Regional Director – Africa Department

ABA ROLI Regional Director

Regional Director for the Africa Division at American Bar Association – Rule of Law Initiative is responsible for the development, deployment, and operationalization of the strategy for the Africa region which directly influences and implements the mission, vision, and values of the Rule of Law Initiative’s goals.

The job responsibilities include the following:
Provides leadership, technical direction, and management oversight for all program activities across the region and ensures that targeted results are achieved.
Participates as a member of the ABA ROLI senior staff and in that capacity contributes to the achievement of overall organizational goals and assists in the development and implementation of overall organizational policies and procedures.
Accountable for the development of ongoing programs, the acquisition of supporting grants, achieving the M&E metrics for the program/grant, and for achieving/optimizing the deliverables of the program.
Creates budget proposals for regional programs and is accountable for monitoring and reporting on budget performance at the macro-level. Takes corrective actions throughout the budget period to achieve budget goals.
Ensures work plans are developed for each regional program with input from staff and stakeholders and oversees the work plans’ implementation.
Oversees the operations of field offices as appropriate, and ensures compliance with host country requirements, ABA policies, and donor regulations.
Interfaces with domestic and foreign government officials and other public and private donors on a routine basis to influence current and future programmatic support and to ensure grantor satisfaction.
Routinely monitors grantor requests for data and proactively resolves program inquiries to effectively manage the donors’ expectations and deliverables.
Represents ABA ROLI in both public and private presentations and briefings to donors, government officials, law practitioners, other ABA entities, and public audiences, both within and outside of the U.S. Leads efforts to project ABA ROLI expertise with respect to rule of law development in the assigned region and to garner positive publicity for Rule of Law Initiative programs.
Oversees the recruitment and staffing of the regional division and its’ associated field offices. Responsible for providing leadership, feedback, coaching, counseling, and when warranted, discipline to and through assigned employees.
Serves as the staff liaison to the Regional Program Council and works with the Council chair to regularly convene the Council, update it on ROLI work in the region and otherwise garner involvement and support from Council members. Routinely presents updates and progress reports to the Associate Executive Director – ROLI and to the ROLI Board.
Performs other related duties as required.

Basic Qualifications:
Possession of a master’s degree from an accredited university or Juris Doctor from an ABA-accredited law school or equivalent foreign degree and at least ten (10) years of program, operational or international development experience.
At least three years’ experience supervising a team which must have included providing performance feedback to direct reports.
Relevant experience, knowledge, and understanding of basic budgeting and financial principles.

Preferred Qualifications:
Previous experience in the field of development with an emphasis on the rule of law, democracy, and/or governance throughout the assigned region.
Language proficiency in a native language within the region.
Prior engagement with key donor agencies including (USAID, U.S. State Department, UK FCO, DFID, World Bank, UN and others).