Assistant Country Director at CARE Zambia

Founded in 1945, CARE is a leading international humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. In over 90 countries, CARE works with the poorest communities to improve basic health and education, enhance rural livelihoods and food security, increase access to clean water and sanitation, expand economic opportunities, help vulnerable people adapt to climate change and provide lifesaving assistance during emergencies. CARE places special focus on working alongside women and girls, because, equipped with the proper resources, women and girls have the power to help whole families and entire communities escape poverty.

CARE, an International Non-Governmental relief and development organization operational in Zambia since 1992, has the following vacancy available at the Country Office in Lusaka;

Job Title: Assistant Country Director

Job summary:

The Assistant Country Director (ACD) will be responsible for ensuring that CARE’s programmes in Zambia tackle poverty and injustice with the overarching aim of reaching transformative social and economic equality for women and girls. The ACD will assist the Country Director maintain a high profile for CARE International in Zambia as a leader in bringing about long lasting social and economic change.

Responsibilities

As a member of the CARE International in Zambia country office Senior Leadership Team, the Assistant Country Director will contribute to country programming and leadership priorities. This position will lead program meetings to manage implementation and set strategic priorities, as well as provide input and feedback on all key issues in the country office. By engaging with key CARE regional and HQ stakeholders, the position will support overall leadership and key program functions of the Zambia office. He/she will oversee the country office compliance with the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse and anti-fraud policies in particular, and reinforce these policies with staff and partners, while working with, and building the capacity of, all employees within the organization to embody CARE’s vision to seek a world of hope, inclusion, and social justice, where poverty has been overcome and all people live with dignity and security.

In addition to these responsibilities, the Assistant Country Director will be responsible for the following:

Leadership & Strategy:

The Assistant Country Director will be a key member of the Country Office Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and is responsible for leading and as well as supporting the SLT uphold the highest standards of behaviour, programme outcomes and impacts.

• The ACD is required to emulate the behaviours required of an International Organisation and ensure all staff in their line of duty perform to those high standards.
• The ACD will be expected to provide innovative leadership and encourage staff to take an active role in programme design and proposal development in line with the strategic directions of the CARE Zambia Business Plan.
• This direction should be broadly in line with the Southern Africa Food and Nutrition Security and Climate Change strategy (FNS-CC); the East, Central, Southern Africa (ECSA) road map and the CARE International Vision 2020, as they exist now, and in future iterations.
• The ACD will have a strong understanding of women and girls’ equality issues and what inclusive humanitarian and development programming means in Zambia.
• The ACD will form strong relationships with national and local government representatives to support advocacy, policy change, and resource mobilization.
• The ACD will foster donor and partner relationships within Zambia and externally.

Resource Mobilization:

• The ACD will be key in pursuing an aggressive resource mobilisation strategy for the Country office to position CARE Zambia.
• The role requires tracking business opportunities for new projects and programmes and maintain the pipeline at a minimum of USD10m annual goal.
• The ACD will promote strategic relationships with CARE International (CI), donors and partners of all types, Civil Society Organizations (CSO) partners and the Government of Zambia in line with the 7th National Development Plan. The Country Director (CD) will support and also be active in this area, and the CD and ACD will work together to promote and action all opportunities possible.

Communication & Coordination:

• The ACD will encourage Project Managers and Staff to engage with their project work as part of the Knowledge Management and Learning Framework where gender transformation, governance, and resilience will be among the markers of change and impact.
• The ACD will foster communication between projects and programmes and share learnings, while injecting a spirit of unity across the CO programme teams. Key programme and project staff with the responsibility for Knowledge Management, Learning and innovation will be directed by the ACD in maintaining and improving key databases for measuring program impact and reach, and ensure that Program Impact data is captured, documented, and sent to CI in a timely manner each year.
• The role will coordinate closely with the Programme Support Manager and the Finance Manager to ensure that programme and project staff understand the Country Office Finance Manual and any CARE International finance directions such as the CI Shared Programme Costs (SPC) Policy as well as understanding the concept of the Direct Programme Costs (DCP) and costed work planning (CWP).
• The role will ensure that Project budgets are managed closely and responsibly to avoid losses and/or underspending, and to realign them to maximize programme impact.

Humanitarian and Emergency:

• The Assistant Country Director will maintain CARE Zambia’s Humanitarian response capacity and provide timely support and direction to the Emergency Response team as well as interact with the CI Emergency Response team as and when necessary.

Relationship & Networking:

• The ACD will work closely with, and will be supported by, the programme units at CARE Canada and colleagues in the Southern Africa region as well by CARE International members who work with CARE Zambia (e.g. CARE UK, CARE USA, CARE Deutschland, CARE Netherlands, CARE Austria) to form and enhance relationships with all CI members to enhance CARE Zambia’s profile as a preferred Country Office to work with.
• The ACD will be required to inspire and capture innovative designs from programme and project staff through regular programme meetings and open discussions and capture ideas from staff in the field.
• In addition, the ACD will seek and foster new donors, and will be expected to liaise and maintain and enhance positive relations with current donors.

Qualifications and Experience:

Required;

• Bachelor’s Degree in relevant field, Master’s degree or equivalent work experience;
• Seven or more years of relevant work experience in a Senior management position
• Relevant work experience in International Non – Governmental Organizations operations or relief/Development field.
• Experience in establishing and maintaining collaborative relationships with partners, donors and government counterparts.
• Demonstrated experience with proposal development with range of international donors (e.g. USAID, EU, DFID, GAC)

.