Eastern Africa Regional Director At Himalayan Cataract Project

ORGANIZATIONAL PROFILE:

For more than 43 million people, blindness is a daily reality; another 295 million suffer from moderate to severe vision impairment. 90% of these people live in low- and middle-income communities where access to eye care is limited and the challenges for those who can’t see are severe. But there is hope: 80% of this burden is treatable or preventable. For example, 17 million blind people could be cured with a 10-minute cataract surgery. Millions more suffer from corneal blindness, which is often preventable or treatable. At HCP Cureblindness, we believe avoidable blindness can – and must – be overcome. For more than 25 years, we have worked alongside a capable network of collaborators to help people around the world retain and regain their sight by developing high-quality, cost-effective eye care systems in underserved areas of the world. With the help of partners in more than 25 countries, HCP has provided more than 1.4 million sight-restoring surgeries and screened more than 14.5 million people to provide care and basic treatments. We’ve trained more than 19,500 eye health professionals and have established 5 eye hospitals. There is more work left to do, but we can overcome the mountain of global blindness, together.

HCP Cureblindness is expanding its team to meet new challenges, scale its work, and broaden its reach. We are seeking individuals who are passionate about changing lives and want to be a part of a team that works together to reach new heights. We want leaders who can aim high, make things happen, and are invested in building a positive team dynamic to bring the work to life.

VISION: A world in which no one is needlessly blind.

MISSION: We enable countries to end avoidable blindness by developing high quality, cost-effective eye care systems in underserved areas of the world so everyone everywhere can regain or retain their sight.

Regional Program Overview

HCP Cureblindness and its partners currently work in several countries in Eastern Africa, including South Sudan, Tanzania, Eritrea, Somaliland and Rwanda, and are also looking at expansion opportunities in the region. HCP’s Ethiopia office is managed separately and manages all programs in Ethiopia.

SCOPE OF WORK:

HCP Cureblindness began working in Eastern Africa in 2008 with a mission of eliminating needless blindness, working in cross collaboration with an implementing partner network, focused both on service delivery and training. As work expanded in the region, HCP Cureblindness opened a country office in Ethiopia which managed all activity in Ethiopia as well as provided support to regional initiatives. To support this next phase of growth and strengthen efforts throughout the region, this position has been added to drive, oversee and expand activity in Eastern Africa, outside of Ethiopia. HCP and its partners currently work in South Sudan, Tanzania, Somaliland, Eritrea and Rwanda.

The Regional Director (RD)willbe responsible for developing the strategy and sustainable, regional capability and capacity to eliminate needless blindness and will provide overall management and strategic leadership for HCP’s regional programs, including finance, administration, risk, legal and financial compliance management, and programmatic activities. Representing HCP Cureblindness in all issues relating to the programs in this region, the RD plays a key role in donor relations and manages the regional strategy and the project implementation in conjunction with HCP leaders across all geographies.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:

• Build and maintain highly collaborative working relationships with counterparts in other HCP Cureblindness offices, including regional offices, national offices and headquarters.
• Foster a positive and productive organizational culture in alignment with HCP Cureblindness global culture and values.
• Engages as an active member of global team and matrices program teams.
• Achieve and exceed organization goals for training, infrastructure, patient care and prevention.
• Instill operational and business management rigor in the organization, in the areas of scorecard, analysis, reporting, financial accountability, partner relationship management, and day to day operations.

Leadership and Management

• Oversee implementation of strategic vision and direction for overall program design, implementation, and proposal development; work closely with the regional and global team to accomplish strategic goals.
• Represent HCP Cureblindness in meetings with government officials, international donor agencies, and national advisory groups pertinent to our project activities.
• Foster deep relationships with current and prospective partners and advance relationships in accordance with organization strategy.
• Analyze eye care needs, trends and political developments in the region in order to anticipate new projects and initiatives.
• Partner with the development team to develop and nurture potential proposal partners and identify potential relationships and opportunities to generate funding from international and bilateral agencies and other prospective donors. Provide support for proposals as needed for submission to donors and others for fundraising and marketing purposes.

