment for staff members from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds.
Safeguarding
We are deeply committed to safeguarding, to protect and prevent harm and abuse to individuals we work for and who work for us. Our recruitment and selection procedures reflect our commitment to protecting children and vulnerable adults from abuse and exploitation. We will not tolerate discrimination, harassment, child abuse, sexual abuse or exploitation in any form, and expect everyone to be treated with respect and dignity.