Country Director
Position Circumstances
- Career Category: Exec. / Management, Monitoring & Evaluation, Advocacy, Community Development, Operations Management
- Schedule:Full-time
- Salary: Negotiable
WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR:
AAC is currently seeking a visionary and dynamic Country Director (CD) to provide strategic leadership, high-level representation and overall management of ActionAid Cambodia. The CD will inspire staff, strengthen partnerships, influence policies, and ensure effective delivery of our Country Strategy Paper (CSP) in alignment with ActionAid International’s (AAI) global strategy and Strategy Implementation Framework (SIF).
The CD is expected to champion feminist leadership principles, safeguarding policies, and ActionAid’s values, while driving innovation, sustainability, and accountability across programs, fundraising, advocacy, operations and people management. A critical part of the role will be to lead a robust and diversified fundraising strategy that strengthens financial resilience, expands and sustains partnerships with institutional donors, foundations, private-sector and other strategic partners, and develops innovative income-generation opportunities.
This role is an exciting opportunity for a senior management professional who wants to help shaping the future success of a major international NGO working with over 40 million people living in over 71 countries for a world free from poverty and injustice by helping people use their own power.
Duties & Responsibilities:
- Strategic Leadership & Representation
- Lead the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of ActionAid Cambodia’s Country Strategy Paper (CSP) 2023 -2027.
- Contribute to federation-wide priorities, campaigns and decision-making, maintaining regular communication with the Regional Head of Asia, Global Secretariat, and other Members of AAI federation.
- Drive organizational development and transformation processes in line with federation priorities and change management initiatives.
- Ensure program strategies remain sensitive and relevant to Cambodia’s political, social and economic context.
- Represent ActionAid Cambodia in national, regional and global forums with government, donors, NGOs, networks and the media.
- Build and maintain strong partnerships with Civil society organizations (CSOs), social movements, community-based organizations (CBOs) and other relevant institutions in Cambodia.
- Program Development & Delivery
- Oversee design and implementation of high-quality and impactful programs with focus on gender justice, youth engagement, climate justice, humanitarian response, and governance.
- Ensure participatory, inclusive, and cost-effective program delivery with strong monitoring, evaluation and learning systems.
- Promote documentation, learning and dissemination of best practices to strengthen impact and influence policy.
- Lead humanitarian preparedness, response and contingency planning, liaising with ActionAid International Humanitarian Response Team.
- Policy Advocacy & Research
- Champion feminist leadership and embed safeguarding, child protection, and accountability across all work including programming.
- Drive ActionAid Cambodia’s policy and advocacy agenda in collaboration with national and international stakeholders.
- Encourage research and evidence generation to inform programming and influence national and international policy debates.
- Strengthen AAC’s public image through proactive media engagement, digital presence, and external communications, including social media fundraising.
- Fundraising & External Engagement
- Develop and implement a robust fundraising strategy that diversifies income and ensures sustainability and support the change we seek to achieve as specified in the CSP and advance ActionAid’s mission objectives.
- Establish and develop working relationships with key donors in Cambodia and actively develop relevant funding sources appropriate to AA Cambodia country programme's resource needs.
- Strengthen donor relations, ensuring effective communication, grant compliance, and accountability
- Proactively identify fundraising opportunities and build AAC’s credibility with donor partners by showcasing impact particularly with women and girls.
- Ensure strict donor compliance, timely reporting, and accountability across grants and sponsorship programs.
- Ensure a regular flow of information available to ActionAid funding departments and to donors and official funders as required by the various funding mechanisms including child sponsorship.
- People Leadership & Culture
- Lead, develop, and manage the Senior Management Team (SMT) to work collectively towards organizational goals.
- Promote ActionAid’s values, feminist leadership principles, and a culture of transparency, accountability, and inclusion.
- Ensure gender balanced high caliber staffing, invest in staff development, coaching and promote team innovation and cohesion.
