National Director - Fiji

Habitat for Humanity Fiji is looking for a National Director (ND) to lead the National Organization in fulfilling its critical, complex role as a housing expert, convener, and lead implementer of innovative housing solutions. The National Director must be a compelling, transformative leader with 10+ years of regional experience in Asia and the Pacific including 5+ years of International NGO or development sector leadership experience.

The National Director is to be based in Suva, Fiji with an expectation of national and international travel. The role is offered on a full-time basis, with a preference for candidates who already have the right to work in Fiji.

About Habitat for Humanity Fiji

Habitat for Humanity Fiji (HFH Fiji) is a beacon of housing transformation, articulating a clear vision and strategy in support of national housing goals and Habitat for Humanity’s global mission. HFH Fiji convenes and leads public and private coalitions to implement innovative, evidence-based, systemic housing solutions; build public awareness and support; and secure institutional funding in support of these solutions. HFH Fiji is an expert in developing and implementing scalable housing solutions, empowering local communities in co-creating sustainable solutions and deepening sector knowledge of potential solutions and their impact on human development and poverty alleviation.

Job Summary

The National Director will need to demonstrate successful leadership experience encompassing the following:-

• Orchestrating wide-spread public and donor engagement and support of the organization’s mission and strategy through a clearly articulated value proposition.
• Building a highly competent, technical leadership team and empowering, agile organizational culture capable of developing and implementing organizational strategy.
• Leading a wide range of diverse internal and external stakeholders through complex organizational change.
• Building and leading multi-sector coalitions and strategic partnerships to successfully scale solutions and advocacy impact and expand funding support.
• Securing institutional funding to support evidence-based, innovative, scalable solutions.
• Navigating the complexity of matrixed NGO structures, demonstrating collaboration with and accountability to local communities as well as local and international governance structures.
• Overseeing operational excellence of a direct service organization, including safeguarding, financial management, monitoring and evaluation, and other quality controls.

Key Responsibilities

Cast a clear and transformative vision of the future of housing to build public and donor support.

• Led organization in developing a clear vision and ambitious strategy informed by articulated, strategic positions on housing deficits, national housing objectives, climate change, Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) inadequacies and Habitat for Humanity’s Theory of Change.
• Lead the organization in developing strategic positions on national housing deficits and intersecting issues (e.g., WASH, urban development, climate change) to inform strategy development.
• Leverage a clearly articulated value proposition to drive public and institutional donor engagement and support of housing and WASH deficits and proposed solutions.

Build a top-tier, people-centric leadership team and an agile, resilient organizational culture.

• Recruit a leadership team of highly competent, supportive leaders who can clearly demonstrate a history of driving organizational strategy through technical expertise and prioritizing the care and growth of their teams.
• Ensure that the organizational culture is inclusive and safe, finding strength in diversity of culture, background, and talent and respecting all employees equally.
• Champion an agile, transparent, people-centric organizational culture by modelling this culture together with the national leadership team. Build a cohesive, collaborative leadership culture that models effective decision-making and open, honest dialogue.
• Oversee the implementation of effective talent management, organizational development, and change management infrastructure and processes. As a leadership team, drive the development of critical mindsets and behaviours that support an agile, people-centric culture and integration of these expectations with talent management and development processes.

Oversee the implementation and growth of innovative, evidence-based programming.

• Led organization in implementing and growing innovative, agile programming that delivers on organizational and national housing and WASH objectives.
• Secure institutional funding to support evidence-based, innovative, systemic housing solutions.
• Guarantee community empowerment and accountability in all programming through the implementation of the Theory of Change and refined M&E in all programming.
• Guarantee a responsive and agile approach to all programming through successful leveraging of sophisticated M&E, strengthening community and stakeholder accountability and continuously improving the organization’s evidence-based approach.

Leverage strategic partnerships to drive multi-sector, national and regional impact.

• Leverage Habitat’s global influence and coordinate with other regional and National Organizations to grow key partnerships and strengthen advocacy efforts.
• Strengthen relationship and coordination efforts with national and local governments, NGO leaders, and other key development sector organizations.
• Cultivate and drive strategic, multi-sector coalitions for shelter and WASH innovations to advance and scale housing and WASH solutions.

Champion good governance and the highest standards of accountability, ethics, and operational excellence.

