Head of Local Social Sector

Inkomoko is a social enterprise focused on building and institutionalizing an approach to partnering with, strengthening, and enabling greater independence of local social sector organizations across its markets. It aims to create pathways for enterprise development, employment, resilience, and sustainable impact.

The Head of Local Social Sector at Inkomoko is a senior regional leadership position focused on building and evolving the organization's strategy for engaging with and empowering local social sector entities, including refugee-led, community-based, youth-led, women-led, and faith-based groups. This role is crucial for establishing a new organizational capability within Inkomoko, moving beyond program management to create a structured pathway for these organizations to become stronger, more sustainable partners. The successful candidate will collaborate across various internal functions like Business Growth Services, Investment, MERL, Program Design & Innovation, and Country Leadership to integrate local social sector engagement into Inkomoko's broader mission of enterprise development, employment, resilience, and sustainable impact. The role demands a leader capable of both strategic planning and practical execution, translating regional directives into country-specific models, building effective teams and systems, forging strategic partnerships, managing a diverse portfolio, and utilizing evidence to adapt Inkomoko's role over time.

1. Develop, own, and continuously refine Inkomoko’s regional Local Social Sector strategy and operational model.
2. Translate the strategy into clear priorities, country-specific approaches, portfolio decisions, resource needs, and measurable outcomes.
3. Establish robust systems and standards for partner selection, organizational development, progression, quality assurance, risk management, and partnership oversight.
4. Embed Local Social Sector engagement as an integral part of Inkomoko’s overall impact and enterprise-development framework.
5. Lead the design and implementation of the Local Social Sector strengthening approach.
6. Create pathways for local organizations to enhance their institutional capabilities, assume greater ownership, and evolve into sustainable partners or independent entities.
7. Ensure Inkomoko’s support adapts to changing organizational capabilities and market conditions, preventing dependency and promoting local ownership.
8. Utilize evidence and learning to continuously improve the operational model.
9. Build, structure, and lead a high-performing regional team and appropriate country-level capabilities.
10. Recruit, coach, develop, and retain strong talent, fostering leadership depth within the function.
11. Establish effective collaborative working methods across regional, country, and cross-functional teams.
12. Develop and nurture strategic partnerships with local organizations, governments, funders, private-sector actors, networks, and other ecosystem stakeholders.
13. Identify opportunities for co-investment, collaboration, referrals, resource mobilization, and complementary capabilities to expand Inkomoko’s reach and impact.
14. Represent Inkomoko externally in relevant forums and integrate external learning and opportunities into the organization.
15. Build internal and external coalitions to advance shared outcomes.
16. Collaborate with BGS, Investment, MERL, Program Design & Innovation, and Country Leadership to identify how stronger local institutions can facilitate entrepreneurship, employment, resilience, and economic participation.
17. Ensure local social sector partnerships complement, rather than duplicate, Inkomoko’s core capabilities.
18. Generate evidence and learning on which types of organizations, partnerships, and institutional-development approaches yield the greatest value.
19. Establish portfolio-level performance measures and manage impact, institutional development, risk, cost, and sustainability.
20. Manage the function’s budget and resources effectively.
21. Make disciplined decisions regarding investment, deepening, redesign, transition, or exit of partnerships.

1. Over 10 years of relevant experience, including significant leadership in organizational development, institutional strengthening, localization, partnerships, or ecosystem development.
2. A proven history of building or scaling a function, program, partnership portfolio, or organizational capability from its initial stages.
3. Strong experience in strategy development and its translation into operational models, teams, systems, and tangible results.
4. Demonstrated ability to build and lead high-performing, multi-country or cross-functional teams.
5. Exceptional skills in partnership building and stakeholder management, including the ability to influence without formal authority.
6. Strong strategic and commercial judgment, particularly in portfolio management, resource allocation, sustainability, and risk assessment.
7. Preferred experience working with local, community-based, refugee-led, or other locally rooted institutions.
8. Experience in fragile, displacement-affected, or complex operating environments is an advantage.
9. Bachelor’s degree in Development Studies, Business, Organizational Development, Public Policy, Education, Social Sciences, or a related field; a Master’s degree is preferred.
10. Ability to synthesize data to enhance client and team member experiences.
11. Capacity to adapt approaches to situations, adjusting to shifting demands and driving positive outcomes.
12. Skill in enhancing competitive advantage by creating innovative solutions and leveraging external relationships.
13. Technical expertise to coach and guide staff to meet and exceed expectations.