Job Detail

About women for women international

Job Description

Purpose

The Country Director is the official representative and leader of Women for Women International in Afghanistan. The Country Director shapes the vision and strategy for the County Office, providing high-level oversight over all areas of program implementation and operations. He/she will have demonstrated the ability to build the capacity and counsel Country Office employees and manage team members. S/he will need to have a solid commitment to women's empowerment, experience delivering gendered transformative development programming, excellent leadership, and management skills, the ability to communicate effectively, both in writing and orally, and to operate successfully in unstable and challenging environments.

As the Country Director, you will be responsible for delivering results and driving programmatic excellence, growing the program, and implementing best practices at scale. By providing high-quality services, your work will directly contribute to and make a sustainable impact on the lives of thousands of women every year. The Country Director is a key leadership position responsible for the overall strategy, management (programmatic and operational), and development of WfWI Afghanistan programs.

You will lead a skilled and professional country program team directly delivering gender transformative development interventions. This includes a 12-month holistic gendered graduation program, networking of graduates, and innovative projects designed to deepen the impact of our program for women. The team you lead is responsible for monitoring and evaluating impact and leading the Country Office and the rest of the organization in learning from that data and corresponding program improvements.

As the official representative and leader for WfWI in Afghanistan, the Country Director will represent the organizational advocacy and programmatic priorities to donors and partners. S/he will lead WfWI's reputation as a competent organization by developing and fostering new partnerships and local funding opportunities, cultivating and maintaining close, productive relationships with strategic partners, and continually identifying opportunities for WfWI to add value and maximize impacts.

You will lead the team to deliver on a 2025 strategy by preparing appropriate operational plans with annual budgets and work plans each year. With support from other team members, you will be responsible for developing new business opportunities and managing and filling a funding pipeline. You will lead external relations with government, civil society, and donor agencies, oversee financial, administrative, and logistical resources, ensure adherence to WfWI minimum standards and donor compliance,and ensure good governance. The position is accountable for WfWI's duty of care to participants and staff, and you will assure quality operations in line with annual and long-term strategic goals and objectives. You will be a role model for leading and continuing to build a robust organizational culture embodying WfWI values. As the Country Director, you will manage for results, valuing and rewarding high performance, accountability, speed and efficiency, and innovation while keeping our program participants at the heart of everything you do.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Engagement

Fundraising and Representation

• Oversee the drafting of quality funding proposals and ensure accountable grant management aligned with organizational and donor requirements.
• Develop fundraising opportunities and cultivate new donor relationships; ensure visibility of the WfWI Afghanistan program regionally and internationally.
• Lead donor mapping, develop  and deliver fundraising strategy and targets  for the country office
• Develop and maintain good working relationships with local and international partners, donors, grantees, relevant government agencies, and community leaders.
• Lead and represent the organization to external audiences and stakeholders.
• Identify and develop strategic partnerships with local women's organizations in Afghanistan to jointly develop program proposals and engage in collective advocacy work.
• Develop brand and reputation among foreign and national governments, partners, donors, and other stakeholders, and develop and maintain productive relationships and be the WfWI's representative and spokesperson to all publics, including local and international media/ audience.
• Work with staff and partners to ensure programs and funding opportunities are identified, designed with appropriate assessment and context analysis, and in line with the strategy
• Establish and maintain good relationships with relevant – counterparts/departments of the government, the locally-represented multi/bi-lateral donors, foundations, international and national NGOs, and other civil society organizations

Programmatic Strategic Leadership and Development

• Lead the development and implementation of WfWI national strategy for Afghanistan in line with the organization's ten-year adaptive strategy
• Realize synergies and promote strategic integration and country partnership and influencing priorities
• Cultivate and manage high-level relationships with global and technical stakeholders able to contribute resources, expertise, and political capital to WfWI's programmatic work.
• Play a thought leadership, representation, and partnership role within and outside the organization on evidence-based interventions that increase women's social and economic power in the contexts in which we operate.
• Represent WfWI's programming in strategic collaborations with other departments at the global level or across country offices.
• Identify interventions that require additional monitoring and evaluation, and inspire the program team to analyze the program process and impact through surveys, qualitative research, and other mechanisms.
• Work closely with the senior managers in all aspects of programming to ensure efficiency and accountability and to develop innovative programmatic approaches to help marginalized women improve their lives.
• In addition to the national-level responsibilities outlined above, the Afghanistan Country Director currently serves as a core member of the WfWI Leadership Team and is expected to contribute to shaping actively and representing the organization globally.
• This role is also a member of additional layers of leadership in the organization, including the Country Directors meetings, the Global Leadership Team, etc., where (s)he is expected to be a thought leader,
• helping to shape the organization.