• Oversee the installation of and adherence to high-quality financial management, monitoring and evaluation, and other quality control measures. Ensure the organization’s ethical standards adhere to HFHl safeguarding policy, international development, and national ordinance requirements.
• Champion an organizational culture of safety, inclusivity, and accountability. Ensure quality control measures, ethics, and related measures and practices are integrated into staff training and talent management processes.
• Leverage previous experience with NGOs and matrixed governance structures to strengthen alignment and collaboration between HFH Fiji Board of Directors and the global Habitat organization.
• Lead coalitions and implementing partners in establishing shared ethical and quality control standards to actively minimize the risk of harm to Habitat constituents and partners.

Collaborate with the Board.

• Work with Board Chairperson to effectively engage the Board to use their specific skills and networks to support the organization.
• Assist the Board of Trustees and sub-committees to making decisions, prepare strategic plans and create/maintain policies.

Competencies & Values

Strong candidates for the ND role will be able to clearly demonstrate how they have leveraged the following competencies and values to lead in previous roles.

Leadership Competencies

• Compels others through embodiment and clarity of vision, building widespread internal and external support and driving action through a clear articulation of a value proposition.
• Leads through ambiguity and transformation, modelling agile learning and supporting efforts to prioritize and support employees and stakeholders through change.
• Upholds the highest standards of integrity and ethics while navigating organizational conflict, critical conversations, and decision-making.
• Embodies trust and transparency by promoting a free flow of information throughout the organization and providing teams with the leverage to achieve goals and grow.
• Embraces rest and resilience as critical to mission achievement, supporting and growing efforts to listen to and be responsive to employee feedback.
• Fosters a culture of inclusion where diverse thoughts are freely shared and integrated.
• Deeply respects and embraces the autonomy and power of all individuals, treating community members and employees with the same respect as strategic external partners.

Technical Competencies

• Scoping the critical technical expertise to develop and drive a transformative strategy.
• Hiring and developing top-tier leaders who will drive organizational strategy and build the organizational culture needed to achieve this strategy.
• Building and growing strategic relationships with external partners, including multi-sector and multi-cultural leaders, local and national governments, and foundations and institutions.
• Agile decision-making, embracing flexibility and responsiveness is critical to organizational success.
• Support the team in assessing, evaluating and defining relevant interventions aligned with Habitat’s mission, the country strategy and available resources.
• Align programmatic strategy to Fiji’s National Government strategy for housing and other ministries where applicable, ensuring this contributes to the achievement of strengthened government systems to support access to safe land and housing.
• Ensure further development of housing market systems, providing safe and accessible housing solutions for low-income sectors.
• Ensure construction and appropriate technology quality control systems are in place.
• Ensure the construction technology adopted is informed by the cultural context of the communities served in Fiji and other Pacific Island nations.
• Aligning goals and strengthening the collaboration between local and international governance within a matrixed NGO system.
• Familiarity with change management and people infrastructure and processes required to successfully navigate through change.
• Familiarity with M&E, financial management, and other quality control infrastructure and processes required to maintain effective operations and programming.
• Programming experience in systems changes and experience working with governments/markets to transform and strengthen systems.

Qualifications:

• Master’s degree beneficial in a relevant field, such as international development or relations, public administration, management, engineering or architecture, and/or social sciences.
• Experience developing and implementing projects funded by complex donors and of working and negotiating with large institutional donors; e.g. DFAT, MFAT, etc.

Preferred

• In-depth knowledge of Housing Market Systems.
• Familiarity with construction and appropriate technology.
• Proficiency in the primary working language(s) of the country of posting.
• Community development experience is a distinct advantage.

Active support of Habitat for Humanity’s Values

• Humility – We are part of something bigger than ourselves
• Courage – We do what’s right, even when it is difficult or unpopular
• Accountability – We take personal responsibility for Habitat’s mission
• Safeguarding: HFHI requires that all employees take seriously their ethical responsibilities to safeguard our intended beneficiaries, their communities, and all those with whom we work. Managers at all levels have responsibilities to support and develop systems that create and maintain an environment that prevents harassment, sexual exploitation, and abuse safeguards the rights of beneficiaries and community members (especially children), and promotes the implementation of Habitat for Humanity’s code of conduct.

Closing date: 23rd April 2023

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