Job title: Regional Director, East and Southern Africa
Principal Location: Nairobi (other strategic locations in East Africa negotiable)
Role Purpose:
Street Child is a rapidly growing, child-focused, humanitarian and development organisation. In 2023, Street Child celebrated reaching over one million children across 25 countries over its fifteen years of existence. This was accomplished with and through a growing network of more than 200 national and local actors. The Regional Director will be a standard bearer of this ambition in East and Southern Africa, providing leadership across all countries where Street Child is operational while monitoring and pursuing growth opportunities across the region. As Street Child’s most senior representative in the region, the Regional Director will guide and drive the organisation to deliver on the objective of ensuring all children are safe, in school, and learning.
As Street Child actively seeks opportunities to expand its support for the most marginalized girls and boys, the Regional Director will be responsible for providing outstanding leadership and for resourcing and delivering high impact programming across East and Southern Africa. The Regional Director will work to identify and advance partnerships with regional, national, and local actors, as well as donors. This will require bringing a strong network to the role along with energy to represent Street Child in organisational, regional, and global forums. As Street Child country teams drive delivery for girls and boys, the Regional Director will work with country directors to develop high-functioning teams to deliver and resource ambitious regional and country strategies.
The Regional Director will manage one regional programme coordinator and will progressively assume responsibility for line management of country directors in East and Southern Africa.
Key Responsibilities:
- The Regional Director will act as chief motivator, working collaboratively with country, regional, and head office teams to:
- Cultivate enthusiastic and high-performing teams through outstanding leadership:
- Build, lead and motivate an ambitious and enthusiastic team of Street Child Country Directors and Strategic Leadership Teams.
- Oversee and support the recruitment and development of passionate, motivated, and technically excellent Street Child staff.
- Strengthen Street Child’s culture of learning, for both staff and local partners, by identifying professional and organisational development opportunities that respond to self-identified capacity gaps.
- Build a supportive network of learning and information exchange between regional county teams.
- Be a frequent in-person presence in operational countries, sometimes spending extended periods to support leadership at the country level, including in insecure contexts.
- Oversee the management of partnerships in countries in East and Southern Africa where Street Child does not maintain a direct presence.
- Drive resource mobilization across the East and Southern Africa region, for country programmes, regional strategy, and partners:
- In close collaboration with country leadership, identify country-level needs, seek out opportunities, and support in the development of winning proposals for country programmes.
- Across the region, identify needs and gaps, and drive new potential expansion opportunities in line with Street Child’s global strategy.
- Guide programmatic excellence across the region through robust strategy development and high-quality programme delivery:
- Develop a technically robust and evidence-based regional strategy that identifies Street Child’s comparative value and strategic goals in the region, across humanitarian, development and refugee contexts.
- Continuously consult with Country Directors, programme managers and local partners to ensure programme design and delivery is iterative, adaptive and quality-assured and impact is clearly measured.
- Provide support to local partners to develop organisational development plans and their own high-functioning leadership structures.
- Oversee and work closely with the regional finance team in their development and delivery of accurate, value for money budgets and robust operational processes.
- Ensure that operations and programmes in East and Southern Africa are conducted in line with Street Child’s policies and standards, including in the areas of safeguarding, safety and security, HR, finance.
1) Be a passionate representative of Street Child and our partners, across the organisation and in external forums:
- Represent Street Child at the highest level in East and Southern Africa, including pro-active participation in relevant coordination mechanisms at national and regional level.
- Represent Street Child and the needs of children in East and Southern Africa in global for a as required.
2) Advance and diversify partnerships with the local actors who respond to the needs of girls and boys in their communities, and with donors who can resource the work:
- Lead the development of strategic partnerships with relevant actors including donors, INGOs and local/national government, including at the regional level.
- Oversee the development of a resource mobilisation strategy for the region based on Street Child’s expertise and donor priorities.
- Lead and/or support Country Directors in the development of high-quality and highly competitive institutional funding proposals.
- Proactive engagement with Street Child UK head office and programmes team on strategic, networking and fundraising activities.
