Executive Director, WACA at Plan International

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian non-profit organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls. We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood, and enable children to prepare for - and respond to - crises and adversity. We believe in the power and potential of every child, but know this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Executive Director WACA

Location: Nigeria
Type of Role: Permanent or maximum fixed term contract available as per employing entity terms and conditions
Functional Area: Leadership
Reports to: Global Director of Programmes & Operations for day to day management & CEO for regional representation
Travel required: Extensive and regular local travel as well as international travel
Grade: 22

The Opportunity

• Plan International are embarking on an ambitious and exciting change process as part of our global strategy All Girls Standing Strong Creating Global Change (FY23-FY27) to ensure that we are relevant, bold, engaging and effective in a dynamic and fast-changing global context.
• We have an exciting opportunity for a Regional Director to lead Plan International’s strategies, programmes and operations in the West and Central Africa region.
• The region currently includes 15 Country Offices, organised by clusters to ensure balance in complexity and distribution of work to facilitate effective management oversight and support, and a Regional Hub, based in Dakar, Senegal and has an annual budget of €265m for FY23.
• The Regional Director has overall responsibility for the portfolio in the region and plays a significant role in driving changes to this footprint.
• The Regional Hub oversees the realisation of Plan International’s country facing programming and influencing activities in the Region and holds business units to account for achieving maximum and timely impact in accordance with our purpose, values and behaviours, global policies, and as directed by the Members Assembly and International Board.

Role Purpose

• Plan International is an independent child rights and humanitarian organisation committed to children living a life free of poverty, violence and injustice.
• We actively unite children, communities and other people who share our mission to make positive lasting changes in children’s and young people’s lives. We support children to gain the skills, knowledge and confidence they need to claim their rights to a fulfilling life, today and in the future. We place a specific focus on girls and women, who are most often left behind.
• We have been building powerful partnerships for children for more than 85 years, and are now active in over 80 countries.
• We are embarking on an ambitious and exciting change process, to make the organisation more relevant, bold, engaging and effective in a dynamic and fast-changing global context in line with Plan International’s global strategy All Girls Standing Strong Creating Global Change (FY23-FY27)
• The purpose of this role is to lead, manage and be accountable for Plan International’s strategies, programmes and operations in the WACA region. This currently includes 15 countries and a regional hub, based in Dakar, Senegal with an annual budget of €265m for FY23.
• The Regional Director has overall responsibility for the portfolio in the region and plays a significant role in driving changes to this footprint.
• The 15 countries are organised by clusters to ensure balance in complexity and distribution of work to facilitate effective management oversight and support;
• Central Africa & Gulf of Guinea:
  • Benin, Cameroon, CAR, Ghana, Togo
• Sahel:
  • Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Chad.
• Mano River:
  • Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Senegal, Sierra Leone.
• The Regional Hub oversees the realisation of Plan International’s country facing programming and influencing activities in the Region and holds business units to account for achieving maximum and timely impact in accordance with our purpose, values and behaviours, global policies, and as directed by the Members Assembly and International Board.