People, Capability and Culture Management

• Lead recruitment of new staff according to programmatic and operations needs to grow a highly effective and capable team to pursue WfWI's strategic vision in Afghanistan.
• Mentor staff and ensure that all managers implement performance appraisal systems properly and impartially.
• Support matrix managed staff and input into the ongoing development of objectives, reviews, feedback, etc
• Co-create clear objectives and development plans for direct reports and engage in regular and constructive performance conversations.
• Maintain behavior and conduct that uphold the highest standards for safeguarding, professionally and personally.
• Actively build and maintain systems that allow for the growth and development of all staff.
• Uphold and promote the values of WfWI and the highest standards of professional and ethical conduct in relation to our values and Code of Conduct, including the safeguarding policies against sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment.
• Actively contribute to initiatives that promote diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging and set the highest standards of safeguarding within Afghanistan.
• Actively act as a role model for a 'learning organization' culture by seeking insights and using problems as opportunities to learn.

Delivery

Programmatic Strategic Leadership and Development

• Provide strategic and management oversight to design the successful implementation of all programs offered by WfWI, including community identification/assessments, delivery of the Stronger Women Stronger Nations Program, including rights and life skills training, cash transfers, and business and vocational skills training; complementary programming including the Change Agent and Men's Engagement Program and work with graduates has been temporarily suspended due to the change in government, but this role will help assess when if/when it can resume.
• Provide the strategic and management oversight of grant-funded projects that can include new areas of work that can deepen the impact of WfWI for the participants or graduates of our program, targeted interventions for non-participants in the broader communities where we work, etc.
• Ensure grant implementation is excellent and grant reporting is complete and on time, setting WfWI up for successful new grant funding.
• Define areas of geographic priority for WfWI in-country, assessing based on need, route to money, opportunities for partnership, etc.
• Ensure that data collection, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting on any aspect of the program is conducted on time and in line with WfWI and donor policies, procedures, and grant agreements.
• Translate these program ideas into proposals, complete with budget and log frames, in collaboration with our fundraising team in the US, UK and German offices.
• Monitor the performance of grantees/ sub-grantees receiving funds from WfWI in Afghanistan to ensure compliance with grant arrangements and programmatic best practices and principles.
• Ensure the country office complies with all organizational policies, procedures, program guidelines, and local laws.
• Participate in strategy development for the organization, and lead the country office strategy processes within the broader global framework.

Accountability and Quality

• Be accountable for ensuring that programs comply with the organizational quality and accountability commitments.
• Continuously monitor and develop relevant accountability initiatives, as well as strengthen the efforts to document the impacts of WfWI in Afghanistan.
• Provide leadership in the development or change management of transformative initiatives in the country to enable the continuous evolution of programs and their delivery models.

Financial and Operational management

• Responsible for developing, managing, and overseeing Afghanistan Office's annual program budgets, collaborating with program staff, and ensuring the county program budgets' robust financial management and accountability.
• Ensure WfWI Afghanistan office teams across programmatic, administrative, and technical functions operate at an exceptional performance standard, achieving maximum impact while delivering programs.
• Establish and maintain the systems and processes necessary to ensure compliance and value for money while creating an entrepreneurial environment that drives toward action, fosters creative problem-solving, and provides accountability for results.
• Develop and administer annual country operational plans and budgets for all operations and grants.
• Ensure effective grant management, budget utilization, and fulfillment of annual targets.
• Strengthen the financial sustainability of programs and operations through effective and efficient resource development efforts, outstanding healthy financial ratios, and effective budget administration.

Risk management, compliance, security, and safeguarding

• Responsible for ensuring proper safety and security measures to safeguard staff, participants, visitors, and assets.
• Oversee compliance with statutory regulations related to WfWI's operations in the country
• Ensure proper and transparent management of resources and reporting systems are established in the country per the policy and procedures and all regulatory requirements of the non for profit, host country governments, and donor's policy
• Ensure all WfWI staff demonstrates individual and collective responsibilities for safety and security in coordination with security staff
• Drive, develop, and ensure the adaption, integration, and learning around key areas, including safeguarding, gender equity, diversity, monitoring, and evaluation framework, and regularly updated risk management registrar.
• Establish a safeguarding culture across all program levels by implementing the safeguarding policy. Act as a key source of support, guidance, and expertise in safeguarding for establishing a safe working environment

Others

• Adhere to WfWI’s Code of Conduct and Safeguarding Policies and report concerns and to the organizational values of Empowerment, Integrity, Respect, and Resilience.

Skills Required

• time management skills
• problem solving skill
• interpersonal skills
• organization skills
• Flexible and can work under pressure.
• computer skills
• Fluency in Pashto&Dari
• team player
• Excellent analytical ability

Submission Guideline:

We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

To apply for this position, please submit your resume and cover letter, with clear vacancy number/title in the subject line, via email to Afghanistanjobs@womenforwomen.org

The deadline for submission is December 18 , 2022 Please be advised that only shortlisted candidates will be notified.

In order to apply for any vacancy at Women for Women International, the title, vacancy number and location should have mentioned clearly in the subject line of your email else the application will be ignored automatically by the system.

Submission Email:

Afghanistanjobs@womenforwomen.org