- The Key Responsibilities provide a high-level view of the Regional Director role. These responsibilities will evolve as the Regional Director expands Street Child’s reach across East and Southern Africa. Street Child operates with an entrepreneurial spirit that may require staff to step-up and step-in to reasonable tasks beyond the initial description of their role. The Regional Director may occasionally be called upon to provide surge or scoping support to other parts of Street Child Programmes as delegated by the Director of Global Programmes.
Qualifications and Experience:
- Significant senior management experience, leading high-functioning programme regional or county teams in the humanitarian and development sector. Previous experience as a country or regional director is preferred.
- Strong strategic thinker, with demonstrated expertise developing, resourcing, and delivering strategic plans at the regional or country level.
- Demonstrable experience of proposal development and/or winning funding; Experience in both humanitarian and development contexts.
- Strong command of the localisation agenda, and commitment to local level leadership and decision-making.
- Strong experience delivering high quality education and/or child protection programming.
- Excellent written and spoken communications in English.
- Experience working in the East and Southern Africa region.
- Demonstrated experience working closely with and in support of a multitude of partners including those from local civil society, government, and the private sector.
- Excellent relationship building skills, with an ability to skillfully navigate both national and international stakeholders.
- Willingness to actively engage in program development with country teams including extended missions to support at country level (significant travel expected).
- Additional language skills with a preference for Swahili, Portuguese, French, Somali, or other regional language
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
BACKGROUND
Habitat for Humanity Great Britain (Habitat GB) is part of the international Habitat for Humanity network. We tackle housing poverty around the world by working in partnership with communities and families to achieve their dreams of a safe and decent place to live. You can find out more about our work on our website.
We are embarking on an ambitious new direction at Habitat GB; leveraging our global housing expertise and the learning from our flagship national programme “Empty Spaces to Homes” to work collaboratively with Habitat colleagues across Europe in effecting change at a policy level.
“Empty Spaces to Homes” is a ground-breaking initiative focused on a circular buildings approach that already has a feasible proof of concept from piloting, with strong upscaling potential. The premise is simple; unlocking the potential of long term empty commercial spaces to create affordable housing for vulnerable people. As well as the social benefits of adding to affordable housing stock, the Empty Spaces to Homes approach of retrofitting existing structures – at a much lower carbon cost - offers a greener and more sustainable way to meet the housing gap, in comparison to the environmental impact of the new build construction industry. Breaking down long-standing barriers to resource-efficient renovation is essential if the UK is to play its part in meeting ambitious global decarbonisation targets.
Purpose of The role
The UK Housing Advocacy Manager will play a pivotal role in advancing our mission by leading advocacy efforts, shaping policies, and promoting sustainable housing solutions for affordable housing in Great Britain, particularly through our groundbreaking initiative "Empty Spaces to Homes."
As this is a new role, and is being recruited alongside the Head of Global Affairs and Advocacy, key responsibilities will include the establishment of a new function at Habitat GB. It involves working closely with colleagues across the Habitat GB organisation and contributing to advocacy efforts across the Habitat network at global and regional levels through engagement, strategy and shared learning. Key responsibilities also include developing communication and advocacy strategies targeting professionals and decision makers in social, environmental and housing sectors, as well as undertaking research and writing policy papers.
Main Responsibilities
1) Research and Analysis:
- Commission and conduct in-depth research into current British housing landscapes and related legislation, assessing the effectiveness of mechanisms for converting unused premises into social housing and its environmental impact.
- Identify legal changes necessary to facilitate such activities and advocate for their implementation.
2) Lead Policy Advocacy Efforts:
- Utilise research findings to develop policy positions and identify priority issues, setting policy goals, and mapping out related advocacy activities.
- Embed critical concepts such as embodied carbon and whole life cycle into policy communications to amplify Habitat GB's messaging.
3) Partnerships and Networks:
- Join and represent Habitat GB at existing coalitions or form new coalitions if necessary with stakeholders in the social, environmental, and housing sectors to advocate for climate and equity-related incentives in national and local legislations, policies, and funding mechanisms.
- Build a network of relationships among key stakeholder groups and individual decision-makers to advance Habitat's policy goals.
