Regional Director, Africa at International Alert

Reports to    Director of Programmes

Management Responsibility    Responsible for approximately 80 staff and £12m portfolio. Line management of DRC, Kenya, Niger, Nigeria, Mali and Rwanda Country Directors; Head of Programme Development, Africa and Africa Grants and Finance Officer. 

Job location    Preferably DRC (Kinshasa), Kenya (Nairobi) or Rwanda (Kigali), or possibly Mali (Bamako) or Nigeria (Abuja).

Grade     tbc

Contract Duration     Permanent 

Job Purpose

The Regional Director, Africa leads and manages International Alert’s peacebuilding work across west, central and east Africa, ensuring our work:

is designed, implemented and evaluated with a discernible impact on peace
staffed by talented and motivated people
viable, based on a sound strategy
funded to allow programme sustainability and growth
manages resources well, with due regard for the values, ethics and compliance criteria of International Alert, our partners, donors and other stakeholders. 

The postholder acts as an organisational leader and a member of the Executive Team on rotation with other Regional Directors. They are an integral part of Alert’s overall Global Leadership Team, ensuring collaborations and learning across teams. As we are about to commence our next organisational strategy process, the postholder will contribute to defining, and implementing, the future direction of Alert.  

Duties and Responsibilities

1. Provide vision and strategic leadership for the Africa Programme, to guide, motivate and monitor staff and ensure the programme is integrated well with other parts of Alert and is viable as a business unit within Alert
   1. Working within the organisation’s mission and strategic guidance create, deliver and as necessary renew a multi-year strategy for Alert’s work in Africa;
   2. Motivate the Africa Programme team in support of the vision and strategy, ensuring that all our work is delivering country and organisational priorities and building peace effectively. 
   3. Develop annual programme-wide work plans; monitor and adjust these during the year, and report against the plans, with a focus on results, learning, impact and viability.
   4. Ensure that all the country teams within the Africa Programme develop their strategies and plans with a focus on results, learning, impact and viability.
   5. Consolidate Alert’s work and impact for peace in the key countries where we currently have a presence (DRC, Kenya, Niger, Nigeria, Mali and Rwanda) and maintain as appropriate operations in other countries such as Burundi, Uganda, Somalia and Ethiopia.
   6. As appropriate, develop programming in new countries.
   7. Maintain a culture of good communication within the programme, so decisions are made and information shared in a timely way with the right degree of participation.
   8. Involve others outside the programme in developing ideas and plans, and ensure that plans are communicated clearly to the rest of Alert; take steps so the programme is involved in and aware of the plans and ideas of other parts of Alert such as other regions and the Peacebuilding Advisory Unit;
   9. Keep senior management informed about progress and challenges, working closely with the Director of Programmes. 
2. Ensure staffing needs are met, in a structure which enables high quality outputs
   1. Structure the programme to enable impact, delegation (where appropriate), initiative, efficiency, viability and accountability.
   2. Ensure the team contains the right mix of talents, knowledge and skills, recruiting as necessary.
   3. Supervise senior staff directly, and ensure the management of all staff within the programme, following Alert performance management policies.
   4. Ensure that staff have clear roles, work plans and goals; and that teams are formed and managed effectively when needed, to achieve specific objectives.
   5. Provide opportunities for staff to learn and develop; and monitor staff’s progress in capacity, knowledge and insight as much as in performance and skill.
   6. Help staff anticipate and resolve problems that may arise.
   7. Support staff to respond to the requirements of colleagues, including other country teams and regional team colleagues, as well as Advocacy and Communications, Finance, HR, Impact and Learning, Operations, Peacebuilding Advisory Unit (PAU) colleagues, and mediate these relationships.
3. Ensure effective management of Africa projects and interventions 
   1. Ensure new projects are designed with rigour, especially with a view to relevance, impact, evaluation and shared cost recovery.
   2. Lead and participate in advocacy relating to peace and conflict in Africa, in collaboration with others. 
   3. Initiate interventions at the global and regional level to amplify overall impact and ensure Alert’s Africa work is innovative and effective, achieving wider influence.
   4. Ensure country programmes and other management components are assisted as needed with operational issues e.g. dealing with political sensitivity, registration.
   5. Broker relationships with other parts of Alert to ensure conceptual and operational integration, and ensure we are mainstreaming conflict and gender sensitivity within our work and that of our partners.
   6. Reach out to new partners and collaborators and ensure the effective management and implementation of external programme partnerships, developing diverse partnerships of equity and respect. 
   7. Ensure that activities are implemented with due regard for plans, deadlines and quality, and are monitored and evaluated to learn lessons about their effectiveness and impact; foster a culture that values and seeks to measure impact.
   8. Directly participate in the delivery of activities or consulting assignments as necessary.
   9. Ensure that projects are functioning effectively and in compliance with the expectations, norms and standards of Alert, its donors and other relevant stakeholders, and are adequately supported by Alert colleagues. 
   10. Ensure that donor reports provide a clear narrative of activities, impact and lessons learned, and are submitted on time.
   11. Ensure that the programme is up to date on legal issues in all operating environments.
4. Ensure effective financial management of Africa programmes 
   1. Work with colleagues to develop and update as necessary an annual working budget (currently around £12 million), and to monitor financial performance.
   2. Manage the Africa budget proactively.
   3. Ensure that effective systems for financial reporting on grants and contracts are in place and in use.
   4. Ensure that programme funds are spent in compliance with Alert policies, donor budgets and any other stipulations – including funds passed to partners.
   5. Ensure country programmes update their security analysis and planning regularly.
   6. Ensure the programme’s finance and administrative systems and procedures are of high quality and compliant with requirements of Alert, donors and relevant laws.
   7. Ensure a high level of financial and administrative management and accountability in line with Alert’s and other relevant requirements.
   8. 5.Raise funds to sustain and grow Alert’s work in Africa
   9. Support Country Directors to devise and implement business and fundraising plans, as well as leading fundraising in contexts in which we do not currently have a presence, and focus design and fundraising efforts to achieve these.
   10. Build design, proposal writing and fundraising capacity across the programme, helping the team diversify sources of income including undertaking consultancies and winning commercial contracts.
   11. Help identify specific project ideas, lead and/or support the development of project proposals. Review and approve proposals and budgets being submitted to donors, ensuring full cost recovery, and negotiate contract terms.
   12. Build relationships with existing and potential new donors, clients and contractors.
   13. Track funding pipeline against plans and adjust plans accordingly.
   14. Support efforts within Africa and across the organisation to tap into major giving and donations from corporations, trust and foundations and high-net-worth individuals.
5. Represent Alert, and play a leadership role within the organisation
   1. Actively participate in the Executive Team on rotation with other Regional Directors, the Global Leadership Team, Programme Leadership Team, and other Alert teams as appropriate.
   2. Represent Alert and its messages, and support other Africa staff to do so.
   3. Ensure Alert Africa team participates actively in external networking, advocacy and influencing in particular.
   4. Play a supportive and hands-on role in advocacy on strategic peacebuilding issues, and where appropriate involve other colleagues.
   5. Provide regular internal reports, with an emphasis on impact, telling the stories about building peace in Africa that will inspire and engage others.
   6. Contribute to the wider development of Alert, through engagement in strategy and policy development, cross-programme communication, management training, staff development and external communications.

