SUMMARY
Responsible for strategic leadership and oversight of ChildFund operations in the assigned country office, including program direction, country strategy development, program quality, innovation and impact, emergency preparedness and response, human resource management and talent development, financial and organization’s assets stewardship, resource acquisition, and administrative operations.
The Country Director is expected to demonstrate progress in achieving the measures of the Country Results Framework. S/He plays the leading role in managing the program and operations in the assigned country and continuously evolving them to become relevant, more effective and efficient, and innovative. S/he will function as the most senior representative of ChildFund International in the country and is accountable to ensure that its profile and reputation with stakeholders are strong and reflect organizational Values, Operating Principles, and Mission. The Country Director is the interlocutor connecting global priorities with country specific plans. S/He is expected to work in close consultation and coordination with regional and global teams to fulfil the duties/responsibilities of the position.
DUTIES/RESPONSIBILITIES
- Ensure proper registration and compliance with statuary regulations related to INGOs in the country
- Lead the development and execution of high quality country strategic plan relevant to the local context and reflecting the global priorities
- Oversee the recruitment, orientation, and performance of senior staff and development of middle management staff; demonstrating healthy engagement, strong senior management teams, culture of innovation, and effective talent management.
- Strengthen the financial sustainability of programs and operations through vibrant resource development effort, striking healthy financial ratios, and effective budget administration.
- Lead and oversee the grants acquisition and management effort in the country ensuring long-term health of the portfolio and achievement of annual targets.
- Oversee the sponsorship services and its integration with program;
- Oversee program quality in the country; ensuring quality execution of program strategy that integrates child protection, timely and quality completion of M&E processes adoption of quality standards and guidelines, and efficient use of global and regional program resources.
- Oversee and incentivize the evolution and innovation in programs and their delivery models.
- Lead and take all appropriate actions to ensure promotion and enforcement of the Child Safeguarding Policy and follow up on any findings to address any gaps or weaknesses given the uniqueness of the local operating context and best practice. .
- Drive, develop, and ensure the adaption, integration, and learning around key areas including child safeguard standards, monitoring and evaluation, disaster risks reduction, gender equity and diversity, and that an appropriate/timely/ effective disaster emergency response and preparedness plan is in place and updated regularly.
- Develop ChildFund reputation and brand among government and peer INGOs to pre-position, advocate, network and raise profile and reputation among key influencers important to advance children’s right.
- Ensure the organization is recognized by stakeholders (relevant government authorities, donors, other NGOs, media etc) as a strong child development organization and credible reference point and leader on issues related to their healthy development.
- Foster and manage strong relationships and collaboration with Alliance members
- Ensure optimal financial, human and physical resource allocation and management and quality standards (with the Shared Support Unit where applicable) for successful implementation of the country’s and organization’s strategic plan and mission and to monitor and report on their progress.
- Provide leadership in the development or change management of transformative initiatives in the country to enable continuous evolution of programs and their delivery models.
- Ensure proper use of ChildFund resources in pursuit of quality programs for child development, and ensure that adequate internal control are in place to protect ChildFund financial and non-monetary assets and that they are used in accordance with organizational policies/procedures and donor terms and conditions.
- Lead the development of a strategy and plans and provide oversight to strengthen and evolve strong partnerships across the region.
- Oversee the development and lead execution of effective disaster risk management (DRM) strategy and plans in the country
QUALIFICATIONS/EXPERIENCE
- 7 – 8 years’ experience in senior management position in international development Experience in responding to natural disasters and man-made emergencies
- Experience in the management of large institutional grants preferred
- Proven track record of strong management skills with complex programs and a large number of staff.
- Experienced in child focused programming and sponsorship.
- Outstanding written and oral communication skills in English.
- Ability to grow/develop a development agency by attracting local and international resources and building alliances.
- Demonstrated high-level interpersonal and cross-cultural skills including the ability to build collaborative relationships internally and externally with sensitivity to cultural, ethnic, social and political issues.
- Ability to pragmatically solve problems, plan a course of action using analytical, conceptual, strategic and forward thinking abilities to achieve an effective resolution.
- Demonstrated technical expertise in such areas as: project, budget and resource management.
- Strong leadership skills in such areas as: fostering teamwork; developing and motivating others; managing change; conflict resolution; initiative and flexibility.
- Strong visioning, strategic planning, implementation ability and effective under pressure, results oriented and proactive with the ability to multi-task.
- Ability to demonstrate support for innovation and organizational changes needed to improve the organization’s effectiveness; helping others to successfully manage organizational change.
- Ability to recognize, react and adjust to rapidly changing conditions and to lead the resources in appropriate direction with cohesiveness and a sense of urgency
- Coalition building capabilities, external networking and experience in developing strategic partnerships
- Fluency in English and or Spanish (in Americas) – some countries would require fluency in Portuguese or French; and thus ability to communicate in another major language is highly desired.
EDUCATION/CERTIFICATIONS
- Bachelor degree in related field of community development/social science or relevant discipline. Master degree is preferred.
More Information
- Job City Conakry
