COUNTRY DIRECTOR, SOUTH SUDAN

The GOAL Country Director (CD) takes overall responsibility for the planning, management and appropriate development of GOAL’s work in-country. The CD is responsible for ensuring that GOAL’s work contributes effectively and efficiently towards meeting the short, medium and long term needs of the poorest of the poor, within the framework of GOAL’s organisational and regional objectives, in a co-ordinated manner and in accordance with GOAL’s guidelines and principles. The CD has ultimate responsibility for all issues of security. The position is based in Juba, South Sudan with regular visits to all field sites.


1. PROGRAMMES
The Country Director is responsible for ensuring that all programme activities are planned, resourced, implemented, monitored and evaluated in a timely manner, to ensure that they are appropriate, necessary, cost effective, targeted, sustainable and in keeping with GOAL’s mission and philosophy.

Duties:
• The County Director will work closely with the Assistant Country Director – Programmes on all aspects related to programmes.
• The Country Director must ensure that GOAL programmes meet the highest national and international standards, and comply with codes of conduct and agreements to which GOAL is a signatory.
• The Country Director must provide ongoing review and development of overall country strategy, and of individual programme objectives. They must undertake, with the Senior Management Team, continuous review, monitoring and evaluation of the effectiveness, impact and direction of each programme.
• The Country Director will review all programme proposals prepared by the Assistant Country Director – Programmes and the programme team before their submission to donors and ensure that all proposals and reports are submitted to GOAL Dublin and approved prior to submission to donors.
• The Country Director must ensure that there are regular effective communications within the country programme and with GOAL Dublin. This includes the submission of weekly and monthly reports to GOAL Dublin.
• The Country Director must ensure that GOAL complies with all the relevant legal requirements of the country.


2. DONORS
The Country Director is the principal point of contact with the in-country donors.

Duties:
• The responsibility for securing adequate funds to support GOAL South Sudan programmes is shared between the Country Director and GOAL Dublin; it is the responsibility of the Country Director to secure programme funding from donors in-country where possible.
• The Country Director must be familiar with all relevant donors present in-country and is responsible for developing GOAL’s working relationship and maintaining its reputation with them.
• The Country Director is responsible for liaising with donors regarding all matters related to programmes; including facilitating visits to GOAL programme sites.
• The Country Director should be familiar with the requirements of the donors providing support to GOAL’s programmes.
• The Country Director has responsibility to inform Head Office of budgetary overspends or underspends as they affect programmes and plan appropriate interventions.


3. FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY
The Country Director has ultimate accountability for all financial matters in the field and must review and approve the monthly management accounts.

Duties:
• The County Director will work closely with the Financial Controller on all aspects related to finance.
• The Country Director must ensure adherence to the financial guidelines as per the GOAL Dublin Financial Manual.
• The Country Director must ensure that comprehensive and timely reports are produced in accordance with schedules agreed by GOAL HQ.
• The Country Director must ensure that donor financial reports are submitted in accordance with specific donor requirements.


4. PERSONNEL
The Country Director is responsible for the health and welfare of staff including expatriate and local personnel and are empowered to use all available resources to promote their development in line with GOAL policy.

Duties:
• The County Director will work closely with the Assistant Country Director – Operations on all aspects related to Personnel.
• The responsibility for securing adequate qualified international staff to support GOAL South Sudan programmes is shared between the Country Director and GOAL Dublin.
• The Country Director must ensure that the policies and guidelines, as laid down in the GOAL Personnel Manual are adhered to by all staff.
• The Country Director, with programme staff, is to ensure that all staff responsibilities are defined and understood. This includes the provision of clearly defined job descriptions and up to date contracts. GOAL Dublin must be provided with all copies of job descriptions / contracts and contract extensions related to expatriate staff.
• The Country Director has overall responsibility for the preparation and implementation of in-country personnel policies in line with overall GOAL and government policy. The Country Director must ensure that all local staff contracts must:

a) Respect local labour laws.
b) Be consistent with GOAL policy.