- Identify strategic events and ensure speaking roles for Habitat GB.
- Represent Empty Spaces to Homes and Habitat for Humanity’s wider UK programmes for awareness raising, advocacy and other priorities at key meetings and events.
4) Direct Lobbying:
- Cultivate strategic relationships with key decision-makers to further Habitat's policy objectives.
5) Collaboration:
- Develop collaborative partnerships internally with Habitat entities across Europe, aligning with the broader strategic objectives of the Empty Spaces to Homes initiative.
- Support communication efforts to underpin advocacy efforts effectively.
6) Monitoring and Evaluation:
- Work with the Impact Team to provide regular updates on advocacy strategy activities and evaluate their effectiveness.
Person Specification
· Proven experience in professional advocacy to influence key policy positions and decisions, preferably in housing or a related field.
· Track record in delivering targeted advocacy strategies and implementing communication strategies to support advocacy efforts.
· Experience in engaging stakeholders and decision-makers through events, networks, and meetings.
· Experience in community mobilisation or engagement.
· Understanding of housing poverty policies and related social welfare issues in Great Britain, with the ability to advise on effective mechanisms for influence.
· Familiarity with Local Authority Governance and opportunities for policy influence at local and regional levels.
Skills and competencies:
· Proficient in clear and effective written and verbal communication to convey complex policy matters to diverse groups.
· Strong relationship-building skills with government representatives, NGOs, and various stakeholders.
· Strategic thinking abilities and collaborative work approach towards organisational objectives and advocacy approaches.
· Ability to collaborate with diverse teams across multiple locations.
· Self-motivated, organized, and capable of working under pressure to meet deadlines and adapt to challenges.
· Enthusiastic, positive, and proactive with a solution-oriented mindset.
· Demonstrated interest in our work and commitment to continuous learning and development.
· Dedication to contributing to the inclusive, people-positive culture at Habitat.
The role and responsibilities will be carried out in a way which reflects:
· Habitat GB’s commitment to safeguarding children in accordance with the Safeguarding
Policy.
· A commitment to Habitat GB’s vision, mission, values and approach.
· A commitment to effective management of risk, by operating within the Charity’s code of conduct, policies, procedures and controls and by carrying out the risk management and assurance responsibilities of the role as set out in relevant Policy and Procedures.
This is not intended to be an exhaustive list. Job descriptions may be subject to change.
Flexibility
Habitat GB is seeking to rapidly expand its activities and impact to fight poverty across the world. This means that the organisation must be adaptable and flexible and have an ambitious, dynamic and flexible team. It is a requirement of the post holder to be flexible in terms of location (within reason), line management, and duties and responsibilities.
This role is not eligible for UK Visa Sponsorship - the successful applicant will need to have a pre-existing Right to Work in the UK in order to be offered an employment contract.
Start your Habitat journey
We want the recruitment process to give you the opportunity to share your skills and experience, and to find out more about Habitat. You are welcome to get in touch and arrange an informal chat with a member of the team before submitting an application. To apply for the role, please send us your CV and a cover letter telling us about yourself, how you meet the person specification, and your motivation for applying – we don’t expect this to be more than two sides of A4.
The deadline for applications is 12 May 2024 (at 11:59 pm).
Interviews will take place online from the week beginning 20 May 2024. Selected candidates will be contacted to agree a suitable time for interview.
Please note that we do not reimburse any expenses incurred during interviews.
We’d prefer to hear directly from applicants – we won’t be working with third party recruiters on this role.
This post profile is not set in stone. It gives insight into the main purpose of the role, and expected responsibilities, but it might be reviewed in the future to meet the changing requirements of Habitat for Humanity GB – any changes will be made in discussion with the post-holder.
Habitat for Humanity 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 our code of conduct.
At Habitat for Humanity GB, we aim to build, develop and retain a talented workforce that represents a variety of backgrounds, skills and experiences. We welcome and actively encourage applications from anyone who feels they’d be a good fit for our organisation, regardless of race, religion, colour, age, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, neurodiversity or any other protected characteristics.
