Linda Lisa Kabwila-Kalenga
Johannesburg,LI
Summary
Accomplished Resource Mobilisation and Partnership Practitioner with rich experience at UNFPA, UN Women, UNICEF, World Vision, Child Fund USA, and OXFAM. Expert in developing and implementing impactful resource mobilisation strategies that foster successful partnerships. Achieved and surpassed fundraising targets consistently while enhancing donor engagement and developing innovative funding and financing programs. Skilled in cultivating strong external relationships and managing a diverse funding and financing portfolio.
Overview
31
31
years of professional experience
Work History
Regional Resource Mobilisation and Partnerships Adviser
UNFPA
01.2018 - Current
- Currently, I am leading the Resource Mobilization and Partnerships Unit at the Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office.
- Raising at least USD 200 million in cash revenue annually for 23 countries.
- Developed the Resource Mobilization and Partnership Strategy for the Regional Program 2021–2025.
- Developed the Innovative Financing Strategy and capacity-building materials to demystify innovative finance (How-to guide on innovative finance).
- I have built a pipeline of innovative finance programs, including the first-ever Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health Development Impact Bond in Kenya, the Rwanda Public-Private Partnership - Social Impact Bond, and 15 programs at the ideation stage to be developed into innovative financing programs.
- Developed the How-to Guide on Private Sector Engagement and rolled out the training in 19 country offices, and have grown the Private Sector Portfolio, partnering with Bill and Melinda Gates, Google, Johnson & Johnson, Paul Allen Foundation, Children Investment Fund, World Remit, and Filatex, just to mention a few.
- The IFI funding portfolio includes funds from the African Development Bank, the Africa Climate Change Fund, and a Multi-Country Climate Change Program, as well as funds from the World Bank in DRC, Burundi, Angola, Mozambique, and Madagascar.
- Raising 60% of funding from government donors (USAID, FCDO, Swedish SIDA, Global Affairs Canada, DFTAD-Canada, EU, ECHO, Denmark, Norway, SIDA-Switzerland).
- Developed flagship programs for middle-income countries, which are tools for fundraising and donor communications.
- Support the design of advocacy and campaign agendas that lead to strategic partnerships and resource mobilization.
- Developed and piloted a results-based management training for resource mobilization and donor relations.
- Developed a template for Resource Mobilization and Partnerships Strategy for Country Offices, which headquarters will be replicating globally.
- My role requires that I ensure Country Offices have explicit external engagement and partnership plans, while ensuring they have set informed and realistic resource mobilization targets.
- I also maintain a pipeline tracker and have classified country offices to provide adequate support.
- I also have a donor communications plan, which includes producing a resource mobilization newsletter, donor briefs, and social media to enhance donor visibility.
- Position the Regional Office by providing real-time political intelligence and development trends to senior leadership across the organization.
- I lead in donor agreement processing and clearance for the region.
- We are rolling out digital fundraising for middle-income countries and raised funds for Cyclone Idai and Kenneth through digital fundraising.
- Responsible for developing briefing notes, talking points, and all presentations on donor engagement and partnerships for the regional director.
OIC Resource Mobilisation- Strategic Partnerships Division and Deputy Director Resource Mobilisation Advisor
UN WOMEN HQ
07.2016 - 01.2018
- Lead the Public/Government Donor team of 13 Public Partnership Specialists, focusing on 146 Member States and Government Donors for Core (Regular Resource) and Non-Core (Other Resources).
- I had seven direct line reports (3 P4s, 2 P3s, 1 GS6 staff, and 1 P5), leading and managing the performance of the team, and managing the budget for the Resource Mobilisation Branch.
- Driving the development, execution, and monitoring of the Resource Mobilization Annual Workplan and ensuring it is entered adequately into RMS.
- Co-led in the creation and steering of UN Women’s resource mobilization strategy at all levels of the organization.
- Represent the organization and provide advisory support to the UN Women Executive Board and the Audit Advisory Committee.
