Lebanon: Country Director, Lebanon

Reference:

KK/CD/LEB

Country:

Lebanon

Job Title:

Country Director

Contract Grade: D

Contract Length: 2 Years

Date Needed By: December 2016

New Post or Replacement: Replacement

Accompanied / Unaccompanied: Unaccompanied[LC1]

Exact Job Location: Akkar, North Lebanon with frequent presence in Beirut

Reports To: Regional Director

Responsible For: Direct line management of Programmes Director, Systems Director, Programme Development Coordinator, Country Financial Controller and overall responsibility for all staff.

Liaises With: Desk Officer, SAL advisors, HRO and relevant Fundraising departments as appropriate.

Job Purpose:

Responsible for strategic and programme development and effective management of the Concern Lebanon country programme in line with Concern Worldwide organisational specific strategies, policies and procedures.

Leadership:

• Further develop and implement a coherent country programme that contributes to achieving Concern’s global strategy and objectives in particular addressing emergency needs of Syrian refugees and host population
• Provide leadership in the overall effective planning and direction of Concern’s programme and operations at country level.
• Build strong and committed team of national and international staff adhering to Concern policies and procedures and applying key principles of transparency, accountability, good stewardship and participation.
• Create and maintain shared vision, amongst all Concern Lebanon staff, of Concern’s programme aims and objectives and their role in achieving these.
• Lead and support in strengthening coordination and collaboration within teams and across all teams, maintain and ensure constructive communications, contribute to a positive working environment.

Programme Development and Management:

• Lead the strategic development and implementation of programmes in line with Concern organisational strategic plan and following the Concern PCM policy including proposal writing and sourcing funding.
• Review existing Strategic Statement and lead on development of new plan.
• Ensure effective coordination of technical inputs (e.g. SAL advisors,) in designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating programmes.
• Maintain productive working relationships with donors and be responsible for undertaking country level negotiations related to securing funding, programming contracts, and reports.
• Explore the possibility of working with additional local partners through the application of CLOSAT and CLOFAT assessment tools.
• Manage the country programme effectively including allocation of resources and ensuring that appropriate monitoring and controls are established and maintained at all levels by working with programme and systems managers, staff and where relevant partners.
• Provide adequate leadership and support to programme managers in setting up high quality standards and implementation of programmes to include equality, prevention of GBV and DRR.
• Ensure that all programmes are implemented and completed according to programme documents including agreed plans and budget.
• Maintain effective communication and liaise with Concern Head office in Dublin and ensure that high standard internal and donor reports are produced and submitted in timely manner and in line with relevant targets and objectives.

Human Resources Management:

• Line manage senior management staff (Country Management Team – CMT) and be responsible for the overall management and development of national and international staff of Concern Lebanon.
• Manage and support country programme team ensuring that there is clearly defined structure and job descriptions for all staff.
• Ensure that regular staff Performance and Development Review (PDR) system is established and maintained and that PDRs are undertaken seriously at all levels.
• Develop, review, and effectively implement all Human Resources related policies and procedures in accordance with Concern policies and procedures and in line with the national labour law of Lebanon.
• Establish and maintain regular, participative and documented forums and meetings for all key staff to discuss policy, strategic, operational and management issues, coordinate planning and implementation of activities, and ensure information sharing.

Financial Management:

• Responsible for overall financial management of Concern Lebanon including participatory budget preparation, revision and monitoring and timely submission of Budgets and FRP’s to HQ.
• Ensure that the Concern organisational financial guidelines and procedures are adhered to.
• Develop and implement work and expenditure plans and ensure that the country programmes are implemented within agreed and approved budget through undertaking regular budget monitoring of expenditure against budget.
• Ensure that internal and donor financial reports are submitted in timely manner and up to high quality standard.

