Position Title: Country Director, Democratic Republic of Congo Location: Baraka, Fizi District with travel throughout South Kivu and to Bukavu as required, security permitting
Benefits: 20 days vacation plus statutory holidays, regular rest and relaxation leave, shared accommodation, international travel, comprehensive medical, accident and illness insurance coverage (details upon request).
Salary: $55,000 - $60,000 CAN per year. Contract: 1 year, provisional on successful performance review after 3 months, with the possibility of extension.
Background: War Child Canada empowers children and young people to flourish within their communities and overcome the challenges of living with, and recovering from, conflict. We have tripled the size of our operations and reach of our programs in the past four years and have ambitious plans for the future with the launch of a new strategic plan.
Over the next five years we will develop our focus on three issues that significantly shape the lives of children and young people: 1) Education: school reconstruction; teacher training; literacy; numeracy; accelerated learning; physical safe spaces for learning. 2) Access to Legal Justice: direct legal representation; training and sensitization on rights of women and children. 3) Livelihoods: vocational skills training; food security; micro-finance including small business management and small loans.
Cross-cutting themes of gender, conflict sensitivity and child protection are incorporated into the WCC project cycle. Additionally, a vital component in WCC’s international programming is the development of strong, respectful partnerships with local communities and organizations. By building sustainable projects through participatory methodologies and through building the capacity of local partners, WCC is able to ensure the delivery of appropriate and effective development projects. WCC is currently operational in Afghanistan, Sudan, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka and Haiti.
Context: War Child Canada is currently in the northeastern region of the DRC in the Fizi District of South Kivu. WCC’s programming in the DRC focuses on the rehabilitation of the education sector as well as a community-based SGBV sensitization program. Within the educational sector, WCC engages in the reconstruction of schools and the training of teachers. After-school programming also includes numeracy/literacy classes, child-led radio programming as well as youth programs focused on key social issues such as, HIV/AIDS, gender, and peace-building.
WCC has also recently begun the implementation of a community-focused sexual & gender based violence program. The program focuses on raising awareness at the community level, on educating women and children about their rights and on training local facilitators in their communities about SGBV prevention and support. The program will also focus on building the capacity of WCC’s local partners, as well as governments and actors within the legal and justice systems to protect the rights of women and children in the Fizi District of the DRC.
Position summary:
The Country Director ensures that: • The country strategy is in place and that programs/projects are consistent with that strategy; • The program is implemented, monitored and evaluated appropriately, efficiently and effectively; • Capacity building of local partners takes place to establish sustainability of the program.
Education, experience, knowledge, skills:
Education: • Relevant academic background (For example, Masters degree or equivalent experience in International Development, Community Development, Social Sciences, International Relations, etc.)
Experience and Knowledge: • Fully bilingual in French and English (reading, writing, speaking); • Substantial relevant experience in an international/humanitarian context with a non-governmental organization in conflict and post conflict affected areas, with expertise in at least one of WCC’s DRC programming areas: Education and/or SGBV programming. • Experience of working through local partners; • Demonstrated experience in developing and securing new donor funds, managing donor contacts and relationships, delivering on commitments and an awareness of donor requirements and priorities;
• Demonstrated track record in financial management and HR management, including mentoring of national and international staff.
Skills: • Sound knowledge of Financial Management; • Social and communicative skills for advising and coaching local partners and frequent internal and external contacts; • Ability to manage security, logistics, and operations; • Strong advisory skills to deliver clear and well-considered advice; • Written skills to be able to write strategy, proposals, budgets and reports; • Excellent verbal and written skills in English to write strategy documents, proposals, budgets and reports; • Effective time-management skills with the ability to multi-task and manage multiple time-sensitive priorities; • Capability to decide operational, tactical and strategic issues; • Team Management skills and experience, including personnel supervision, evaluation, and staff recruitment; • Detail oriented with strong planning, organizational and leadership skills; • Able to assess social/political situations and able to act in a diplomatic way in delicate situations; • Capacity building and training skills; • Program Management skills including familiarity with logframes, indicators, and work plans;
Computer skills: MS Office and internet applications.
Core Competencies and Personal Qualities: • Excellent interpersonal skills; • Diplomacy and negotiation skills; • Ability to work well with a team; • Adaptability and flexibility; • Affinity with War Child Canada’s mandate; • Result-focused and persistent to achieve goals; • Stress-resilient to be able to cope with deadlines and complex problems; • Culturally sensitive; • Able to work independently.
Desirable: • Specific experience in monitoring and evaluation of education and/or gender issues; • Previous experience in the Great Lakes region and/or DRC an asset.
Duties:
Management and Oversight of War Child Canada’s country program (Time: 35%) • Final and overall responsibility for the country program; • Develop and update the country strategy, in close collaboration with the Director of International Programs and other relevant WCC staff; • Develop tools and formats for planning, monitoring and evaluation, and support partner organisations in application of these tools; • Monitor and evaluate the country program's implementation; • Ensure that appropriate local implementing partners are identified, assessed and that the capacity building of local partners takes place; • Responsible for the oversight of all WCC staff; • Overall responsibility for budget and financial management of project and successful implementation of country programs;
Financial Management (Time: 15%) • Final in-country financial management responsibility, including reporting to headquarters; • Maintain efficient financial controls (of cash flows, local payments, etc), accountability standards, procedures and records; • Prepare budget and monitor budget-spending; take appropriate action concerning budget/spending deficiencies or surpluses
Fundraising (Time: 15%) • Final and direct responsibility for in-country fundraising with institutional donors; • Develop new projects and funding proposals in order to actively expand the program; • Actively develop and maintain donor relations; • Ensure that proposals and reports for (institutional) donors are written according to the requirements of the donor; • Ensure effective management, implementation, monitoring, reporting and evaluation of funded proposals.
Maintain network of contacts and representation (Time: 15%) • Ensure appropriate communications, information exchange and sharing with local partners and with headquarters; • Share project 'lessons learned', support communication activities, field visits, etc; • Develop and maintain productive relationships with local and national governments, other agencies, donors and media; • Represent WCC at coordination and cluster meetings, and with local government, donors, UN and other NGOs.
Capacity building staff & local partners (Time: 10%) • Assesses the capacities of staff and local partners and where necessary arranges for professional development; • Conducts annual performance evaluations of all staff; • Recruits local staff as necessary, in consultation with HQ
Security Management (Time: 10%) • Final and direct responsibility for security management; • Maintain internal and external contacts with relevant parties and authorities related to security in order to be well informed about security developments at all times; • Monitor the security context of the country to manage and mitigate security risks; • Develop and regularly update and implement War Child Canada's Country Security Plan.
Application Details:
Interested applicants are invited to send a curriculum vitae and an accompanying cover letter electronically to: jobs@warchild.ca
Please ensure your application email has the subject heading of: ”Country Director, DRC – [insert your name]”
Only those applicants selected for an interview will be notified. No phone calls please. For more information about War Child Canada, please visit www.warchild.ca.
Deadline: October 16th, 2011
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