Terms of Reference for Internal Secondment
CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATIONS: 23:59 UTC ON 31 JANUARY 2024
All staff are welcome to apply and work from any country where Hivos has an office
By December 2024, Hivos aims to have a new global strategy. This “Compass 2.0” should arise from an imaginative co-creation process with Hivos staff. It should be enlivened by unconventional thinking and emerging trends from outside the organization (partners, peers, and experts). Finally, it should be grounded in a sharp analysis of financial, funding, and operational imperatives. It should also include an outline of the business model to be developed to resource the Compass vision fully.
The strategy development Project is sponsored by the CEO in close collaboration with the MT and COO. A member of MT may be designated as Project Owner to provide day to day leadership and support for the Project Manager. The Supervisory Council is the ultimate decision-maker and approves the final draft.
Secondment DurationThe secondment will be for 2 to 2.5 days per week (negotiable) until the end of December 2024. There may be a possibility to extend until March 31 2025 to assist with the rollout and communication of the new strategy. Budget will be provided for your manager to bring in other staff to cover the days per week that you would normally work in your other job.
Role PurposeYou will not be responsible for writing the new strategy or determining its content. Rather, as coordinator, your role is to facilitate constructive debate, listen deeply, and synthesize emerging ideas - while ensuring that no one set of voices dominates. Among the ways that you will do this is by:
- Designing and coordinating an exciting and well-structured co-creation process that helps us overcome internal silos and weave a One Hivos vision.
- Ensuring that this process is well communicated and tightly managed, avoiding slippage of deadlines that tends to happen in any process that is “additional” to staff’s regular work.
- Creating or helping to create short videos, think pieces, graphics or presentations to demystify big concepts and make the strategy development process more accessible and understandable to staff.
- Leading on the design and planning of at least one global (virtual or in-person) staff conference around the new strategy.
- Acting as a ‘thought partner’ on Compass 2.0 for the EB and MT, ensuring that interesting ideas and challenging questions from the co-creation process are taken up in leadership strategy discussions.
- Supporting the drafting committee, if one is established, and serving as an ordinary member of the committee.
Key Deliverables
- Revise the existing SC 2.0 development road map, timelines and budget
- Plan how the already agreed 5 “Big Questions” for the new strategy will be addressed, e.g. through a combination of thematic working groups, partner/peer consultations, hub-level workshops and drafting committee write-shops.
- Develop ToRs and participant lists to guide and facilitate the above processes.
- Participate in and help to document the above processes and meetings as appropriate, recognizing that it will not be possible to be in all discussions all of the time.
- Report regularly to the CEO (and/or MT-level project owner) on progress and challenges, advising on changes to the process and methodologies where needed.
- Curate a web-enabled strategy development space, with the most critical readings related to the Big Questions and reports from the internal workshops and external consultations.
Person Specification
The right person for this role will:
- Have a good understanding of major trends and issues affecting the development and human rights sector.
- Be passionate about Hivos’ mission, vision and values.
- Be intellectually and culturally curious, with a huge appetite to absorb new ideas and insights - including from professional disciplines and regions outside their own experience. (For example, if you’re a program person you must be interested in learning more about the operational side of Hivos’ work, and vice-versa.)
- Be skilled in designing and facilitating participatory processes, especially virtual ones.
- Be a good writer and a creative communicator.
- Respect and value all contributions, actively seeking out diverse perspectives and enabling people to connect and converse across organizational silos. Understand the ways that power and privilege (whether based on race, age, organizational role, SOGIESC, language, class etc.) can limit participation, and demonstrate skills to minimize these barriers.
- Be able to put their own personal opinions and vested interests to the side in order to ensure the best possible process.
- Have experience of managing complex projects or processes across more than one country.
How to apply
Please submit your CV and cover letter as per below specifications by January 31st 2024 at the latest, by clicking on the ‘Apply here’ button.
* In place of the cover letter, please share with us in 500-800 words your ideas on the following topic: The challenge of "decolonization" is central to the 5 big questions that the next strategy will address. But it's not the easiest idea to understand - it could become just another bit of jargon, or a "big word" that scares people away. Please share some ideas on how you would demystify the concept, unpack its relevance for Hivos and foster a lively, meaningful dialogue around it during the strategy development process.