Ecuador: Regional Director Latin America

Norwegian People’s Aid is a humanitarian organisation rooted in the Norwegian Labour Movement. We work with International Development Partnerships, Humanitarian Disarmament, Rescue Service and First Aid, and Asylum and Integration. Norwegian People’s Aid has more than 12000 members in Norway and 2400 staff worldwide. We work in 39 countries around the world, and in 2015 we will have an expected turnover of 920 MNOK.

We are looking for a Regional Director for our Civil Society Programmes in Latin America. The Regional Director (RD) has the overall responsibility for all Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) activities in Latin America. The office is located in Quito and covers programmes in Latin America (Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Colombia, Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua) and will be responsible for the development, monitoring and facilitation of the partner programmes region in line with NPA’s overall strategies, plans and policies.

Main Responsibilities:

All responsibilities and reporting has to be carried out in accordance with the strategic objectives of NPA as set out in the International Strategy, Partnership Policy, Regulation for Delegation of Authorisation and other relevant procedures and guidelines in the Quality Management System. Any deviation to the above has to be reported to and approved by NPA Head Office.

The Regional Director will:

• Lead the NPA Latin America Management Team, which in addition to the RD consists of six Programme Managers and the Finance Manager
• Ensure that the Management Team, situated in different countries, has an ongoing dialogue on key policy issues and that regional meetings take place to integrate the team around key policy issues and learning
• Ensure good working relationship with the relevant organisations and networks in the region, relevant political actors, donors, UN, international and local organisations
• The Regional Director is responsible for the management of NPAs democratisation programme(s) and Latin America region, including:
• Ensure that annual plans, budgets and reports related to NPA’s regional project(s) are in place, and that these enable relevant activities of an excellent quality, meeting donor expectations
• Direct the regional activities according to strategies, plans and policies
• Monitor developments in Latin America, in particular the political and security situation, give advice to NPA HO and implement necessary changes
• Provide periodic and final reports according to the project documents and annual work plan of the regional project
• Coordinate NPA’s activities with relevant organisations in the region and other relevant stakeholders in cooperation with the NPA country and liaison offices
• Conduct negotiation on partnership agreements and contracts with local partners for implementation of regional activities
• Promote NPA and the regional work of the organisation both in media and in public
• Ensure budget control and that annual budgets are prepared for approval by NPA HO
• Ensure good monitoring, evaluation, reporting and information management, and identify areas for improvement and take charge of necessary reviews in the regional project
• Ensure adequate risk management of the regional activities, including streamlining integration of risk and security management perspectives in all strategic and programmatic processes

Required qualifications:

• Excellent leadership skills with the ability to achieve results through others
• Experience as a successful upper level manager in a complex international organisation with documented good results
• Master’s degree in management, international relations, law, political science, development or related fields (a lower level university degree may be accepted based on extensive professional experience)
• Experience working with civil society organisations
• At least 3 years of proven experience in international development programming and/or advocacy or other relevant experience
• Strong knowledge of cultural and political contexts in Latin America
• Excellent networking and alliance building skills
• Experience in fundraising and donor relations
• Good English and Spanish language skills, both written and verbally
• Good understanding of ICT-systems and experience with MS Office applications, including Excel

Desirable:

• Knowledge and understanding of Norwegian/Scandinavian politics and aid-policies and donors
• Competence in risk and security management

Personal Competencies:

• Self-driven with integrity, initiative and ability to think and work independently
• Strong communication, networking and interpersonal skills
• Ability to work in and adapt to difficult and complex cultures and conditions
• Analytical, systematic and structured
• Strong health

For more information and how to apply, please visit NPA's website.