- Restructured the team to make it more efficient and service delivery-focused by establishing three departments, namely the Major Donors team, the Business Development team, and the Projection and Analysis team, who in turn develop, maintain, and share knowledge and intelligence, including political intelligence, to ensure UN Women is informed and positioned to efficiently generate and harness opportunities to meet its resource mobilization targets.
- Provision of strategic guidance and support to UN Women Country and Regional Offices in donor intelligence, grants acquisition and management, donor agreement processing, and quality donor reporting.
- Support country and regional offices in developing and implementing innovative, locally tailored partnerships and resource mobilization strategies.
- Established and operationalized Resource Mobilization Learning Cafés and a Community of Practice to provide a capacity-building and networking platform for Country Office Leaders and Resource Mobilization focal points.
- Led the establishment of the Abu Dhabi Liaison Office for Gulf Countries.
- Provide advisory and leadership support to five liaison offices (Tokyo, Abu Dhabi, Copenhagen, Brussels, Washington, D.C.).
- Established a resource mobilization mechanism for flagship program initiatives.
- Develop, plan, and lead the execution of global advocacy and high-profile outreach events and campaigns (HeForShe, Step It Up, 50/50 Campaign, Equal Pay) for strategic partnerships and resource mobilization, taking into account donor-specific interests and priorities.
- Developed and implemented a donor visibility strategy.
- Responsible for strategically positioning the Under-Secretary-General/Executive Director of UN Women.
- Serve as a principal advisor, representative, and interlocutor with governments, the private sector, and civil society in harnessing and strengthening strategic partnerships for UN Women.
- Act as a critical resource for real-time intelligence for UN Women’s senior leadership.
- Ensure effective management through clear direction, resource mobilization projections, and target setting.
- Provide advisory support to the private sector and national committees.
Regional Director Program Development and Resource Mobilisation
World Vision
01.2013 - 07.2016
- Leading the following departments:- Resource Acquisition and Management, Health, HIV & Nutrition (HHN), Education, Resilience & Livelihoods (R&L), Water Sanitation and Health
- Program Quality, Monitoring and Evaluation and Learning
- Steered the development and roll out of the organisations Regional Office Strategy Development process
- Ensured that the Technical teams support all SAR National Offices in developing robust Technical Approaches (TA) & Technical Programmes (TPs) adapted to their specific contexts of the nine countries in East and Southern Africa, and these are rolled-out and implemented successfully to achieve Child Wellbeing Targets (CWT)
- Managing a team of 6 Technical Directors (PhDs)
- Ensuring that each sector has a functional unit in all nine country offices, each with a strategy, theory of change, annual plan, and budget
- Established World Vision Regional Resource Development Unit for Southern Africa
- Established Grants Acquisition and Management (GAM) Units in all 9 National Offices in Southern Africa
- Established 9 Gifts in Kind (GIK) Units in 9 National Offices ( Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland)
- Developed National Office GAM strategies for all 9 National Offices
- Developed Regional Resource Mobilisation Strategy (2015 -2017), focusing on Bi-lateral, Multi-lateral donors, Private donors i.e Corporates, Mining Industry and Individuals, including Gifts in Kind
- Exceeding a fundraising target of USD 100 000 000 (One hundred million dollars) annually
- Conducted Donor and Strategic donor mapping and have enhanced donor engagement at Regional and National Office level
- Conducted GAM Capacity Assessments in all National Offices and developed multi-year capacity development plans
- Monitor all active Grants in all 9 National Offices and ensure donor compliance, quality reporting and quality Program Management
- Established reporting alert system in the region
- Was the liaison between national offices, support offices, and all donors?
- Established portfolio management system.
- I have operationalized a regional GAM hub (a virtual network of all GAM staff in the region, including support office staff) and a GIK community of practice.
- Providing information for policy development and management decision-making on resource development issues.
