Country Director - BRAC International

BRAC International is a leading non-profit organisation with a mission to empower people and communities in situations of poverty, illiteracy, disease, and social injustice. Founded in 1972 by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, BRAC is the largest non-governmental development organisation in the world and is present in 15 countries across Asia and Africa today.

BRAC designs proven, scalable solutions that equip people with the support and confidence they need to achieve their potential. BRAC’s institutional expertise on various programmes, including health, agriculture, microfinance, education, and youth empowerment, is touching the lives of over 100 million people in the Global South.

BRAC International (BI) is seeking applications from competent, dynamic and self-motivated individuals to fill the following position:

Country Director, BRAC Ghana

The incumbent will serve as BRAC International’s chief representative in Ghana. S/he will provide leadership to and manage all BI programs and staff in Ghana. This will include ownership of the country’s Annual Strategic Plan (ASP) development and implementation.

The Country Director will represent BRAC International in the country at different platforms and ensure its profile and reputation with stakeholders are strong and reflect organizational value, vision and mission. S/he is expected to work closely with Programme anchors and other unit heads in BRAC International based in the regional and head offices and affiliate offices in the UK, and USA and fundraiser representatives in the Netherlands.

Key Responsibilities:

Leadership and Management of BRAC Ghana

• Provide strong and inclusive leadership across all the functions of the BRAC Ghana
• Strong focus on leadership and people management, ensuring the most capable and qualified staff members are in place to implement office strategy and operational plans.
• Lead the development and implementation of high-quality country strategic plan relevant to the local context and the organizational priorities.
• Lead and manage the team in a way that facilitates a high-performance culture, open trustworthy relationships and integrity.
• Promote a culture of learning and development, employee engagement and good stewardship of human capital in the country.
• Serve as the Chairperson of the Country Management Team (CMT)
• Uphold, promote, follow and apply the Core Values and Mission of BRAC in Ghana
• Ensure that local administrative, financial, HR, logistics, procurement and IT areas function in line with both global BI principles and with relevant local laws
• Ensure transparent and accurate financial management of the country office and work in collaboration with the Finance team to ensure monthly reporting and financial management of all funding.
• Ensure all programs and operations adhere to Ghana laws and statutory requirements.
• Ensure security of staff and assets of the country program by having Security Management Plans and SoPs and regular security updates in place and orient teams and visitors to Ghana country program as appropriate.
• Work with the Country Head of Finance in the annual statutory audit and other donor compliance project audits for the country Program
• Ensure periodic verification of inventory and management of assets in line with relevant policies.

Programme Development and Management

• Working with the BI regional and global teams, ensure that the BRAC Ghana team has the right resources, tools, and support to deliver projects and programmes to a high standard, as and when funding is secured.
• Oversee the programme portfolio and ensure new programmes meet contractual obligations.
• Lead, guide and supervise the Programme managers on planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the projects to ensure the effective and efficient execution of project deliverables.
• Ensure adequate systems are in place and followed, regarding programme procurements, management and maintenance of project assets, regular inventories and similar activities.
• Ensure that health and safety are embedded into all projects and programmes and that risk management strategies are in place to protect staff, participants, and partners.
• Provide guidance and support to the team to implement project activities, hold regular project team meetings to review progress, identify and resolve challenges and course-correct where necessary.
• Ensure compliance and quality for all projects to ensure they are delivered on target, on time, on budget and that project tracking mechanisms are utilized to identify and mitigate risk.
• Visit projects to encourage, advise, build relationships, evaluate and inspect the funded projects. Accordingly, follow-up with the Programme managers on the findings of audit, risk register and monitoring report
• Drive, develop, and ensure the adaption, integration, and learning around key areas including safeguarding, gender equity and diversity, monitoring and evaluation framework, risk management registrar in place and updated regularly.

Financial Management, Budgeting and Operational Compliance

• Strengthen the financial sustainability of Programmes and operations through effective and efficient resource development effort, outstanding healthy financial ratios, and effective budget administration.
• Ensure strong financial compliance through timeliness and completeness of financial reports.
• Ensure strong operational compliance through timeliness and completeness of program reports.
• Oversee all BRAC Ghana projects’ income and finances and deliver regular, transparent, and accurate reports to ensure that finances are spent in alignment with donor and organizational budgets.
• Lead and oversee the grants acquisition and management effort in the country ensuring long-term health of the portfolio and achievement of annual targets.

Resource Development and Management

• Develop, implement and monitor a country-specific resource mobilization and fundraising strategy.
• Lead in fundraising efforts for the country and ensure targeted fundraising from institutional, private and corporate donors.
• In liaison with Global and Regional resource mobilization teams, identify fundraising opportunities and guide in the development of quality proposals to build and diversify the country’s resource base.
• Ensure strong external engagement and visibility of BI to help promote its work to key donors and acquire greater levels of resources for the ministry from a diverse set of donors.

Safeguarding Responsibilities:

• Establish a safeguarding culture across all levels of the programme by implementing the safeguarding policy. Act as a key source of support, guidance and expertise on safeguarding for establishing a safe working environment.
• Responsible for ensuring team members are appropriately trained, and supported and have access to resources regarding issues that are identified and actioned by the safeguarding policy and procedure.
• Follow the safeguarding reporting procedure in case any reportable incident takes place, and encourage others to do so

Educational Requirements:

• Master’s degree in social sciences, Development Management, Economics/public policy or other social science fields.

Required Skills and Competencies:

• 15+ years of proven strategic Programme management and development experience in a developing country setting, preferably in Ghana or West Africa
• Preferred to have experience as Country Director/equivalent role or Deputy Country Director/ equivalent role in INGOs
• At least 7-10 years experience in managing a country office in a national or international INGO in a diverse culture and socio-economic context.
• Knowledge and engagement in social protection programming and policy advocacy an added advantage
• Demonstrable experience in strategic planning, programme development and management of complex, multi-stakeholder interventions
• Direct experience in project appraisal, assessment, monitoring and evaluation methodologies
• Demonstrable experience in establishing networks with governments, private and public sector entities as well as development agencies.
• Demonstrate experience in preparing funding proposals for a range of donors.
• Ability to think strategically, conceptualize new ideas, digest and analyze complex information and present coherent work plan or implementation plan.
• Ability to work in a culturally diverse environment.
• Possess high ethical and moral standards.
• Excellent writing and facilitation skills
• Strong interpersonal communication and representational skills
• Willingness to often travel to the project site when required