Leila Waiguru

Business Development/Resource Mobilization

• Provided overall technical oversight for the development of fundraising and partnership (Resource mobilization) strategies across 26 country offices in Eastern and Southern Africa by providing advice on innovative initiatives for increasing financial support.
• Proactively supported country offices to identify and track donor funding opportunities from public, governmental, and institutional donors by regularly sharing information about priority donors' business forecasts, pre-solicitations, funding strategies, call for proposal's technical and cost requirements and notices of funding opportunities to support the organizational resource mobilization strategy.
• Successfully led and accompanied program and proposal development cycle of an annual average of 150 grant applications to ensure country specific and multi-country bids meet high quality standards, are responsive and competitive based on donor guidelines
• Successfully led country offices in securing funding over 100 million Euros a year with a 40% success rate from institutional donors such as BMZ, NORAD, DANIDA, USAID/BHA (Somalia), FCDO, CDC, GAC, EU, ECHO (Somalia), UN Agencies, and many more
• Appointed as the EU grants regional focal person after successfully supporting SOS Ghana, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda and Nigeria to win their first ever EU funding

Capacity Development in Resource Mobilization

• Provided guidance, policy advice and market intelligence to the senior organizational leadership, management and staff on partnership and resource mobilization strategies for raising resources from institutional donors;
• Regularly supported virtually and regularly traveled to country offices to support and strengthen capacity of field based staff in scoping for funding opportunities, partner and donor mapping, relationship development with key partners/stakeholders, donor engagement strategies, proposal development; grant cycle management and donor contract management;
• Successfully set up business development department in 10 country offices since 2016 and has onboarded and supervised more than 15 National business development managers through trainings and mentorship;

Donor Contract Management and Compliance

• Led contract negotiations for new programme funding, funding extensions and reprogramming with donors and coordinated actively coordinated support from other to manage difficult cases and resolve issues with donors;
• Improved grant management and funding tracking by introducing the use of Salesforce to keep up to date all relevant organizational databases, such as on donors, on projected incoming resources
• Actively led grant view meetings to ensure high level of accountability in donor reporting and implementation of funded programs, and identified strategies to strengthen financial management and grant compliance working closely with other organization units

Partnership Development and Networking

• Provided technical support to country teams in partnership management processes with international and local actors across the region including, teaming processes and negotiation of roles within proposal consortia as well as preparation for and participation in relevant partner engagement with prospective prime and/or sub-awardee partner agencies, academic institutions and private sector entities;
• Represented the organization in multiple regional platforms, global thematic conferences, donor meetings, and cluster coordination/technical working groups to improve the visibility of the organizational work
• Successfully hosted an annual regional business development manager's network meeting to enhance peer learning and working relationships across

Resource Mobilization

• Increased the organization's income by 20% by developing multiple winning proposals to UNFPA, SIDA and USAID, DFID (FCDO) etc. contributing to the achievement of the strategic program direction and growth of the organization

Project Management and Monitoring

• Managed a grant portfolio of Community Health Programs in 6 regions focusing on HIV prevention, care and treatment, MNCH and FP service delivery projects funded by institutional donors including USAID, DFID; PATH International; UN Agencies and SIDA through ERIKS Development Partners
• Provided overall leadership and management to the region's programs through periodic field visits and ensuring that program implementation strategies are compatible with overall program goals and objectives according to donor contract
• Developed, managed and monitored implementation of DREAMS projects, a multi-actor program funded by PEPFAR
• Coordinated and reviewed all program donor reports and new project proposals in collaboration with the program department, technical staff, operations and finance departments to ensure completeness and timely submission
• Monitored, supervised and reported budgets and project deliverables status for timely execution of project work plans as outlined in sub-agreements with donors
• Ensured program assessments are conducted timely in accordance with donor specific requirements, information is analyzed and shared with all stakeholders; and appropriate actions are effected by program technical staff in collaboration with clients, and partners

Partnership Development

• Developed and implemented a regional partnership strategy as aligned with and contributing to the overall organizational strategic objectives
• Liaised with national and county authorities, donors, NGOs, and other strategic partners such as UNCEF, UNFPA and UNESCO by coordinating and attending strategic partnership forums to strengthened SRHR among adolescents and young people;
• Provided technical support and mentorship to county teams in identifying viable, active local NGO partners in consortium formation; developing and implementing capacity building initiatives for local government and local NGO/CSO partners;
• Conducted regular operations research of programs to support product innovation to meet dynamics needs of the international development sector
• Represented the organization in department in stakeholder/ partnership meetings and forums such as the Health NGO Network (HENNET), donor round table meetings, Ministry of Health and Education Technical Working Groups etc.
• Facilitated expansion of the organization's health programs to Uganda in partnership with Straight Talk Foundation and Makere University