Unfortunately, because of high volume of applications we will not be able to contact unsuccessful applicants. If you haven’t heard from us within a month of the application deadline, please assume that your application has not been successful.
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as the applications come in. Don’t miss your opportunity, apply now!
About Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN)
Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN) works to reduce undernutrition globally. We enhance the effectiveness of nutrition policy and programming by improving knowledge, stimulating learning and building evidence. We are passionate about being network-driven, independent and evidence-based.
Our vision is that every individual caught up in a nutritional emergency, or suffering from malnutrition anywhere in the world, gets the most effective help possible.
We undertake knowledge management, research and advocacy to support national governments, civil society, UN agencies, donors and academic organisations, and communities of practitioners. Through our work and collaborations, we support agencies and individuals to implement evidence-based nutrition programming, predominantly in low- and middle-income countries and in fragile and conflict-affected states.
ENN is governed by a Board of Trustees and has its head office in Oxfordshire, UK. ENN is financially supported by foundations and trusts, bilateral donors, international non-governmental organisations and United Nations agencies. For more information about ENN see our website.
What we do
Our Strategy aims to enhance the effectiveness of nutrition policy and programming by improving knowledge, stimulating learning, building evidence and providing support and encouragement to practitioners and decision-makers involved in nutrition and related interventions.
ENN’s portfolio includes projects specialising in Infant Feeding in Emergencies, Wasting and Stunting, Adolescent Nutrition and Management of small & nutritionally At-risk Infants under six months & their Mothers (MAMI), as well as our highly regarded international publication, Field Exchange (FEX).
At present our annual turnover is around £1.6m (c.$2.1m) with much of our funding coming from government (institutional) donor grants including USG (BHA) and the Government of Ireland, and charitable foundations (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Waterloo Foundation), and other sources including support from UN agencies and INGOs. ENN receives income in multiple currencies and has spending commitments in both GBP and other currencies. ENN’s accounts are prepared in GBP and filed in the UK with both the Charity Commission and with Companies House in accordance with UK charity requirements.
As a registered charity, ENN has no liability for corporation tax and ENN is not registered for UK VAT.
ENN’s financial year runs from 01/01 – 31/12 and we operate an iplicit accounts management system. Annually, ENN issues a report on activities and outcomes and audited financial statements. These documents are publicly available on our website under annual reports and accounts.
Our People
ENN’s team is made up of a range of technical experts in nutrition, with decades of collective experience, and a small, experienced operational team. ENN is highly committed to diversity and inclusion, to enabling and promoting flexible working for our staff, and to supporting continued professional development.
We are proud that in our 2022 Employee Engagement Survey over 95 percent of our staff said they enjoy their work and that ENN is a flexible employer.
The Role
This is an exciting opportunity to join the ENN team as our Management Accountant - Grants. The role provides the opportunity to work across the spectrum of ENN’s projects, as part of the operations team. You will be based in our headquarters in Oxfordshire and will work closely with ENN’s Finance Manager and Projects Team.
About You
Bringing your experience of third sector accounting to ENN, you will be able to communicate well with both finance and non-finance stakeholders. You will be comfortable supporting complex projects, tailoring financial management information and reports to enable decision making and assuring donor compliance and reporting requirements are met consistently.
Terms and Conditions
- Hours of work: Part time, 60% of full-time hours (22.5 hours per week – pattern to be agreed)
- Type of contract: Permanent
- Location: This is an office-based position at ENN’s Head Office in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, OX5. Some hybrid working may also be offered. Currently our Operations Teamwork from the office Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and we require this role to be in the office on these days.
- Benefits: Contribution to Dental, Life cover, Employee Assistance Programme, Wellbeing contribution
- Holidays: 25 days plus UK bank holidays increasing by one day p.a. after two complete years of service to a maximum of 27 days p.a. (pro rata)
- Paid office closure days between Christmas and New Year
- Pension: Auto-Enrolment to ENN scheme with a generous Employer contribution of 5%
- Salary: Circa. £41,000 per annum (full-time equivalent), depending on experience.
