Administration Director

SCA in Afghanistan

SCA has been working in Afghanistan since 1982 and is presently managing development programmes linked to Strategic Objectives concerning Health, Education, Rural Livelihoods and Community Governance with a total annual budget of roughly USD 40 million. The total number of staff is around 5,500 of whom 15 are non-Afghans. The SCA presence in Afghanistan consists of the Kabul Management Office (KMO), five Regional Management Offices and three Liaison Offices. In Sweden SCA has 20 staff working at the Stockholm Management Office (SMO) and around 4,000 members organized in local chapters all over the country.

During the last decade, SCA has undertaken a change process moving from a primarily humanitarian service delivery approach towards more of a developmental role, putting increasing emphasis on capacity development, rights-based programming and outcome orientation. The mission of SCA is to empower individuals, communities and local organizations, primarily in rural areas and with particular focus on women, girls, boys and vulnerable groups such as people with disabilities, so that they may participate fully in society and influence their own development.

Scope of Work

The Administration Department is headed by the Administration Director who is responsible for the supervision and coordination of Human Resources, Service Support, Information and Communication Technologies, Logistics and Procurement functions within SCA operations in Afghanistan. The department is also tasked to analyse, develop, standardise, and provide technical backstopping across the organisation to the related units’ procedural and regulatory frameworks (e.g. manuals, control systems, standards, cost-efficiency mechanisms, training and centralised services), as well as, advance a result-based focus and accompanying tools across operations in Afghanistan. SCA is currently assessing how to strengthen Human Resources within the organizations, which might in the near future affect the Administration Department´s structure.  

The Administration Director functions as a link between expatriates employed in Afghanistan and the Human Resource Officer at Stockholm Management Office, and as such part of the expatriate recruitment process, responsible for their induction programs and  general welfare. S/he also takes a coordinating role in the administration and logistics of foreign visitors to SCA in Afghanistan.

The Department comprises of approximately 100 staff members. Regular trips to Regional Management Offices are part of the work for the Administration Director.

The Administration Director reports to the Country Director, and is a member of the Country Director’s Advisory Group.
 

Responsibilities

General

• To promote gender equality, non-discrimination with regard to ethnic, political and religious background in the organisation and all Admin Department processes
• Inspire managers and co-workers to attain goals and pursue excellence and focus on result-based performance, service-mindedness and build capacity of the Admin Department staff
• Contribute to a strengthened pro-activeness of the Country Director’s Advisory Group within the realms of strategic human resource development and efficiency, effectiveness and anti-corruption within administration and logistics
• Identify opportunities for organisational improvement, inventiveness and make constructive suggestions for change

Supervisory Tasks

• To supervise managers and encourage them to improve their technical and managerial skills.
• To promote the development and application of proper human resource management within all SCA units.
• To do field visits and identify training needs and need for technical backstopping for regional admin related staff.
• To technically supervise/give guidance to the HR and Administrative staff assigned in the different Regional Management Office’s.

Technical Tasks

• To lead and coordinate development, implementation and maintenance of efficient and transparent systems, structures, policies, rules and regulations within the Administration Department, but also to ensure, backstopping and assurance of training staff in related areas in other departments and the admin functions/units at the Regional Management Offices
• To proactively enhance anti-corruption measures and systems within the administration department and related works across the organisation
• To supervise implementation of the SCA performance based development framework, including further developing skills and systems for continuous staff development.
• To be involved in recruitment of senior staff within the organisation, including coordinating with Stockholm Management Office when recruiting expatriate staff.
• To improve and standardize procurement processes and systems for storage and supply to SCA projects.
• To take an overall lead in larger bulk procurement processes
• To oversee provision of technical support to other departments in areas of HR Management, procurement and the administration with particular focus of Regional Management Offices.
• To supervise and provide support in development of result-based annual plans and budgets, including procurement plan, post-table and annual staff capacity development plan.

Finance tasks

• Be responsible for budgeting and planning within the department and approve costs for payment according to SCA rules and regulations

Training tasks

• Through transfer of own knowledge and skills, enhance the ability of the human resource and administration staff at SCA.

Tasks of relation with external agencies

• To develop and maintain good rapport and contacts with local and central administrative, labour, customs, immigration and other officials that ensures SCA conformity to national laws and customs and to minimize bureaucratic restrains on project implementation.
• When necessary liaison with other NGOs/partners to pursue dialogue and common recommendations towards national authorities

Entry Requirements

Qualifications:                    

• Academic degree at master’s level, preferably in human resource management, business/public administration, or equivalent documented experience
• Minimum six years of working in managerial positions within an international NGO, enterprise with strong Corporate Social Responsibility or public administration

Essential competence:

• Professional profile and experience within human resources, supply chain management and administration
• Demonstrated work experience in team management, including financial and administrative management of a unit or department
• Strong records on strategic and procedural development of human resource administration, competence development of staff and performance management, administrative and logistic operations
• Experience of planning and implementation of operational policy/manual reviews, as well as administrative systems, tools and processes
• Experience of security/risk/crisis management
• Excellent command of spoken and written English
• Experience from work in conflict/posts conflict areas and Muslim countries
• Experience from work abroad

Desired competence:

• Good knowledge of Swedish or Scandinavian
• Experience from work within international development and/or humanitarian work
• Understanding of rights-based development theory and approaches
• Have participated in HEAT-training or other security training
• Knowledge of Dari and/or Pashto
• Previous experience from Afghanistan

Application information

• Contract period: 2 years with an initial 6 months probationary period
• Conditions: Non- family posting. SCA offers a competitive salary, free housing, insurances and other benefits.
• Duties to begin: October 2018
• Last date for application: 5 August 2018
• Apply from sak.se (Lediga jobb) or www.swedishcommittee.org (Vacancies)
• Download a 1-page letter explaining why you are interested in and suited for this position and your CV (no more than 2 pages) in English.