Country Director (Fluency in English with Spanish or French an advantage)

The MENTOR Initiative (‘MENTOR’) is a humanitarian organisation specialising in disease control and improving access to healthcare in emergency settings currently across countries in Africa, the Middle East and South America. MENTOR is the leading organisation dedicated to the control of malaria and other vector-borne diseases in complex, challenging settings.

MENTOR delivers large scale disease control interventions working with remote and underserved communities affected by emergencies such as conflict and natural disasters. We also help build the technical and operational capacity of local and international partners to incorporate medium- and long-term disease control systems into their operations and country strategy.

We are now looking for an experienced and highly motivated Country Director with a background in vector-borne disease control to lead and develop an overseas country programme, partnering with a strong UK-based team.

The successful candidate will be trained in our systems and approaches, to take on the leadership of a country programme in an emergency setting.

Position Requirements:

• A strong background in Programme Management, Humanitarian work or Development highly desirable.
• Experience managing medical emergency and post emergency programmes in insecure environments.
• Familiar with NGO working environments and standard procedures
• Experience of a similar position managing health programmes and/or country offices**.**
• Experience managing vector-borne disease programmes.
• Experience working in the health sector highly desirable.
• Experience of managing teams.
• Fluency in English and a second language (French, Portuguese or Spanish) highly desired**.**

The main responsibilities of this post include the following:

1. MENTOR representation and fundraising

• Represent MENTOR in any kind of required meetings with stakeholders, donors, partners and local authorities.
• Develop with the in-country team and HQ managers country strategy for future MENTOR intervention in a specified region, as well as in coordination with the MoH and other partners.
• Responsible for the general representation of MENTOR in country – including participation in relevant stakeholder meetings and participation in external coordination mechanisms.

2. Operational support and direction

• Timely and efficient implementation of all health, VBD control, WASH and nutrition activities in line with donor and local government requirements.
• Review and ensure HQ approval of all training material, prevention tools, M&E protocols and case management prior to implementation.
• Ensure that data collection is managed appropriately.
• Support the implementation of targeted field studies when needed.

3. General support

• Responsible for the implementation and MENTOR finance systems.
• Oversee the usage of standard MENTOR administrative procedures and forms.
• Ensure proper implementation of logistics procedures (procurement, stock management, fleet maintenance, communications etc)
• Ensure that HR management systems are in place and implemented including compliance of all MENTOR staff and contracted services with MENTOR strict guidelines on safeguarding, anti bribery and anti-corruption practices.

4. Coordination and team management

• Direct line management of all technical and operational support coordinators.
• Overall responsibility for adherence by international and national team members to the MENTOR code of conduct including policies in regards to sexual harassment.
• Responsible for briefing international staff upon arrival in country, carry out performance evaluations as required and ensure a formal debriefing for all expatriates leaving the mission.
• Oversee and organise regular technical and general team meetings.
• Ensure that MOUs are established with partners (MoH, national and international NGOs, UN agencies) and maintain good relations with other health partners including MoH/NMCP.

5. Grant management, programme reporting and proposal development

• Ensure that all country grant related team members are aware of grant reporting requirements and provide regular internal reports and that these are responded to.
• Responsible for the elaboration of narrative and financial reports to donor partners in line with their specifications and schedule deadlines.
• Assess with partners new opportunities and developing needs for disease control. As required, develop funding proposal for these.
• Directly responsible for sending situation reports at an agreed interval to HQ.

6. Internal communication

• Ensure that regular situation reports are provided to HQ on a regular basis.
• Responsible for the setup of efficient mechanisms to ensure that information is shared appropriately and extensively across the mission and with HQ.

7. Security and safety

• Ensure that existing security and safety policies and practices for MENTOR are maintained and updated as and when needed.
• Responsible for overall security of international and national team members.
• Responsible for the set up and adherence to security procedures and practice. This includes writing/contributing to security guidelines for the country, strict respect of general security rules (vehicle usage, curfew, appropriate behaviour etc) by all team members and daily gathering and analysis of security related information.

8. Reporting

• The CD will be required to submit a summary report of activities carried out on a weekly basis. This report shall include identification of areas of weakness and strengths and recommendation for improvement in implementation and performance of the related tasks**.**
• The CD will also be required to submit a final report detailing the overall accomplishments, challenges and analysis of the ways in which the organisation may best achieve ongoing objectives in relation to the programme.