Travel requirements

The position is based in one of our country offices in Africa. The role involves frequent travel to the contexts in which we work, and occasional visits to Europe or USA.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS

1. Extensive experience of implementing peacebuilding or related work in conflict-affected contexts in Africa.
2. Extensive experience living and/or working in African contexts and understanding of cultural, societal and political context in at least one of the countries in which we work.  
3. Extensive knowledge of African conflict and peacebuilding contexts, trends and dynamics.
4. Knowledge and understanding of the peacebuilding sector.
5. Substantial programme management experience, including programme strategy and design, implementation, compliance, monitoring and evaluation.
6. Senior management experience, including remote management of teams dispersed across a region, providing inclusive and inspirational leadership. 
7. A track record of thinking strategically: ability to analyse context and identify strategic ways forward, using a variety of lenses including societal and political. Experience undertaking strategic planning and leading teams through change.  
8. Substantial experience of financial management, including overseeing complex budgets of at least £1m.
9. Excellent understanding of the current international development funding environment and experience of successful fundraising from institutional and non-institutional donors.
10. A proven collaborator, with strong networks with governments, funders, civil society and other relevant actors.
11. Ability and willingness to travel to and within countries affected by violent conflict.
12. Strong emotional intelligence and self-awareness.
13. Communicates clearly and cogently in English, in writing and speech 
14. Reads French easily, can write informal memos in French, and can sustain a professional conversation in French about strategic and operational aspects of Alert’s work.

DESIRABLE REQUIREMENTS

• Established and influential peacebuilder with strong profile and networks in the sector. 
• Fluency in other languages relevant to our countries of operation in Africa.