Hello World - Managing Director

Introducing Hello World

Hello World works to bridge the digital divide by providing connectivity, education and power in full partnership with hard to reach communities.

Internet is a human right. Our work with remote communities empowers them to learn how to make their own outdoor, solarpowered, internet connected Hello Hubs, loaded with world-class language appropriate educational software.

• 40% of the global population does not have meaningful access to the internet.

• With 70 million too-few teachers to hit education targets and not enough funding to reach every child, there are 1-in-6 children not in school and this, at a time when access to education is crucial to break the cycle of poverty.

• While COVID lockdowns taught many of us to operate and connect in different and remarkable ways and reinforced the power of the internet, 40% of the world’s population remain muted from having a voice on the internet. As a result, these marginalised communities cannot access information, contact family, access the best tools and thinking which can aid their health and well being, learn or connect with the world. And it is children that are being hit the hardest.

Hello World’s solution Why Hello World’s approach is so great

We help communities bridge the massive digital gap

• Think of a giant, digital gazebo that can offer the digital access in the communities that need it most– the Hello Hub is an MIT award-winning, solar-panelled, wifi-enabled structure, fitted with charging ports and accessible screens. The Hubs are practical to build and to operationalise.

• These welcoming Hubs allow the most remote communities to meaningfully bridge the digital divide - providing unlimited, free access to tablets loaded with educational software, the internet and the ability to connect with the wider world.

• We have built 77 Hubs (August 2023) and have 30 more fully funded and underway.

Hello Hubs are built for the community, by the community

The team at Hello World provides training and support so that each community has the skills and confidence to build, maintain and repair their Hub in the years to come. So we are creating jobs in the present and also developing the skills, education and confidence that people gain from using the Hubs to secure jobs in the future which helps to break the cycle of poverty.

We only build a Hub if the community invites us in. It is a mutual investment from both parties. We bring the materials and the communities donate their land and labour. This partnership sets the tone for their individual and collective empowerment, and is just one of the reasons why we’ve been invited into 77 communities so far, with another 30 builds scheduled.

We are not the proprietary stakeholders to bridging the digital divide - and so our model is open source and we encourage others to replicate our designs and community-led methodology. We want as much scale as possible as only through true scale will we make a difference in addressing the scale of the digital divide.

How are the Hello Hubs used?

Alongside daily Hub usage and informal programmes, Hello World establishes three core programmes at every Hub to address challenges that communities face, and teach skills which enable them to maximise meaningful access to the internet.

We listen to the feedback from the Hub users and respond. We have rolled out specific programmes to champion female participation, therefore addressing potential gender imbalance in Hub usage.

These tailor-made programmes are a key pillar to why Hello World makes a real difference.

The differences being made come in all forms including:

• Tabu’s story shows how the Hello Hub gave him a vision and purpose in life through his new found passion in photography.

• Evelyn and Anita are Hello World Engineering Fellows, we are training the next generation of female engineers.

• Frank has used the Hub to learn all about entrepreneurship and understanding the nature of market cycles

• These young physicists in Nakivale refugee settlement learn the basics of gravity using their Hub tablets whilst school remains closed due to COVID-19.

How do we measure our impact?

We are a performance-based organisation. Improving our social performance is how we hold ourselves accountable to the people whose lives we aim to serve and improve. What does this mean in practice? We aren’t interested in a ‘once and done’ evaluation of our impact; rather we want to measure, adapt, set targets and improve our social performance year-on-year. We want to hold ourselves to internal and external benchmarks of performance to better judge that we are achieving outsized impact and not resting on our laurels.

Hard data tells us we are delivering meaningful impact for our communities. We track the scale of our organisation which tells us about our reach. But we know we need much

more than the ubiquitous ‘number of lives reached’ measure. To do so we commission 60_Decibels, a leading social performance measurement firm, to assess our social impact and benchmark our performance against 1000’s of social impact organisations.

The data 60_Decibels provides covers the Impact Management Projects dimensions of impact. The data measures who we serve (gender, poverty levels), our contribution (how easily good alternatives might be found), and how much impact occurs (the strength of impact from the perspective of the end-users). Over these key metrics of social performance we consistently perform in the top quintile of 60dB’s benchmarks. Recent impact results can be found here.

Letter from Hello World’s Founder

Hello,

I’m Katrin. Thank you for your interest in being part of Hello World.

Hello World is a convivial organisation with ambitious goals. We aim to be brave and to push the boundaries of traditional aid and international development.

I am hoping that you are the person who can take us to the next level of impact, empowering even more people to raise their voices, teach themselves, solve problems, advocate for their rights and take their place in the global conversation.

When we first started our organisation, the Internet was not a priority for the development sector, nor for funders. We have helped to pave the way for a recognition of the powerful impact of Internet access. We have also always put community-led development and decisionmaking at the heart of our work, even when it was hard to fund, or meant working more slowly.

At Hello World, we teach communities how to build their own Hello Hubs, thereby unlocking access to the world’s body of knowledge and limitless potential, but we also work to change our sector, making it more inclusive, respectful and progressive - challenging the status quo.

I am standing down as the CEO of Hello World because I am a classic start-up founder, an ideas person who thrives on getting something off the ground. We are well and truly off the ground! We have the most impressive teams in Nepal, Uganda and the UK, some of whom are autodidacts who studied at their own Hello Hubs. We have recruited and trained people from other sectors and brought them to the development sector. We celebrate diversity in background and experience, and we have nurtured a happy, fair and progressive work culture. We also make a real difference to the lives of over 81,000 people every day; this is both a joy, and a considerable responsibility.