- Developed and Provided training in Corporate Engagement, and the whole Resource Development Cycle (Packaging of Communication materials, Pre-positioning, Proposal Development, Program Management/ Grant Compliance, to Grant Close Up)
- Recruited 22 (9 GAM Directors, 9 GIK Coordinators and 4 Regional based staff) Resource Development Unit Staff and line managing them (7 expatriates and15 local staff)
- All Chief’s of Party have a dotted line to the Resource Development Director
- Rolled out digital fundraising platform and child sponsorship for World Vision South Africa
- Hands on work on Proposal development
- Managing 57 active grants in 9 countries for the following donors:-USAID, USDA, DFAT-AUSTRALIA, DFID, Global fund, EU, ECHO, OFDA, JICA, Cooperate grants (CHEVRON, EXXON MOBIL, MAERSK, TOTAL just to mention a few)
Regional Business Development Manager Eastern and Southern Africa
ChildFund International USA
04.2011 - 01.2013
- Leading in the establishment of a grants portfolio in 6 countries in Africa (Kenya, Zambia, Uganda, Ethiopia, Mozambique and Angola)
- Developing tools for business development to effectively respond to USAID RFA’s, and enhancing a diversified donor base
- Working with country teams to increase competitiveness to meet pre-solicitation requirements
- In 12 months have managed to solicit funding totalling to USD 32 million in the Region and a total of USD 40 million in the pipeline
- Cultivating strong relationships between Country Offices with donors and strategic partners
- Provide leadership support to grant development capacity within ChildFund
- Lead in the writing of concept papers and proposals including developing multimillion budgets to respond to funding opportunities
- Liaising with donors and responding to donor queries and communications
- Successfully established donor intelligence mechanisms, developing Fundraising plans in the six countries and ongoing donor mapping including analysing funding trends
- Act as Regional Director whenever required
Program Development and Funding Manager
Oxfam GB
12.2008 - 04.2011
- Worked with Oxfam GB in Malawi from 2008 to June 2010, acquired an international post with Oxfam GB Indonesia in the same capacity
- Lead the development and submission of proposals to the European Commission, ECHO, OFDA, DFID, UNICEF, NORAD, the Scottish government, Cooperative Group, Funders Collaborative for Children to mention a few and managed to mobilise approximately GBP 64 million
- Effectively managed a portfolio of 32 donor contracts and ensured that Oxfam is compliant with donor requirements, and ensured reports are of quality and submitted on time
- Led the Country Office strategy development in line with arising development issues and donor environment
- Proactively built relationships and cultivated them with donors, UN Clusters, government and development partners to pre-position Oxfam to access funds, have a platform for advocacy and coordination
- Coordinated the development of proposals and built the capacity of staff
- Took the lead in the development and implementation of a program funding strategy and country funding plan
- Provided training to Programme staff on project cycle management, monitoring and evaluation, Compliance issues, Program development and Report writing skills
- Budget development, tracking and management of expenditure, compliance and reporting
- Point of contact for all donors and responding to queries and handling crises i.e
- Fraudulent partners
- Conduct partner assessments, risk assessment and capacity building of partners in donor contract management in finance, logistics, and programs
- Monitor the programs ensure there are being implemented and achieving agreed objectives, strategies and outputs
- Coordinate all donor visits and fundraising events
- Secretary for Regional Program Governance Group, prepared information for management Affiliate and management meetings ensure all documentation and reports are in order
- Acted as Country Director whenever required
OVC and Child Protection Officer
UNICEF
01.2005 - 12.2008
- Developed partnerships with civil authorities and NGO’s at national level to address OVC and Child Protection issues including:- OVC and Child Protection Systems Strengthening from community to National level and funded programs and established functional National networks on Child labour, Children with disabilities, Child Trafficking, Children in conflict with the law, Children living in and on the streets, Orphan care and support, Early Childhood Development, Prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse of women and children during humanitarian crisis (Conducting rapid assessments and designing interventions and implementation)
