COUNTRY DIRECTOR in SIERRA LEONE

COUNTRY DIRECTOR in SIERRA LEONE Reference: MM/CD/SL Country: Sierra Leone Job Title: Country Director

Date requested: 17 September 2013 Contract Grade: D Contract Length: 3 years Date Needed By: mid-December 2013 New Post or Replacement: Replacement Accompanied / Unaccompanied: Accompanied (partner only) Exact Job Location: Freetown Reports To: Regional Director Responsible For: Direct line management of Assistant Country Directors Programmes and Systems, Country Financial Controller and overall responsibility for all staff Liaises With: Desk Officer, HR Dublin, Overseas Directorate, Emergency Directorate, Strategy Advocacy and Learning department , fundraising department, Concern US and Concern UK Job Purpose: To be responsible for strategic and programme development and effective management of the Concern Sierra Leone country programme in line with Concern Worldwide organisational specific strategies, policies and procedures Main Duties & Responsibilities:

Leadership:
• Implement a coherent country programme that contributes to achieving Concern’s global strategy and objectives. • Provide leadership in the overall effective planning and direction of Concern’s programme and operations at country level. • Build strong and committed teams of national and international staff adhering to Concern policies and procedures and applying key principles of transparency, accountability, good stewardship and participation.
• Create and maintain a shared vision, amongst all Concern Sierra Leone staff, of Concern’s programme aims and objectives and their role in achieving these.
• Lead and support in strengthening coordination and collaboration within and across all teams, maintain and ensure constructive communications and contribute to a positive working environment. • Maintain strong links with Alliance 2015 members in country and continue commitments to the joint Alliance 2015 strategic plan. • Ensure the roll out of the newly developed country strategic plan.

Programme Development and Management:
• Lead the strategic development and implementation of programmes in line with Concern organisational strategic plan and following the Concern PCM system including proposal writing and sourcing funding. • Ensure effective coordination of technical inputs in designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating programmes.
• Maintain productive working relationships with donors and be responsible for undertaking country level negotiations related to securing funding, programming contracts, and reports.
• Oversee the working relationship between Concern and local partners through the application of the CLOSAT and CLOFAT assessment tools and ensure that capacity building and support for local partners continues.
• Manage the country programme effectively including allocation of resources and ensuring that appropriate monitoring and controls are established and maintained at all levels by working with programme and systems managers, staff and where relevant partners.
• Provide adequate leadership and support to programme managers in maintaining high quality standards and implementation of programmes to include equality, prevention of GBV and DRR. • Ensure that all programmes are implemented and completed according to programme documents including agreed plans and budget.
• Maintain effective communication and liaise with Concern Head office in Dublin and ensure that high standard internal and donor reports are produced and submitted in a timely manner and in line with relevant targets and objectives. • Ensure the efficient and transparent use of all Concern’s resources in order to maximize the benefit to the targeted communities. • Monitor emerging emergency situations and respond as and when necessary.

Human Resources Management: • Line manage senior management staff (Assistant Country Directors and the Country Financial Controller) and be responsible for the overall management and development of all staff of Concern Sierra Leone.
• Manage and support country programme team ensuring that there is clearly a defined structure and job descriptions for all staff.
• Ensure that a regular staff Performance and Development Review (PDR) system is maintained and that PDRs are undertaken seriously at all levels.
• Develop, review, and effectively implement all Human Resources related policies and procedures in accordance with Concern policies and procedures and in line with the national labour law of Sierra Leone.
• Establish and maintain regular, participative and documented fora and meetings for all key staff to discuss policy, strategic, operational and management issues, coordinate planning and implementation of activities and ensure information sharing.

Financial Management:
• Be responsible for overall financial management of Concern Sierra Leone including participatory budget preparation, revision and monitoring and timely submission of Budgets and FRP’s to HQ.
• Ensure adherence to the Concern organisational financial guidelines and procedures. • Develop and implement work and expenditure plans and ensure that the country programmes are implemented within agreed and approved budget through undertaking regular budget monitoring of expenditure against budget.
• Ensure that internal and donor financial reports are submitted in a timely manner and are up to high standard.

