Director of Sub Region Gulf of Guinea and Central Africa

The Organisation

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls.

We believe in the power and potential of every child. But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it’s girls who are most affected.

Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children.

We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood. And we enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.

We have been building powerful partnerships for children for over 85 years, and are now active in more than 75 countries.

The Opportunity

The Director of Sub-Region will be accountable for the implementation of Plan International’s purpose and ambition across the sub-region in line with Plan’s values-based leadership underpinned by feminist principles. You will ensure quality aligned strategies are developed and resourced for all countries in the region and programmes are delivered with the expected impact

Key deliverables include;

Strategy realization & operating models: Drive realisation of the global strategy across the sub region in line with global results framework and performance measures. Work towards flexible operating models with a focus on efficiency and impact at scale.

Strengthen Plan International legitimacy: Establish locally led Advisory Boards and Youth Advisory Panels at country level – or support countries on track to become Members, improving our legitimacy through broad-based membership of Plan’s global governance.

Drive performance (Operational excellence & Program quality) based on Plan International management standards and performance measures): Country portfolio management and Strategy alignment. Providing strong oversight of country operations and programs to ensure consistent alignment with operational excellence and programme quality standards. Establish sound management practices consistently applied across the cluster. Ensure consistent use of corporate systems and framework: YODA (Your Organisations Data and Analytics); PMERL (Performance, Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, Learning) AoGD (Areas of Global Distinctiveness) to generate quality analysis for continuous improvement.

Values based leadership development, people and culture with feminist leadership principles: Focus on talent management, leadership development programs; promoting gender, equity, diversity and inclusion. Lead capability assessment where needed and ensure the right people in the right places with a focus on Country Leadership Teams and other mission critical roles.

Strategic Partnerships and Local resource mobilization work towards strategic partnerships across Central Africa and Gulf of Guinea: identify and access new funding sources working with Country Office’s and National Organisations’s. Lead on establishing supply and demand conversation within the sub region with a focus on delivering on Plan International’s ambition. Lead on identifying programs models and supporting their documentation and scale up.

Representation of Plan International agendas across the sub region in relevant spaces for Advocacy: representing local, regional and global levels (AU, EU, UN etc). Ensure the Global Advocacy Strategy (GLAS) and the Pan African Advocacy Strategy are used across the sub region to guide Country Office influencing strategies and interventions including coordination with Liaison Office’s to connect with global opportunities.

The Individual

You will have strong strategic leadership, people, financial, organisational development and safety, security and risk management capabilities. A background in business development and good programming and influencing experience to sustain the excellent growth dynamics of the programme and advance public policy in favour of girls is essential in this role.