• The Country Director must ensure that all incidents/warnings etc. relating to personnel are clearly documented, and signed by the relevant parties.
• The Country Director must ensure that there are procedures in place to support and encourage appropriate personal and professional development of staff within the context of the organisation’s objectives.
• The Country Director is responsible for ensuring staff receive the necessary support and supervision they require. This includes the provision of training for staff in tasks such as project proposal preparation; report writing etc.
• The Country Director has the mandate to recommend repatriation of any international staff member in line with the GOAL personnel policy.
• The Country Director must ensure that ongoing informal review/evaluation of staff performance, and formal written evaluation of each of the international staff is prepared on a six monthly basis, and sent to GOAL Dublin in confidence.


5. RESOURCE MANAGEMENT/LOGISTICS
It is the responsibility of the Country Director to ensure that all available and appropriate resources are accessible in their country of assignment.

Duties:
• The County Director will work closely with the Assistant Country Director – Operations on all aspects related to logistics.
• The Country Director must ensure that the policies and guidelines as laid down in the GOAL Logistics Manual are adhered to by all.
• The Country Director must ensure that the reporting requirements outlined in the GOAL Logistics Manual are fulfilled in a timely fashion.
• The Country Director must ensure that there are appropriate systems in place for the effective utilisation and management of finance, personnel, supplies, transport, capital assets etc.


6. SAFETY & SECURITY
It is the responsibility of the Country Director to be fully informed regarding the political and security environment within their country of assignment and for ensuring that all reasonable measures are taken to minimise / mitigate the safety and security risks faced by the programmes and programme staff.

Duties:
• The Country Director is accountable for the overall safety and security of staff.
• The Country Director is accountable for ensuring that the policies and guidelines, as laid down in the GOAL Safety and Security Manual and the site specific security guidelines, are adhered to by all staff at all times.
• The Country Director is accountable for ensuring that policies and guidelines related to safety and security are reviewed periodically and revised to reflect relevant changes in the operating environment.
• The Country Director must ensure that Area Coordinators are adequately monitoring the safety and security situation in their programme sites and that all incidents or adverse conditions affecting staff safety or project operations are notified to the Country Director in a timely fashion.


7. REPRESENTATION / VISIBILITY
The Country Director has the responsibility and mandate to represent GOAL within their country of assignment, this includes media and visibility.

Duties:
• The Country Director must ensure that there is appropriate liaison and negotiation with the relevant Government partners, regional and local authorities; donors; local agencies etc. at all levels of project implementation.
• The Country Director has sole responsibility for dealing with the media / press in-country. All (political) statements to be issued, and/or policy positions, must be approved by GOAL Dublin.
• The Country Director has the responsibility to provide feedback to Dublin on the possible implications of programme and staff security and of any comments or statements being prepared by GOAL Dublin.
• The Country Director is also responsible for ensuring that the visibility of GOAL is promoted appropriately at field level.


8. KNOWLEDGE
All Country Directors must be fully informed regarding the political, security and humanitarian conditions within their country of assignment.

Duties:
• It is the responsibility of the Country Director to be fully informed regarding the humanitarian and relief and development perspective in their country of operation.
• Appropriate information should be collected, collated, analysed and forwarded to the GOAL Dublin office on a regular basis.


9. NORTH – SOUTH COORDINATION
The Country Directors of GOAL North and GOAL South are jointly responsible for ensure good coordination between their respective countries. In particular in relation to:

• Sharing of security information / political developments.
• Areas when one programme can effectively support the other.
• Strategic planning of joint relevance.
• Donors, including management of shared funding.




Requirements:
• 5+ years of previous overseas management experience in humanitarian assistance programmes in complex emergency situations
• Experience of managing security, as it relates to staff and programme activities, in a volatile post conflict environment
• Experience of staff management
• Good interpersonal skills
• Experience in liaising with government officials and a variety of donors
• A willingness to accept basic living conditions
• A willingness to regularly travel to programme sites.
• Experience in proposal and report writing with a proven ability to secure donor funding
• Budgetary control and financial management skills
• To be familiar with and abide by the NGO Red Cross Code of Conduct, the People in Aid code and Sphere Minimum Standards.



This Job Description only serves as a guide for the position available. GOAL reserves the right to change this document. Interviews will be held in Dublin or London. Unfortunately GOAL cannot contribute to financial costs incurred when attending first interview.
Note: GOAL is an equal opportunities employer.

If you would like to apply for the above position, please send your CV and covering letter to applications@goal.ie.