Democratic Republic of the Congo: Head of Office

The Organization

Search for Common Ground (SFCG) is an international non-profit organization that promotes peaceful resolution of conflict. With headquarters in Washington, DC, SFCG’s mission is to transform how individuals, organizations, and governments deal with conflict - away from adversarial approaches and toward cooperative solutions. SFCG seeks to help conflicting parties understand their differences and act on their commonalities. With a total of approximately 750 staff worldwide, SFCG implements projects from 56 offices in 35 countries, including in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the United States.

Programme

SFCG launched activities in the DRC in 2001. Now in 2016 the country program has offices in Kinshasa, Goma, Bukavu, and Kalemie with annual budget of $8MLN USD. SFCG works with partners in all provinces of the country, and has numerous smaller satellite offices throughout the country. Media is a primary tool utilized by all the programs—radio, video, print, and drama. Each program is adapted to the specific local context and conflict, and all apply tools from SFCG’s toolbox.

SFCG’s field offices support work to promote social cohesion and conflict transformation, to promote community based dialogue, to strengthen governance at local , provincial and national levels, to combat sexual and gender-based violence and promote positive masculinity, and to promote protection of civilians through security sector reform. Activities in these areas include media production, training, radio programming, participatory theatre and collaborative joint activities. This thematic focus is executed in close collaboration with numerous donors, including DFID, the Dutch foreign Ministry, the German Foreign Ministry, and USAID.

Summary of Position

The position will be responsible for all aspects of programmatic, financial and administrative coordination of the office and various programmes. Principle tasks will be to oversee the entire Provincial portfolio, determine appropriate implementing mechanisms to achieve projects’ strategic goals, serve as the primary program liaison for donors, partners and stakeholders in the province, oversee provincial level planning and budgeting, and reporting/evaluations, ensuring compliance with management and financial procedures. The position will report to the DRC Country Director. Working language for this position is French and English.

Responsibilities:

• Provide leadership and oversight to program staff charged with implementing programs.
• Ensure a conscious Program approach in line with the “Common Ground” principles
• Keep the Country Director informed about all programmatic issues of relevance to the overall management and coordination of the Country Program
• Verify and analyze work-plans, progress reports, final reports and other data for clarity, consistency and completeness.
• Manage the field-based SFCG operations staff and some of the programme staff
• Represent SFCG before partners, donors, and local and international organizations working in the province and ensure SFCG activities are visible. In accordance with SFCG advocacy policy, advocate for search of common ground solutions to various conflict situation in the Province
• Represent SFCG to government authorities
• Contribute creative ideas for Program development and develop technical and financial proposals to local and international donors
• Supervise monthly financial reports according to SFCG procedures
• Ensure close monitoring of the political and security environment and develop contingency plan for the office
• Ensure compliance with Congolese law and SFCG procedures in admin and operations
• Support monitoring and evaluation work in collaboration with SFCG’s Design, Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator
• Provide content material to the Africa Team for updating the websites, as well as for quarterly program updates, newsletters, and other SFCG literature

As job descriptions cannot be exhaustive, the position holder may be required to undertake other duties that are broadly in line with the above key duties.

Minimum qualifications

• At least five years of work experience, preferably in conflict resolution, protection, development, or communications
• Bachelor’s Degree in a related area
• At least five years’ experience managing a team of local staff in a conflict zone, preferably Africa
• Experience in working in an unstable environment
• Excellent coordination, communication and networking skills
• Strong report writing, fundraising and proposal writing skills.
• Strong financial management and accounting skills
• Cross-cultural experience and sensitivity, and experience living and working in developing countries
• Ability to work with people at all levels, ranging from high-level officials to community leaders
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office, especially Microsoft Excel
• Professional-level competency in French and English, both orally and in writing.
• Strong ability to multi-task and work independently
• Ability to work to strict deadlines, and coordinate and compile information from various sources
• Willingness to regularly travel on short notice around the country

Salary: Commensurate with experience and education, with excellent benefits

To Apply:

Please send cover letter and resume through our application system at: https://sfcg.bamboohr.com/jobs/view.php?id=410. Please be sure to include salary requirements (in currency figures) or current salary, and to mention where you found this posting. No phone calls please. Please see our web site www.sfcg.org for full details of our work. The closing date for this position is January 21, 2016**.**