Legal Programmes Coordinator

About The Organisation

The Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (ISLA) is a Pan-African and feminist non-profit organisation which engages the rule of law within African domestic and regional courts to advance women’s human rights and sexual rights. ISLA’s work is based on the belief that strategic litigation is a powerful tool for social change because it has the capacity to work in multidimensional ways, both within a given context and, critically, across contexts. We believe that strategic litigation can reframe understandings of entitlements before the law, challenge legal discourse on human rights violations, hold States and non-State actors accountable to violations of human rights and develop new norms. This is achieved by building networks across the continent that work in strategic litigation.

Overview of Work

ISLA seeks to appoint Legal Programmes Coordinator on a 1 year Fixed-Term contract, who will provide administrative and operations support to the Knowledge Production for Social Change (KPSC), Strengthening Capacity to Litigate Strategically (SCLS) and Building Support for Social Justice (BPSJ) thematic areas in line with institutional and programme policies and procedures. The Legal Programmes Coordinator will report to the Executive Director / Acting Litigation Director and will perform high-level administrative support for the legal team and with the legal administrative aspects of their practices including case management, document preservation, collection, review, and production.

Minimum Responsibilities

PROJECT COORDINATION

Planning – (Annual / Quarterly plans at organisation-wide level)

Organising the directorate’s process of doing organisation wide planning – set up meetings for consultation, for people to agree and have a shared understanding on the planning.
Work with operations to confirm managers have all the information that they need to develop their unit plans, checking for compliance before consolidating.
Consolidating various unit plans into directorate’s plan to make sure there are no information gaps on the templates.
Reviewing the directorate and unit plans for implementability;
Ensuring people’s quarterly workplans are translated on Asana;
Collaborating with the Director to finalise the Directorate’s plans and ensure a shared understanding of the work that must happen in the directorate in each quarter.

Coordination support for Establishment and Strengthening

Developing templates or task lists for implementing typical ISLA activities;
Adapting the templates as needed for each different project;
Ensuring the tasks and subtasks are well designed in a way that makes sense because it impacts on project flow and tracking;
Plot tasks on Asana in advance to avoid surprise tasks on a daily basis to enable staff to forecast and plan their week, month, etc.
Use RASCIG template to guide planning and the development of tasks.

Strategic coherence

When planning, intentionally include the reflection on the strategy, learnings, need for review and any adaptations needed.

Project design, monitoring and troubleshooting

Designing all projects on Asana and ensuring all steps of the project from start to finish are well thought out and plotted;
Monitoring the projects, generating regular status updates to keep the team informed of the progress and any bottlenecks;
Weekly update and priority setting meetings with the Directors, troubleshooting to resolve any challenges;
Bring the team together and track the delegation of tasks to Managers;
Generating task status update of work for the supported units to monitor progress on individual tasks.

Compliance and with Organisational processes

Using existing systems and templates to ensure the units are compliant with organisational processes;
Providing support in assessing understanding on usage of operational systems (i.e., server, ASANA, document labelling, planning and tracking tools etc.), conducting periodic checks for any support required within the team;
Efficiently and timeously manage/ organise projects or activities from inception, throughout implementation to conclusion.
Continuously implement projects as per the coordination checklist, making amendment as needed to reflect changes in systems and processes

PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION

Provide Administrative, Logistics and coordination support to Managers on PKSC, SCLS and BPSJ thematic areas;
Convene Project initiation Meetings and complete the relevant template;
Liaising with communications consultants on communication related to the unit;
Organise and attend planning meetings for projects for a properly conceptualised project as outcome;
Organise correspondence with external consultants.

COORDINATORS LINKAGE WITH DIRECTORS AND MANAGERS

Convene weekly priority setting meetings;
Aligning Asana with conversations from Outlook;
Provide support and document public engagements;
Provide implementation support for managers in PKSC, SCLS and BPSJ.

COORDINATORS LINKAGE WITH OPERATIONS

Communicate with HR any date changes of the planned HR compliance activities for the units;
Support units to ensure effective and efficient Finance by coordinating, monitoring and tracking all finance activities from budgets, monthly cashflow forecasts, payments etc.;
Support units in preparation of procurement plans and following procurement processes for areas of work;
Provide support in resource mobilisation and grant monitoring activities.

Minimum Job Requirements

EDUCATION

Bachelor’s Degree preferred.
An equivalent combination of education and/or experience may substitute for the degree when the experiences are closely related to the duties of the job.
5 years or more experience in coordinating and administrating programme activities for non-profits and 1 year of experience in a legal environment.

SKILLS & EXPERIENCE

Excellent written and oral communication skills.
Excellent organisational skills and the ability to prioritise multiple tasks, projects, and assignments.
Demonstrated ability to quickly and effectively problem solve and troubleshoot independently.
Willingness to work independently in the direction of others, and in a team-focused environment.
Exceptional diligence, accuracy, and data tracking skills.
Ability to learn quickly and succeed in a rapidly changing environment.

PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES

A courteous, professional, and cooperative attitude.
Ability to work constructively and professionally across multiple issue areas and under the pressure of deadlines.
Ability to work well in a diverse group;
Demonstrated commitment to human rights, feminism, and social justice.
Highest standards of excellence and integrity at all times and to all persons.

Additional Information

Other Essentials Specific to the Job

Must be bilingual and fluent in both English and French.
Able and willing to travel occasionally within and out of South Africa.
Commitment to the overall aims and values of ISLA, Feminism and Pan Africanism
Expectation of occasional work outside regular weekday hours, as required to do the job.

Preference will be given to qualifying women applicants.

Salary: This position offers a competitive total cost to company salary of R480,000.00 per annum, and commensurate with experience.

Closing Date: 24 January 2022 (Or open until the position is filled)

Suitable candidates who meet the requirements for this position are invited to click here to complete an application form.

ISLA’s job application form replaces the need to submit a CV as we prefer to have standardised information provided by all candidates. Upon submission, the applications will be received by the ISLA recruitment team for selection. Only shortlisted candidates will receive feedback on their application with further requirements. Late applications will not be considered.