COUNTRY DIRECTOR – ETHIOPIA

ForAfrika is a humanitarian, development and advocacy organisation devoted to improving the lives of children, families and their communities around Africa.

PURPOSE OF THE POSITION

• Provide overall oversight and strategic operational leadership for ForAfrika Ethiopia country office.
• Model a high standard of corporate leadership to ForAfrika Ethiopia’s Management Team (SMT) and staff, ensuring full alignment with ForAfrika’s Global Strategy, Organization’s Vision, Purpose, Mission .
• Ensure compliance with ForAfrika policies and standards, while meeting desired goals and objectives.
• Ensure ForAfrika Ethiopia is appropriately structured, financially viable and appropriately resourced and compliant with ForAfrika policies,
• Ensure that ForAfrika maximises and achieves its impact for children, their families and communities.
• Ensure fulfilment of the ForAfrika Ethiopia’s Transition Plan from Humanitarian Emergency Response to Resilience and Self-Sustaining communities .
• Represent ForAfrika to the Government, all donors, including the United Nations system, Affiliate Offices, Project Partners as well as internally with all Divisions/Departments serving according to given Power of Attorney and Limits of Authority.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Leadership and Management of ForAfrika Ethiopia:

Promote ForAfrika’s Vision, Mission, Purpose, Core Values and organizational Standards & Practices among the staff and partners and ensure these are the core foundation of the office strategies and work.

• Provide focused vision for the whole organization, motivating all staff to work together towards shared goals,
• Administratively select, induct, mentor/guide and manage a strong ForAfrika Ethiopia SMT, building a culture of high performance, open, transparent and mutual collaboration between and amongst ForAfrika Ethiopia staff .
• Ensure ForAfrika Ethiopia staff have the requisite expertise and professional competencies to implement ForAfrika Ethiopia Country Programme Strategic and Operational Plans.
• Promote and participate in leadership development initiatives while promoting at the same time a culture of learning & development, employee engagement and good stewardship of human capital in the Country Office,
• Respect, value and promote gender, age, religious and ethnic diversity; (ensure implementation of ForAfrika Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Management Policy and practices),
• Respect, value and promote ForAfrika’s Safeguarding Policy, the Protection against Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA)Policy; (ensuring implementation of PSEA Zero Tolerance Policy and practices),
• Exercise Fiduciary management of the organization’s resources (human, financial, capital) in the ForAfrika Ethiopia Country Office.
• Maintain high standards of work and clear accountability to all stakeholders.

Performance (Standards and Accountability)

• Ensure high programme quality and impact by developing and implementing programs which meet ForAfrika Ethiopia’s highest quality and standards,
• Work with ForAfrika Ethiopia SMT to jointly identify the key areas for future programmes and projects, for which targeted communities are in need,
• Ensure that all programs are implemented, monitored and evaluated to measure impact and in accordance with donors, Global Support Office (GSO), Affiliate Offices and other stakeholders’ approved frameworks,
• Ensure that proper feedback and complaint mechanisms for beneficiaries, communities, other stakeholders and ForAfrika Ethiopia staff are in place,
• Ensure measurable improvement and impact on children and all targeted stakeholders is achieved.
• Ensure accountability for the implementation of effective programme to all key stakeholders,
• Develop and implement effective systems for strategic and adaptive management, ensure operational plans are in place and projects are able to make necessary adjustments to plans and budgets during implementation,
• Adhere to ForAfrika’s Safeguarding policies and standards. Perform other relevant tasks assigned by the direct supervisor,
• Develop relationships with Donors, UN Agencies, ForAfrika GSO and Affiliate colleagues in order to incorporate ForAfrika guidelines and initiatives in the developed proposals.

Representation and Networking

• Strengthen presence and awareness of ForAfrika Ethiopia’s program both within and outside of ForAfrika,
• Represent ForAfrika Ethiopia at appropriate national government level, UN/ NGO/ donor meetings, joint agency assessments, and task forces, as required,
• Provide leadership, strategic direction and support to the team for developing and implementing excellent donor experience and acquisition of funds,
• Ensure that ForAfrika is positioned as a leading African NGO in promoting the well-being and rights of children within the country context to deserve public and stakeholders’ confidence and trust,

Transition to Self-Funded office

• Lead successful implementation of the ForAfrika Ethiopia Transition Plan,
• ForAfrika Ethiopia fulfils the ForAfrika family likeness to ensure program quality and to manage risk and reputation issues,
• Lead Transition/ Change Management Team in achieving the set transition targets,
• Build ForAfrika Ethiopia team understanding, engagement and ownership in transition processes,
• Establish / maintain a team structure that safeguards all funding streams and facilitates cross fertilisation.

Financial Management, Financial and Operational Audit Compliance

• Ensure efficient and effective organizational practices that would result in successful financial and operational audit scores,
• Oversee action planning and execution to resolve audit findings in an agreed and timely manner; oversee appropriate reporting of audit results and actions.
• Oversee strong financial compliance through timeliness and completeness of financial reports,
• Oversee strong operational compliance through timeliness and completeness of program/project reports,
• Manage overall financial integrity of the programs to Donors, Partners, Affiliates, the Government and other stakeholders,
• Provide overall strategic leadership and initiative for identifying and securing financial resources to support the program.

Spiritual Leadership

• Ensure that the office has a high quality Faith and Development approach with mainstreamed country appropriate interventions developed, annually agreed by SMT
• Model a high standard of personal Christian leadership, ministry and integrity through lifestyle and work relationships. Exhibit spiritual maturity, integrity and a dynamic personal sense of life calling,
• Participate and Lead spiritual nurture meetings/devotions as scheduled.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Ethiopian citizen in good standing with government.
• University degree in WASH or FSL.
• Qualifications in management or project management.
• 5+ years proven Leadership experience with International NGOs in transformational development programming.
• Experience in managing integrated Relief/ Development and Advocacy programs.
• Proven project management experience with Government grants, and major private donors.
• Proven track record of delivering programs and reports on time.
• Knowledge of humanitarian sector and donor community.
• Politically astute and well developed diplomatic skills, especially in dealing with government, donors, UN partners, Affiliates, staff and ForAfrika GSO.
• Proven negotiation skills and ability to handle multiple demands from many stakeholders.
• Strong communication skills with ability to express ideas clearly and persuasively with internal and external stakeholders.
• Good knowledge of financial management and change management.
• Understanding of development, monitoring & evaluation processes.
• Experience in program assessment, design, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and report writing.
• Excellent Amharic and English communication skills (verbal and written). Proficiency in other regional dialects will be an added advantage.
• Commitment to ForAfrika’s Vision, Core Values and Mission.
• Ability to exhibit exemplary lifestyle as interpreted in specific local culture context.
• Willingness to travel domestically and internationally as required.