Director II, Deputy Regional.
Position title: Deputy Regional Director – Programs and Impact, Africa
Location: Dakar, Senegal; Conakry, Guinea; Banjul, The Gambia; or Freetown, Sierra Leone
Manager/Supervisor title: Regional Director, Africa
Position type: Full-time fixed term
Work environment: On-site

About ChildFund
ChildFund is a child-focused international development organization that works in 23 countries to connect children with the people, resources and institutions they need to grow up healthy, educated, skilled and safe, no matter where they are.

ChildFund’s Values
We aspire for every person in our organization—program, participants, supporters, staff, and volunteers alike—to feel free, safe, and confident to be themselves. In our culture of connection, you will have ample opportunity to grow, learn, and lead while contributing your talents and innovations to our inspiring mission.

ChildFund’s Commitment
ChildFund International has a zero-tolerance policy regarding sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment (SEAH) and all other forms of harm by its staff, partners, and other representatives in the delivery of its mission and services for children. ChildFund is committed to creating a safe environment in the workplace as well as in the communities where it delivers programs and services. ChildFund expects every staff member, partner, and representative to adhere to this commitment and to ensure all organizational policies and standards are followed. This position is subject to a range of vetting checks, including a criminal records check and/or disclosure to ensure program participants are safeguarded.

About This Role
The Deputy Regional Director Programs and Impact Africa (DRDP&I-A) will provide strategic, programmatic, and operational leadership for ChildFund’s programs in Africa. Reporting to the Regional Director, the DRDP&I will supervise Country Directors and guide program design and implementation, ensuring program quality and effective strategy delivery. The DRDP&I is responsible for driving results including quality and innovation and developing new opportunities in the region. Acting as an ambassador for organizational priorities, the DRDP&I will support country programs in implementing ChildFund’s Strategy through their Country Strategic Plans (CSPs). This role emphasizes collaboration for quality delivery, partnership, business development, monitoring, evaluation and learning. A significant portion of the DRDP&I’s time will be dedicated to driving performance and results, strategic plan monitoring and business development activities.
To be considered, candidates must have current residence and work authorization in a West African country where ChildFund has physical presence (Senegal, Guinea Conakry, The Gambia or Sierra Leone).


Required Experience and Education
• A minimum of ten (10) years of progressively responsible experience in design and delivery of programs in development and humanitarian settings , or other related area is required.
• Experience working on development and humanitarian coordination at a senior management role is required.
• Experience in acquiring and managing large and complex grants
• Experience in a humanitarian context within the UN Common System or other comparable international organization is desirable.
• Experience in the Africa region is required.
• Experience with child sponsorship is an advantage.
• Extensive experience living and working in the international development community.

Primary Responsibilities
• Strategic Leadership: Set priorities, define key performance indicators (KPIs), and ensure that regional initiatives contribute to the overall impact of the organization.
• Program Oversight: Oversee the implementation of Sponsorship, programs and projects, ensuring they meet the organization’s standards and objectives. This includes managing high-value contracts and grants and supporting country offices in delivering effective programs.
• Partnership and Collaboration: Oversee the building and maintenance of strong relationships with local partners, government agencies, and other stakeholders in the country offices to foster collaborations that enhance the impact and reach of ChildFund’s work.
• Cross-Program Learning: Promote a learning environment that facilitates evidence and adaptive learning, integrating lessons learned into future program design.
• Capacity Building: Build the leadership, technical capability, and communication skills of the team, program staff, and senior management.
• Program Quality and Impact: Responsible for continually improving the quality and impact of ChildFund’s programs. Establish and oversee research and evaluation functions to generate strategic evidence linked to policy, business development, and programming priorities. This involves overseeing the development and implementation of robust monitoring, evaluation and learning systems to track progress and identify areas of improvement. Establish and oversee research and evaluation functions to generate strategic evidence linked to policy, business development, and programming priorities.
• Operational Risk management and Compliance: Identify and mitigate operational risks in program implementation.
• Supervise Country Directors: Oversee program design and implementation, ensuring program quality and effective strategy delivery.
• Coordination and Collaboration: Provide leadership to increase coordination, collaboration, communications and cross learning across Country Offices in the region.
• Policy Influence: Increase the organization’s influence and capability to support government policies and boost visibility and profile nationally, regionally and internationally.
• Resource Mobilization and Fundraising: Working closely with country offices, lead efforts to mobilize resources for programs, identifying opportunities, developing proposals and build relationships with donors.
• Safety and Security: Enable the safe conduct of ChildFund operations. Responsible for implementing standards, policies, and procedures to protect personnel, programs, and property. Lead a culture of safety and security risk management at the country office. Monitor security trends for appropriate action. Allocate adequate budget for safe program implementation and cost recovery. Uphold duty of care, implementing measures to promote physical and mental health. Work closely with the global security team to achieve standards and a coordinated response to incidents.
• Safeguarding: Ensure organizational culture and work environment in which staff fully understand and apply child safeguarding standards and in which children are protected against violence, abuse and neglect.
• Take all appropriate corrective actions, including disciplinary, legal, or other actions in response to any violation of the Safeguarding Policy, follow up on any findings of a violation, and review the applicable policies, procedures, and protocols to identify and address any gaps or weaknesses.
• Remain alert and responsive to any child safeguarding risks, acquire relevant knowledge and skills which will enable you to promote strong safeguarding practices, understand the Safeguarding Policy and procedures, and conduct yourself in a manner consistent with the Safeguarding Policy.

Required Competencies
ChildFund’s Core Competencies
• Teamwork: the ability to work effectively and collaborate with others; values and respects individual differences.
• Communication: demonstrates empathy and tact when communicating with others and uses a storytelling approach when appropriate.
• Results orientation gets things done; takes proactive steps to achieve organizational goals and quality standards.
• Decision making: uses good judgement, critical thinking, and non-traditional ways to evaluate problems and opportunities; reflects and innovates to improve decisions and outcomes.
• Resilience: thrives and grows in rapidly changing, demanding, and complex environments.
• Digital literacy: adopts and champions new technology to relevant contexts, stays aware of technological trends and embraces technological solutions to business challenges.


Other Required Competencies
• The ability to speak, read, and write fluently in both French and English.
• Demonstrated strong knowledge of the political and cultural context of Africa.
• Demonstrated technical expertise in program and project management.
• Demonstrated technical expertise in budget management.
• Strong leadership skills, including fostering teamwork, developing and motivating others, managing change, and conflict resolution.
• Strong fundraising and business development abilities; attracting local and international resources by engaging with various donors and developing proposals.
• Demonstrated relationship-building skills, with sensitivity to cultural, ethnic, social, and political issues.
• Excellent coalition building and partnership building abilities.
• Commitment to child development and protection as well as knowledge and understanding of the international child rights conventions and systems.
• Familiarity and knowledge about working with community development approaches and through local partner organizations.
• Good strategic planning skills, with the ability to anticipate and pragmatically solve problems, plan a course of action, and allocate resources based on data inputs and analysis.
• Innovative mindset; demonstrates support for innovation and organizational change and reacts positively and rapidly to changing conditions.
• Demonstrated experience in grants management and knowledge of donor requirements, particularly USG, EU, UN and other bi-lateral donors.


Other Requirements
• Current residence and work authorization in Guinea, Senegal, Sierra Leone, or The Gambia.
• Willingness to travel frequently across Africa (up to 50%).