Global Nation
Senior Advisor – Digital Public Infrastructure / Inclusive Financial Services (East Africa)
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LOCATION: Remote, with an ability to travel to and within Sub-Saharan Africa.
ABOUT GLOBAL NATION
Global Nation is a think-do tank dedicated to building a more collaborative world. We use our four levers of thought leadership, strategic advisory, coalition building, and communications to improve international cooperation to face humanity’s great challenges, including climate change, pandemics, conflict and inequality. We are an agile team that combines policy experts, academics, strategic advisors and communications specialists.
We advise many of the world’s leading institutions, including the Gates Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Wellcome Trust, UN agencies, multilateral development banks, and national governments. We also receive grant funding to pursue thought-leadership and movement-building for a fairer international system. This includes our work on the Global Solidarity Report, a scorecard that is, for the first time, measuring the international community’s ability to tackle and withstand our generational challenges.
We are headquartered in London, but our team is distributed across the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Portugal, Nepal, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and UAE. Founded in 2022, Global Nation is led by development expert and author Hassan Damluji.
JOB SUMMARY
We are seeking an experienced Senior Advisor on Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) / Inclusive Financial Services (IFS) to provide expert technical input, identify opportunity areas for DPI and IFS partnerships, and ultimately help generate and develop investable project deal flow from East Africa for potential co-funding by the Gates Foundation and Middle Eastern donors and investors.
You will join a Gates Foundation–funded project exploring how to mobilise Middle East capital for DPI and IFS in Africa, with an initial focus on East Africa. As the programme’s dedicated DPI/IFS expert, you will support the project team with technical expertise on relevant DPI/IFS topics and opportunities in Africa, help drive on-the-ground relationship building with relevant counterparts (e.g., government agencies, technology companies, civil society organisations etc.), and lead the sourcing and structuring of high-quality, investable deals – beginning in East Africa – with the goal of developing them to the point where the foundation and Middle East investors could consider co-financing them.
You will:
- Provide expert insight on the African DPI/IFS landscape to the programme team and the foundation.
- Build and leverage relationships with governments, regulators, private-sector actors and regional partners.
- Source and originate high-potential DPI and IFS opportunities across East Africa.
- Develop deal archetypes that align Gates Foundation strategy with the interests of Middle East donors and investors.
- Structure a shortlist of viable deals into fully fleshed-out, investable concepts.
This is a hands-on, delivery-focused consulting role. You will work closely with Global Nation’s project team and coordinate with the Gates Foundation’s DPI/IFS and Middle East teams, while operating with a high degree of independence.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Subject-matter advisory & market intelligence
Provide expert insight on the African DPI/IFS landscape, in areas such as digital ID, inclusive payment systems, DPI for specific sectoral applications, regulatory frameworks and policies, and underlying East African / African national priorities linked to IFS/DPI, to shape the programme’s strategy.
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Support the project team with analysis on topics such as IFS/DPI market sizing inputs, partnership brainstorming, and recipient-country / recipient-institution knowledge
Stakeholder engagement & relationship-building
Build, maintain and leverage relationships with governments, central banks and regulators, private-sector players, development finance institutions, and regional partners and grantees.
Represent Global Nation credibly with senior counterparts across East Africa and, as needed, with Middle East investors.
Deal structuring & investment concept development
Develop deal concepts that reflect genuine common ground between the Gates Foundation’s IFS / DPI priorities, East African country priorities, and Middle East investor interest, and refine them with the project team and the Gates Foundation programme team.
Narrow the pipeline to 1-3+ high-potential deals and develop them into fully fleshed-out, investable concepts, with clarity on funding requirements, recipients, financial structure/instruments, key activities and timeline, validated commercial viability and a robust theory of change to impact.
Deal origination & pipeline development
Building on the deal concepts developed above, source high-potential DPI and IFS opportunities across East Africa (e.g. Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Rwanda), drawing on your own networks and market knowledge.
Conduct targeted country and stakeholder outreach to build an initial shortlist of viable deals.