Dimensions of the Role

• The role oversees a regional hub management team consisting of Directors of Sub-Regions who hold the line management for the Country Directors, Regional Finance, People & Culture, Safety & Security, Programme & Influencing, Humanitarian, and other related functions.
• The Regional Director has overall accountability for regional performance and is the CEO representative for influencing, strategic engagement, fundraising and external representation within the region. The Regional Director sits on the Plan International Inc Leadership Team, the Plan International Global Team and periodically joins and contributes to International Board and Committee meetings.
• Responsible for the successful development and delivery of Plan International’s strategy, programmes, and operations in the WACA region in-line with Plan International’s global strategy and standards:
  • Drive forward our ambition under the global strategy to achieve 100 per cent gender transformative programmes and courageous local, national, regional and global influencing for maximum impact.
  • Continuously improve all elements of our operations in the region (grants and sponsorship management, security, supply chain and planning and performance) to ensure they demonstrate excellence in performance and deliver maximum value to all stakeholders including the girls we work with and for, National Organisations, donors, sponsors and partners. Ensure that Plan International’s dual mandate in development and humanitarian work is adequately reflected in all the region’s operations.
  • Actively advance intersectional feminism and anti-racism and ensure all leaders and staff exercise our values and behaviours. Strengthen the line of delegation and information sharing from the CEO of PII through to Country Offices to further promote decision making closest to the point of impact while achieving a strong culture of end-to-end accountability. Effectively address non-performance through decisive action. Promote the use of data driven evidence and digital solutions.
  •  Develop and lead a high performing and value-based leadership team within the region, ensuring that people with the right competencies and values perform in the right roles. Managing and supporting the high performance of Directors of Sub Regions, Country Directors, and senior regional staff, strengthening attention to equity, diversity and inclusion within staff teams, and ensuring optimal regional organisational structures.
  • Sustaining attention of the whole team on wider strategic resourcing issues and the strengthening of talent pipelines both for leadership roles and technical capabilities., Attracting, developing, progressing, and retaining a highly skilled, motivated and diverse workforce. Role modelling and encouraging others to have honest and empowering conversations with individuals about their performance, potential, career direction and development. Driving and supporting our succession and talent processes at the global, regional and country levels and ensuring that staff across all levels feel empowered and supported to deliver at their best, feel pride in their work and develop their potential.
  • Lead overall strategic planning and alignment, providing direction and leadership for the region, and contributing to leadership of the global organisation. The Regional Director plays an active role in helping the Global Hub to align and work effectively with Country Offices, developing products that will be assets to the delivery of the mission at Country Office level.
  • Lead the design and implementation of context-specific operating models to ensure Plan remains relevant and delivers increased performance and impact in a rapidly evolving region.
  • Strengthen Governance in country offices to achieve the broad-based membership ambitions of the organisation in line with the Locally Led, Globally Connected strategic imperative. As the accountability of Country Offices grows, the Regional Director is responsible for driving the interdependence, synergy and support between Country Office’s so that the region as a whole performs and has overlapping and coherent programmes.
  • Agility, transparency and legitimacy. Actively advancing intersectional feminism and anti-racism and ensuring all leaders and staff exercise our values and behaviours. Strengthening the line of delegation and information sharing from the CEO of Plan International Inc through to Country Offices to further promote decision making closest to the point of impact while achieving a strong culture of end-to-end accountability. Empowering Directors of Sub-region to effectively address non-performance through decisive action. Promoting the use of data driven evidence and digital solutions
  • Identify and manage risk, ensuring that systems and processes are in place to identify, understand, and mitigate risks, as well as monitor and intervene as appropriate.
  • Ensure effective acquisition and utilization of resources, overseeing effective fundraising, allocation, and utilisation of resources according to strategic plans, budgets, and financial standards, to ensure that resources are used to add the most value and to support cost effective operations. Monitoring, guiding, and intervening as needed in the use of financial resources.
  • Ensure compliance with Plan International standards and that systems and processes are in place to comply with plans, policies and legal requirements. Monitoring compliance of the same and intervening as appropriate.
  • Build relationships and communicating internally and externally to strengthen a culture of collaboration, partnership, and learning within the region. Building and
  • maintaining relationships with relevant partner organizations to support strategies and programmes, working with Directors of Sub-Regions and Country Directors to lead internal communications with staff within the region, as well as ensuring that information about the region is available to other parts of the organisation.
  • Lead on Representation and Advocacy in the region and in global platforms, working closely with the Chief Strategy and Engagement Officer. The Regional Director is also responsible for protecting and promoting the reputation of the organisation in the region. This role jointly oversees the Africa Union Advocacy Office in Addis.

Accountabilities

• While leading all dimensions of the role, the Regional Director’s first and foremost task is to build and manage a strong performing team of Country Directors and senior staff in the region.

Typical key end results to deliver together with the team in in the accountability areas are:

• People: A high performing and value-based team, engaged and motivated, able to deliver on the ambitions set, promoting gender equality and diversity, and demonstrating a progressive raising of the bar in their performance.
• Strategy: Ambitious and targeted Country Strategies, new or updated, in line with Plan’s global strategy and ambition, that guide Plan International’s programmes towards increased impact, strengthened legitimacy, sustainability and continued relevance within each country context.
• Change: The world and the West & Central Africa region are changing rapidly and the role of international NGOs, such as Plan, needs to evolve to ensure we remain relevant within each context and as a global organization. The regional director and his/her team will lead change within the region and contribute to the development of changes at the global level. A key pillar in this effort is the achieving broad based membership to support the locally-led, globally connected objectives.
• Quality: Ensuring our programmes become and remain state of the art and are in line with latest global standards, demonstrating outcomes and leading to thought leadership and policy influence based on evidence through evaluations and research.
• Risk: Ensure that all countries comply with internal and external standards in security, disaster preparedness, sponsorship and grants management, finance and administration, demonstrated in progressively positive audit performance in all auditable functions and compliance with external reporting requirements.
• Resource Mobilisation: Ensure a healthy funding base for Plan International’s programmes in the region through effective acquisition, allocation, and utilization of resources.
• Compliance: Ensure our operations are in compliance with Plan International’s global management and programme standards and with external regulatory and donor requirements.
• Networking: Represent Plan International and strengthen collaboration and partnerships at the right levels and ensure the organisation is present in relevant networks and forums.
• Ensures that Plan International’s global policies for Safeguarding Children and Young People and Gender Equality and Inclusion are fully embedded in accordance with the principles and requirements of the policy including relevant Implementation Standards and Guidelines as applicable to their area of responsibility. This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring staff and associates are aware of and understand their responsibilities under these policies and Plan International’s Code of Conduct (CoC), their relevance to their area of work, and that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures.

