Country Director, Ukraine

Plan International responded to the Ukraine Crisis since March 2022, starting in countries hosting Ukrainian refugees (Moldova, Romania, Poland) and thereafter expanding humanitarian operations inside Ukraine since August 2022. Since October 2022, Plan International has been duly registered in Ukraine as a representative office of Plan International Inc.

The portfolio inside Ukraine is seeing a rapid expansion and has the ambition to grow to EUR 20-25M on an annual basis. Growth is expected to come through acquisition of grants from both bilateral and multilateral donors as well as through ongoing public appeals and exploring corporate sector funding opportunities.

Plan International is profiling itself as one of the ‘go to’ organizations in promoting and protecting the rights of children, girls and young people in conflict and crisis; in particular through adding value in child protection, education, gender and inclusion, social cohesion, GBV, MHPSS and CVA. As the crisis permits, Plan International will expand its humanitarian interventions into longer term development goals driving youth-led action and equality for girls in Ukraine.

Plan International Ukraine works exclusively through strategic civil society partners to support vulnerable children, young people, and their families to cope with the impact of the current humanitarian crisis and to increase their resilience. The Plan International Ukraine office is located in the Podil District in the capital Kyiv and is currently geographically focusing its interventions on the East, South and North Centre regions of Ukraine.

Plan International currently employs approximately 20 staff of which half are international and half are national staff members. It is expected that the ration international to international staff will rapidly decrease. A Ukraine Management Team comprising of the Country Director, four Heads of Department (Programme, Finance, HR, Business Development) and a Safety & Security Specialist is driving our ambition inside Ukraine and promotes inclusive decision making and mutual accountability. Plan International Ukraine is supported by the Ukraine Crisis Response strategic and operational shared service Hub and strongly connected to Plan International’s response and presence in Moldova, Romania and Poland: a multi-country Ukraine Crisis Response Strategy (January 2023-December 2024) is being finalized to guide the strategic ambition of Plan International throughout the multi-country response.

Plan International is committed to meeting safeguarding expectations across all its operations and will expect the country director to ensure all incidents regarding child abuse and sexual harassment are reported and effectively managed.

The Opportunity

The Country Director will lead Plan International Ukraine to ensure:

• Our humanitarian response programmes are well funded and growing and our work is recognised locally and internationally and remains relevant to the needs of girls and vulnerable children in crisis in Ukraine.
• Our partnerships with civil society actors are strategic and intentional and our humanitarian responses are partner-led, meaning Plan International is amplifying locally-led solutions and responses and adding value to Ukrainian civil society actors in driving change and building resilience, particularly for girls in crisis.
• Our team is motivated, skilled, and relevant and our organisation is effective and efficient, compliant with the policies, standards and expectations of PII. This includes effective and up to date risk management relevant to a complex and unstable operating environment.
• Our work is guided by effective operations, strong financial management of budgets and performance of work plans to create a positive change for children, youth, and their communities.
• Safeguarding Children and Young People and Gender Equality and Inclusion are fully embedded in our humanitarian programmes.
• Our organisation is fully represented and visible in UN and government coordination systems including clusters, humanitarian country teams and national/regional stakeholders.

As a Country Director, you will have a strong background in representation and business development, including with UN donors, and good programming and influencing experience to sustain the excellent growth dynamics of the programme and advance public policy in favour of girls affected by crisis.

You will have wide experience in humanitarian response, disaster risk reduction, resilience building, social cohesion programming and operationalising a nexus approach.

You will drive Plan International’s programme and influencing work, setting overall direction, leading a high performing team, ensuring accountability for meeting demanding targets and maintaining alignment with the global strategy.

You will be a values-based and feminist leader, deeply comfortable with leading transformative change within the organisation, but also have a demonstrable commitment to gender equality and represent Plan International to the highest levels of government, UN, donors, civil society, the media, and international media.

You will understand and drive efforts to deliver positive change for girls in crisis through advocating, campaigning, and communicating at a national level. Equally, you will ensure the country-operating model is fit for purpose, fully aligned to the overall regional Ukraine Crisis Response strategy and ambition. Key business processes are in place and organisational values are embedded in everything we do.

You will lead by example in ensuring gender equality is evident in everything we do from staffing to programming and influencing, to ways of working. You will work with your team to bring about the right culture that ensures we are champions for girls and gender equality.

As a member of the Ukraine Crisis Response Leadership Team, you will have shared accountability, with the Heads of Mission of Moldova, Poland & Romania, the Ukraine Crisis Response Director and Ukraine Crisis Response Hub’s Heads of Programme Operations, Finance, Communications and HR, to contribute to the overall learning and strategic direction of Plan International in the East and Central Europe region with a total budget to grow to approximately €100 million and a staff complement of about 100 people.