View Vacancy - UK-China Infrastructure Manager (40/18 JHB)

Main purpose of job:

This is a great opportunity to deliver a key component of the £1.2bn cross-government Prosperity Fund. New and innovative, the Fund represents a step change in the UK Government’s (HMG) approach to promoting economic development and prosperity overseas.

Your job will be to help define and implement the circa £3m Southern Africa component of the UK-China Infrastructure Alliance, working from the Southern Africa Prosperity Fund team in the British High Commission, Pretoria. Should funding be confirmed post March 2019 the role would be likely to also include work on implementing the UK-China Alliance in priority East African markets. The objectives are to:

• Build on work now gathering pace in South Africa to build an alliance with Chinese Government and Chinese firms in this market
• Identify priority projects, working closely with and guiding the work of our Industry Strategic Partner, Turner and Townsend
• Match UK and Chinese firms to support collaborative bids and delivery of those projects
• Direct programme interventions (ODA and non-ODA) towards achieving progress in delivery of those projects, and UK firm participation. We aim to identify and publicise at least one project this financial year (before March 2019)
• Roll-out this template approach into other markets in the region as appropriate and according to prioritisation agreement with line manager and in consultation with relevant leads in Beijing and London.

Roles and responsibilities:

The cross-government Prosperity Fund (PF) was established under the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) with the primary aim of supporting growth in recipient countries and thereby reducing poverty. As such, it represents a key component of the prosperity pillar of the UK Aid Strategy. But the Fund uniquely focuses on promoting growth in ODA-eligible middle income countries, which are home to nearly 70% of the world’s poor and where the development challenges remain significant, but at the same time are important business partners and drivers of prosperity. By delivering high impact, strategic multi-year programmes, across high opportunity countries, regions and sectors, the Fund will help create opportunities for international business, including UK companies. As the UK leaves the EU, an even more outward-looking global Britain investing and trading with the fastest growing markets will become increasingly important.

Around 25 multi-year programmes have so far been endorsed by the Ministerial Board. These cover trade, anti-corruption, infrastructure, business environment, health, future cities, education, financial services, energy and outward investment. For more information, see the Prosperity Fund Annual Report 2016/17.

As part of this, we plan to spend around £3m (combination of ODA and non-ODA in Southern Africa) on developing the region’s infrastructure through establishing and implementing a UK-Chinese partnership. This will match the skills and experience of our two countries and our firms to deliver a world-beating solution to partner countries’ priority projects that stimulates and unlocks economic development.

You’ll need to be mindful of interest at the very top of UK Government in this agenda, across the various Departments. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a priority for China in Africa, and the UK needs to position itself to take advantage of that commercially, while steering the unique support this can provide towards the projects that matter most to Southern African countries, and therefore deliver the best economic development impact. Similarly, there will be great interest in host countries in this initiative as two G20 partners representing significant private FDI interests joining forces to address their infrastructure requirements. You will need to be sensitive to that without raising expectations beyond what is realistic. This is about a long term partnership but we’ll be expected to deliver early wins and this region is the first to roll out the Prosperity Fund UK-China Infrastructure Alliance.

Your job is to help design and implement interventions in Southern Africa that support the overall objectives of the UK Prosperity Fund Infrastructure Programme in Beijing, which will run until 2022. You will also need to be mindful of the Prosperity Fund Global Infrastructure Programme run from London over same period, and the Department for International Trade’s (DIT) High Value Campaign for UK participation in infrastructure projects across Africa, run from Johannesburg.

Broadly speaking your work will take place in two stages, slightly overlapping:

Stage I: South Africa focus. We expect this stage to last until around June 2019.

• Build on existing work with the Chinese in Pretoria to finalise and implement a framework for delivery of Gov-Gov and Industry-Industry collaboration in South Africa
• Guide small ODA interventions to generate South Africa Government engagement in the initiative and a better understanding of their priorities for our work
• Give life to that framework by convening match-making events with industry and government trilaterally that will facilitate progress on the priority projects and increase UK participation through better partnership with the Chinese.
• Ensure at least one priority project is identified, and UK-Chinese participation is planned, pursued, and bid for
• Deploy a mini-programme of up to £300k of tailored non-ODA interrventions to secure that, including through meta-bids (recognising UK unique offering in that specific/those specific infrastructure projects), project lobbying and PR campaigns, grant funding for feasibility work
• Build a strong network for HMG in South Africa with Chinese interlocutors in government and industry to allow us to develop a database of their key firms that allows better and more systematic match-making with UK firms
• Working with DIT and the British Chamber, and through own work, consolidate our own awareness of UK firm expertise for the same purpose
• Use these networks and situational awareness of UK and Chinese partnerships to act as the HMG lead on UK-China infrastructure collaboration for London stakeholders, including an overall Belt and Road team in DIT LondonWork closely with DIT teams in the UK, China and the region to support achievement of DIT commercial targets for UK-China infrastructure cooperation, and provide support to UK businesses to identify and land commercial opportunities with China on infrastructure

Stage II: Southern Africa and East Africa 

• Assess and scope the feasibility of building on the South Africa work to roll the Alliance out into the wider region, including considering East Africa where Beijing and London leads indicate there are high BRI potential markets.
• Engage with Posts and Chinese counterparts in the region to build political economy awareness and stakeholder relationships
• Build government relationships on the Alliance, bringing interventions to bear where necessary to understand the pipeline of priority projects
• Expand the initiative in a tailored way relative to each market, using an approach that learns from the lessons of the South African experience.
• Seek to identify at least two other priority projects in the wider region that can be pursued with the Chinese collaboratively, and oversee that pursuit and bidding by March 2020
• Take on the role across the region of leading on policy and HMG knowledge in respect of UK-China infrasatructure collaboration and wider BRI expertise.

Resources managed:

• Small-scale ODA projects of up to £100k in 18/19
• Design and delivery of regional non-ODA programme to increase UK market share of up to £300k in 18/19

We are looking for a proactive, creative self-starter who can prioritise to operate in a fast-paced environment, largely unsupervised, delivering to deadlines.  S/he will need excellent interpersonal and communications skills to build strong relations within the High Commission; in South Africa; and with stakeholders in the UK. 

• Graduate with a university degree 
• Experience in developing policy advice/analysis and delivering successful programmes
• Minimum five years experience in programme management, ideally in a commercial context
• Computer literate, working with Microsoft Windows and able to manage information effectively with available computer systems

Language requirements:

Language: Excellent working levels of English, both written and spoken 

Level of language required: Business