Regional Director, East and Southern Africa (US based)

Job Description

The National Cooperative Business Association CLUSA International (NCBA CLUSA) is the trade association for cooperative businesses in the United States and an international development organization. NCBA CLUSA provides cross-sector education, technical assistance, and advocacy that helps co-ops thrive. For nearly 100 years, NCBA CLUSA has sought to advance and protect cooperative enterprises, highlighting the impact that cooperatives have in bettering the lives of individuals and families. In the last 60 years, NCBA CLUSA has worked in over 100 countries in the areas of food security, agricultural development, strengthening of communities and farmer organizations, community-based health, natural resources management, and empowerment of smallholder farmers, women, and youth. We currently work in 15 countries in Africa, Latin America, and Asia.

NCBA CLUSA is currently seeking a qualified candidate for the positon of Regional Director, East and Southern Africa to Support based in the Washington, DC headquarters office. This individual will oversee and direct NCBA CLUSA’s international programs regional project portfolio for Eastern and Southern Africa. This position ensures that projects are implemented with high quality in accordance with NCBA CLUSA’s international program management standards and with its technical approach and principles. S/he also ensures that NCBA CLUSA values, methodology and approaches are being uniformly implemented across projects. The Regional Director will be involved in four primary types of activities: Public Relations, Supervision of designated COPs, oversight of field managers, and New Business. This position will provide 50% of their time to Business Development and 50% to regional projects.

S/he will work with senior management to create a strategic vision for the company and the region, including New Business expansion. Participate in the planning of short and long-term program priorities, recommend new business strategies, monitor and track new business opportunities and design conceptual approaches and strategic partnerships to maintain NCBA CLUSA’s competitive edge in gaining new business in the region and as a whole. S/he will help each country to achieve a strategic plan. Work with the new business team to expand programs into new countries including writing sections of proposals for submissions.

The Regional Director will act as the head NCBA CLUSA representative for the region. S/he will regularly liaise with regionally important development agencies, local governments and donors to cultivate opportunities and ensure strong, satisfactory relationships and responsiveness to partner needs. The Regional Director will also provide oversight and support of in-country program management. S/he directly supervises all Chiefs of Party ensuring that COPs maintain NCBA CLUSA management standards and have the support they require to maintain a high level of quality in their work. When necessary s/he will support donor requests and will import HQ-led initiatives. The Regional Director will provide COPs with guidance regarding relational, political, administrative, financial and where appropriate, technical aspects of projects and will evaluate their success and effectiveness in their jobs.

S/he will report to the VP of International Operations to ensure the Program Management Team has the support and resources available to address critical organizational capacity issues. S/he will provide oversight to the regional portfolio to ensure that key aspects of project management are being addressed and resolved and that information is passing between projects.

ESSENTIAL AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY:

• Manage Chiefs of Party and oversees NCBA CLUSA’s regional portfolios in all respects, with particular attention to public relations, the communications of project information and results to donor, host government partners and project partners and stakeholders;
• Liaison between headquarters and field operations
• Intelligence gathering and capture management of new business opportunities in the region
• Work to identify and facilitate local partnerships (implementing partners and private sector partners) and cross-region fertilization of approaches and learning
• Draft concept papers for off-the-radar ideas
• Identify key local staff for proposals
• Develop proposal submission with Business Development team
• Support donor relations and serve as emergency response to donors in difficult situations
• Negotiates technical and strategic aspects of partnerships;
• Liaises with donors, host country government representatives and partners to ensure strong and transparent relationships;
• Conducts or participates in activities that give opportunity to present/market CLUSA (seminars, workshops, bidding conferences).
• Establish and maintains quality standards and empowers COPs to effectively manage programs’
• Advocates for improved policies and approaches that will streamline work environment, ensure compliance, and increase organizational effectiveness;
• Reviews and approves critical project documents including action plans, annual work plans, progress reports, and budgets;
• Conducts spot audits to ensure fidelity of financial and M&E data and faithful implementation of systems;
• Participates in hiring of staff for the region;
• Assists in rollout of new headquarters initiates

SUCCESSFUL CANDIDATES WILL HAVE THE FOLLOWING QUALIFICATIONS:

• Master’s degree in international development or equivalent field experience required;
• 15 years’ experience in international development;
• Experience implementing USG projects;
• Proven ability to develop systems for project and program design;
• Experience in Program Management required;
• Demonstrated ability to lead people and get results through others
• Strategic thinking and planning capacity to support organizational plans and trends in development initiatives five and ten years out;
• Ability to organize and manage multiple priorities;
• Problem analysis and problem resolution at a functional and strategic level;
• Excellent oral and written interpersonal and communication skills;
• Excellent proposal writing skills;
• High performance and strong team player;
• Commitment to mission, vision, principles and values;
• Strong negotiation skills;
• Excellent computer skills (Outlook, Word, Excel);
• Desired second language spoken in region: French, Portuguese, Swahili;
• Ability and willingness to travel to developing countries on an as needed basis.

To apply, please send a resume or CV and a cover letter to jobs@ncba.coop with subject line “RD East and Southern Africa”. Only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted. No phone calls, please. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer of protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.

About the Organization

The National Cooperative Business Association’s CLUSA International Program is the oldest not-for-profit cooperative development and trade association in the United States. NCBA provides sustainable cooperative development in four sectors: food security and agriculture, democracy and governance, natural resource management, and community-based health. NCBA is a globally recognized leader in organizing people to help themselves. NCBA works with cooperatives and organizations to create long-term and sustainable results for farmers and communities in the developing world. Over the course of its 95-year history, NCBA has had an enormous impact on the world stage. Beginning in 1945, NCBA participated in the founding and funding of the Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe (currently known as CARE) to rebuild war-torn Europe. NCBA’s CLUSA International Program has been active in more than 100 countries through over 200 programs building democratic institutions and providing technical assistance to group business, civil society organizations (CSOs), nongovernmental organizations, local governments and village associations. In the past 65 years, NCBA has helped found and strengthen many influential international players including National Cooperative Bank (NCB), Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance (VOCA), Cooperative Business International (CBI), Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative (IFFCO – India’s largest fertilizer producer), and Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF/AMUL – India’s largest food products marketing organization. The CLUSA Approach The “CLUSA Approach,” based on the basic cooperative principles, is founded on the belief that our clients are the decision-makers when It comes to confronting their communities’ most pressing development problems. Central to our approach is empowering clients to articulate, design and mange sustainable, locally-generated solutions. NCBA focuses its development approach on enhancing the organizational capacity of cooperatives, CSOs and other entities through practical training in analytical, problem-solving and entrepreneurial skills and intensive experiential training in business skills and democratic governance processes. Through village-level groups, NCBA strengthens organizational capacity in key areas essential to the achievement of individual, business or organizational goals. Vision and Mission NCBA’s CLUSA International Program’s mission is to alleviate proverty through economic empowerment. It is our vision to be a dynamic organization that is globally recognized as a leader in organizing people to help themselves and as a thought leader in applying cooperative strategies to development. We are centered on our process-oriented and demand-driven approach, building out global leadership in institutional development by leveraging our experience in organization, facilitation and linking farmers and communities to the global marketplace.