Country Director Z im
June 2022
babwe
About Christian Aid Christian Aid started working in Zimbabwe in the 1970s, together with the Zimbabwe Council of Churches and other partners to advocate for peace and, release of political prisoners etc during the country’s liberation struggle. The support continued into the 1980s where focus was on supporting recovery from war and development, all this time sending grants from the UK to local partners. The country office was then opened in December 1996, delivering 7 humanitarian, development and advocacy programmes across Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Over the years the programme was demerged with Malawi and Zambia opening separate office, while the Mozambique programme was closed. The Zimbabwe programme has grown and transformed as it delivered life changing programmes relevant to Zimbabwe’s dynamic and challenging socio economic and political context. In 2018, Christian Aid Zimbabwe Trust was registered to decentralise and devolve decision making, which was an important step as major step to promote localisation. Currently CA Zimbabwe has approximately 15 country staff, in addition to 6 hosted staff who are Advisors and in the Global programme. Christian Aid strives to eliminate the causes of poverty through upholding values on dignity, equality, justice, and love for all regardless of their age, gender, sexual orientation, race, tribe, social status, disability status and
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religious or cultural beliefs. For Christian Aid in Zimbabwe, poverty is political and an injustice against mankind that robs people of dignity, freedom, hope, and power to live life to its fullness.
vulnerability is worsened by compounding socio-cultural factors which disregard the rights of women, girls, and people with disability, thereby exposing them to Gender Based Violence (GBV).
For the period 2020-2026, the Zimbabwe country programme will be guided by a vision, mission, objectives, workstreams, business model and supporting frameworks as enshrined in its country strategy on wheels. The country level objectives and priorities will guide and connect Zimbabwe with Christian Aid’s corporate strategy ‘Standing Together’. The country strategy envisions a just and prosperous Zimbabwe united in its diversity and in harmony with the environment. The vision is aligned to changing local context as well as the organisation’s priorities and hence its being called a ‘strategy on wheels.’
Christian Aid Zimbabwe works to contribute towards ending poverty by building resilience of the vulnerable and marginalised communities in Zimbabwe. In the recent past, the programme strengthened the resilience of the marginalised and communities in poverty, enabling them to access inclusive markets. Further to this, we contributed to targeted people in poverty and marginalised people’s capacity to challenge social, economic, and political institutions for increased accountability, peace, and empowerment. The programme worked in unique ways such as working with faith-based networks to address gender inequality and gender-based violence.
This document presents a roadmap of what CA Zimbabwe programme envisions within the next coming 5 years. The programming climate in Zimbabwe remains fragile, worsened by the political factors and the ever-increasing food insecurity in both rural and urban areas. More so, the effects of climate change have brought in successive droughts in the country as well as extreme weatherrelated shocks and disasters, which have destroyed the livelihood base of households in disaster prone areas. The demographic health surveys and vulnerability assessments conducted in the country, identify women, girls, children, and people with disabilities as the most vulnerable to the various challenges facing citizens in Zimbabwe. Their
For the period 2020-2026, the country programme will focus on the following thematic areas: 1.
Humanitarian preparedness and response
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Climate justice, food security, and resilient livelihoods
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Economic Justice and inclusive markets
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Social Justice, realising rights and transparency
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The Role
Role: Country Director Zimbabwe Location: Harare Salary: Competitive Expected travel per annum: Up to 40 days
Role Purpose To provide strategic leadership to Christian Aid’s work in Zimbabwe, ensuring the country programme and staff contribute to and are supported by Christian Aid corporate strategy, ‘Standing Together’. To manage, develop and empower staff working for Christian Aid in Zimbabwe to take responsibility within a devolved and decentralised region or continent, working within the corporate framework, agreed annual plans, budgets and defined delegations of authority. To be the senior representative of Christian Aid in-country and to develop and promote the country and programme profile within the region or continent and across the wider organisation. To contribute to the strategic direction and representation of the division, to proactively engage in networks and learning groups and to review and evaluate other programmes and grants across the region or continent as required.
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The Role
Key Outcomes •
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Deliver robust country policy and country strategy built within Christian Aid’s strategic framework and delivered via a portfolio of partners and encompassing humanitarian and development programming, advocacy, campaigns and communications. Provide robust and dynamic leadership for the Zimbabwe team, motivating staff and ensuring that they are valued. Emergencies well responded to by capable staff and partners and risk reduction strategies in place. Security of employees, visitors and assets maintained through effective and continuous research and sharing of communication.
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Staff recruited, managed, developed, performing to a high standard and meeting their objectives.
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Strong leadership on creating and developing links with international ecumenical networks particularly through ACT Alliance.
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Promotion of the Christian Aid brand and enhancement of its reputation through positive relationships with all other stakeholders including churches, donors, governments, and embassies.
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Lead on using programme evidence to develop national advocacy and policy work.
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Effective delivery of work through and with partners, strong dedication and familiarity with the partnership approach to working.
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Leadership in all Christian Aid legal, financial and compliance requirements including responsibility for security management, quarterly reporting and monthly country returns, finance, HR, and IT.
In order to respond to ever changing demands within the environment, Christian Aid operates within an agile framework (both in workforce and operational) that requires from all employees, a high level of responsiveness and adaptiveness to processes and structures making flexibility and a project based working approach the norm. To sustain this system, managers may/will agree further details of specific tasks and duties as part of the performance agreement. Any reasonable duty may be assigned that is consistent with the nature of the job and its level of responsibility, and employees may be required to change the focus of their role from time to time.
