Senegal: Regional Director, West Africa

Established in 1915 with Helen Keller as a founding trustee, Helen Keller International (HKI) is dedicated to saving the sight and lives of the world’s most vulnerable and disadvantaged. Headquartered in New York City, HKI has an operating budget of some $70 million and currently conducts programs in 21 countries in Africa and Asia, as well as in the United States. Renowned for its reliability, efficiency and high level of technical expertise, HKI promotes the development of sustainable, large-scale programs that deliver effective preventative and curative services for nutrition, eye health and neglected tropical diseases. The hallmark of the organization’s work is its proven success in developing, testing and scaling-up health interventions, and integrating them within government and community structures to support and build local capacity and sustainable solutions.

Africa Regional Overview

HKI’s programs in Africa have a long history, going back more than 30 years. We are currently implementing regional, multi-country and country specific projects, several of which have substantial research components, in 13 countries in Africa. With about 630 staff and an annual operating budget of over $45 million, HKI’s programs in Africa are funded by a mix of government, corporate and foundation donors, including, USAID, Global Affairs Canada, Irish Aid, Margaret A. Cargill Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. Funding for the programs is generated through country, regional and headquarters fundraising efforts, as well as through HKI’s affiliate, HKI Europe.

The country offices are supervised and supported directly by the Africa Regional Office (AFRO) team, and multi-country program managers, most of whom are based at the regional office in Dakar. The regional office is also responsible for all regional partner relations including regional UN offices, regional economic communities, African Union, regional health organizations, etc.

HKI is seeking a Regional Director to lead, develop and provide oversight of our programs in the West Africa (WA) Region.

Functional Relationships

Reporting to the Vice President, Africa, the Regional Director, WA serves as a member of both the Regional Management Team and the organization-wide Senior Management Team and has a dotted line relationship to the Regional Director of Operations. The position works in close collaboration with the Regional Director for Eastern, Southern and Central Africa, Regional Advisors for Nutrition, NTDs, Monitoring & Evaluation and other program and operations staff in the region and the program and operations team at headquarters.

The Regional Director WA is the line manager of seven country directors (who lead and oversee the country office programs) and provides technical and operational support and oversight to country offices. Additionally, he/she plays a key role in the oversight of the regional projects.

HKI has a matrixed reporting structure that respects both the line management and authority within country office and regional hierarchies; and the accountability and oversight duties of subject matter experts and multi-country program managers at the regional and headquarters level. Regular communication and a spirit of team work among colleagues, both hierarchically and laterally are essential to make this structure thrive.

HKI’s programs require close relations with governments, partner NGOs, food industries, donors and UN agencies. The Regional Director plays a key role in nurturing and overseeing some of these cooperative relationships, and representing HKI-AFRO to donors and the international community, as needed.

Scope of the Position

The Regional Director will take the lead on ensuring technical quality of programs and new business development; and provide guidance, input and oversight to ensure that country office programs and operations are implemented and reported on at the highest standards, and to ensures all aspects of finance and administration are fully integrated with the work of program teams to fulfill the HKI mission and the objectives established in grants. Additionally, the Regional Director plays a key role in ensuring that the regional and multi-country programs are fully integrated in the country programs.

This position is based at the regional office in Dakar, Senegal, with extensive field travel to the HKI West African country programs for country office management and support or to attend relevant regional events.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Planning and Vision

· Provide direction and guidance to the long, medium, and short term planning processes in countries and contribute to strategic development of the Africa Region in accordance with the overall organizational strategic plan.

· Contribute unique knowledge and perspective from work in the region to organization-wide planning and policy development on Senior Management Team (SMT) and regional planning on the Regional Management Team.

· Act as a communications bridge to assigned country offices, sharing information and reviewing discussions held at SMT and RMT to build buy-in and identify issues that require attention.

Program Development and Promotion/Fundraising

In collaboration with colleagues at regional, country and headquarters levels,

· Lead in the identification and pursuit of new program initiatives that are consistent with HKI mission and strategic plan.

· Lead and contribute heavily to the development of concept papers and proposals for submission to various donors.

· Identify and implement strategies to meet longer term country office funding needs including identifying and pursuing funding opportunities with donors based in the region.

Facilitation and Control

· Serve as the link between country programs and the regional office and regional program management as well as advocating for WA country programs with the rest of HKI, including regional office, headquarters and HKI-Europe.