- Applicants must be entitled to work in the UK at the time of application and must indicate this in their application
Key responsibilities
Grant compliance and reporting
- Financial compliance of grant spend in line with donor agreements ensuring no disallowable costs and that all allowable costs are reflected in the accounts correctly.
- Provide back up for grant financial reporting in the format required by donors for the projects team to review, collate and submit with the full donor reporting pack.
- Raise sales invoice to the donor with all back up attached and provide acknowledgement of funds letters upon receipt of cash in the bank.
- Work closely with the Finance Assistant and Projects team to ensure invoices are correctly coded to the right donor and project and complete month end reconciliations
- Input budget and quarterly reforecasts into the finance system (iplicit) and track grant performance against budgets on a regular basis providing variance analysis.
- Review and assimilate grant financial information for the Finance Manager and/or Project team as required which ultimately will be used as input in management reporting for various stakeholders (Technical budget holders, Management Team and Trustees).
- Support the organisation’s income generation ambitions, through the provision of advice, guidance and assistance, and in assisting with funding bids and budgeting and undertaking new funder/partner financial viability assessments as required.
- Maintain and update donor restricted fund balances/movements for year-end statutory reporting.
- Maintain project financial files and records for statutory audit and donor audit purposes.
Management accounting
- Prepare monthly income deferrals and income accruals and maintain month end trial balance reconciliations for management accounts.
- Capture any committed project costs to accrue.
- Apportion any interest earned from grant cash in the bank in line with donor contract terms.
- Work collaboratively with the Finance Manager on cash flow forecasting with regards to expected donor payments.
- As required by finance or the projects team, and working with iplicit, write reports in the finance system that would provide insightful and useful management information. For example, for grant monitoring and evaluation, trend analysis and assessing KPI’s etc
- Support the Finance Manager in capacity building and providing financial training to finance and non-finance staff.
- Provide ad hoc support to the Finance Manager with regards to specific financial projects, as required.
- Bank signatory for creditor payments in line with ENN’s Delegation of Authority Policy.
- Provide cover for the Finance Manager when necessary.
Reporting line
- Reports to the Finance Manager
Person Specification
Essential requirements
- Professional accountancy qualification (e.g. AAT, ACA, ACCA, CIMA, would consider part qualified or qualified by experience)
- Experience of charity-specific accounting and grant reporting requirements
- Experience working with grant funded projects and ability to navigate and communicate compliance requirements
- Experience in developing, monitoring, and reporting against budgets
- Able to present and visualise data in different ways for different audiences
- Ability to manage a diverse and busy workload, prioritising effectively, and able to work both autonomously and as a member of a dispersed and diverse team
- Flexibility and willingness to take on new areas of work and responsibilities
- Strong communication and interpersonal skills, works well with other team members and business partners (both internal and external), including those without a specific financial background.
- Adept at identifying efficiencies and best practice to strengthen ways of working to benefit ENN finance and projects teams
- Motivated, takes initiative, innovates and delivers to deadlines. A self-starter, able to diagnose situations and constraints, comfortable when to progress independently and when to escalate
- Excellent attention to detail
- Proficient user of Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook and commercial financial software
- Good cross-cultural awareness
- Ability to demonstrate discretion and diplomacy
- Fluent in English
Desirable
- Experience of using iplicit accounting software
- Specific experience in dealing with institutional donors would be an advantage
- Experience in managing income and expenditure in multiple currencies
- Experience of evaluations: analysing, collating, reconciling and reviewing data related to grant and programme effectiveness
- Experience in developing funding opportunities with a variety of donors
- Data security and GDPR awareness
Eligibility to work
Must be entitled to work in the UK at the time of application. No relocation package is offered for this role.
Application Process
Please submit a Cover Letter (no more than 1 page) and CV no later than Monday 6th May 2024. Early applications are advised as we reserve the right to conclude the process before the closing date if a suitable candidate is identified. Please include your preferred working hours and pattern details in your application.
ENN is committed to diversity and inclusion, and to building a culture where every staff member and volunteer is recognised and valued as an individual. We actively encourage applications from a broad range of experiences and backgrounds.
Emergency Nutrition Network works to reduce undernutrition globally.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.