Programs

• Accountable for all aspects of running an effective, efficient Eastern Africa program in line with annual plans and organizational strategy.
• Lead and support advocacy initiatives, develop and strengthen strategic partnerships & linkages to support and increase the reach and impact.
• Lead the Regional staff to implement the program portfolio, ensuring quality oversight through effective program monitoring.
• Oversee agreements and Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with programmatic and government partners; ensure routine monitoring and reporting takes place.
• Ensure the achievement of program objectives in partnership with regional staff.
• Oversee narrative and financial programmatic reporting to donors and headquarters.
• Enable an organizational culture that supports effective learning, sharing and continual improvement of program quality.

Financial and Administrative

• Collaborate and oversee HCP Eastern Africa Regionalagreements and payments.
• Develop the annual regional budget, in collaboration with relevant HCP Cureblindness staff.
• Manage the spending within the program in-line with the approved budgets. Analyze projected cash flow, decide on the timing of major expenses, anticipate where over or under spending may occur and ensure necessary action is taken.
• Ensure sufficient and appropriate controls are in place to prevent fraud.
• Closely oversees compliance to the local laws in countries of operation.

Risk and Security Management

• Identify all risks and implement mitigating measures in conjunction with the Eastern Africa Region team, Africa regional leadership, and HCP HQ.
• Oversee the updating and implementation of regional location security plans, guidelines and manuals, working to minimize health risks and secure HCP assets.
• Ensure appropriate security procedures and awareness are maintained throughout the regional program.
• Take the lead on decision making and contingency planning during security incidents or threats, working with HCP HQ and Eastern Africa Region team to identify and monitor risk.

Supervisory Responsibility:

• Reflect the vision, mission and team values of HCP Cureblindness when interacting with team members and provide them with leadership, advice, support and appropriate communication.
• Motivate and develop a strong regional team through effective coaching and leadership, including constructive and timely performance evaluations and regular check-ins, as well as administrative oversight of timesheets, reimbursements, and travel approval requests
• Supervises: Sr. Technical Advisor, Eastern Africa and Consultant, South Sudan
• Matrixed Reports: Ethiopian Outreach Team supporting work in Eastern Africa

QUALIFICATIONS:

Experience

• 7 years’ experience at an INGO, preferably in international public health or related field with at least five years of experience at the director or manager level.
• Demonstrated ability to undertake high-level representation and advocacy. Experience working with government, international and local NGOs, corporations, and donors, is a substantial asset.
• Advanced leadership and project management skills. Demonstrated experience and skills in leadership, staff management, program development and management, strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation and public speaking.
• Demonstrated ability to develop and create budgets and monitor financial status.
• Demonstrated capacity to mobilize program funding including donor cultivation and grants writing.
• Knowledge and experience managing compliance to diverse donors.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, including an ability to effectively lead a team, communicate a vision, make timely and transparent decisions, and manage conflict.
• Creative, open-minded, flexible, self-learner.
• Strong visioning, strategic planning, implementation ability and effective under pressure, results oriented and proactive with the ability to multitask.
• Willingness and ability to travel internationally up to two weeks in a month.
• Willingness and ability to work across multiple time zones, including participating in morning and evening calls.

Additional qualifications include:

• Excitement to join a nonprofit institution poised to expand global operations.
• Outgoing personality that can collaborate with a variety of personalities at all levels of the organization, building relationships and shared goals across departments and partner organizations.
• A sense of discretion and a high degree of professionalism is required, ability to maintain confidentiality of highly sensitive information.
• Strong interpersonal, communication, facilitation, and presentation skills.
• Detail oriented and able to efficiently prioritize tasks.
• Flexibility to adjust and contribute to continually evolving work situations and changing priorities.
• Excellent computer skills and technical aptitude, proficient with Google Workspace, and MS Office, Asana (and other cloud-based software), MacOS, and experience with Apple hardware.
• Committed to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion.

Physical requirements:

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer
• Must be able to lift up to 15 pounds at a time

HCP Cureblindness encourages applications from people of all races, religions, national origins, genders, sexual orientations, gender identities, gender expressions, and ages, as well as veterans and individuals with disabilities.