Country Director

STRATEGY, COORDINATION AND REPRESENTATION

• Formulating the country strategy for Muslim Hands in the light of political, economic and humanitarian context coupled with the overall organizational mandate as stated in the strategic plan.
• Ensuring the trickle down of MH global policies and guidelines to the respective country chapter.
• Acting as key contact with Head Office (HO), funding offices, Global Operations Development Department (Global Ops), local partners, I/NGOs, UN agencies, local authorities, government authorities and institutional donors.
• Acting as a focal point, to issue policy recommendations in collaboration with Global Ops and HO.
• Representing MH to partners, I/NGOs, local authorities, government authorities and institutional donors.

OVERALL MANAGEMENT OF PROGRAMS

• Defining the programmes with the coordinated team and creating shared understanding.
• Ensuring achievement of the program's objectives and their tracking.
• Ensuring the organization achieves Value for Money for its resources.
• Ensuring programme is still appropriate, according to the situation, the context and the programme's objectives.
• Ensuring regular planning and review with staff.
• Ensuring the program standards are developed and well communicated to the staff.
• Ensuring staff carry out their work to the agreed standard.
• Narrative and financial reporting to institutional donors, HO and funding offices.
• Ensuring the collection of authentic data, uploading into the strategy tracker, representation on the dashboard and rectification of data anomalies as highlighted by the Global Ops.

OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT

• Responsible for financial feasibility of the country programme and budget monitoring.
• Responsible for all logistical aspects.
• Responsible for the appropriate management of all resources in a transparent manner.
• At all times the CD is accountable to the donors and benefactors of Muslim Hands.

Leadership and Representation

• Fostering a vision and executing strategies to meet the needs of the organisation and donors, and providing high-quality programmes.
• Representing Muslim Hands in forums and events at the country level, leading events organised by the donor agencies, international organisations, and building partnerships with local organisations.
• Maintaining professional relationships with colleagues and supporting staff, being a preferred partner for major international donors, and promoting the work of Muslim Hands Afghanistan.
• Leading humanitarian coordination, representing the organisation to external audiences, and building strong relationships with government authorities.

Strategic Direction and Program Quality

• Ensuring high-quality programming and delivery aligned with the Muslim Hands Afghanistan Country Strategy, expanding the portfolio of programmes, and exploring opportunities for humanitarian programming.
• Ensuring compliance with organisation standards and promoting efficiency, establishing strong relationships with internal stakeholders, and seeking out opportunities to raise the organisation's profile.

Resource Mobilization and Partner Relations

• Staying updated on relevant issues and developing responsive strategies, pursuing diversified funding, understanding donor priorities, and maintaining participation with key stakeholders.

Stewardship and Operational Management

• Leading with integrity and accountability, promoting programmatic excellence, overseeing operation and utilization of organisation policies, and managing budgets and finances.

Human Resource Management

• Developing a positive work environment, providing staff development opportunities, training and developing staff capability, and ensuring fair and transparent recruitment.
• Managing human resources in conformity with applicable local labour laws and with internal regulations.
• Security management.
• Setting of job descriptions and requests for new staff to headquarters.
• Performance appraisals of staff and objective setting in line with program requirements.

Safety, Security, and Access Management

• Overseeing the management of safety and security for the country programmes, maintaining security plans, and communicating safety and security concerns with staff.
• Responsible for all expatriate and national staff, their security, wellbeing and management.

Communication

• Encouraging open and productive communication among staff and with partners, maintaining communication with HQ and regional management staff.

Key working relationships

The key working relationships for the position include reporting to the Afghanistan Board of Trustees and functional reporting to HQ department heads. The position directly supervises a senior management team responsible for Programmes, Operations, Finance, HR, and Security. The key internal contacts include all country program staff and HQ departments such as Finance and Services, Programmes, Global Operations, Compliance, Humanitarian and International Partnerships, and Safeguarding. The key external contacts include partner organisations, host country government officials, public and private donor agencies, international and national NGOs, UN agencies, and foreign governments.

Education

·        Masters’ Degree in, Development Studies, Public Policy and Management or other similar fields.

Skills

·        Ability to fluently use local language(s).

·        Excellent communication in English, both verbal and written.

·        Ability to deal with stressful situations. 

·        Ability to work within a team setting.

·        Ability to adapt within the working environment.

EXPERIENCE

·        At least 3-5 years of previous experience on similar position with any I/NGO or a charitable organization.

·        Minimum of 12-15 years of total experience in development sector.

·        Previous management experience in the same country is highly preferred.

·        Knowledge and experience of Global standards, SDGs and other associated international frameworks.

·        Experience in security management.

Key Requirements: 

The requirements for the position include significant international work experience, programme/business development and fundraising experience, ability to work with various international donors, strong people management skills, experience supervising and managing a cross-cultural team, and proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite. Fluency in English is required and proficiency in Pashto, Dari and Persian is an advantage.