Policies and procedures:

• Ensure that support systems are in place and functioning in accordance with best practices in order to ensure transparency and accountability to programme participants, donors, government, and other relevant stakeholder.
• Be responsible for security and safety of Concern personnel and resources in Lebanon including participatory development and implementation of the Country Security Management Plan.
• Report any security threats and incidents to the Regional Director.
• Promote and ensure compliance with the requirements of Concern’s Programme Participants Protection Policy (P4) and implementation of Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP) standards including Community based complaint and response mechanisms to ensure maximum protection to programme beneficiaries.

Representation and Networking:

• Represent Concern in Lebanon and establish coordination and networking relationships with the government, donors and other national and international development actors in the country.
• Ensure that relationship and formal agreements with the government are established, maintained and updated as appropriate.
• Represent Concern at various national level coordination fora.
• Promote and protect the reputation of Concern in external settings, ensuring that the organization’s experience and expertise is well communicated and consistently presented, and that we are looked to as a professional organization.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Essential requirements

• Third Level Degree preferably in social science or development management or business management or related discipline.

• 5 years working experience in a senior position within a development organization preferably in an international NGO with a significant emergency response capacity.

• Experienced in management of financial resources and overseeing human resources, administration and logistics function.

• Experience in building relations with donors and securing external donor funding.

• Strong leadership skills and ability to manage change effectively.

• Strong communication and interpersonal skills with an ability/confidence to engage and represent Concern at public fora, media and donors.

• Excellent communication and presentation skills, including fluency in written and spoken English.

• Delegation, time management and prioritizing skills and coping with broad range of demands.

• Highly developed listening and conflict resolution skills.

• Affinity with organisational values, mission and vision, commitment to humanitarian principles.

• Ability to contribute to a small team environment.

Desirable requirements

• Previous Concern experience at a management level.

• Experience of working in the Middle East an advantage.

• Experience of refugee and/or IDP programming.

• Knowledge of CHS

• Experience of working/living in insecure and sensitive environments.

• Experience of managing major donor grants such as UNHCR, UNICEF, ECHO and EU.

• Experience in one or more of the following sectors: Shelter, WASH, protection, Livelihoods and Education programming.

• Knowledge of Arabic and or French an advantage as well as fluency in English.

[LC1] Will this change? I think it should be accompanied

All applications should be submitted through our website at https://jobs.concern.net by closing date. CV’s should be no more than 4 pages in length.

All candidates who are short-listed for a first round interview will be notified via email after the application deadline.

Concern Worldwide is an Irish-based non-governmental, international, humanitarian organisation dedicated to the reduction of suffering and working towards the ultimate elimination of extreme poverty in the world’s poorest countries.

Concern has a Staff Code of Conduct and a Programme Participant Protection Policy which have been developed to ensure the maximum protection of programme participants from exploitation and to clarify the responsibilities of Concern staff, consultants, visitors to the programme and partner organization, and the standards of behaviour expected of them. In this context staff have a responsibility to the organization to strive for, and maintain, the highest standards in the day-to-day conduct in their workplace in accordance with Concern’s core values and mission. Any candidate offered a job with Concern Worldwide will be expected to sign the Programme Participant Protection Policy and the Concern Staff Code of Conduct as an appendix to their contract of employment. By signing the Programme Participant Protection Policy and the Concern Staff Code of Conduct candidates acknowledge that they have understood the contents of both the Concern Staff Code of Conduct and the Programme Participant Protection Policy and agree to conduct themselves in accordance with the provisions of these two documents.

Concern receives a substantial amount of funding from external donors each year. Increasingly donors are introducing requirements whereby future funding is conditional on Concern ensuring that the names of any new employee or volunteer do not appear on terrorism lists generated by the European Union (List of person, groups and entities to which Regulation (EC No. 2580/2001 applies), the US Government (Office of Foreign Assets Control list of specially designated Nationals and Blocked Persons) and the United Nations (Consolidated List). Any offer of employment (either paid or voluntary) with Concern Worldwide will not be made pending a clearance check being conducted on the applicant. For additional information please consult our web site or contact the Human Resource Division in our Head Office.

Concern Worldwide is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all sections of the community.