Renewed Women’s Voice and Leadership project (R-WVL) is a transformative initiative designed to contribute to the increased enjoyment of human rights by women and girls and the advancement of gender equality in Ethiopia. The project aims to achieve its impact through:

• Enhancing the organizational sustainability of local Women’s Rights Organizations (WROs) and Women’s Rights Networks (WRNs)

• Strengthening the programming and advocacy capacity of WROs and WRNs

• Increasing the effectiveness of women’s rights platforms, networks, and alliances to influence policy, legal, and social change at various levels

The project will support six principal partners who will implement and manage a portfolio of approximately 30 multi-year grants, 50 rapid response funds, and multiple initiatives focused on capacity strengthening and movement building.

The Partnership and Governance Advisor will be a central figure in driving strong, strategic, and values-based partnerships within the WVL project. The Advisor will be responsible for managing and coordinating engagement with six principal partners, ensuring that governance frameworks are in place and function effectively, and that partnership dynamics promote shared learning, accountability, and alignment with the overall goals of the project.

This role will provide strategic oversight and technical support to partners in the areas of governance, coordination, compliance, and collaborative decision-making, while also supporting their role in managing downstream grants and strengthening feminist movement-building in Ethiopia.

Key Responsibilities

Partnership Management

• Facilitate collaborative planning, implementation, and reflection processes with partners, ensuring alignment with WVL’s feminist values and objectives.

• Support partners to strengthen their partnership strategies and internal coordination with sub-grantees and allied organizations.

• Develop and manage partnership frameworks, including Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs), collaboration agreements, and joint accountability mechanisms.

Partnership and Governance

• Support the development of principal partners (PPs) contract agreements, and ensure results of capacity assessments are integrated into co-created institutional capacity development plans

• Lead the partnership management and due diligence process for principal partners, in collaboration with the PQL and grants teams. 

• Informed by WRO consultations and in collaboration with the project Steering Committee, support principal partners to establish transparent and accountable mechanisms for multi-year grants and rapid response funds. 

• Oversee partnership selection, monitoring and onboarding process and mechanisms in collaboration with PQL, Program Manager

• Support principal partners to develop contract management work plans and share these with the Program Manager for review       

• Work with principal partners to ensure the understanding of contractual clauses, support their development of actions (work plan) for implementing conditions in the contractual agreement. 

• Lead the capacity assessment of principal partners, develop a capacity development plan, create a supporting toolkit, and oversee implementation.

• Collaborate with principal partners to support Women's Rights Organizations (WROs) in conducting capacity assessments, developing tailored capacity development plans, and implementing these plans effectively.

• Develop reports and share with the Program Manager and Head of WEJ highlighting risks and challenges foreseen on contract compliance during field visits and upon review of program reports, while identifying, recommending mitigation actions including and not limited to enforcement of contractual agreements, capacity strengthening among others. 

• Collaborate with the MEAL Manager to develop, review, and implement field monitoring work plans that strengthen partners' oversight capabilities, facilitate early identification of risks, and enable timely actions to mitigate potential challenges, ensuring effective project implementation.

• Proactively and promptly identify governance and partnership risks associated with individual partners, documenting these findings in writing and communicating them clearly to relevant stakeholders.

• Deliver targeted technical capacity-building sessions—either on-site or through workshops—to address identified needs, empowering partners and staff with the skills and knowledge necessary to enhance organizational effectiveness and sustainability.

• Representing the organization at events and meetings to build relationships and promote partnerships.

• Monitor the implementation of governance arrangements, identify gaps, and provide technical advice for improvement.

• Foster a culture of transparency, accountability, and mutual respect within and across partner organizations.

Capacity Strengthening and Learning

• Identify capacity gaps and provide technical support to partners in areas of governance, partnership management, and organizational development.

• Facilitate learning exchanges and peer-to-peer learning sessions among principal partners and their grantees.

• Work closely with the program manager to ensure that partnership strengthening is integrated into broader capacity development strategies.

• Coordinate and facilitate partner review meetings, collaboratively developing key discussion points and program performance presentations that highlight challenges, lessons learned, and promising practices. These sessions aim to foster mutual understanding, enhance performance, and promote knowledge sharing among principal partners

• Identify and provide organizational, programmatic and governance related technical assistance needs for addressing capacity weaknesses based on capacity assessment reports and field technical support sessions; and support the development and implementation of capacity development plans. 

• Facilitate continuous learning and performance enhancement by systematically identifying and addressing key areas of institutional development.

• Establish a system to systematically identify and document promising practices from the outset of the program. Facilitate regular partner review and knowledge-sharing sessions, collaboratively presenting program progress, lessons learned, and best practices with partners. This approach aims to strengthen the learning agenda within the Women’s Voice and Leadership (WVL) initiative and progressively empower WROs to take on greater leadership roles.

• Support CARE’s achievement of strategic interventions as outlined in the strategic plan, program principles and other frameworks

Monitoring, Evaluation, and Compliance

• Collaborate with M&E teams to monitor partner performance against governance and partnership indicators.

• Ensure compliance with program governance standards, donor requirements, and feminist principles.

• Support risk identification and mitigation related to partnership and governance challenges.

Job Requirements

Qualifications and Experience

• Advanced degree in Social Sciences, Gender Studies, International Development, Public Administration, or a related field.

• Minimum 7 years of relevant experience in partnership management, governance, or institutional strengthening, preferably in feminist or women’s rights programming.

• Experience or knowledge of 'organizational development/organizational psychology/institutional governance.

• Demonstrated experience working with local civil society organizations, particularly women’s rights organizations and networks.

• Proven ability to facilitate collaborative decision-making and manage complex, multi-stakeholder partnerships.

• Strong understanding of feminist leadership principles, intersectionality, and gender equality frameworks.

• Excellent communication, facilitation, and interpersonal skills.

• Fluent in English and Amharic; other local languages an asset.

• Familiarity with Ethiopia’s civil society context, including legal and policy frameworks affecting WROs and WRNs.

Desirable Attributes

• Experience supporting multi-year granting, rapid response funding and/or movement-building initiatives.

• Prior experience with donor-funded, multi-year programs.

• A deep commitment to advancing women’s rights, feminist values, and local leadership.

• Ability to work independently, manage competing priorities, and solve complex challenges collaboratively.

How to Apply

If you are interested to be part of our dynamic team, exciting work environment and contribute to CARE Ethiopia’s mission and vision, please send your CV (not more than 3 pages) and cover letter (not more than one page) through Ethiojobs.

Use THIS LINK

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Passionate and dedicated candidates who meet the requirement are strongly encouraged to apply, especially women!

CARE seeks to improve the lives of the most marginalized, particularly women and girls. Our diversity is our strength. We encourage people from all backgrounds and experiences to apply.

CARE Ethiopia is committed to preventing all unwanted behavior at work. This includes sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse, and child abuse. We expect everyone who works for us to share this commitment by understanding and working within the CARE Safeguarding Policy and related framework. CARE Ethiopia has a zero-tolerance approach to any harm to, or exploitation of, a vulnerable adult or child by any of our staff, representatives, or partners.

CARE Ethiopia reserves the right to seek information from job applicants’ current and/or previous employers about incidents of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment the applicant may have been found guilty to have committed or about which an investigation was in the process of being carried out at the time of the termination of the applicant’s employment with that employer.

By submitting the application, the job applicant confirms that s/he has no objection to CARE Ethiopia requesting the information specified above. All offers of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and appropriate screening checks.