CRYSTAL WAWIRA NJOKA
Stittsville,ON
Summary
A dynamic young professional, diplomat, leader, and visionary with over 14 years experience in international development and diplomacy. Deep understanding of dynamics working in post conflict countries. Strong cross-cultural skills and team player. Solid work ethic carrying working diligently, energetically, with attention to detail. An excellent negotiator endowed with fantastic interpersonal skills. A strategist and analytical thinker able to resolve complex issues and provide out of the box solutions.
Overview
17
17
years of professional experience
Work History
Head of Chancery/Minister Counsellor I
Kenya High Commission
Ottawa, Canada
08.2022 - Current
- Head of Chancery: the third most senior diplomat at the Mission managing the day to day running of the chancery. This includes but not limited to, administrative, logistics, security, and human resource management.
- Financial Duties: As Alternate Authority to Incur Expenditure (AIE) holder, I follow up on the Missions financial management, giving guidance and advise.
- Chair or administrative committees: as head of chancery chair over 50% of the Mission’s committees. I run efficient meetings ensuring decisions are made according to the stipulated rules and regulations.
- Management of consular services including workflows and setting systems in place to ensure service integrity.
- Manage the education file ensuring scholarships are communicated to headquarters for Kenyans to apply, creating linkages with Kenyan and Canadian institutions.
- Preparation of technical briefs and reports on important developments, providing crucial insights to aid decision making.
- Represent Mission is assigned events.
- Collaborate with host country counterparts to maintain strong bilateral relations.
Communications & Outreach Officer
IGAD Climate Predictions and Application Centre (ICPAC)
Nairobi, Kenya
08.2014 - 07.2022
- Manage strategic communication and outreach at the centre.
- Manage branding, content creation, dissemination of organizations climate information, and creation of promotional materials.
- Instrumental in organizing over 34 international summits, conferences, meetings, and events, including facilitating protocol affairs of the Centre.
- Lead in the strategic planning and implementation of communications work plan.
- Built and development professional relationships with, colleagues, government officials, diplomats, and media.
- Manage editorial of content for website and media (social, print, blog: etc.), including technical editing of scientific reports and publications.
- Proficient in climate change matters and environmental solutions.
Project Officer
IGAD Office of the Special Envoys for South Sudan (OSESS)
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
01.2014 - 07.2014
- Coordination of protocol and security arrangements for negotiating parties.
- Manage organizing and coordinating arrangements for negations.
- Focal point between negotiating parties, SPLM/SPLA in Opposition and Government of South Sudan, and IGAD OSESS during peace talks.
- Writing debriefing reports with recommendations.
- Established a service-based approach in executing work, effectively troubleshooting, and solving issues.
- Effectively prioritize and delegate tasks to meet deadlines.
Assistant to Head of the Liaison Office
South Sudan IGAD Juba Liaison Office
Juba, South Sudan
09.2010 - 12.2012
- Instrumental in the setup of the liaison office with the Head of Mission.
- Liaison with government officials and other agencies.
- Facilitating visiting missions, providing protocol, including the coordination of meetings with partners.
- Developed progress reports and monitored political developments in peace and security.
- Management and coordination of local staff in the administration, finance, procurement, and logistics.
- Manage efficient implementation of program activities.
Junior Consultant
Delta Partnership Solutions LTD
Nairobi, Kenya
08.2010 - 09.2010
- Lead researcher on the concept of Mutual Accountability Framework (MAF); through document analysis of the Kenya Joint Assessment Strategy.
- Developed system to understand MAF as a tool for aid effectiveness.
- Performed analysis aimed to assess the level of alignment between the Government of Kenya indicators and the Development Partners Sector indicators.
Junior Consultant
KPMG
08.2008 - 11.2008
- Drafting of mixed method questionnaires.
- Part of the team gathering data from different companies in Juba and Wau.
- Performed data entry of the information collected and undertook quantitative analysis.
Education
MSc - International Development Studies
University of Amsterdam
Amsterdam, The Netherlands01.2010
BA - Economics and Finance
Heriot - Watt University
Edinburgh, Scotland01.2008
Skills
- Microsoft Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, Teams)
- Adobe PDF Professional
- Zoom
- SPSS
References
Available upon request.
Languages
- English, excellent
- Swahili, proficient
- French, beginner
- Portuguese, beginner
Geographical Work Experience
- Ethiopia
- Ghana
- Scotland
- England
- Netherlands
- South Sudan
- North America
- Kenya
Timeline
Head of Chancery/Minister Counsellor I
Kenya High Commission
08.2022 - Current
Communications & Outreach Officer
IGAD Climate Predictions and Application Centre (ICPAC)
08.2014 - 07.2022
Project Officer
IGAD Office of the Special Envoys for South Sudan (OSESS)
01.2014 - 07.2014
Assistant to Head of the Liaison Office
South Sudan IGAD Juba Liaison Office
09.2010 - 12.2012
Junior Consultant
Delta Partnership Solutions LTD
08.2010 - 09.2010
Junior Consultant
KPMG
08.2008 - 11.2008
MSc - International Development Studies
University of Amsterdam
BA - Economics and Finance
Heriot - Watt University
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