- Encourage and actively promote staff exchange, secondment and development opportunities, where these contribute to the meeting of ActionAid’s programme objectives and priorities.
- Develop a qualified and valued ActionAid team in Cambodia, based on equality and diversity, and provide this team with an empowering and enabling environment conducive to quality programming and impactful operations by fostering innovation, ongoing learning and collective teamwork.
- Finance Operations & Risk Management
- Ensure financial integrity, accountability, and compliance with ActionAid International’s financial framework, donor requirements and Cambodia country legal / statutory obligations.
- Facilitate budget preparation, expenditure control, and resource allocation to ensure cost-effective and impactful program delivery in compliance with approved policies/frameworks as well as national law and donor’s regulation.
- Strengthen risk management systems and internal controls to safeguard assets, resources and reputation.
- Ensure proper procurement practices, asset management, and financial reporting in line with policy and donor standards.
- Provide progress and financial reports as required by the State authorities, the advisory Board and as per ActionAid's accountability procedures and as required by the donors/sponsors.
- Governance and Federation Engagement
- Lead and facilitate the process of nationalisation and Governance Board development in ActionAid Cambodia within the time frame agreed with ActionAid International (AAI)
- Maintain regular communication with ActionAid Regional Head of Asia, Global Secretariat staff, peer Country Directors, and federation governance structure.
- Contribute to ActionAid International’s global initiatives, campaigns and task forces.
- Ensure ActionAid Cambodia complies with national regulations and maintains constructive relationship with relevant authorities and actors.
- Drive organizational transformation processes, as and when required, in line with federation priorities and change management initiatives.
- Communications and Campaign
- Lead external communication strategies, including media and digital platforms, to strengthen AAC’s profile and advocacy.
- Develop a communication strategy that will deepen the impact of communication work, identify key priorities, channels, audiences and messages to establish an appropriate public image for ActionAid Cambodia in line with ActionAid International values, principles and culture.
- Develop and manage a sound relationship with all sections of the media and ensure that any published material accurately reflects the views of AA Cambodia.
- Encourage the development of appropriate research with a view to improving the quality of field work and influencing change in policy to improve the conditions and positions of the people living in poverty in Cambodia.
- Conduct campaigns to create connections between poor, excluded and vulnerable people to increase the public’s awareness of, and support for their cause and grow our supporter base in Cambodia.
- Actively contribute to ActionAid's common, prioritised global campaigns
- Partnership management and Development
- Manage and encourage the co-operative relationships established with various specialist institutions and partners in the country and ensure that these joint initiatives conform to programme objectives and strengthen the profile of AA Cambodia.
- Lead the development and implementation of country-specific guidelines for the management of partnerships in line with the CSP and other relevant organizational policies
- Others
- Develop ActionAid Cambodia's capacity to document, disseminate and learn from its development work, and ensure all reporting meets the highest standards.
- Act as focal person to identify and manage all risks/ crisis related to ActionAid operations in Cambodia
Expected Profile of Candidates
Languages:
- English - Fluent is required
Qualifications:
- Postgraduate Degree in Development studies, social sciences, political science, organisational management or a related field is preferred
Work History:
- Experience in the top management position in development work and poverty alleviation programmes with proven initiative, flexibility and enthusiasm in managing complex activities in a changing environment for 5 years as a minimum
Skills & Knowledge:
General & Technical Skills
- Experience working as country/executive director for similar organisation is an advantage.
- Demonstrated experience as a Country Director or equivalent leadership role in a comparable organization.
- Strong knowledge of Cambodian social and economic context and its impact on development strategies.
- Proven record in fundraising and donor engagement, including innovative financing approaches.
- Experience working with social movements, feminist organizations, and youth-led initiatives.
- Proven ability to lead policy advocacy, external communications and media engagement.
Soft Skills
- Excellent communication, negotiation, and diplomatic skills, with proven ability to influence at the highest levels
- Strong commitment to ActionAid’s values, feminist leadership, safeguarding, and human rights based approaches.
