Country Director

The Organisation

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls.

We believe in the power and potential of every child. But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it’s girls who are most affected.

Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children.

We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood. And we enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.

We have been building powerful partnerships for children for over 80 years and are now active in more than 70 countries.

The Opportunity

This is an exciting time for Plan International as we implement our global strategy for 2017-2022. Our global strategy defines who we are, why we exist, the change we want to see in the world and how we will contribute to making change happen. It underpins everything we do, guiding all our work in all parts of the federation.

To achieve greater change in children’s lives we are dramatically transforming how we operate, and we need bold, forward-thinking and innovative individuals to steer our country operations, driving change and delivering results that will allow us to transform the lives of 100 million girls globally.

Plan International Central African Republic commenced operations in 2014. The current Country Response Plan 2019-2021 aims to ensure that children and youth affected by conflict in the Central African Republic have access to quality education, socio-economic reintegration opportunities and protection against violence, exploitation, abuse and neglect to ensure their well-being through integrated family and community services. Plan International CAR strategically looks at changing the prevalent gender norms affecting girls and young women in crisis by focusses on education in emergencies, gender sensitive child protection in emergencies and food and nutrition security.

Plan International Central African Republic’s country office is located within Bangui, with 5 sub-offices and 2 project offices spread across the various parts of the country (Mambere Kadei, Ouham, Nana Grebizi, Haute Kotto). At present the country office implements a viable portfolio of approximately 25-30M EUR per annum primarily through a hybrid model of direct delivery and working through strategic partnerships.

This portfolio is exclusively grants funded from a variety of bilateral and multilateral donors, including WFP, ECHO and the German and Swedish Government amongst others. Plan Central African Republic has also been heavily involved in running the humanitarian programming responding to COVID-19 in country.

The Country Director is accountable for the management and leadership of a team of approximately 300+ staff with a Country Leadership Team of 10-12 members, all of which report directly to the Country Director.

As part of the broader organisational effort to transform Plan International Central African Republic to achieve greater impact, Plan International Central African Republic is embarking on a transformational strategy development process. This process requires leadership of the Country Director and experience in change management. The organization is committed to meeting safeguarding expectations across all its operations and will expect the country director to ensure all incidents regarding child abuse and sexual harassment are reported and effectively managed.

Do you have what it takes?

As a Country Director, you will drive Plan International’s humanitarian programme and influencing work, setting overall direction, leading a high performing team, ensuring accountability for meeting demanding targets and maintaining alignment with the global strategy.

You will be deeply comfortable with driving for quality results, leading transformative change, have a demonstrable commitment to gender equality and relish the prospect of representing Plan International to the highest levels of government, civil society, the media and international media.

You will understand and drive efforts to deliver positive change for girls – in particular girls in crisis – through advocating, campaigning and communicating at a national level. Equally, you will ensure the country-operating model is fit for purpose, we have the right funding mix to achieve our ambition, key business processes are in place and organisational values are embedded in everything we do.

You will lead by example in ensuring gender equality is evident in everything we do from staffing, to programing and influencing, to ways of working. You will work with your team to bring about the right culture that ensures we are champions for girls and gender equality.

You will lead a motivated team, ensure legal compliance, and be ready and able to respond to emergency and development needs of the most marginalised children, especially girls.

For a detailed job description, please click on the below link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/trxkrwfajikgy98/Role%20Profile-Country%20Director%20CAR-v5nov2020.docx?dl=0

Location: Bangui, CAR – Mandatory unaccompanied location

Type of Role: 2 Year FTC

Reports to: Director of Sub Region – Director Coastal West Africa

Competitive salary and package available

Closing Date: The advert will remain open until Plan has identified a successful candidate.

Anticipated interview date – On-going whilst the advert is Live

Early application is encouraged as we will review applications throughout the advertising period and reserve the right to close the advert early.

A range of pre-employment checks will be undertaken in conformity with Plan International’s Safeguarding Children and Young People policy.

As an international child centred community development organisation, Plan International is fully committed to promoting the realisation of children’s rights including their right to protection from violence and abuse. That means we have particular responsibilities to children that we come into contact with.

Plan International believes that in a world where children face so many threats of harm, it is our duty to ensure that we, as an organisation, do everything we can to keep children safe. We must not contribute in any way to harming or placing children at risk.

Equality, diversity and inclusion is at the very heart of everything that Plan International stands for. Our organisation is based on a culture of inclusivity and we strive to create a workplace environment that ensures every team, in every office, in every country, is rich in diverse people, thoughts, and ideas.

We will provide equality of opportunity and will not tolerate discrimination on any grounds. We foster an organisational culture that embraces and exemplifies our commitment to gender equality, girls’ rights and inclusion while supporting staff to adopt good practice, positive attitudes and principles of gender equality and inclusion.

Screening Questions as part of the application:

1) Please describe your experience in gender and girls rights programming in humanitarian settings or through a nexus approach.

2) Please provide an example of how you have driven change in children’s lives, particularly in empowering children to lead that change (both in development and humanitarian settings).

3) Please describe your experience leading teams in high risk security environments.

4) Please outline your salary expectations for the position as well as expectations in relation to the benefits package.