Support the project team and the Gates Foundation in testing emerging partnership opportunities with potential Middle Eastern donors and investors to gauge appetite and refine pipeline opportunities.
Flag risks, feasibility considerations and emerging trends that affect deal viability.
Coordination & thought leadership
Coordinate closely with the Global Nation team so the work is well integrated and working towards project goals / programmatic outcomes.
Contribute to agenda-setting thought leadership outputs (e.g., reports, bulletins, social media videos etc.) that promote East Africa - Middle East DPI/IFS investment.
WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR
Requirements
We expect candidates for this Senior Advisor role to bring deep subject-matter expertise and a strong record of deal origination in the region. Example candidate profiles include ex-investment banking, DFI, or impact PE/VC professionals with African IFS/DPI deal experience; operators or founders from East African IFS/DPI-focused startups or scale-ups who have raised funding / developed partnerships; partnerships specialists who have brokered deals between funders, recipients and NGOs in the IFS/DPI space in East Africa; or independent consultants with deep, hands-on deal and project experience in IFS/DPI. The title and day rate will be tailored to experience, but a typical profile will include:
- Deep subject-matter expertise in DPI and/or inclusive financial services / digital financial services – ideally both (e.g. digital ID, interoperable and instant payment systems, data exchange, digital financial inclusion).
- A strong track record in East Africa, with established, senior-level relationships across governments, regulators and central banks, the private sector, and the donor and investor community.
- Demonstrated experience in deal origination, structuring, business development, capital mobilisation or investment, including the ability to find opportunities and develop them into investable concepts.
- Excellent written and verbal communication and senior stakeholder management, with the ability to develop concept notes, investment cases and briefings for senior audiences and cultivate and manage strong senior relationships.
- Ability to work independently, part-time and largely remotely, delivering high-quality outputs without close supervision.
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Ideal candidate
- Extensive background and network in the East Africa IFS/DPI space, from past experience in areas such as investment banking, DFIs, or impact PE/VC professionals with African deal experience; operators or founders from East African startups or scale-ups who have raised funding and built partnerships; partnerships specialists who have brokered deals between funders, recipients and NGOs in East Africa; or independent consultants with deep, hands-on deal and project experience.
- Hands-on familiarity with the DPI/IFS ecosystem and enabling technologies and key partners, including experience advancing women’s financial inclusion and gender-intentional design.
- Relevant regional languages (e.g. Swahili, Amharic).
- Based in, or a frequent traveller to, East Africa.
WHAT WE OFFER YOU
- Impact-driven work with one of the world’s most influential funders, at the frontier of digital public infrastructure and financial inclusion.
- A high-profile brief: the chance to shape a Gates Foundation programme and structure deals that could unlock significant co-investment for Africa.
- A flexible, project-based consulting arrangement, with a day rate commensurate with experience and responsibilities and potential for extension within the project and additional engagement on future DPI/IFS projects
- A small, committed, mission-driven team where your contributions will be highly visible and meaningful.
- A deep commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racism in our culture, beliefs, systems and processes.
DETAILS
- Contract type: Consultant (day-rate, project-based).
- Time commitment and duration: 2 days per week for the Phase 1 of the project from November 2026 to February 2027, and 1 day per week for a potential Phase 2 from March – August 2027 based on mutually agreed project extension.
- Compensation: Competitive consulting day-rate, commensurate with experience. Reasonable, pre-approved travel expenses reimbursed separately.
- Start date: Expected to start by November 2026
- Application deadline: 4 September 2026 at 23:59 GMT
HOW TO APPLY
If you are ready to embark on an exciting journey to make a difference on a global scale, we encourage you to apply for this position.
Please complete this online form: https://forms.gle/NGXLPdUYD1ah1G1z7
Only successful candidates will be contacted.
At Global Nation, we value diversity and are committed to equal opportunity employment. Applicants from all backgrounds, including individuals with disabilities, are encouraged to apply.
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