Country Director

Position description

The Country Director is the senior role in the country programme and Kenya has a dynamic and varied country portfolio. Self Help Africa has a long-established presence in Kenya, with approximately 60 full-time staff running development and humanitarian projects that encompass enterprise development and climate resilience programming with smallholder farmers. The Kenya programme, with an annual budget for 2023 of €8m, has a strong focus on supporting market access, trade, and enterprise development, underpinned by natural resource management, green economy approaches, gender and nutrition sensitive programming and climate change adaptation across the country. The team, located in Nairobi and 4 regional project locations, are experienced in fund management and multi-stakeholder management.

We are looking for a dynamic and entrepreneurial professional with significant programme management and proven business growth experience, to drive forward our mission and vision and deepening of our impact, through delivering high quality programmes and ensuring that the processes of planning, implementation as well as monitoring, evaluation, and learning, are robust. The Country Director will be responsible for overseeing all areas of Self Help Africa’s and TruTrade’s operations in Kenya, leveraging on their networks and resources, driving business growth, and providing leadership and strategy guidance to the country teams, with five direct reports.

This role offers an exciting opportunity for an experienced Country Director to lead the team to grow the programme in line with the ambitious strategy that responds to the ambition of the Kenya National Development Plans. The country portfolio of programmes is supported with a diversity of funder including Irish Aid, the European Union, Slovak Aid, the Global Evergreening Alliance, Trade Mark Africa, Teagasc and several Trusts and Foundations.

The Country Director will also take full ownership for growing Self Help Africa operations in Kenya. This will focus on growing the funding base and exploring new income streams to help us increase our footprint and maximise our impact through securing and implementing new programmes. The Country Director will collaborate with international organisations, national government, national organisations and the private sector to design and finance innovative programmes that strengthen agricultural value chains, support entrepreneurs and their businesses and drive rural economic development and reduce poverty.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Leadership:

• Ensure we have an effective, representative, supported and high performing team in the Kenya programme;
• You will manage a large and diverse team, providing direct line management to members of the Country Management Team and working strategically with the Team Leader of the Agrifi Project;
• Proactively promote team building and cohesion strategies to ensure effective and people centred delivery of our mission;
• You will ensure efficiencies in the operation of a joint country team using shared services.

New business development and stakeholder relationship management:

• You will be responsible for building relationships in-country to identify new opportunities and win funding for new programmes;
• You will build in-country partnerships to expand our footprint in Kenya;
• You will represent SHA and TruTrade and present in national, regional, and international fora and build the profile of both organisations.

Programme management & operations:

• You will develop, present, and implement the strategic vision, overall goals, and objectives for SHA;
• You will oversee the implementation of all programmes in Kenya, ensuring SHA meets all key targets;
• You will work with the Head of Programmes to ensure all programmes are effectively monitored and evaluated so we can demonstrate our success, impact, and value for money;
• You will work with the Head of Programmes to effectively manage our relationship with partners as we strengthen our localization approach;
• You will ensure that SHA and TruTrade are recognised as thought leaders in agriculture and agribusiness in Kenya.

Finance, audit, and risk:

• You will oversee the financial management and will ensure programmes are delivered in a cost-effective manner, ensuring a value for money approach and that major costs are successfully recovered from programme funding;
• You will ensure a culture of accountability and adherence to all group policies and to staff welfare and security;
• You will ensure compliance with all programme and donor requirements.

KNOWLEDGE, EXPERIENCE AND OTHER REQUIREMENTS:

Essential:

• Minimum of five years’ senior management experience;
• Previous experience running multi-sectoral teams to deliver complex programmes either in a development or private sector setting in sub-Saharan Africa;
• A proven ability to deliver new income opportunities through proactive and sustained business development activity;
• A proven ability to develop, implement and adapt organisational and business strategy;
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, both in formal and informal settings;
• Strong financial analysis and management skills;
• Fluency in English.

 

Application instructions

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