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Role Context Christian Aid has a long track record of working in Zimbabwe in building resilience of hard to reach and vulnerable communities. The programme attracts significant interest from UK based supporters, including churches. The programme focuses on economic and climate justice, social justice and humanitarian response and resilience building. The role is critical to maintaining and developing politically shrewd programmes that are innovative, collaborative, efficient and effective, delivered though the partnership approach. The ability of this role to sustain substantial growth and leverage depends on developing and inspiring the country team, fostering learning and individual growth. Responsible for building strong working relationships internally within the wider organisation, and externally with government, private sector, and NGO partners. Relationships with faith-based organisations and churches are particularly important in this context. Manages and coordinates CA’s work and team, creating vision, setting budgets, implementing strategy, developing effective networks. The role operates within an organisational culture characterised by ambitious goals, strategic thinking, innovation, interdependence, and mutual accountability.
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Role Requirements Relationships
Decision making
Analytical skills
External - Country Directors manage and develop external networks, building strong working relationships with partners, donors, the private sector, and other members of civil society.
Budgetary/savings responsibility
Highly complex work involving a number of different factors or facets that relate both to own area of work and is likely to have with cross-functional implications. Expected to take account of the wider and longerterm consequences of own and others’ ideas, recommendations, and decisions.
Internal - Country Directors are members of the Divisional Management Group. Country Director Zimbabwe reports to and is accompanied and supported by the head of Programme Quality, Africa, as part of a flat, networked structure. All Country Directors work closely within the organisation to lead and shape Christian Aid’s programme and to ensure integration with other organisational departments and teams. Authority is delegated to the Country Director by the Head of Division within a Framework of Delegation. The role liaises with assigned functional leaders such as humanitarian response, advocacy and policy, and fundraising.
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The Country Director- Zimbabwe is responsible for the overall finance function, including budget setting, monitoring, and expenditure reporting for all sources of funding. A core responsibility is to ensure the programme works within the financial framework of the organisation and achieves the targets for savings that may be set, whilst developing short to medium strategies for financial resilience and sustainability Authority is delegated to the Country Director by the Head of Division within the Framework of Delegation. Emanating from this framework, the Country Director- Zimbabwe is accountable for the efficiency and effectiveness of Country Programmes. This includes responsibility for overall management of programme to ensure strategy and annual plan objectives are met through quality programmes and partnerships and a sustainable funding base, direct line management of staff within a framework of delegation and empowered working, responsibility for overall financial management, including budget setting, monitoring and expenditure reporting for all sources of funding, responsibility to represent Christ Aid externally and internally and to communicate Christian Aid’s work internally and externally.
Developing self and others Number of Direct reports: 4 Overall people management responsibility team of 20 Typically has direct responsibility for developing, coaching, and motivating colleagues/project team members, including those who report in through others and may include more than one team. May monitor performance review and development planning and activities within a function/across major projects to ensure that best practice is being met. Able to share knowledge and best practice across the organisation. Induction and basic supervision of staff, enabling and supporting them to assist the workgroup in its functions.
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n io t a c ifi c e p S n o s r e P Applied skills/knowledge and expertise Essential •
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The post holder must hold a minimum of a tertiary degree at ‘Masters’ level or equivalent. Ideally the focus in education will be on international development and social sciences, a related certification in management is desirable. 5 to 10 years’ experience of leadership or senior management. Managing large and complex overseas, multi-partner development programmes, preferably in Sub-Saharan Africa. Considerable experience of international development work including project management. Experience of working with organisations in the global south, working in challenging political contexts, developing strong partnerships with local organisations and churches, and fundraising and liaising with donors. A strong understanding of the drivers of poverty and its eradication are important to the role Familiarity and dedication to the partnership way of working. Sound knowledge of Office programmes including Word, Outlook, PowerPoint and Excel. Knowledge of relevant database systems. Written and spoken ability of English and any local language(s). Must be dependable and trustworthy. Post open to nationals with the right to live and work in Zimbabwe.
Desirable • •
First hand understanding of Zimbabwean social, political, and economic context. Certificate in Management.
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How to Apply All correspondence, at this stage, should be via Oxford HR. To apply for this post, click on the “Apply” button on the job advert page, complete our online application form, and submit your CV and cover letter. Please provide a CV and cover letter in two different documents, which should be prepared before applying as they will be considered in the application process.
Equality Statement Equality and diversity are at the core of Christian Aid values. Staff are expected to work collectively and individually to promote a constructive and sensitive approach to others from a variety of backgrounds, where the work of others is valued and respected. Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
The cover letter should be no more than two pages long and explain why you are interested in this post and how your skills and experience make you a good fit. The document should be saved in PDF in the following format: Your First Name-Your Last Name-Document Name-Date (mmyy) e.g., Pat-Jones-CV-062022-Christian Aid or Pat-Jones-CoverLetter-062022-Christian Aid.
Queries If you have any queries on any aspect of the appointment process, need additional information, or would like to have an informal discussion, please email at christian-aidzimbabwe@oxfordhr.co.uk in the first instance.
Timeline Closing Date: Interviews:
Monday 15th August 2022 TBC
Selection process All candidates will receive an update regarding their application after the closing date. We advise candidates to add the role email to their safe senders list and regularly check their spam folder.
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About Oxford HR Oxford HR operates globally - mainly within the international development and charity sectors. We carry out retained executive search mandates at board and senior management levels. We also offer human resource and organisational development consultancy. Oxford HR has many years of experience in search as well as an extensive network of international development, social sector, corporate, public sector, and academic contacts from across the world. We carry out comprehensive and often international searches designed to meet the specific needs of our client.
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