- Worked with the Malawi Defense Force and Malawi Police Service in developing Child Protection manuals and ensured they are incorporated in Peacekeeping and recruitment training curriculum
- Facilitated the enforcement of the UN Code of Conduct for Humanitarian workers for Military personnel, Malawi Police and partners
- Worked closely with Government and Civil Society, advocated for policy and legislature development, Child Protection Bill, Anti Human Trafficking Bill, Anti Gender Based Violence law, review of the National OVC policy
- Developed and successfully implemented a Nationwide/ multi-sector Zero tolerance campaign on child abuse and Stop Child Abuse Campaign
- Mobilized resources for a humanitarian crisis, Early Childhood Development, Child Protection, OVC for National Level programs
- Developed partner assessment tools, carried out partner assessments and reviewed proposals from civil society and government ensuring sound programmatic and financial approaches, and recommended release of funds
- Grants management and timely reporting to 8 major donors
- Generating expenditure reports and compiling qualitative donor reports ensuring donor requirements
- Contributed to increasing Government and Civil Society’s technical knowledge of child protection issues through training and technical assistance by upgrading Social Welfare college in Malawi Magomero and developed training modules to upgrade Social Workers and a training manual for Para Social Workers and facilitated the training and deployment of 800 Para-Social workers
- Developed and implemented annual work plans with the government, Civil Society and other partners
- Ensured quality procurement of supplies and distribution of supplies for all program partners
- Built capacity of Civil Society on Women and Child Protection investigation skills and referral mechanisms
- Managed the general administration duties, liquidations of funds, budgeting, compliance management for the OVC and Child Protection Section in UNICEF
Rights of the Child Advisor
Plan International
01.2002 - 12.2005
- Set up the Rights of the Child Unit and replicated it to all Program Unit areas, which included, developing a Plan Malawi Child Protection Policy, code of conduct and a Child Protection Country Strategic Plan for 2002 -2007
- Successfully raised funds from NORAD, FINLAND, UNICEF, Sweden and Plan national offices for the country program and emergency programming
- Established networking systems in Plan impact districts uniting Government, Police, District Assemblies and communities resulting District Child Protection Technical Working Groups and community referral committees
- Supervised 17 focal Child Rights Community Development Facilitators
- Built their capacity in Child Rights, programming and grants management
- Worked at national level take the lead in coordinating Child Protection work
- Designed and facilitated Child Participation methods in Sponsorship Communication
- Identified training needs of staff ensured implementation of the training plan to build the capacity of staff to be able to implement child rights, gender and community empowerment program effectively
- Including ensuring that Plan adopts a Child Rights Based approach to programming
- Evaluated the OVC and Child Rights Program were leading to raising the profile of the Child Rights Unit
- Designed advocacy programs on OVC and child protection (Child Parliament, Child led Radio program “Timveni”, Birth Registration), therefore raising Plan Malawi’s identity and profile
- Handling of Reported Child Abuse cases including Gender Based Violence cases
- Conducting investigations, report compilation, referral and reintegration of victims of abuse
- Authored OVC and Child Protection training materials
- Ensured Child Participation in the development of the Country Program Outline
Program DIRECTOR (USAID GRANT) Youth Alert
Population Services International
01.2002 - 12.2002
- Took lead in the branding of the Project with Youth consultation
- Enhanced partnership with Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, Civil Society and National Youth Council in the school's program
- Line Management of Youth Alert! Communication staff members
- Developed a two year strategic plan for Youth Alert!
