Place-based Synergies Manager

Key Responsibilities

Advance the Place-Based Approach to ECD:

• Serve as a champion for the Place-Based Approach within SmartStart and its partner network, ensuring strategies are tailored and locally responsive to the unique social, economic, geographic, and cultural realities of diverse communities (e.g., farming, energy, mining, fishing, border, and other place-centric settings).
  
• Conduct community mapping to understand the local context (place) and identify existing assets (e.g., stipends, clinics, food systems, schools) for leveraging.
  
• Use gap analysis to tailor SmartStart models (e.g., home-based, mobile classrooms, Hub & Spoke) to specific community needs.
  
• Document what works, what doesn't, and why, especially in different Community Trust contexts, integrating continuous learning loops via community and programme feedback.
  

Ecosystem Orchestration and Cross-Sectoral Coordination:

• Engage community stakeholders as active partners, fostering strong partnerships and deep understanding of local contexts.
  
• Coordinate efforts across sectors (government, NGOs, Community Trusts, local leaders, caregivers, ECD forums etc.) to dismantle siloed approaches and build coordinated, cross and inter-sectoral action among all community stakeholders.
  
• Establish referral networks and resource coordination mechanisms within target communities.
  
• Foster strategic operating partnerships with provincial education departments and metros-municipalities regarding venues, funding flows, regulation, registration, and monitoring for practitioners.
  

Community Engagement, Co-creation, and Local Ownership:

• Prioritise deep listening and long-term relationships, ensuring relational and trust-based engagement.
  
• Facilitate inclusive participation of caregivers, NGOs, municipalities, churches, and local leadership in co-design processes.
  
• Empower people on the ground to lead and adapt solutions, ensuring sustainability through local ownership, trust, and embedded capacity.
  
• Promote equity by reaching children excluded due to disability, geography, or affordability.
  

Integrated Program Implementation & Impact:

• Enable the implementation of integrated human development programmes, providing holistic investment from preconception to employment with an aim to close opportunity gaps and open pathways to self-sufficiency.
  
• Develop shared goals with local stakeholders for child wellbeing and service sustainability, supporting infrastructure upgrades for DBE registration and state subsidies.
  
• Support the implementation of best practice programs that address children’s needs across all developmental stages, complemented by community-building initiatives.
  
• Explore and facilitate opportunities for economic participation within place-based communities, connecting SmartStart practitioners and families to local job creation initiatives and enhancing micro-enterprise support
  
  

Strategic Partnerships and Resource Mobilization:

• Strengthen Place-Based Approaches through engagement with Community Trusts (e.g., those formed through social obligations of mining, agriculture, or renewable energy sectors) to co-fund and coordinate local initiatives.
  
• Support efforts to secure complementary big-picture investors to fund further exponential growth in place-based communities, leveraging existing assets and inspiring new investors.
  
• Ensure inclusion of the most marginalised and work to dismantle systemic barriers in line with equity and social justice principles.
  

Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences, Development Studies, Community Development, or a related field. Master’s degree preferred.
  
• At least 5-7 years of experience in community development, integrated program management, or stakeholder engagement, preferably in the NGO or social enterprise sector in South Africa.
  
• Demonstrated experience working with diverse community contexts, including rural, farming, energy, mining, fishing, and border communities.
  
• Experience in the Early Childhood Development (ECD) sector or education is advantageous but not essential.
  
• Proven ability to work collaboratively with multiple stakeholders and facilitate multi-sectoral initiatives.
  
• Working knowledge of Sotho/Tswana and Afrikaans preferred