Country Director

The Country Director will lead the organization’s projects in Colombia providing oversight to all IsraAID operations in the country, playing a leading role in planning, designing, implementation, development, and administration of all programs, supervision, and capacity development of staff, and ensuring effective and efficient financial management, donor and legal compliance. The ideal candidate will combine experience in humanitarian aid and management/administration and have a passion for working with the country’s population.

CONTEXT

IsraAID is a non-profit, non-governmental and apolitical humanitarian aid agency dedicated to supporting populations in crisis around the world, Founded in 2001. As of 2022, the organization has responded to crises in more than 50 countries and has operations span across 17 countries and many different sectors of expertise from both the humanitarian aid and international development arenas.

In Colombia, IsraAID has been primarily working in supporting the socio-economic and cultural integration of the mixed migrants arriving from Venezuela. Since the inception of our operations in 2019, IsraAID team has been providing migrant and host communities with a range of services from humanitarian aid to provision of ongoing protection, education, WASH, and livelihoods support. IsraAID currently operates in three locations: Barranquilla, Cartagena, and La Guajira. Our main programs include (1) the operations of three CFS in Barranquilla, Soledad, and Cartagena with coverage for 600 children and their families. (2) We work with youth and women to strengthen their capabilities to socio-economically integrate through their participation in one of our livelihoods tracks; employment, entrepreneurship, and business acceleration. (3) Through our operations we support the development and strengthening of community initiatives and community-led organizations, and (4) We are working in two remote indigenous communities of the department of La Guajira and Bolivar to provide access to safe potable water through innovative water treatment technologies. In 2022 we anticipate a great window of opportunity for the Country Office to grow programmatically and organizationally and position our operation covering at the National level through key partnerships and Country funding.

Duties And Responsibilities

Country Vision and Strategy

• Identify, reach out and create collaboration with partners in line with the country’s vision as academies, international platforms,
• Provide leadership in the development and implementation of IsraAID’s programming in line with the country’s strategic plan and develop sound methodological and technical support to ensure the use of participatory methodologies, human rights, and social exclusion frameworks.
• Oversee the dissemination of IsraAID’s mission and core values and principles at the country level and lead, coordinate and mentor the country program and its staff in line with the country strategy and philosophy.
• Stay up-to-date on socio-economic and political changes in the country related to IsraAID country’s mandate, undertake a timely strategic review of IsraAID-country program strategy to respond to a rapidly changing environment.
• Provide ongoing support, monitoring, and evaluation of IsraAID in-country programs and existing projects, coordinate program reviews, evaluations, and follow up on the implementation of evaluation findings.
• Coordinate the production of timely quality program reports in line with IsraAID’s established policy.

Funding and Grants Management

• Develop networks and partnerships with national/regional/international institutions in the country and promote collaboration and funding.
• Spearhead a funding strategy that maximizes and increases the external funding base, staying up to date on donor trends, and ensures adherence to funding and donor requirements.
• Lead the production of quality proposals and respond to calls for proposals
• Facilitate and coordinate donor visits, donor meetings, discussions, and evaluations **

Human Resource Management and Staff Development

• Provide leadership support to country staff and promote best practices in human resources management.
• Maintain effective and appropriate staff recruitment, orientation, appraisal, remuneration, and development practice at all levels to ensure the optimum utilization and development of IsraAID’s human resources.
• Provide coaching and mentoring advice to staff when necessary and lead initiatives to develop staff capacity

Financial and Administrative Management

• Ensure that all financial and administrative procedures are in accordance with IsraAID’s established policies and maintain the financial and legal integrity of the organization.
• Prepare and implement and review the annual country budget.
• Provide progress and financial reports as required by the government and IsraAID HQ, as well as accountability procedures as required by other organizations.
• Ensure the preparation, accuracy, and timely submission of financial reports that comply with grant or contract agreements.
• Check and verify all inventories and promote efficient and effective management of organizational assets.

Security and Risk Management

• Be fully accountable at the country level for emergency and risk management, keeping abreast of all relevant developments in the country, and maintain regular communication with national and international security institutions.**
• Develop and maintain appropriate contingency plans for all kinds of emergencies**

Corporate leadership

• Act as guardian of the IsraAID brand in the country of operation.
• Ensure staff is continuously engaged and aligned with IsraAID’s global vision, mission, values, strategic directions, and business plan.
• Actively contribute to IsraAID’s reputation and role as a national, international, and regional organization.
• Maintain regular communication with the IsraAID in the country board, IsraAID-Israel HQ, and other IsraAID branches, as appropriate.
• Provide inputs to IsraAID international activities as and when required, participate in task forces, training courses, and conferences.
• Promote IsraAID’s organizational identity, culture, and capacity to all stakeholders and partners and ensure IsraAID remains relevant to the changing humanitarian and development needs in the country.

Compliance & Ethics

• Understanding of and commitment to the following principles: cultural sensitivity, local ownership, sustainability, inclusiveness, local partnership, non-discriminatory, do-no-harm, and apolitical approach; codes of conduct against sexual exploitation and abuse; and against child exploitation and modern slavery.
• Commitment to abide by IsraAID’s and UN’s codes of conduct and principles.
• Commitment to abide by IsraAID’s security policy.

Other

• Any other duties assigned by line management

Essential Skills, Knowledge, And Competencies

• M.A. level of academic background in international development, social sciences, or other relevant fields
• Minimum of 5 years experience of working in humanitarian or development settings
• Solid understanding of the political context in Colombia, including security and economic situation
• Knowledge and experience of emergency context, including programming in the areas of priority
• An excellent understanding of and practical experience with program design, program management cycle, M&E, and ethics in programming
• Substantial experience in the financial management of significant budgets
• Proven expertise in leading in fundraising, seeking and securing new donors, successful proposal writing, management of grants
• Experience managing projects funded by institutional donors, UN agencies highly desired.
• Demonstrated leadership skills and experience managing complex and remote teams.
• Experience in directly managing and supervising a diverse and multicultural staff;
• Ability to work independently, exercise judgment and flexibility in a very challenging environment;
• Demonstrated organizational skills;
• Ability to relate to and motivate local staff effectively;
• Highly reliable, able to consistently meet tight deadlines;
• Excellent cross-cultural awareness
• Professionally fluent or native speaker English and Spanish.

CONDITIONS

• Based in Colombia – Bogota with extensive travel to our field offices
• Full-time position on a 2-year contract
• This is an unaccompanied position
• Conditions: salary + health insurance + living allowance + accommodations + home leave

To apply for this position, please click here: https://israaid.bamboohr.com/jobs/view.php?id=97

We regret to inform you that only shortlisted candidates will be notified