· Ensure compliance with HKI programmatic performance standards, including Minimum Program Standards, and reporting requirements. Identify issues and ensure prompt corrective action.

· Facilitate access by country offices to required programmatic support.

Program Quality Assurance

· Collaborate closely with the technical leadership of HKI at regional and HQ level to support programs in countries and ensure that the quality, impact, scale and cost-effectiveness of these programs, including the cross-cutting areas, meet HKI program standards through implementation of appropriate planning, monitoring and evaluation.

· Assure the accurate and timely reporting of program results including the multi-country projects.

Management and Operations

· Assume accountability for overall management of the designated country offices and programs.

· Within the mission, policies and guidelines of HKI, provide the leadership and oversight of all operations in designated countries.

· Through direct supervision of the Country Directors in specified countries, ensure direct accountability for planning, implementation and evaluation of these country operations, including programs, finance and budget, human resources, information systems, administration and safety and security.

· Ensure compliance with HKI and donor standards, policies and procedures and processes.

· Ensure understanding and compliance with host country laws.

· Ensure overall coordination of regional grants where appropriate.

· Regularly participate in regional management team meetings (in person or via teleconference).

Partnerships and Representation

· Work with colleagues to define partnership possibilities and to ensure HKI representation at key regional meetings.

· Build-on and expand partnerships with regional institutions, country government officials, international and local donors, international and local NGOs, universities and other institutions and colleagues that align with HKI programs.

Internal Capacity Development and HR Management

· Ensure continuous performance management of country directors, including continuous dialogue, coaching and mentoring, and regular performance evaluation.

· Collaborate with relevant colleagues to establish staff training, orientation, and development plans for assigned countries within the context of available resources.

· Lead in CD recruitment and assist in the recruitment process for all expatriate and senior field positions in designated countries (and regional program coordinators/managers, as assigned).

· Approve recruitment of senior program positions in region, proactively seeking out advice of regional technical advisors as required.

Qualifications

· Minimum Master’s Degree in Public Health, Nutrition or related field, with relevant program experience, plus at least ten years international public health work experience is essential. Ideally this should include at least five years managing complex country programs, or equivalent combination of skills and experience.

· Direct field experience in public health programming, including significant experience in Africa, preferably in nutrition or NTDs; work experience as a Country Director for an NGO is an advantage.

• Demonstrated experience with INGO reporting, financial management, procurement, and project management including demonstrated ability to develop and monitor budgets, and collaboratively manage operational activities of complex programs including sub-grant management.

· Strong background, experience and demonstrated success with fundraising, both with an ability to support country programs and regional staff in proposal development and to directly lead proposal development.

· Strong technical skills in one or more of HKI’s program areas including a history of publications and presentation at international conferences. Passionate about ongoing learning in HKI’s technical areas. Ability to forge strong working relationship with technical leadership internal and external to HKI.

· Substantial experience with a variety of donors such as USAID, Canada, Irish Aid, UK, and/or private foundations.

• Excellent capacity building, team building/management, and coordination skills. An ability to delegate responsibilities effectively and coach and mentor staff.
• An ability to work in challenging and changing environments, and to see through challenges to find solutions
• An ability to maintain balance when under stress.

· Ability and willingness to undertake extensive field travel (approx. 35%-50%), often under difficult conditions.

· Communication and language skills:

o Excellent interpersonal skills, including the ability to exercise diplomacy and tact as demonstrated in previous roles that required communication with a broad and diverse set of partners such as government, civil society, international organizations, community and political leaders

o Excellent oral and written French and English skills required. Ability to read, analyze and interpret complex documents, and to summarize the information succinctly – both verbally and in writing, using an engaging style.

o Ability to make effective and persuasive speeches and presentations on controversial or complex topics to top management and public groups.

· Demonstrated knowledge of the application of information technologies to HKI program areas. Knowledge of various software to be able to prepare presentations and other work documents.

• Demonstrable respect for all persons regardless of religion, ethnicity, class or gender, with a high comfort level working in a diverse environment with a demonstrated commitment to high professional ethical standards.

· Residence in or willingness to relocate to Dakar, Senegal.

Qualified candidates should submit a cover letter and resume to HKI.Recruitment@hki.org noting the job title in the subject line. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled.