Country Director – Afghanistan

We are recruiting a Country Director in Afghanistan to lead the growing team, build the programme and bring a strong focus on quality, fundraising and representation. Our priorities have been shaped by the ongoing conflict, and as the shape of the conflict alters, we anticipate developing an approach which will respond to the recovery and rehabilitation of affected communities. The context in the country is rapidly changing and the humanitarian situation is dangerously worsening. Children in Afghanistan have long suffered disproportionately from the humanitarian, security, social and economic crises that have plagued the country for decades. Nearly 10 million girls and boys depend on humanitarian assistance just to survive. You will have experience of leading and motivating teams in complex and unstable environments, excellent knowledge of regional politics and developing trends, the ability to influence and advocate and a strong track record in resource mobilisation and effectively managing organisational growth whilst ensuring programme quality. You will demonstrate experience of building programmes with a focus on accountability and meeting needs. If you share our values and believe that children’s lives should not be torn apart by war, we want to hear from you.

Department: Programmes and Advocacy

Contract Type: Fixed Term Contract (24 months) With possible extension

Place of Work: Kabul with frequent travel to Western Afghanistan

Working Hours: Full-time, 40 hours per week

Salary Range: Circa £51,000 per annum

Your role

War Child UK has worked in Afghanistan since 2002 and has developed a flagship programme working in Western Afghanistan in partnership with the IOM and UNICEF to respond to the needs of vulnerable uncompanioned and separated children since 2014. The current complex humanitarian situation is expected to continue during 2022. For the first half of the year, we will primarily focus on scaling up our emergency response, focusing on child protection, education in emergencies and food security, cash, and livelihoods. We will continue to programme in the western provinces of Herat, Badghis and Ghor with a possible expansion into Farah and continue with our former programmes with adaptations to the new context.

We are recruiting a new Country Director for our Afghanistan programme. We are seeking an experienced NGO leader who is familiar with the challenges of operating within the constraints of a context such as Afghanistan. You will ensure that the War Child team remains safe, and that our security protocols are well maintained. We want to further grow our programme, and central to this role will be the ability to build networks and alliances with local and international partners, to represent effectively with a wide range of donors and to scale up a humanitarian response programme. We place a very strong emphasis on national advocacy as part of our theory of change, and you will need the representational and relationship skills to ensure that War Child is connected to the appropriate national and local authorities across our areas of operation. War Child has a clear vision and approach to programme quality, and you will have a track record in ensuring effective monitoring, accountability, and learning.

Leadership and team building skills are paramount, the Country Director will inspire results and performance across the team. The post also forms part of War Child’s dynamic and experienced Country Director Group, with the ability to share experience across our country programmes. The Country Director will lead the Senior Management Team for War Child UK in Yemen, focusing on growing the programme to meet needs, developing the vision and strategy and take overall responsibility for HR, Financial and Security decisions. The role also ensures information from the country programme is shared across departments and will represent War Child at the highest levels; engaging with donors, national authorities, clusters and national partners in Afghanistan. The role is managed by the Director of Programmes and Advocacy based in London.

Your responsibilities

· Programme Development: Leadership on participatory programme planning and development, in line with WCUK’s organisational strategy; time frames, risk appetite and budgets as well as development of new concept papers and liaising with in-country donors. **

· Representation and Networking: Provide effective representation and profile of War Cchild UK and high level networking in forums and strategic engagement with a wide range of national and international stakeholders

· Partner liaison: Work with national partners to achieve shared programme objectives and build strong and accountable partnerships.**

· Financial Management: Ensure rigorous financial and administrative management**:** ensure grant management and expenditure information is received in an accurate manner on a monthly basis.**

· Security Management: Effectively manage all staff and programme security within the guidelines of security Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

· Safeguarding: Responsible for creating a culture committed to the safeguarding of children and adults, and compliant to WCUK’s Child Safeguarding and Adults at Risk policies.**

· Grant Management, and Donor Compliance: Ensure timely quality reporting to donors and compliance with donor requirements**,** including leading your programme and grants team to build a compliance and performance focused management system.

· Donor Engagement and Funding: Lead on donor engagement within country and with regional donors, contribute to efforts to identify and secure in-country funding from Afghanistan based donors and providing the programme funding to deliver on the Afghanistan country strategy and Emergency Response Plan. Support the team with the information necessary to help develop proposals and reports, in line with donor schedules. Provide final country level approval of concept papers, proposals and budgets

· Team leadership: Lead the SMT, develop country strategy and build a culture of shared responsibility. Ensure team wellbeing and effective performance management as well as ensuring that WCUK’s standards and values are known and followed within the mission.**

· People management: Take ultimate responsibility for Human Resources and Development, ensuring War Child is a fair and responsible employer. Leading and motivating all WCUK staff, promoting effective cohesion and team identity across the various offices and projects. Ensuring that WCUK’s standards and values are known and followed within the mission.**

· Reporting: Ensure adherence to organisational requirements, including child safeguarding policy, minimum standards for quality programme cycle management and regular programme reporting.**

These duties provide a framework for the role and should not be regarded as a definitive list. Other reasonable duties may be required consistent with the grade of the post.

You have

· Experience in leading international humanitarian and development programmes, scaling up for humanitarian crisis programming and experience in strategic planning and a clear vision of how to work effectively with partners.

· Experience in the delivery and supervision of Child Protection, Education and Food Security projects in fragile and conflict environments.

· Experience of both direct programme implementation and working with partners.

· The ability to advocate, think and manage strategically and represent the organisation at the highest level.

· Rigorous budget expenditure and financial management skills and experience.

· Experience in security management in conflict settings.

· Experience in team security management in fragile contexts and insecure settings and risk management. Negotiation skills and knowledge of the operational challenges of working in Afghanistan are an advantage.

· Able to inspire team and partners to achieve results in a tough operational setting.

· Compliance focussed with a strong sense of accountability for results and performance.

· Deeply committed to safeguarding of beneficiaries, partners and staff and safe programming.

· An experienced grant manager with direct experience in leading a portfolio of complex projects from multiple donors with a successful track record in securing funding from institutional donors and grant reporting.

· A great team leader and people manager, with demonstrable skills in performance management.

· Able to support the professional development of team members.

· Able to travel in country and overseas as required

· Excellent analytical skills with a systematic approach and an eye for detail

· Fluency in English

· Written and spoken Dari/ Pashto an advantage

This role is open to national and international candidates.