Policies and procedures:
• Ensure that support systems are in place and functioning in accordance with best practices in order to ensure transparency and accountability to programme participants, donors, government, and other relevant stakeholder.
• Be responsible for security and safety of Concern personnel and resources in Sierra Leone including participatory development and implementation of a Country Security Management Plan.
• Report any security threats and incidents to the Regional Director. • Promote and ensure compliance with the requirements of Concern’s Programme Participants Protection Policy (P4) and implementation of Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP) standards including the Community based Complaint and Response Mechanisms (CRM) to ensure maximum protection to programme beneficiaries.

Representation and Networking:
• Represent Concern in Sierra Leone and establish coordination and networking relationships with the government, donors and other national and international development actors in the country.
• Ensure that relationships and formal agreements with the government are maintained and updated as appropriate.
• Represent Concern at various national level coordination fora. • Promote and protect the reputation of Concern in external settings, ensuring that the organization’s experience and expertise is well communicated and consistently presented, and that we are looked to as a professional organization. • When possible represent the Alliance 2015 and support any Alliance 2015 advocacy initiatives

PERSON SPECIFICATION Essential requirements • Third Level Degree preferably in social science or development management or business management or related discipline. • 5 years working experience in a senior position within a development organization preferably in an international NGO. • Experience in management of financial resources and overseeing human resources, administration and logistics function. • Experience in building relations with donors and securing external donor funding. • Strong leadership skills and ability to manage change effectively. • Strong communication and interpersonal skills with an ability/confidence to engage and represent Concern at public fora, media and donors. • Excellent communication and presentation skills, including fluency in written and spoken English. • Delegation, time management and prioritizing skills and coping with broad range of demands. • Highly developed listening and conflict resolution skills. • Affinity with organisational values, mission and vision, commitment to humanitarian principles.

Desirable requirements • Previous Concern experience at a management level. • Experience of working in Africa or West Africa an advantage. • Knowledge of HAP. • Experience of working/living in insecure and sensitive environments. • Experience of managing major donor grants such as DFID, Irish Aid, UNICEF, EU and US AID. • Experience of Food Security, WASH and Education programming. • Knowledge of Krio an advantage.

• Team building skills, high respect for national staff; • Strong delegation and commitment for maintaining deadlines • Experience with computerized accounting packages, ideally Great Plains; • Accounting and auditing knowledge; • Experience of delivering training and of providing on the job coaching; • Proactive; Analytical thinker; • Personal integrity; • Commitment to international development and an understanding of the role and responsibilities of INGOs in developing countries; • Disposition that suits taking a mentoring and coaching role; • Ability to meet deadlines; • Fluent in English • Training course and/or specific experience of dealing with major donors such as EU, DFID, USAID and Irish Aid and familiarity with donor’s financial policies and procedures;

Concern Worldwide is an Irish-based non-governmental, international, humanitarian organisation dedicated to the reduction of suffering and working towards the ultimate elimination of extreme poverty in the world’s poorest countries. Concern has a Staff Code of Conduct and a Programme Participant Protection Policy which have been developed to ensure the maximum protection of programme participants from exploitation and to clarify the responsibilities of Concern staff, consultants, visitors to the programme and partner organization, and the standards of behaviour expected of them. In this context staff have a responsibility to the organization to strive for, and maintain, the highest standards in the day-to-day conduct in their workplace in accordance with Concern’s core values and mission. Any candidate offered a job with Concern Worldwide will be expected to sign the Programme Participant Protection Policy and the Concern Staff Code of Conduct as an appendix to their contract of employment. By signing the Programme Participant Protection Policy and the Concern Staff Code of Conduct candidates acknowledge that they have understood the contents of both the Concern Staff Code of Conduct and the Programme Participant Protection Policy and agree to conduct themselves in accordance with the provisions of these two documents. Concern receives a substantial amount of funding from external donors each year. Increasingly donors are introducing requirements whereby future funding is conditional on Concern ensuring that the names of any new employee or volunteer do not appear on terrorism lists generated by the European Union (List of person, groups and entities to which Regulation (EC No. 2580/2001 applies), the US Government (Office of Foreign Assets Control list of specially designated Nationals and Blocked Persons) and the United Nations (Consolidated List). Any offer of employment (either paid or voluntary) with Concern Worldwide will not be made pending a clearance check being conducted on the applicant. For additional information please consult our web site or contact the Human Resource Division in our Head Office. Concern Worldwide is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all sections of the community.

How to apply:

All applications should be submitted through our website at https://jobs.concern.net by the closing date. CV’s should be no more than 4 pages in length. All candidates who are short-listed for a first round interview will be notified via email after the application deadline.