GENERAL OBJECTIVES:

The Country Director is Solidarités International’s official representative in a country. He / She oversees the smooth running of the mission. He / She proposes mission strategy, according to the geopolitical and humanitarian context, and ensures its implementation once it has been validated. He / She monitors projects, ensuring that they are progressing in accordance with the Solidarités International charter and complying with internal and contractual procedures. He / She mobilizes the material and financial resources necessary for the programs to run effectively and supervises the administration of these resources. He / She coordinates the teams in place and ensures their security on the mission. He / She is the direct liaison for Solidarités International’s HQ.

Security

• Serve as main focal point for the mission for critical incidents.
• Liaise with security national authorities and other stakeholders (INGOs, INSO, NGO Forum, UN).
• Ensure security procedures and analysis are regularly updated.
• Brief new staff on security context of the country and the mission.
• Maintain overview of the security context by studying the daily, weekly, and quarterly security analysis from relevant organizations (INSO, NGO Forum).

External outreach

• Serve as main point of contact for strategic decisions with donors, UN, NGO Forum or other NGOs
• Keep awareness of relevant donors and their funding priorities
• Maintain regular communication with the donor

Annual strategy

• Lead the exercise of defining the annual strategy
• Ensure the application of the strategy throughout the new proposals

Strategic management

• Lead the Coordination team in adhering to the strategy as well as maintaining the sufficient functional setup of the whole mission
• Maintain overview of the security and funding context of the country as well as situation of the mission (financial, HR, logistics) to inform the strategic decisions

Coordination within the mission

• Lead the coordination between coordination departments and bases through regular meetings with coordinators
• Ensure that mission monitoring tools are updated and shared on regular basis
• Keep an overview of the gaps and needs in multiple locations and departments

Coordination with HQ

• Ensure that desk is informed of the situation of the mission through regular updates and sharing of the monitoring tools as well as regular calls with desk manager
• Request approvals from HQ on decision requiring decision above his / her level

Team management

• Ensure regular meetings with the directly managed team
• Appraisal of team members.ring relevant documentation for external audits and audit report archiving

PRIORITIES ON THE 2-3 FIRST MONTHS:

• Oversee the implementation of the annual strategy 2024
• Reinforce the security management / contingency planning of the mission
• Dynamic analysis of the context to identify new potential needs / relevant areas of intervention
• Consolidate the recent scale-up of the mission to ensure programmatic quality and process compliance
• Sustain and further develop SI’s funding strategy in South Sudan and identify new donors to diversify the funding portfolio
• Support the Senior Management Team in their coordination roles
• Regularly represent SI with donors, local authorities, NGOs J17and Coordination forum

YOUR PROFILE

Education / academic background:

Master Degree in humanitarian/development studies, social sciences, management or other related discipline.

5 years experience in the humanitarian sector

1-2 year(s) on a similar position

TECHNICAL SKILLS

• Excellent communication, organizational and prioritization skills and the ability to multi-task and support and/or fill multiple positions at one time.
• High management abilities, and particularly team management skills and capacities to provide distance technical support.
• Significant knowledge and experience of grant writing and management for major institutional donors, including EU, BHA/USAID, ECHO, UN Agencies (UNHCR, UNICEF, etc.) and pooled funding mechanisms, such as SSHF.
• Ability, acquired through experience, to represent the organization and negotiate and defend SI’s interests with a diverse range of government officials, departments and ministries, civil society organizations, and other international organizations professionally and appropriately.
• Demonstrated attention to detail and ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines and work both independently and cooperatively with team members.
• Proven ability to deal with donors and operational partners.
• Technical knowledge in SI sectors of expertise (WASH, FSL, Shelter) is an asset

TRANSVERSAL SKILLS

• Significant experience of building and supervising large and culturally diverse teams of expatriate and national staff, and interest in capacity building of people.
• Strong initiatives and improvisation capacities.
• Capacity to adapt and show organizational flexibility
• Good stress management.
• Important flexibility and adaptability.
• Experience working with SI (or a similar organization) is an asset
• Prior experience in South Sudan would be considered as an asset

Language: Fluent in English, written and spoken. Arabic is an asset.