Now is the time for me to hand over to someone who enjoys scaling organisations, who insists

on the best operational solutions and who can horizon-map - see what is ahead for Internet provision and the development sector. Our new MD will also relish the challenge of managing a budget spanning multiple continents, will like solving complex problems and can see solutions where others only see problems. The ability to manage teams with clarity, empathy and effectiveness, and the talent to build partnerships are all key qualities that we will be looking for. We hope to find a fearless and committed team leader who is adventurous, compelling, detailed, energetic and decisive.

I hope that person is you and I look forward to meeting you.

Sincerely,

Katrin

The Role

Role:

Managing Director Location: Remote - based in Nepal, Uganda, UK or Western Europe

Salary: Cost of living adjusted by location benchmarked to UK salary of £80,000 + benefits

Responsibilities

• Fundraising - you will lead fundraising for Hello World for our UK charity and for our US 501(c)3, this will involve aspects of representation and a commitment to platforming the voices of our partners.

• Sustainability leadership – you will lead on sustainability and income generation considerations for our network of Hello Hubs.

• Leading our global team - you will be responsible for maintaining our inclusive, respectful, happy work culture, keeping our growing global teams working closely and effectively together, and ensuring that we meet our goals and targets in the countries we work in.

• Finance and operations – you will have oversight responsibility for our finance and operations functions, managing budgets across three continents and bringing a creative mindset to policies and procedures.

• Impact – you will ensure that Hello World is delivering significant, measurable impact in the communities we serve, including horizon scanning for innovations to increase and enhance impact.

• Values - you will embody and ensure we remain true to our values of:

• decolonising aid with community-driven work and respectful partnershipschallenging the traditional approach to aid and interventional development.

• open source ideas - sharing our innovation so that it can be replicated

• innovation - always seeking to improve our engineering and processes

• listening - learning from the communities we work with, to understand our impact and to learn from their local knowledge

Candidate profile

Experience required

• Proven track record in fundraising, and the ability to identify and secure new income streams to enable strategic growth.

• Proven track record as a strategic leader, with experience of working in International Development.

• Developing/achieving strategic plans whilst managing a wide range of shorter-term operational demands.

• Building success through partnerships, influence, and diplomacy.

• Developing and maintaining relationships with a diverse range of clients, stakeholders and partners.

• Supporting a Board of Trustees and effectively engaging the skills and experience of trustees in the development of strategy.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Knowledge of the governance, constitutional and legal requirements of a UK charity.

• The ability to drive a ‘best in class’ culture and sustain a positive working environment with high morale.

• Ability to negotiate with, influence and develop relationships with a wide range of diverse stakeholders.

• Ability to process a large quantity of information and to communicate effectively with colleagues, trustees, partners, and other stakeholders.

• A good understanding of and commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, and the Decolonisation of Aid.

• Able to work flexibly from home and travel as required.

Personal Qualities and Attributes

• Passion and enthusiasm for Hello World’s mission to bridge the digital divide by providing connectivity, education and power in full partnership with hard to reach communities.

• A value set that aligns with HelloWorld’s core values of decolonising aid, open source ideas, innovation, and listening.

• An inspiring and resilient international development professional, committed to excellence and transparency.

• Excellent communicator who is able to be an effective ambassador and engage donors and sponsors.

• An enabling leadership style with the ability to mentor the Hello World team and inspire/ promote their autonomy.

How to Apply

All correspondence, at this stage, should be via Oxford HR. To apply for this post, click on the “Apply” button on the job advert page, complete our online application form, and submit your CV and cover letter as two different documents, which should be prepared before applying as they will be considered in the application process.

The cover letter should be no more than two pages long and explain why you are interested in this post and how your skills and experience make you a good fit.

The document should be saved in PDF in the following format: Your First Name-Your Last Name-Document Name-Date (mmyy) e.g., Pat-Jones-CV-102023- Hello-World or PatJones-CoverLetter-102023-Hello-World.

Please note that all our clients recruiting in the UK are legally obliged to confirm that the appointee is eligible to work in the UK. As of 1 January 2021, the government’s new regulations will apply. For further information visit the Home Office website.

Timeline

Closing Date: 15th November 2023

First stage interviews: week of 20th November 2023

Final interviews: TBC

Selection process

All candidates will receive an update regarding their application after the closing date. We advise candidates to add the role email to their safe senders list and regularly check their spam folder.

Equality Statement

Equality and diversity are at the core of Hello World’s values. Staff are expected to work collectively and individually to promote a constructive and sensitive approach to others from a variety of backgrounds, where the work of others is valued and respected.

Queries

If you have any queries on any aspect of the appointment process, need additional information, or would like to have an informal discussion, please email at hello-worldmanaging-director@oxfordhr.com in the first instance.

About Oxford HR

A global leadership consultancy dedicated to searching for and supporting remarkable leaders & teams in purpose-led organisations.

Oxford HR operates globally - mainly within the international development and charity sectors. We carry out retained executive search mandates at board and senior management levels. We also offer human resource and organisational development consultancy.

Oxford HR has many years of experience in search as well as an extensive network of international development, social sector, corporate, public sector, and academic contacts from across the world. We carry out comprehensive and often international searches designed to meet the specific needs of our client.