Job Detail

About ActionAid

About ActionAid Afghanistan:

ActionAid is a global alliance of organizations, working towards achieving a world without poverty and injustice in which every person enjoys the right to a life with dignity. We work in more than 40 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas and our expertise lies in community-led development, working through partnerships with people living in poverty and their organizations. We work with the poor and excluded sections of the society using human rights-based development approach. Our Country Strategy for Afghanistan titled ‘PEOPLE’S POWER FOR INCLUSIVE ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE’ for the period 2018-2022 focuses on improving resilient food security and advancing grassroots democratic governance among, other strategic priorities, wherein women and girls’ needs are central to all our work.

Job Description

The Country Director (CD) provides vision, leadership, management and effective high-level national representation for ActionAid (AA) in Afghanistan, in line with the established policies, principles and operating practices of ActionAid International, as well as good management practice and the political, social, cultural and economic environment of the country.

The CD is responsible for overseeing the implementation of the ActionAid, Afghanistan, Country Strategy Paper (CSP), ensuring resources are in place to achieve budgeted performance targets and monitoring overall performance against these targets.

The CD role requires leadership competencies, organisational change management experience, competencies to manage large teams as well as deep knowledge on the context,poverty and development as well as humanitarian sector to enable the role holder to make significant improvements to policies and processes that lead to mid to long-term success of ActionAid in Afghanistan.

The CD will embrace the dual citizenship of an organisation that is strongly rooted in the country but also part of an international federation.

Organisational Representation

• Implement and further develop ActionAid’s  vision, mission, philosophy and principles in Afghanistan in line with agreed  strategies and organisational priorities
• Represent ActionAid   in a variety of forums and maintain external relationships within a diverse range of stakeholders in the sector including national government, key national and international NGOs, donors, academia, development networks, social movements, community-based organisations, media and other relevant institutions in Afghanistan
• Actively contribute to ActionAid’s’ vision and mission as an international federation.
• Maintain regular communication with the line manager, ActionAid Global Secretariat and other Members of AA federation.
• Ensure that ActionAid, Afghanistan, lives up to its dual citizenship role as part of an international federation.
• Provide inputs to AAI’s activities as and when required, including participation on task forces, training courses and conferences

Strategy Development and Implementation

• Ensures the delivery of ActionAid's, Afghanistan CSP and oversees the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the CSP and its annual plan.
• Strong knowledge of humanitarian contexts and leadership experience of strategy development and risk identification, management and planning.
• Ensure all programme activities are sensitive to and responsive to changes in the political, social, and economic environments and that all changes in organisation’s structure, systems and culture are planned and managed effectively.
• Lead and direct the work of ActionAid, Afghanistan, in accordance with sound management practices and ActionAid's development policies and accountability systems.
• Develop and maintain appropriate contingency plans for all kinds of emergencies, context-related risks and challenges. Such plans to be presented for approval of the Head of Country Engagement and Transformation, Asia, for inclusion in AAI’s humanitarian response and risk management related mechanisms.

Fundraising

• Develop a funding strategy and plan to mobilise and diversify ActionAid, Afghanistan’s resource base to support the change we seek to achieve as specified in the CSP.
• Establish and develop strategic and working relationships with key donors in Afghanistan and actively develop local funding sources appropriate to ActionAid, Afghanistan, Country's resource needs
• Ensure a regular flow of information and report is available to ActionAid International funding departments, funding affiliates and to donors and official funders as required by the various funding mechanisms.
• Knowledge and strong experiences on donor contract management
• Knowledge and experiences in ensuring cost recovery with donor funded projects and budgeting.

Communications and Campaign

• Develop a communication strategy that will deepen the impact of communication work, identify key priorities, channels, audiences and messages to establish an appropriate public image for ActionAid, Afghanistan, in line with ActionAid International values and culture
• Develop and manage a sound relationship with all sections of the media and ensure that any published material accurately reflects the views of ActionAid, Afghanistan.
• Encourage the development of appropriate research with a view to improving the quality of grassroot work and influencing change in policy to improve the quality of life for the poor and excluded ActionAid works in Afghanistan.
• Conceptualise and conduct local level campaigns to create connections between poor and excluded people to increase public awareness of, and support for their cause and grow our supporter base in Afghanistan.

People Management

• Maintain an effective structure to ensure delivering the country strategic plan
• Ensure a  collaborative and safe working environment in ActionAid, Afghanistan and provide country team with an empowering and enabling environment fostering ActionAid feminist leadership principles.
• Maintain effective and appropriate staff recruitment, induction, appraisal, and remuneration and development policies and practices at all levels to ensure the optimum utilisation and development of ActionAid’s,  human resources.
• Appoint, develop and manage all senior staff. Ensure a high calibre of staff is recruited while promoting a gender balance in the organisation, and that optimum investments are made in their development.
• Develop a qualified and valued ActionAid team in Afghanistan, based on equality and diversity.
• Actively promote staff exchange, secondment and development schemes, where these contribute to the meeting of ActionAid's programme objectives and priorities

Operations & Finance

• Ensure mutual accountability between ActionAid and related stakeholders with the establishment of all organisational processes, systems and policy to ensure the effectiveness of ActionAid, Afghanistan.
• Ensure the financial integrity and accountability of  ActionAid, Afghanistan, in accordance with ActionAid Financial Management framework

• Manage the financial resources allocated to or raised by the country  in compliance with approved policies/ frameworks  as well as national law and donors’ regulations;

• Prepare budget and financial plan to ensure that the control of expenditure and the disbursement of resources in accordance with the established procedures;
• Provide progress and financial reports as required by the government, and ActionAid's accountability procedures and as required by other donors.
• Maintain an efficient internal control framework to ensure that ActionAid, Afghanistan, has a well-balanced, well documented and cost-effective programme.

Partnership management and development

• Manage and encourage the co-operative relationships established with various specialist institutions and partners in the country and ensure that these joint initiatives conform to programme objectives and strengthen the profile of ActionAid in Afghanistan.
• Lead the development and implementation of country-specific guidelines for the management of partnerships in line with the Country Strategy Paper (CSP) and other relevant organizational policies

Others

• Develop ActionAid 's capacity to document, disseminate and learn from development work in and ensure all reporting meet the highest standard
•  Act as focal person to identify and manage all risks/ crisis  related to ActionAid operations in Afghanistan.

Skills Required

• Team management skills

Submission Guideline:

If you have the expertise to take on this exciting opportunity, please apply online by sending your CV and motivation cover letter to jobs.kabul@actionaid.org up to Sept 8, 2023. Please clearly indicate the vacancy of Country Director, ActionAid, Afghanistan-Kabul -1003 in the subject of your email, otherwise your application will not be considered. ActionAid Afghanistan welcomes applications from all sections of the community and promotes diversity.  Although all applications will be considered on their individual merit, suitably qualified women candidates are especially encouraged to apply.   Due to high volumes of applications received, we can only correspond with short listed applicants. Should you not have received feedback on your application within two weeks of the closing date, please consider your application unsuccessful. ActionAid Afghanistan will not consider unsolicited candidates from recruitment agencies. We reserve the right to withdraw any of our vacancies at any time.  Submission Email: jobs.kabul@actionaid.org

ActionAid is an equal opportunity

Submission Email:

jobs.kabul@actionaid.org