Technical Expertise, Skills and Knowledge
Essential:

• Significant experience in progressive senior international management roles
• Demonstrable knowledge as a result of study, training or practical experience on the key debates in development, particularly around child rights and gender equality
• Practical knowledge of the requirements of donor compliance and financial management
• Practical knowledge of programming for development and emergency response
• Working experience in West/Central Africa, with experience in other regions desirable
• Business level fluency in English and French

Leadership Skills and Behaviours:

• Striving for high performance: Strongly drives performance forward in area of the business for which they are responsible; involves others in setting and achieving goals; creates a strong sense of purpose within own part of the business and with stakeholders.
• Strategic thinking and innovation: Sets strong strategy in own part of organisation; makes an effective contribution to wider strategy; sees contribution of own part of the organisation in wider Plan and external context; balances future vision with practical delivery; critically evaluates work effectiveness and searches for better ways of working.
• Decision making and risk management: Sound judgement and decision-making in complex situations; alerts others to risks inside and outside the organisation; willing to make judgements about managing risks and ready to take responsibility for such judgements
• Influencing and Communications: Effective communicator using clear messages drawn from Plan’s work; cross-culturally adept; ready to work to influence leaders in governments, international bodies, partners, and communities; can reach out and influence large groups of people; effective communicator with children and young people.
• Building effective teams and partnerships: Collegiate - acting as a team player, even if this results in adjustment of own priorities; develops mutually trusting relationships with complex partnerships to deliver excellent business outcomes.
• Developing people: Supports learning and a sense of mutual purpose in diverse teams; sets a strong learning culture in their part of the organisation; effective coach, equally at home with high performers and those in difficulty; uses opportunities across Plan to develop others
• Self-awareness and resilience: Remains calm and positive under pressure and in difficult situations; plans own learning and development; aware of impact on others and adjusts own behavior accordingly; has a positive impact on those around them; leads major change while keeping staff and partners on board.

Values Based Leadership behaviours - leading the organisation:

• I contribute effectively to decision-making globally and across functions and work constructively with the wider Plan International federation, our governance structures, partners, and stakeholders.
• I work closely with strategic leaders in Plan International Inc. to help them reflect, listen to them, support them as individuals, develop their potential and aid their co-operation with each other and with Plan International more broadly.
• I am clear sighted about both personal and organisational challenges and shortcomings, looking globally and across sectors to gain insight and find innovative approaches we might use.
• I take accountability for Plan International Inc. and our purpose, as a member of the senior leadership team. I look beyond Plan International’s interests at the root causes of inequality and how we can achieve the best progress and long term impact globally.
• I work with my peers to shape an ambitious and coherent strategy, aligned with our purpose and to ensure we can deploy the required resources, people, organisation, technology, culture, and partners.
• I celebrate our successes, clearly communicating what we need to do to our staff at every level and across locations. I consciously shape our culture through my own attitudes and behaviour, how I learn and my personal attention to safeguarding and gender equality.
• I represent Plan International Inc. at national, regional, and global levels with all key groups including politicians and the media, building relationships to increase our influence, make new opportunities and manage risks.
• These behaviours are specifically aligned to feminist leadership principles.

Business Management Competencies:

• Understanding Plan International Inc Context
• Understanding the organisation, how it operates, its priorities and changing context.
• Deliver Results: Planning and managing resources, projects and partnerships for the effective and efficient delivery of results
• Financial Management: Managing funds effectively through budgeting, forecasting, reporting, monitoring and cost-effective procurement
• Analysis, information and digital working: Obtaining and analysing information as the basis for decisions; monitoring and evaluation; using and promoting digital solutions
• Risk Management: Managing and mitigating business, legal, safety, security, reputational and project risks in line with Plan International’s standards
• Managing Change: Integrating conscious change management and continuous improvement into work planning, processes and deliver
• Managing People and Relationships: Working with others, managing people and promoting equity, diversity and inclusion

Plan International’s Values in Practice
We are open and accountable:

• We create a climate of trust inside and outside the organisation by being open, honest and transparent.
• We hold ourselves and others to account for the decisions we make and for our impact on others, while doing what we say we will do.

We strive for lasting impact:

• We strive to achieve significant and lasting impact on the lives of children and young people, and to secure equality for girls.
• We challenge ourselves to be bold, courageous, responsive, focused and innovative.

We work well together:

• We succeed by working effectively with others, inside and outside the organisation, including our sponsors and donors.
• We actively support our colleagues, helping them to achieve their goals.
• We come together to create and implement solutions in our teams, across Plan International, with children, girls, young people, communities and our partners.

We are inclusive and empowering:

• We respect all people, appreciate differences and challenge inequality in our programmes and our workplace.
• We support children, girls and young people to increase their confidence and to change their own lives.
• We empower our staff to give their best and develop their potential.

Application Closing Date
9th April, 2023.