Head of Association at Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)

Rationale/Objective for Position

The Head of Association is responsible for leading the Association and Board team, ensuring that the board operates and conducts its governance and practical duties and responsibilities optimally and overseeing all the operations of the Association office. The jobholder serves as the liaison between the Board and all relevant key stakeholders including members, EA executive, Associations of other MSF sections, regional operations among others.

This position will be hierarchically accountable to the MSF EA Board, and functionally accountable to the MSF EA Board President.

Tasks & Responsibilities

Strategic Responsibilities:

• Advise and guide the Board’s conception, organization, implementation, and articulation of its position and mandate.
• Identify, develop and implement the team’s strategic and tactical priorities and goals, and facilitate the work of team members.

Technical and Operational Responsibilities:

• Leadership and Administration.
• Oversee the identification, creation, upkeep, and implementation of relevant governance and associative policies and processes.
• Act as an extension of the Board and MSF EA President towards MSF EA and other stakeholders and ensure visibility of the governance of MSF EA to represent the Board’s priorities, decisions, and concerns.
• Act as a conduit for information and analysis to the Board and Association regarding topics of importance within MSF EA, UBUNTU Operations, and MSF International.
• Drive and enable the MSF EA Association to act as the accountability and higher governance body in the organization.
• Work with the President and Board, develop, review, and ensure implementation of the MSF EA Association Annual plan and budget, including reporting on implementation progress.

Associative Support

• Strengthen and coordinate development of the EAA associative focal persons network by ensuring each country and project has focal persons and supporting member countries with recruitment, induction, training, capacity building and Associative Life stimulation.
• Ensure the General Assembly is organized in such a way that its objectives can be met, in the interests of effective and responsible governance.
• Partner with the Operational Centre Associative Coordinators to coordinate and support implementation of intersectional Field Associative Debates (FADs) in the Eastern African countries with MSF presence.

Membership

• Oversee membership recruitment, applications processing, database management, effective communication, and reporting.
• Oversee the development and maintenance of associative websites and stimulate discussions on online platforms including Facebook, WhatsApp, slack, souk, e-voting system, etc.

Collaboration and Engagements

• Keep in touch with the Associations of partner sections, and organize various events to exchange views, opinions, practices and create connections.
• Represent the Association in public or in MSF events when necessary.
• Aid the organization of international MSF events & conferences when needed.

Other Responsibilities

• Supervise, mentor and coach staff in the Asso and Board office.
• Participate in International Projects/Coordinate and implement new initiatives as agreed by the EAA board e.g. planning and implementation of the urban space’s initiative in EA.
• Ensure accurate integration of EDI & Safeguarding aspects into all policies and practices within the MSF EA Association.
• Recognize, respond, and document any form of abuse or inappropriate behavior and alert the safeguarding unit of any suspected potential abuse.
• Compliance Assurance - Ensure that all data processing activities within the MSF EA Association comply with relevant data protection laws and regulations, including the Data Protection Act, 2019 and support your team to receive necessary training in this area.
• Policy Adherence - Enforce data protection policies, procedures, and guidelines within the MSF EA Association, ensuring that all team members are aware of and adhere to these protocols.
• Proactively participate in the individual performance management process including objective setting, performance monitoring and performance evaluation.
• Recognize and reinforce strong performance in the EA Association team; identify and encourage improvement where needed; and ensure quality and timely performance management process is carried out for the EA Association team.

Qualifications

Education

• A bachelor’s degree in international relations, Art and Humanity, Business Administration, Social Sciences, or an equivalent qualification from a recognized institution.

Experience

• At least five (5) years of MSF experience in the field, headquarters, or coordinating MSF Associations
• Strong working knowledge of the Eastern Africa context and of global humanitarian affairs.
• A good understanding of the financial procedures and policies of MSF is an added advantage.
• Fluency in English is required, and knowledge of either Swahili, French or Arabic is an asset.

Competencies

Technical Competencies

• Computer literacy with excellent MS Office, Outlook, power point and excel.
• Ability to effectively navigate through social media and interactive platforms.
• Good database management skills.
• Excellent writing and editing skills: report writing, agenda, minutes and speech drafting

Behavioral/General Competencies

• Committed to humanitarian principles.
• Attention to detail.
• Proven leadership skills.
• Willingness to work beyond official working hours.
• Willingness to travel within and outside the country.
• Ability to relate with people of all cultures.
• Strong planning and organizing skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.