Dynamic Country Director for Diakonia in DRC At Diakonia Sweden

We offer you an exciting job in an international organization that makes a difference!

Diakonia is a Swedish non-profit organization for international development cooperation and humanitarian assistance. Diakonia supports over 350 partner organisations in 26 countries – in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Diakonia operates on feminist principles and a human rights-based approach. The basis for our work is people’s right and desire to improve and change the world. Our focus areas are human rights, democracy and gender equity.

Since the beginning of 2021 Diakonia is working with a new strategy, containing four movements that will lead to an interesting and exciting journey for the organization.

We are looking for a dynamic and transformational director to lead our team in DRC. Over the years Diakonia has become an important actor in the support of civil society in DRC both at local and national level. We consider a strong pluralistic and vibrant civil society the requisite for a functioning democracy and we work with local partner organizations to promote democracy, human rights, and gender equity in the DRC. We support networking, coordination and capacity development of civil society actors and strive to be an ally in their efforts to reinforce a democratic culture and hold decision makers to account. Diakonia also works to promote socio-economic justice and strengthen the resilience of populations vulnerable to climate change in different provinces of the DRC. In DRC our main donors are the Embassy of Sweden, the EU and Sida. The country director position is based in Kinshasa, where we currently have a team of 10 national staff.

Role and responsibilities:

• Provide strategic leadership in the development and implementation of the Diakonia country program in DRC, ensuring its alignment with Diakonia global policy, donor policies, and legal requirements in the country;
• Manage and provide leadership to the country team;
• Supervise the country office budget and reporting process and ensure the effective and ethical management of resources;
• Supervise the collaboration with and support to local partners;
• Ensure good public relations, maintain productive networking and collaborative initiatives with funding partners, authorities and other organizations, and represent the organization in relevant forums and meetings;
• Develop and implement strategies to identify and attract potential partners and funders.

Experience and qualifications:

• Proven experience in program management with civil society partner organizations, monitoring and evaluation, and budget management;
• A minimum of 7 years relevant experience in development organizations, preferably from different countries, of which at least 3 years in senior management with experience in finance and human resources;
• Experience from managing qualified staff;
• Advanced degree in Development Studies, Political Science or related fields;
• Excellent understanding of and relevant work experience from Diakonia’s focus areas, i.e. democracy, human rights, gender equity, as well as social and economic justice, peace and conflict and humanitarian support;
• Excellent verbal and written command of French and English;
• Experience in resource mobilization from bilateral/multilateral donors.

This is a plus:

• Experience in managing development programs funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and EU.

We offer:

We offer you an exciting job in an international environment, where you become part of a culture that is characterized by our core values: solidarity, justice, courage, commitment and accountability.

**Location:**Kinshasa

**Start date:**September 2022

Employment type: 1-year contract, renewable

Diakonia is certified against the Core Humanitarian Standard on quality, accountability and transparency.

Diakonia is committed to provide a safe environment for all employees, free from harassment, exploitation, abuse and discrimination.

For this position, background checks will be made for the final candidate.