Project Management

• In charge of planning and implementation of projects funded by DFID through Population Services Kenya, Swedish Children Mission and UNFPA to increase young people's access to SRHR information and services
• Coordinated of all project activities including preparation of work plans, Project monitoring plans (PMP), county budgets and donor reports
• Documented success stories and presentations of the impact of project's interventions
• Designed, implemented and evaluated all trainings based on adult learning principles and behavior change theories
• Monitored, supervised and reported budgets and project deliverables status for timely execution of project work plans as outlined in sub-agreements with donors
• Ensured regional monthly reports and quarterly donor reports are submitted to the M&E department

Resource Mobilization

• Supported regular operations research of programs to support product innovation to meet dynamics needs of the international development sector
• Participated in various proposal development processes, which resulted in approval of $250,000 by PSI for a period of 3 years and a 3 year grant worth $180,000 by ERIK Development partners amongst others
• Contributed in county resource mobilization strategies and operational plans

External Relations

• Represented the Health department in stakeholder meetings and forums as appropriate including Ministry of Health Technical Working Groups and Health NGOs Network (HENNET)
• Championed implementation of the East and Southern African states (ESA) ministerial commitment to include Age Appropriate Comprehensive Sexuality Education in the school Curriculum through advocacy among key stakeholders in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, UNFPA , Global Communities and UNESCO
• Provided institution capacity strengthening and mentorship for Youth networks, Community Based Organizations, Community Health Volunteers and County Health Management Teams on provision of youth friendly services and SRH programming;
• Maintained a database of potential donors and recommended funding opportunities in consultation with the Partnership and Programs Department
• Supported partners identification and analysis to establish Global and regional networks like Youth Advisory Panel-UNFPA and Advance Family Planning among others to support program goals
• Organized partnership and networking forums with stakeholders within the counties for strategic partnership formation
• Participated in the organizing committees for the 2015 World AIDS Day at University of Nairobi and the All In campaign to End Adolescent HIV by UNAIDS

• Supported the design, planning and implementation of a project funded by DFID through Populations Services International (PSI) that aimed at increasing access to quality SRH information and services to adolescents, youth, young women and men through the Community Health Structure
• Supported development of content for the organization's website and expanding project's reach through the use of various social media platforms
• Disseminated HIV prevention and Sexual reproductive Health information to University students, out of school youth and men and women in the community through training and small group sessions
• Strengthened the capacity of Community Health Workers to organize and coordinate Behavior Change Communication (BCC) activities
• Established and maintained productive partnerships with key community stakeholders for effective implementation of projects
• Participated in proposal writing for resource mobilization for Project scale-up and sustainability
• Supported in project research (operations research) in order to formulate new designs and innovation in organizational programs

• Led company promotions, products and services to clients to increase brand awareness and overall revenue.
• Created social media content across multiple platforms according to content calendars and promotion schedules.
• Took photographs and videos during special events for promotional materials and social media pages.
• Led media engagements to schedule interviews and issue company statements.
• Managed internal company correspondence by delivering documents, memos and newsletters to appropriate personnel.
• Improved team efficiency via training in sales, marketing and promotions.
• Developed business bids and Expression of Interests for potential clients
• Supported various clients' account management
• Assisted the development of communication strategies for corporate and Non-for Profit clients
• Supported the development of communication strategies to meet client needs and budget
• Conducted desktop research to support brand strategy development
• Facilitated partner relations with Media, relevant Government line ministries, corporate in support of Client's Brand Execution
• Handled social media engagement on various platforms such as Facebook, Twitter & website (managing and uploading content on the respective pages)
• Designed company outreach and fundraising campaigns to engage with customers and other businesses.

● Assisted in developing various SRHR project proposals in for donor funding

● Supported planning and implementation of a project funded by FHI 360

● Assisted in planning and conducting Peer Education training and Thematic outreach events

● Prepared Peer Education training content

● Successfully facilitated sessions during Peer Education Training Programs with minimal supervision

● Facilitated training sessions of Reproductive Health in the Peer Education program

● Supervised and mentored trainees and peer educator supervisors

● Managed online social networks (Facebook and twitter accounts) and bulk text messages that were used to disseminate Health messaging for behavior change amongst the students in universities

● Helped in planning and implementation of HIV Testing and Counseling servicing outreaches

● In collaboration with the M&E Officer I collected data on project activities and wrote project technical reports

● Created partnerships within the project sites (with the University administration, churches & student bodies) for the attainment of project goals