Phyllis Engefu Ombonyo, PhD (Strategic Management, Ongoing), MBA, BSc. (First Class Honours) has worked for over 15 years with local and international NGOs, as well as public sector, in Sub-Saharan Africa (includes in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and South Sudan etc.) to transform lives of the most marginalized communities.
She has assumed senior level positions at Aga Khan Foundation (East Africa) and the National Environment Trust Fund (Kenya), Africa Capacity Alliance, Summer Institute of Linguistics and Oxfam GB (East and West Africa).
Overtime, Phyllis has cultivated several relationships with major bilateral, multilateral and corporate funders such as AfDB, DFID, DANIDA, USAID, Global Fund, DFATM, Sida, Aids Fonds, UNAIDS, Barclays Bank, Safaricom and GIZ, and leveraged these relationships to pursue organizational resource mobilization objectives. To-date, she has raised over USD $9 Million cumulatively.
As the Project Director of the Yetu Initiative of the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) and USAID, she championed efforts to catalyse local resource mobilization by working with select civil society organizations to build their assets, capacity and trust while brokering relations with the private sector. Phyllis charted a vibrant path for Yetu , including establishing the yetu bootcamp capacity building model, that led to a 500% increase in organizations implementing local fundraising drives. While at AKF, she has also been involved in donor acquisition, leading to a £1M program co-funded by UK National Lottery.
During her tenure as the Director, Business Development at the National Environment Trust Fund (NETFUND), she spearheaded fundraising, donor and partner relations, grant writing, grants management, program management and communications to achieve sustainable funding base, while positioning NETFUND as a leading brand. She was involved in the execution of NETFUND’s Green Innovation Awards program that involved business incubation for green entrepreneurs in Energy, Agribusiness, Water and Waste management. It was during this engagement that she was declared the 2016 Power/Water woman of the Year awardee of the African Utility Week. As part of ensuring organizational self-sustainability, Phyllis pioneered the NETFUND Green Enterprise Fund (NET-GEF) which was set to initially operate as a revolving fund with prospects for expansion into a Mezzanine Fund. This attracted indicative commitments of $10M in grants and $50M in concessions.
Prior, she was the Grants and Business Development Manager at Africa Capacity Alliance (ACA) in which capacity she raised over USD $2 Million. In 2013, she supported the acquisition, establishment and implementation of two new health projects funded by Aids Fonds and GIZ. Phyllis has a solid experience in Grants and Sub-Grants Management. While at ACA, she successfully managed over 20 projects implemented by diverse member institutions in East and Southern Africa. She helped to establish systems, streamline grants management processes and procedures and increase the profile of the flagship grant-giving program for better health outcomes. In 2012, as an appointed chair, she championed a gender mainstreaming process at ACA that led to the development of gender policy and strategy, a results-based implementation plan and training curriculum. She was also involved in the implementation of numerous capacity building initiatives aimed at strengthening CSOs in such areas as governance, ICT, financial and grants management.