Country Director at Street Child of Nigeria

Street Child is a UK charity working to protect vulnerable children and improve access to education in some of the poorest communities in the world.  We work in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nepal and since November 2016, Street Child has been involved in the Humanitarian response in North East Nigeria.

Street Child works in the fields of education, child protection and livelihoods, working to deliver sustainable solutions and create maximum impact. Our work combines counselling, family mediation, business support, school building, teacher training and child protection.  We were a key player in the Ebola crisis and led the global response for children orphaned by Ebola in Sierra Leone and Liberia. We deliver all our programmes through local partners and, since 2008, together we have built/renovated over 200 schools and are now helping to educate over 40,000 young people.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Country Director

Location: Abuja (FCT)

About the Job

• Street Child has a rare opportunity for an impressive, resourceful professional to drive forward our flagship Nigeria programme. We are a rapidly developing international children’s charity with exceptional programming in 20 of the world’s lowest income and most crisis-affected countries.
• Our high-impact projects chase gains in education and protection outcomes for the most marginalised children - through signature integrated education, child protection and livelihoods initiatives. Working alongside excellent local NGOs is at the heart of Street Child’s approach globally. In Nigeria, we are recognised as an outstanding INGO for championing and strengthening local partners.
• The crux of this role is to build on our excellent track record in the North East, and lead on geographic expansion, with an immediate focus on the North West.
• The Country Director will lead a 30+ country team and 10+ local partner network to achieve these goals, with a strong personal focus on resource mobilisation and strategic level external representation with our partners, UN agencies, donors and governmental authorities. Specifically, this role-holder will be directly accountable for the strong management and delivery of Street Child’s c.$4m p/annum programme portfolio.
• This is a terrific opportunity for someone who has country-level leadership experience already, or for a senior programmes leader who is hungry for the next step. We are looking for someone with the experience, drive and inter-personal relationships to take ownership of our Nigeria portfolio.
• You will have the management and operational skills to drive excellent, evidence-driven programmes, with a strong background in humanitarian contexts and ideally experience in education (and/or protection and livelihoods).
• This is not an ‘ivory tower’ role; you will be hands-on and agile across multiple programmes and budgets, and deeply involved in building profile and strategic relationships with donors, government and local partners.

Key Responsibilities
People & Organisational Management:

• Ensure optimal financial, human and physical resource allocation and management and quality standards (for successful implementation of the country’s and organization’s strategic plan and mission.
• Oversee the recruitment, orientation, and performance of senior staff and development of middle management staff; demonstrating healthy engagement, strong senior management teams, culture of innovation, and effective talent management.
• Oversight of robust implementation of relevant processes and policies, in particular relating to safeguarding, security, HR, finance, due diligence, and local partnership in line with Street Child standards.
• Lead and take all appropriate actions to ensure promotion and enforcement of the Safeguarding Policy and follow up on any findings to address any gaps or weaknesses.

Business Development and Resources Mobilisation:

• Expand the visibility and reputation of Street Child among stakeholders as government, donors, and within the humanitarian structure, building strong and strategic relationships.
• Ensure the organization is recognized by stakeholders (relevant government authorities, donors, other NGOs, media etc) as a strong child development organization and credible reference point and leader on related issues.
• Lead and oversee the grants acquisition and management effort in the country ensuring long-term programmes and achievement of annual targets.
• Represent Street Child at high level national forum with pro-active participation, contributing to discussions of interest and relevant to the work and the operations of the organisation.
• Ensure proper engagement and compliance with government regulations to maintain the status of INGO and be able to implement in current and new locations

Programme Management & Strategy:

• Lead the development and execution of high-quality country strategic plan relevant to the local context and reflecting the global strategy and priorities.
• Ensuring the country portfolio is in line with the strategy and programme framework; pursuing an influencing agenda; creating partnerships and collaboration for greatest impact.
• Overseeing and supporting the Senior Programme Team to ensure timely, effective, quality-assured, impact-focused and value for money delivery of programmes.
• Ensure that all grants are managed according to the required standards in pursuit of quality programs with adequate internal control in accordance with organizational policies/procedures and donor terms and conditions.
• Lead the development of a strategy and plans to strengthen and evolve partnerships across the country.

Salary
Salary will be commensurate with experience.

Application Closing Date
4th May, 2022.