- Developed Youth Alert! Communication and Advocacy program
- Youth Alert! Radio program and in-school presentation on Adolescent Reproductive health, Peer Education project all centred on HIV/AIDS prevention and Life Skills
- Recruitment and Performance Appraisal of Staff
- Mobilised resources for Youth Alert! From KFW, USAID, John Hopkins and UNICEF
- Management and Administration of the Youth Alert! Section
Child Protection Officer
Save the Children (UK)
01.1999 - 12.2002
- Managed the internalisation of the Child Protection Policy for all Save the Children UK staff
- Trained staff, stakeholders and partners on Child Protection
- Handling reported Child exploitation and abuse cases
- Facilitate Children workshops at an international level
- (Japan, UN Special Session on Children, Nepal, Kenya, Egypt)
- Successfully raised funds from UNICEF, DFID and HACI
- Focal Point on Gender and Child Protection
- Training of Trainer in the Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA)
- Focal point for all reports and investigations on PSEA cases
Area Manager (Mchinji and Kauma)
Save the Children (UK)
01.1999 - 12.2002
- Developed partnerships at District level with (DACC, DECC)
- Developed annual work plans
- Built capacity of Community Based Organizations, Youth Organizations working on HIV/AIDS prevention, Home Based Care, and supporting vulnerable children including orphans
- Provide technical support to Orphan care programs
- Monitoring Home Based Care and training care givers
- Facilitating the development of Memory books and Wills for communities
- Develop and institutionalise HIV/AIDS workplace policy
- Conduct HIV/AIDS workplace activities
- Line Managing Community Based Facilitators working in Food Security, Water and Sanitation, Emergency Response and HIV/AIDS
- (76 staff members)
- Managed the operations of the Area office, (finance, administration and logistics (warehousing)
- Mobilized and trained the District Humanitarian Committee
Executive Director and Founder
Youth Arm Organization
01.1994 - 12.1999
- Management of the organisation
- Program design
- Resource Mobilization and grants management
- (UNICEF, USAID, DCHR, GTZ)
- Program coordination and management
Education
Masters in Business Administration -
ESAMI
11.2009
Graduate Diploma - Youth in Development Work
University of Malawi, Zimbabwe Open University
12.2003
Certificate - Project Evaluation
Management Systems International
USA12.2000
Diploma - Public Relations
Institute of Commercial Management
UK12.1997
Skills
- Excellent command of Microsoft Word, Excel, and organizational systems, as well as grants acquisition and management tools
- Presentations and public speaking
- Group facilitation
- Goal setting
- Relationship building
- Strategic planning
- Conflict resolution
- Training and mentoring
- Team Leadership
Languages
- English, fluent in written and spoken
- Chichewa, native
- Tswana, basic
References
- Carlos Piedrasanta, Global Director Grants Acquisition and Management, World Vision, 268 Kent Avenue, Washington, DC, USA
- Dr Khetsiwe Dhlamini, Chief of Staff, UN Women, 220 E 42nd Street, New York
- Dr Justine Coulson, Deputy Regional Director, UNFPA, 9 Simba Road, Sunninghill, Johannesburg, South Africa
Personal Information
- Citizenship: Malawi
- Date of Birth: 01/18/78
Timeline
Regional Resource Mobilisation and Partnerships Adviser
UNFPA
01.2018 - Current
OIC Resource Mobilisation- Strategic Partnerships Division and Deputy Director Resource Mobilisation Advisor
UN WOMEN HQ
07.2016 - 01.2018
Regional Director Program Development and Resource Mobilisation
World Vision
01.2013 - 07.2016
Regional Business Development Manager Eastern and Southern Africa
ChildFund International USA
04.2011 - 01.2013
Program Development and Funding Manager
Oxfam GB
12.2008 - 04.2011
OVC and Child Protection Officer
UNICEF
01.2005 - 12.2008
Rights of the Child Advisor
Plan International
01.2002 - 12.2005
Program DIRECTOR (USAID GRANT) Youth Alert
Population Services International
01.2002 - 12.2002
Child Protection Officer
Save the Children (UK)
01.1999 - 12.2002
Area Manager (Mchinji and Kauma)
Save the Children (UK)
01.1999 - 12.2002
Executive Director and Founder
Youth Arm Organization
01.1994 - 12.1999
Masters in Business Administration -
ESAMI
Graduate Diploma - Youth in Development Work
University of Malawi, Zimbabwe Open University
Certificate - Project Evaluation
Management Systems International
Diploma - Public Relations
Institute of Commercial Management
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